Reviews for Materialismus, Ideologie, Religion

The average rating for Materialismus, Ideologie, Religion based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-06-08 00:00:00 Gregory Swan This is not the sort of book one reads and then shoves back on the shelf to collect dust. It is, instead, one of those rare works which will constantly call the reader back, if only to glance over a page or two. Heschel's book is subtitled A Philosophy of Religion but it might have as accurately been subtitled A Poetics of Religion. Heschel is very much the philosopher poet. Heschel is the sort of theologian the modern world needs. He is a deeply religious man who has no illusions about the difficulties of accessing faith and the ability to sense God. This is not the sort of theological work that is going to bother providing "proofs" for the existence of God. God is, after all, the Ineffable. Like the very weirdness of our existence itself. Heschel is not interested in proving God's existence - and would likely consider such an act to be rather pointless - instead he meditates on what this existence means for us as self-aware beings. Without driving a particular dogma or doctrine, Heschel makes a case for the need to live a life based on something more than the small vanities that constantly entice us to focus on the small and trivial details of existence. That said, this is the sort of book that defies any easy summation or synopsis. Heschel is a deep, complicated thinker and this book is a deep, complicated book. Heschel is a truly gifted writer, and he conveys his ideas in an easily accessible prose. But it is these ideas, nuanced and convoluted, that demand more than a single read. Man is Not Alone is the sort of book that the serious reader will never feel he has thoroughly completed.

Review # 2 was written on 2020-10-27 00:00:00 Mikayla Grant Oh. my. goodness. Heschel takes reason and the ineffable, God and man, faith and reality and life ... and writes about them in a way we all recognize and yet that opens my mind anew. I read some paragraphs two or three times, feeling them sink in deeper each time. The search of reason ends at the shore of the known; on the immense expanse beyond it only the sense of the ineffable can glide. It alone knows the route to that which is remote from experience and understanding. Neither of them is amphibious: reason cannot go beyond the shore, and the sense of the ineffable is out of place where we measure, where we weigh. We do not leave the shore of the known in search of adventure or suspense or because of the failure of reason to answer our questions. We sail because our mind is like a fantastic sea shell, and when applying our ears to its lips we hear a perpetual murmur from the waves beyond the shore.I can't wait to read more of this book, but am going to savor it slowly.