God's Anthropology: Heschel's Philosophy Of Religion

To understand Heschel's philosophy means that there is a need to understand a profound background of traditions, thought and history in which Heschel lived. The theme, unique perspective and methodology of Heschel's philosophy have complicated relationship with other philosophies or thoughts, we can see the relationship in the background, we can also find a clue of development of Heschel's philosophy in it. Heschel was of great attainments of both of Hebrew biblical religion and Greek philosophy. He was deeply aware of a lack of understanding between the two traditions. He takes upon himself the great task of giving philosophical explanation of the biblical religion. Each of the two traditions understands the world in their own way. To expound the religion in a philosophical way, we must not substitute philosophy for religion. Nor can we cover the uniqueness of each of them by the commonness of the both. Heschel tried to explain the religion without impairing its uniqueness. He wanted to establish genuine philosophy of religion, not religion of philosophy which means that expounding religion in a philosophical way ends in the way of philosophical thinking and losing religion at last.To achieve this goal Heschel needed a perfect philosophical method which is impartial to the two traditions. The philosopher Husserl's phenomenological method is his choice. Heschel's elaboration of the biblical tradition touches and opens the awareness of the prophets which is a new dimension for Greek philosophy. We should follow the phenomenological method to enter into this new dimension to understand the meaning of the words of the prophets. Heschel gave us an elaborated analyses about how to enter the dimension of prophets'awareness. There are two steps. The first is to turn to phenomenological pure reflection from the way of conceptual thinking; the second is to think in prophets'mind by restoring the world of the prophets, This is the methodology of philosophy of Heschel. It is the methodological foundation of Heschel's philosophy.By phenomenological method Heschel digged out the ineffable dimension which is preconceptual awareness dimension. The ineffable dimension is the foundation of Heschel's philosophy. From Heschel's phenomenological analyses we can see that there is the sense of the ineffable which is gonging on before reason's concept thinking. For Heschel we encounter with reality does not take place on the level of concept. Conceptual thinking are the second level thought. All conceptualization is symbol. The living encounter with reality takes place on a level that is immediate, preconceptual and presymbolic. On the moment we encounter with reality we undergo "reality" and "conceptual knowledge"this two levels of awareness. There is a profound disparity between awareness and conception, between experience and expression, between man and reality. This means that one can not be substituted by another. This disparity is neglected by conceptual thinking. Yet there is a gulf between thinking and being as a result of it. The ineffable is aware of what is lost in the conceptual thought.Heschel gave us four aspects meaning of the ineffable. Generally speaking, the ineffable refers to a quality respect of reality; it points to the relationship between the known and the unknown; it points to the transcendence; it is the synonym of the hidden meaning rather than lack of meaning. All in all, the ineffable is on the deeper level than concept, word and symbol. While the ineffable is a negative term, its content is intensely affirmative. It denotes an allusiveness to something meaningful, for Which we possess no means of expression. What the ineffable perceives is something objective which cannot be conceived by the mind. Nor is it captured by feeling or imagination. All man at all time are capable of the ineffable. When we are at the state of it, we will understand it very well. The ineffable and the conceptual thinking are different from each other while they are dependent on each other. Like the root and the leaves of a tree, the two are on different level, supporting each other.Greek philosophy thinks over the ultimate question by reasoning from premises. Yet religion faces the grandeur and mystery of the world. Religion does not start with the Known and the order, but with the unkown in the known, the unlimited in the limited, the mystery in the order. For religion, ultimate question is not only to ask how the world comes into being, but to ask what it is possible from the world's none of being of the world to its being. It is not the contents of order, but the very exist of the order and the world are the most mysterious fact. Is not the act of seeing, asking and understanding itself most mysterious? The mystery of the existence can not be answered by a cause or a length. The question remains still. How is the cause or the length possible?Radical amazement is start point of the biblical religion. Facing with the mystery of the world, the biblical man recognizes that the more we know about the world, the more we find our ignorance. We can apprehend, but can not comprehend. There is a deepest challenge for the Biblical man by the contingence of the world and transcendent allusion in all the events and acts. We inquire our way of existence. Yet we do not know where it come from? Where is it? Why its existence? When feeling and notion fall upon us, we do not know from where they come? What we explain can not be explained. At this time we can find that mystery is at the center of all being, the known is an obvious aspect of the unknown. Mystery is not beyond or besides us. We are inside of it. Mystery is the fundamental relationship for man in the world.What to do with the mystery? The attitude of Biblical man is not of ignorance or desperation. They find that the world is in relation with the ultimate. What is ignorant to us is kown to the ultimate.Facing the mystery, the Bible says that awe is