When people share their reading with you, what they are really granting is privileged access to their deepest interests and predilections, even their dreams, needs, and anxieties.
Nicholas Basbanes
Some books invite us to wade out into deep waters of a pool. As a reader, I like staying in the safety of the reading shallows. Every now and then I gather enough courage to venture into the deep end of reading. The book I’m discussing this month is a deep-water book.
What is my deep-water book? It’s God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism by Abraham Joshua Heschel. Now, don’t let this title and subject matter stop you from reading this posting!
To begin with, reading Heschel’s book may be a little unsettling. What he writes isn’t at odds with my faith but it’s what he left out. The New Testament and Jesus are nowhere to be found. It’s obvious that a Jewish scholar would not write about the Messiah. At the same time, I found a kinship with Abraham’s writing and a soul connection with his insights.
I first met this 20th century Jewish philosopher and scholar when using his commentary, The Prophets for an adult class. The Prophets led me to tackle God in Search of Man. I wasn’t sure what to expect but I came away refreshed in my pursuit of God. Treading water at the edge of the deep end of his book yielded three life-giving insights:
- We were made for wonder.
- Our apologetics points to God’s beauty.
- God’s word is an ocean of meaning.
God in Search of Man profoundly stretched my sense of wonder of God. Early in his life, Heschel prayed: “I did not ask for success; I asked for wonder. And you gave it to me.” This simple prayer reflected his life’s passion: “God is of no importance unless He is of supreme importance.”
“To the prophets,” writes Heschel, “wonder is a form of thinking.” The beginning of our happiness lies in the understanding that life “without wonder is not worth living.” These moments of wonder are often the spiritual adventure of finding God in commonplace deeds. Citing Exodus 15:11, Heschel notes that the writer does not say “Who did wonders” but “Who does wonders.” “The world is too much for us,” he writes, “It is crammed with marvel.” These insights of wonder crafted by a glorious God must be constantly kept alive.
His awareness of God’s wonders made me change my mind about “Mother Nature.”
The adoration of the beauty and abundance of the earth in Greek literature is tinged with a sense of gratefulness to the earth for her gifts to man. Such a concept is alien to the Biblical man. He recognizes only one parent: God as his father (the emphasis is mine). The earth is his sister rather than his mother. Man and earth are equally the creations of God. The prophets and the Psalmist do not honor or exalt the earth, though dwelling upon her grandeur and abundance. They utter praise to Him who created her.
So, whenever someone mentions “Mother Nature” I graciously insert in the conversation, “You mean Sister Nature.” Our common parent is the Lord God. This little change in pronouns directs us to the wonder of the Creator and not the creation.
What I find fascinating about this Jewish scholar is his approach to apologetics — the defense of the faith. Much of our evangelical world’s appeal to unbelievers is rooted in the “historical-judicial” approach. That is, we look at faith through the historical events of the text leading us to weigh the evidence for belief as if we were in a courtroom. While Heschel roots his faith in the Jewish events of the Exodus and the ministry of the prophets, he bases his appeal on a wonder-full, awe-some God who moves towards man to have a relationship with him or her. Awareness of God begins with wonder.
He uses words like sublime, beauty, ineffable, and grandeur to describe the God of our faith. The quality and character of Yahweh draw us to Him. “The Greeks learned in order to comprehend. The Hebrews learned in order to revere. The modern man learns in order to use . . . knowledge is power.”
“We teach children how to measure, how to weigh,” he writes. “We fail to teach them how to revere, how to sense wonder and awe.” Within the souls of every man is this search for wonder. An approach like this to apologetics reminds me of a quote by the author and artist Madeline L’Engle:
We draw people to Christ not by loudly discrediting what they believe, by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it.
Now for his insights on the wonder of God’s word. His description of God’s word
is like a magnet pulling me into its beauty and depth.
. . . its majesty increases with the reader’s familiarity. Irrefutably, indestructibly, never wearied by time, the Bible wanders through the ages, giving itself with ease to all men, as if it belonged to every soul on earth. It speaks in every language and age. It benefits all the arts and does not compete with them. We all draw upon it, and it remains pure, inexhaustible and complete. In three thousand years it has not aged a day. It is a book that cannot die . . . like an ocean at the bottom of which countless pearls lie, waiting to be discovered, its spirit is still to be unfolded . . . Today it is as if it had never been touched, never seen, as if we had not even begun to read it.
Just to add an exclamation point to the wonder of the Scriptures, Heschel describes it as “the perpetual motion of the spirit, an ocean of meaning.” Doesn’t this leave you gasping for wonder at God’s word!
Reading is like swimming in a pool. Some books keep us in the shallow end. We feel comfortable and safe and in control. Other books take us to the deep end where we’re more alert, there’s an element of danger, and greater skills are needed to navigate the deep waters. I ventured slightly in the deep end of Heschel’s writings. I swam enough for my thinking to be challenged and experienced a thrill in new discoveries. I came away from this deep end adventure refreshed and renewed in my wonder for God, the beauty of His nature, and the endless wisdom of His word.
If this posting has whetted your appetite, I would recommend a summary of Heschel’s works in I Asked for Wonder: A Spiritual Anthology or his classic The Sabbath. Take the challenge and paddle out into the deep end.
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