Heschel

 from Thunder in the Soul (2021)

Plough Spiritual Guide SERIES

The beginning of faith is not a feeling

for the mystery of living or a sense

of awe, wonder, or fear.  The root of

religion is the question of what to do

with the feeling for the mystery of living,

what to do with awe, wonder, or fear.

Religion, the end of isolation, begins

with a consciousness that something is

asked of us.  It is in that tense,

eternal asking in which the soul is

caught and in which man's answer is

elicited.

Wonder is not a state of esthetic

enjoyment.  Endless wonder is

endless tension, a situation in

which we are shocked at the inadequacy

of our awe, at the weakness of our

shock, as well as the State of being

asked the ultimate question.

Endless wonder unlocks an innate sense

of indebtedness.  Within our awe there

is no place for self-assertion.  Within

our awe we only know that all we own

we owe.  The world consists, not of

things, but of tasks.  Wonder is

the state our being asked.  The

ineffable is a question addressed

to us.

All that is left to us is a choice ---

to answer or to refuse to answer.  Yet 

the more deeply we listen, the more

we become stripped of the arrogance

and callousness which alone would

enable us to refuse.  We carry a 

load of marvel, wishing to exchange

it for the simplicity of knowing

what to live for, a load which we

can never lay down nor continue to

carry not knowing where!

[pages 22 - 23]

ISBN 9780874863512

Abraham Joshua Heschel b. 1907 -

passed into eternity 1972

a singular figure in philosophy,

history, and engagement with one's

society and human/civil rights