Man Is Not Alone: A Philosophy of Religion by Heschel Abraham Joshua

Author:Heschel, Abraham Joshua [Heschel, Abraham Joshua]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Published: 1976-06-01T00:00:00+00:00

17 Beyond Faith

THE PERIL OF FAITH

To have no faith is callousness, to have undiscerning faith is superstition. “The simple believeth every word” (Proverbs 14:15),27 frittering away his faith on things explorable but not yet explored. By confounding ignorance with faith he is inclined to regard as exalted whatever he fails to understand, as if faith began where understanding ended; as if it were a supreme virtue to be convinced without proofs, to be ready to believe.

Faith, the soul’s urge to rise above its own wisdom, to be, like a plant, a little higher than the soil, is irrepressible, often frantic, wayward, blind and exposed to peril. The soul’s affinity for the holy is strong enough to outwit or to repress but not annihilate the force of gravitation to the vile. Those who are sure of their faith often tumble under their own weight, and, when overthrown, they fall on their knees, worshiping, deifying the snake that usually lies where flowers grow. How much tender devotion, heroism and self-mortification have been lavished upon the devil? How often has man deified Satan, found the evil magnificent though dismal, and full of indescribable majesty? Faith is, indeed, no security.

It is tragically true that we are often wrong about God, believing in that which is not God, in a counterfeit ideal, in a dream, in a cosmic force, in our own father, in our own selves. We must never cease to question our own faith and to ask what God means to us. Is He an alibi for ignorance? The white flag of surrender to the unknown? Is He a pretext for comfort and unwarranted cheer? a device to cheat despondency, fear or despair?

From whom should we seek support for our faith if even religion can be fraud, if by self-sacrifice we may hallow murder? From our minds which have so often betrayed us? From our conscience which easily fumbles and fails? From the heart? From our good intentions? “He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool” (Proverbs 28:26).

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