Books, Arts & Manners: Between God and Man

Abraham Joshua Heschel: Prophetic Witness, by Edward K. Kaplan and Samuel H. Dresner (Yale, 402 pp., $35)

BEFORE Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-72) came to the attention of spiritually earnest Americans, the view of Judaism held by many Christians had not changed all that much since the composition of the New Testament. For them, Torah was a dusty, rigorous doctrine without a great deal to say to those who sought a relationship with God. Of course, religiously observant Jews had been seeking, and finding, such a relationship through the medium of Torah for three thousand years. But the Jewish world lacked a spokesman who could explain the spiritual core of traditional Judaism to those who had not had a Jewish education from their youth. Heschel became that spokesman. He wrote like a poet and, after the publication of his 1959 work Between God and Man, he was increasingly seen by American “mainstream” (meaning liberal) Christianity as the single most influential Judaic theologian of our time.

JN

About the Author

Jacob Neusner

Featured Tags

Abraham Joshua Heschel: Prophetic Witness, by Edward K. Kaplan and Samuel H. Dresner (Yale, 402 pp., $35)

BEFORE Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-72) came to the attention of spiritually earnest Americans, the view of Judaism held by many Christians had not changed all that much since the composition of the New Testament. For them, Torah was a dusty, rigorous doctrine without a great deal to say to those who sought a relationship with God. Of course, religiously observant Jews had been seeking, and finding, such a relationship through the medium of Torah for three thousand years. But the Jewish world lacked a spokesman who could explain the spiritual core of traditional Judaism to those who had not had a Jewish education from their youth. Heschel became that spokesman. He wrote like a poet and, after the publication of his 1959 work Between God and Man, he was increasingly seen by American “mainstream” (meaning liberal) Christianity as the single most influential Judaic theologian of our time.