The Lonely Man of Faith Book

This profound, challenging theological argument is going to stay with me for a while. At some point in the past humanity didn't keep records, created no "creature comforts" in the way that we enjoy them today; agriculture, medicine, and warfare existed only in its primitive forms; all in all we appear to have had very little self-consciousness as a species. Then everything changed: we became aware of some larger purpose on this earth. We started organizing ourselves better for the greater good of all; we wrote things down.

Soloveitchik takes a look at this split, the moment self-consciousness appeared among humanity in cultural form as expressed in the Torah, specifically Genesis and the two Adams he sees therein. He describes the split as God making Himself known among ourselves.

Adam the first is our cosmic-majestic selves, accepting the challenges of the outside world in order to survive and conquer it, to learn about the universe, to explore. It is this part that impels us to take joint action. Adam the first congregates through accomplishment and not the covenant faith. Adam the first identifies with our intellectual nature and creative technological will. There is no existential angst and absurdity to the "I" if you are engaged in a greater project for all humankind. Adam the first sees humanity in its glory but fails to see it in its tragic plight. It is a work community committed to the production, distribution and consumption of material and cultural goods. God gave Adam the first the mandate to subdue nature. He does not wish to simply live along with nature but to understand its secrets. The question "How does the cosmos function?" is much more important to him than "Why is there a cosmos at all?"

In what to me is the most fascinating aspect of Soloveitchik's argument, the notion of "dignity" to Adam the first is not something we are inherently born with. Humankind only acquires it by dominating nature, exercising control over it, which gives us glory through a majestic posture vis-a-vis the environment. Man of old who could not fight disease or any other plague, made low with degrading helplessness, could not lay claim to dignity. Only those who build hospitals, discover therapeutic techniques, and save lives are blessed with dignity. Adam the first is aggressive, bold and victory-minded. The cosmos will not destroy us.

All fine and well. But why is this common pursuit for the sake of all not entirely satisfactory? It is Adam the second who asks the question fundamental to Soloveitchik's argument: why am I beset by this feeling of loneliness and being unwanted? Only the covenantal community under God can alleviate this loneliness. This loneliness itself is communication with God. It is not necessarily understood in sacred places, of temple, church or synagogue. It can only be understood within the depths of one's being. Those living within the depths of this covenantal community understand that one's "I" is unique and cannot be duplicated, imitated or explained to others. Consequently the loneliness, the feeling of being unwanted. "To be" means to recognize yourself as singular and different, frighteningly unique. As such, only Adam the second knows the art of prayer since he confronts God with the petition of the many while in his loneliness. Adam the first works for the many, but cannot make his appeal for the sake of the many convinced of the majesty and the glory. Ontological questions do not concern him.

Job did pray, he did offer sacrifices, but only for his household. Job failed to understand the covenantal nature of the prayer community in which destinies are dovetailed, suffering or joy is shared, and prayers merge into one petition on behalf of all.

Job's catastrophes could not be blamed on God; these merely instructed him about Adam the second for which he had been ignorant.

And that's the heart of Soloveitchik's argument: that most of us are Adam the first people. Even those who are atheists should be able to find themselves among that multitude. Though only those of the covenant can really understand the true nature of Adam the second. They are outnumbered since not everyone accepts the Judaic tradition (or by extension the Judeo-Christian one). The impossibility of the dilemma is that it is up to Adam the second to instruct Adam the first on his blind acceptance of glory and the cosmic-majestic (who may be unwittingly destroying us and our place on the planet through his triumphant sense of "progress"). But there are no words with which to instruct Adam the first. Thus "the lonely man of faith".