Abraham Joshua Heschel's Influence On Social Integration
The first that came into my head when I read the quote, “Religion plays an important role in mediating social integration,” was the experience of the Jewish Religion in America. There are two different moments throughout our texts that seem to touch on this topic. Those two moments are the life of Abraham Joshua Heschel and the passages by Albanese on the pages 43-47 in the textbook. I really liked the contrast of using the textbook and the life of Abraham Joshua Heschel because it really gives life to the quote about social integration. I think this quote and these two passages do a great job looking at the Jewish Religion in America. It goes to show the initial immigration and then the reform in which religion played the role of social integration
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He was one of the people that kind of cut ties with the traditional views of the Jewish Religion. I think one of the ways that he did was that he was able to distinguish the views of faith and reason. The traditional views of the Jewish Religion would often mix faith and reason. They would try to use reason to answer a faith based question, they would use faith to answer a reasoned based question. I think that Abraham Joshua Heschel really addresses this with his quote, “If God were a theory, the study of theology would be the way to understand Him. But God is alive and in need of love and worship. This is why thinking of God is related to our worship.” (God in Search of Man) The way that I break this quote down is that God is alive, but he is alive through faith. Abraham Joshua Heschel was breaking the role of tradition by saying that the worship of God is not the answer to reason. You can use your faith of God to help with the life questions that need reason. The views of Abraham Joshua Heschel changed the social integration of Jewish People in America tenfold. Jewish People (especially younger-American born) were not following the traditional views of their religion and were focusing completely on the faith of their religion. The Jewish People that were coming into America, had a completely different experience than integration in any other country. They were free from the traditional views of the Religion; they were able to focus on the faith of their religion how they
He was one of the people that kind of cut ties with the traditional views of the Jewish Religion. I think one of the ways that he did was that he was able to distinguish the views of faith and reason. The traditional views of the Jewish Religion would often mix faith and reason. They would try to use reason to answer a faith based question, they would use faith to answer a reasoned based question. I think that Abraham Joshua Heschel really addresses this with his quote, “If God were a theory, the study of theology would be the way to understand Him. But God is alive and in need of love and worship. This is why thinking of God is related to our worship.” (God in Search of Man) The way that I break this quote down is that God is alive, but he is alive through faith. Abraham Joshua Heschel was breaking the role of tradition by saying that the worship of God is not the answer to reason. You can use your faith of God to help with the life questions that need reason. The views of Abraham Joshua Heschel changed the social integration of Jewish People in America tenfold. Jewish People (especially younger-American born) were not following the traditional views of their religion and were focusing completely on the faith of their religion. The Jewish People that were coming into America, had a completely different experience than integration in any other country. They were free from the traditional views of the Religion; they were able to focus on the faith of their religion how they