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Talking about God: Exploring the Meaning of Religious Life with Kierkegaard, Buber, Tillich and Heschel
Challenge Yourself to Delve into a Deeper Interfaith Dialogue "To wrestle with the ideas these thinkers present is to find ourselves challenged to look at our own religious lives in new ways; and to appreciate the spiritual endeavors of others, whatever form their religious expression may take. To engage with these thinkers can leave us enlarged in our perception of human religiousness and deepened in our appreciation of it."
―from the Conclusion The modern age of religion is characterized by dialogue. Jews and Christians together explore the realities and meaning of living in proximity to one another. Yet for all the good will and sincerity of intention, too often such discussions fail to progress beyond well-intentioned pleasantries to the challenging content that can truly deepen our understanding of each other. This fascinating and accessible introduction to the theologies of four modern religious thinkers will help you break through the superficial generalities to plumb the depths of religious differences and embrace the commonalities. Examining the lives and works of Søren Kierkegaard, Martin Buber, Paul Tillich and Abraham Joshua Heschel through the lens of their treatment of the Bible and the biblical patriarch Abraham, you will take part in a discussion of the very phenomenon of religion and what part it plays in living a fully engaged human life.
―from the Conclusion The modern age of religion is characterized by dialogue. Jews and Christians together explore the realities and meaning of living in proximity to one another. Yet for all the good will and sincerity of intention, too often such discussions fail to progress beyond well-intentioned pleasantries to the challenging content that can truly deepen our understanding of each other. This fascinating and accessible introduction to the theologies of four modern religious thinkers will help you break through the superficial generalities to plumb the depths of religious differences and embrace the commonalities. Examining the lives and works of Søren Kierkegaard, Martin Buber, Paul Tillich and Abraham Joshua Heschel through the lens of their treatment of the Bible and the biblical patriarch Abraham, you will take part in a discussion of the very phenomenon of religion and what part it plays in living a fully engaged human life.
160 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 1, 2020
This book suffers greatly from the problem of ulterior motives and also serves to the reader as a reminder that when people write books they do so for reasons. Not all of those reasons include presenting the thoughts of others honestly, but often include the desire to support some aspect of the author's worldview that the reader may not be on board with. Such is the case here, where in addition to seeking to convey the fruitful interaction between four thinkers, two of whom were European Protestants and two of whom came from a European Jewish background, but the author also has the motive of promoting eastern spirituality and leftist activist politics, neither of which are agendas I am interesting in supporting. While the author has clearly read well in terms of the four thinkers who he uses here, the fact that his agendas are so antithetical to my own and even to an honest portrayal of what the thinkers themselves actually thought that it seriously detracts from the worth of this book and in the value of the author's thinking about these four 20th century theologians. What could have been deeply interesting is instead deeply flawed.
This book is a bit more than 100 pages long and is focused on four chapters about four 20th century European thinkers, two of whom were Jewish and two of whom were Protestant. The author begins with a preface about contemporary concerns in religious dialogue as well as acknowledgements and an introduction about thinking religiously. Through these writings the author reveals his own beliefs in his importance as a guide in such matters, which is troublesome. After that the author discusses Kierkegaard as the knight of faith and discusses the limits of understanding, an insight he does not appear to apply to his own reasoning processes (1). This leads to a discussion of Martin Buber and the I-thou relationship between God and man as involving a conversation (2). After that the author discusses Paul Tillich's vain quest for a God above God and his own various foolish adoption of various political and social causes (3). Finally, the author discusses Abraham Joshua Heschel as providing a call for action from speculations about God's need for man (4). I would agree that God longs for a relationship with mankind, but not as a need. The author concludes his book with a summary of four paths of religious understanding, provides suggestions for further reading, and then gives various credits.
When reading a book like this it is worthwhile to examine the assumptions of the author. For one, the author appears to view the interfaith interactions of Buber and Tillich, for example, as a model for how Western thinking should engage and involve itself in ideas of Taoist and Buddhist philosophy, not recognizing the boundaries between cultures which have a common biblical authority and those which do not. Likewise, the author's belief that living out one's faith requires a leftist political bent shows a lack of understanding of the proper place and limits of the state and the serious distinction between doing good works and supporting the coercive power of government to achieve one's goals and enforce one's worldview. The author, like many people, does not properly understand the problem of coercion that makes leftist thinking so problematic and so dangerous in our world of fallen beings of incomplete understanding. These agendas make this book far less worthwhile than it would have been had it been written by a less biased and more enlightened philosopher, rather than one who thought of himself wrongly as an authority in talking about God.
This book is a bit more than 100 pages long and is focused on four chapters about four 20th century European thinkers, two of whom were Jewish and two of whom were Protestant. The author begins with a preface about contemporary concerns in religious dialogue as well as acknowledgements and an introduction about thinking religiously. Through these writings the author reveals his own beliefs in his importance as a guide in such matters, which is troublesome. After that the author discusses Kierkegaard as the knight of faith and discusses the limits of understanding, an insight he does not appear to apply to his own reasoning processes (1). This leads to a discussion of Martin Buber and the I-thou relationship between God and man as involving a conversation (2). After that the author discusses Paul Tillich's vain quest for a God above God and his own various foolish adoption of various political and social causes (3). Finally, the author discusses Abraham Joshua Heschel as providing a call for action from speculations about God's need for man (4). I would agree that God longs for a relationship with mankind, but not as a need. The author concludes his book with a summary of four paths of religious understanding, provides suggestions for further reading, and then gives various credits.
When reading a book like this it is worthwhile to examine the assumptions of the author. For one, the author appears to view the interfaith interactions of Buber and Tillich, for example, as a model for how Western thinking should engage and involve itself in ideas of Taoist and Buddhist philosophy, not recognizing the boundaries between cultures which have a common biblical authority and those which do not. Likewise, the author's belief that living out one's faith requires a leftist political bent shows a lack of understanding of the proper place and limits of the state and the serious distinction between doing good works and supporting the coercive power of government to achieve one's goals and enforce one's worldview. The author, like many people, does not properly understand the problem of coercion that makes leftist thinking so problematic and so dangerous in our world of fallen beings of incomplete understanding. These agendas make this book far less worthwhile than it would have been had it been written by a less biased and more enlightened philosopher, rather than one who thought of himself wrongly as an authority in talking about God.
August 18, 2014
Talking about God, by Daniel Polish, examines the lives and works of Kierkegaard, Buber, Tillich, and Heschel through the lens of their treatment of the Bible and the biblical patriarch Abraham. I enjoyed this book. I found the sections on Tillich and Heschel to be especially enlightening. I found Polish's definition/interpretation of existentialism, especially relating to the philosophy of Kierkegaard (a type of Christian humanism mixed with existentialism), to be helpful, especially since it is challenging to place a definitive definition on just what existentialism is. For me, the chapter on Buber was the most abstract and unclear, but I understand why he is considered a giant in the field of theology, and why he was included in this study. Ultimately, I came away from this book wanting to read more deeply from Tillich and Heschel, and my appreciation of Kierkegaard was once again reinforced.
March 24, 2015
a long read...I know I'll pick it up again in the future for reference
June 23, 2016
I was assigned this book for a World Religions class. If you are into books about religious thinkers this is the book for you. It is pretty interesting at points but it wasn't my cup of tea.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews