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The Prophets Volume II by Abraham J Heschel
According to popular definition, prophets accurately predict the future. In Jewish tradition, as Abraham Joshua Heschel explains in The Prophets, they earn the title by witnessing the world around them with outstanding passion. Prophets are those whose "life & soul are at stake" in what they say about "the mystery of [God's] relation to man." They're "some of the most disturbing people who have ever lived." Yet they're also "the men whose image is our refuge in distress & whose voice & vision sustain our faith." This book, a classic text on the subject, contains sophisticated, straightforward discussions of each of the Hebrew prophets, the primary themes of their preaching & comparisons of Israel's prophets to those of other religions'. Throughout, he avoids the two great temptations in any discussion of overstating the supernatural quality of a prophet's epiphany ("A prophet is a person, not a microphone") & reducing prophesy to a merely human phenomenon. Instead, he describes the prophet's peculiar status as God's spokesman in a way that does justice to its "He speaks from the perspective of God as perceived from the perspective of his own situation."--Michael Joseph Gross (edited)
Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1962
About the author
Abraham Joshua Heschel
59 books656 followersAbraham Joshua Heschel was a Polish-born Jewish-American rabbi, theologian, philosopher, poet, and one of the most influential Jewish thinkers of the twentieth century. Raised in a distinguished Hasidic family in Warsaw, he received a traditional yeshiva education before pursuing advanced studies in philosophy and Jewish scholarship in Berlin, where he earned a doctorate and rabbinic ordination. Alongside his academic work, he wrote Yiddish poetry and developed an intellectual approach that combined classical Jewish tradition with modern philosophical inquiry. Following his arrest and deportation from Germany during the Nazi persecution of Jews, Heschel briefly returned to Poland before escaping to London and eventually immigrating to the United States in 1940. Many members of his family perished during the Holocaust, an experience that profoundly shaped his moral outlook and religious thought. After teaching at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, he joined the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York, where he served for the rest of his career as professor of Jewish ethics and mysticism. Heschel gained international recognition through influential books including Man Is Not Alone, God in Search of Man, The Sabbath, The Prophets, and Who Is Man?, works that explored faith, revelation, prayer, prophecy, and the relationship between humanity and God. Drawing on the Hebrew prophets, Hasidic spirituality, Kabbalah, and medieval Jewish philosophy, he emphasized wonder, reverence, and the belief that religious life must unite intellectual reflection with ethical action. His writings argued that God seeks a relationship with humanity and that genuine spirituality demands compassion, justice, and responsibility rather than mere ritual observance. Heschel rejected purely legalistic interpretations of Judaism, insisting that inner devotion and moral sensitivity were inseparable from religious practice. Beyond scholarship, he became a prominent public voice for human rights and social justice. Inspired by the prophetic tradition, he actively supported the American Civil Rights Movement, marching beside Martin Luther King Jr. in the historic Selma to Montgomery march, an experience he famously described by saying that he felt as though his "feet were praying." He also spoke forcefully against racial segregation, poverty, and the Vietnam War, believing that religious conviction required engagement with the moral crises of society. Heschel further played an important role in improving relations between Jews and Christians by advising representatives of the Catholic Church during the Second Vatican Council, helping encourage changes in teachings concerning Judaism. His commitment to interfaith dialogue reflected his conviction that no single religious community possesses a monopoly on spiritual truth and that authentic faith fosters mutual respect. Through his scholarship, teaching, public activism, and enduring literary legacy, Heschel transformed modern Jewish thought while influencing theologians, philosophers, religious leaders, civil rights advocates, and readers around the world. His works continue to inspire discussions of spirituality, ethics, human dignity, and the enduring responsibility to unite contemplation with courageous action in the pursuit of justice.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 10, 2014
This two volume set covering all the prophetic books of the Hebrew Bible was assigned reading for Dennis Haas' one-year introductory course sequence on the biblical canon. It was a very good choice. I was reading the bible from cover to cover for the first time and knew a lot of Greco-Roman history, but little of the period from other perspectives. Heschel worked well as an introduction to the Hebrew perspective. He also touched my heart as Martin Buber had, making me feel Jewish--or at least wanting to be Jewish. The two of them together with the Rev. Haas, our college chaplain and a UTS graduate, were influential in my eventual decision to attend the seminary where they had once taught in New York City.
November 29, 2019
Amazing book. Read both volumes. Greatly expanded my understanding of the role of the prophets in the Old Testament, how they differed from those in other cultures and times, and what that means for us today.