our understanding. Awe.means there is an unlimited great meaning beyond ourselves. it is more than a feeling. It is a way to keep good relation to the mystery. To the Biblical man, the wisdom of man is not ultimate. We can be endowed with it. It can also be deprived of us. The true wisdom is to take part in the wisdom of the ultimate mystery. Awe is in good relationship with the mystery, and is the only way to wisdom.Radical amazement, mystery and awe guide us to a plat where the concern for the ultimate becomes inescapable. We are challenged, inspired and called upon. We are under pressing force. Being asked intensely and perpetually, man are commanded to answer, to respond. From the deepest of man's heart comes out ontological presupposition:God! God is a name for the living ultimate, not a concept. God is the ultimate subject. God reveals his will and commandment to man through the dialogue structure in which God meet with prophets. Man's subjectivity subject to god's ultimate subject.. As the ultimate subject God turns to man firstly which is called anthropotropic by heschel. Being a pure act of God's turning toward man prophetic inspiration is called anthropotropism by Heschel. Bible is God's anthropology, not man's theology. Man's theology is a turning of man toward God which is called theotropic by Heschel. The sphere in which theotropism finds expression is the cult. Theotropic experience may be an end in itself. Whereas anthopotropism is only a means to an end. They are in opposite direction. The ontology of anthopotropism is the living God as the ultimate subject. Whereas the ontology of theotropism is ontology of idea. Everything is created by God from the point of view of the living ontology. Everything is God's concern. Being can not be considered without God's concern. Divine concern is basic category of Heschel's philosophy. Greek philosophy tries to understand the living by the given being, whereas Heschel's philosophy and the Bible try to understand the being by the living. The philosopher Kant found that ontology of idea originated from the subjective world of man. "Man legislates for nature". It is called "Copernican Revolution". To Heschel God can never be understood as the object but only as the subject of which man is the object. To think God in this way necessitates something analogous to Kant's "Copernican Revolution" in reverse.Divine Concern is pure transitive concern. Man share transitive concern with God. This ability enables man independent of his natural needs. Man can understand the meaning not only of reception but also of giving. Reception and giving constitute a wholeness of life;the natural world without awareness of God and the man with the awareness of God constitute a wholeness of being. In response to God man's transitive concern begin to work. Transitive concern puts man into the creating of meaning and value which is the fulfillment of freedom.Created by God the world has a trace of repetition which is the polarity of process. It is the law of nature which is the object of scientific research. Yet the creation of the world is out of freedom of God. God's freedom It means that God puts an creating moment into history,being not negative of process. Time is God's continual creating in which is history. The event in history can not be reduced to process though history itself includes process. The event is another polarity happened in history. Process and event connected with each other like the two polarities of a scissors. The two polarities united with each other in God which have also two polarities of commonness and uniqueness. All of world unified in God. This is Unification of the world given by Heschel.We can see from above that philosophy of Heschel is different from metaphysics substantially. Greek philosophy seeks for the ultimate question from the given beings. So it is metaphysics. Heschel's philosophy or Bible tries to understand the world by the living. Heschel's philosophy or Bible is meta-history. Metaphysics concerns for space;Meta-history concerns for time. For Heschel, faith without reason is mute, reason without faith is deaf. He emphasizes the complementarity between faith and reason.We can see from above that the most important character of Heschel's philosophy is his ontology. From Heschel's phenomenological analyses we can see that the ineffable is the root of awareness, the reason is the fruits. So the ineffable is prior to reason ontologically. If we say ontology, it is in the in the root rather than fruits. For the world the ineffable has an ontological meaning. So the ontology of Heschel's philosophy is the ineffable ontology. The ineffable ontology unified with the ineffable epistemology. Prophet do not understand the world by abstraction or concept. Everything is moving. We can not know the moving thing by static and abstract concept. The prophets understand the moving thing from the ultimate source of all moving, from the ultimate subject. Also they understand man or person at the source of personality. They understand the living reality by the ultimate living. Comparing different ontology, we can find the position of Heschel's philosophy takes in history of philosophy. The ineffable ontology returns to the living reality, being the source of rational knowledge. Also as a glory ontology, the ineffable opens a moral and value dimension of ontology. The existential direction of man is lay foundation upon a moral ontology. So the ineffable ontology is a new ontology in the history of philosophy.Heschel said "I am commanded, therefore I am." Heschel concerned others and human all his life. We can say that Heschel's life is a response to God, and is a way of freedom; Heschel's philosophy is God's search of man, and of man's freedom. Heschel's philosophy and his life unified with each other, embodying philosophy's character as a unification of theory and practice. Heschel's philosophy is of great importance for studying western culture and of reference to other culture.