Remarks on Between God and Man
2018-12-05
Between God and Man: An Interpretation of Judaism Commute reading. So far so good. In many aspects he is addressing the audience of his time: the 1950s high modernist worldview with an overly exalted view of science (specifically, positivism). CS Lewis and Tolkein addressed it as well- then, the various environmental, political, and military disasters demonstrated the failure modes that the thinkers gestured toward. Today we have a somewhat humbler zeitgeist, so it is sort of an argument towards an empty shell. Nevertheless. I would say his comments on the presence of God ring pretty true to my experience. Less so the following of rabbinic law, as I have never done so :-). But, his take on why rabbinic law and why it is worth- that is worth contemplating in light of quietisms and the Book of James. Heschel and another gent, Martin Buber, are names I've heard many times. I anticipate one of the next books I read will be Buber's work on the I and Thou.
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