November 17, 2023
"Our embarrassment in reading the harsh expressions of divine wrath is also due to the general disposition of modern man. We have no sense for spiritual graduier. Spiritual to us means ethereal, calm, moderate, slight, imperceptible. We respond to beauty; grandeur is unbearable."
May 29, 2018
The first volume was a compendium of each of the Hebrew prophets one by one and Heschel's analysis and thinking about their experience and relationship to people on the one hand and to God on the other.
Volume II is a more general overview and analysis of what it is that Heschel sees Hebrew prophets as being and doing including a scholarly literature review even while the book itself is very readable/well-written:
What is prophecy? Who are prophets? How are those of the Hebrew Bible different and similar to other religious figures throughout time and cultures?
I found the general argument compelling: that prophets not only have messages from God but are motivated by deep sympathy for the feelings of God who is loving and also upset when Creatures are not acting out of that love and in right relation to each other and to the Divine.
In some ways, it mimics Buber's I-Thou argument although told in more specificity. I'd be super-interested in reading this with others.
Volume II is a more general overview and analysis of what it is that Heschel sees Hebrew prophets as being and doing including a scholarly literature review even while the book itself is very readable/well-written:
What is prophecy? Who are prophets? How are those of the Hebrew Bible different and similar to other religious figures throughout time and cultures?
I found the general argument compelling: that prophets not only have messages from God but are motivated by deep sympathy for the feelings of God who is loving and also upset when Creatures are not acting out of that love and in right relation to each other and to the Divine.
In some ways, it mimics Buber's I-Thou argument although told in more specificity. I'd be super-interested in reading this with others.
July 19, 2023
The Theology of Pathos
“Never in history has man been taken as seriously as in prophetic thinking. Man is not only an image of God; he is a perpetual concern of God.”
“In sum, the divine pathos is the unity of the eternal and the temporal, of meaning and mystery, of the metaphysical and the historical. It is the real basis of the relation between God and man, of the correlation of Creator and creation, of the dialogue between the Holy One of Israel and His people. The characteristic of the prophets is not foreknowledge of the future, but insight into the present pathos of God.”
“Biblical religion begins with God addressing man, with His entering into covenant with man.”
The Philosophy of Pathos
“The perfect example of an impassive deity is the God of Aristotle. By identifying the Deity with the First Cause, with something which, while it has the capacity of moving all things, is itself unmoved, Aristotle's Deity has no pathos, no needs.”
“The Stoics regarded passion, impulse, desire—the emotions in the widest sense—as unreasonable, unnatural, and the source of evil. To live rightly was to dominate the emotional life by reason, and so to act by will.”
“Plato's dualistic conception of the soul and particularly the Stoic disparagement of emotion have deeply influenced the moral and religious thinking of subsequent generations. Morality has often been equated with the suppression of passion, with the control of desire by reason. Passion and vice, emotion and weakness, have frequently been called synonymous. … No other system in the history of moral philosophy has had such a lasting impact as the ethical ideas of the Stoics. Jewish and Christian morality have shown a tendency to coalesce with the Stoic ideal.”
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“Never in history has man been taken as seriously as in prophetic thinking. Man is not only an image of God; he is a perpetual concern of God.”
“In sum, the divine pathos is the unity of the eternal and the temporal, of meaning and mystery, of the metaphysical and the historical. It is the real basis of the relation between God and man, of the correlation of Creator and creation, of the dialogue between the Holy One of Israel and His people. The characteristic of the prophets is not foreknowledge of the future, but insight into the present pathos of God.”
“Biblical religion begins with God addressing man, with His entering into covenant with man.”
The Philosophy of Pathos
“The perfect example of an impassive deity is the God of Aristotle. By identifying the Deity with the First Cause, with something which, while it has the capacity of moving all things, is itself unmoved, Aristotle's Deity has no pathos, no needs.”
“The Stoics regarded passion, impulse, desire—the emotions in the widest sense—as unreasonable, unnatural, and the source of evil. To live rightly was to dominate the emotional life by reason, and so to act by will.”
“Plato's dualistic conception of the soul and particularly the Stoic disparagement of emotion have deeply influenced the moral and religious thinking of subsequent generations. Morality has often been equated with the suppression of passion, with the control of desire by reason. Passion and vice, emotion and weakness, have frequently been called synonymous. … No other system in the history of moral philosophy has had such a lasting impact as the ethical ideas of the Stoics. Jewish and Christian morality have shown a tendency to coalesce with the Stoic ideal.”
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January 3, 2017I read this because a friend said it moved her. It's a very quick read and some things make sense, but to be honest, I had trouble focusing on it.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews