NO (dangerous humans)
"Man rarely comprehends how dangerously mighty he is. In our own days it is becoming obvious to many of us that unless man attaches himself to a source of spiritual power--a match for the source of energy that he is now able to exploit--a few men may throw all men into final disaster. There is only one source: the will and wisdom of the living God.
The realization of the dangerous greatness of man, of his immense power and ability to destroy all life on earth, must completely change our conception of man's place and role in the divine scheme. If this great world of ours is not a trifle in the eyes of God, if the Creator is at all concerned with His creation, then man--who has the power to devise both culture and crime, but who is also able to be a proxy for divine justice--is important enough to be the recipient of spiritual light at the rare dawns of his history.
Unless history is a vagary of nonsense, there must be a counterpart to the immense power of man to destroy, there must be a voice that says NO to man, a voice not vague, faint and inward, like qualms of conscience, but equal in spiritual might to man's power to destroy.
.... The Bible, speaking in the name of a Being that combines justice with omnipotence, is the never-ceasing outcry of "No" to humanity. In the midst of our applauding the feats of civilization, the Bible flings itself like a knife slashing our complacency, reminding us that God, too, has a voice in history. Only those who are satisfied with the state of affairs or those who choose the easy path of escaping from society, rather than stay within it and to keep themselves clean of the mud of specious glories, will resent its attack on human independence."
This is all from God in Search of Man by Abraham Heschel.
We must listen to those telling us No ... (From Moses to Jeremiah, from John to Jesus to Paul, from Ireneus to Kierkegaard, from Walker Percy to Flannery O'Connor).
"Our eyes are witness to the callousness and cruelty of man, but our heart tries to obliterate the memories, to calm the nerves, and to silence our conscience. The prophet is a man who feels fiercely. God has thrust a burden upon his shoulder, and he is bowed and stunned at man's fierce greed. Frightful is the agony of man; no human voice can convey its full terror. Prophecy is the voice that God has lent to the silent agony, a voice to the plundered poor, to the profaned riches of the world. It is a form of living, a crossing point of God and man. God is raging in the prophet's words." (from Heschel's book The Prophets)
The realization of the dangerous greatness of man, of his immense power and ability to destroy all life on earth, must completely change our conception of man's place and role in the divine scheme. If this great world of ours is not a trifle in the eyes of God, if the Creator is at all concerned with His creation, then man--who has the power to devise both culture and crime, but who is also able to be a proxy for divine justice--is important enough to be the recipient of spiritual light at the rare dawns of his history.
Unless history is a vagary of nonsense, there must be a counterpart to the immense power of man to destroy, there must be a voice that says NO to man, a voice not vague, faint and inward, like qualms of conscience, but equal in spiritual might to man's power to destroy.
.... The Bible, speaking in the name of a Being that combines justice with omnipotence, is the never-ceasing outcry of "No" to humanity. In the midst of our applauding the feats of civilization, the Bible flings itself like a knife slashing our complacency, reminding us that God, too, has a voice in history. Only those who are satisfied with the state of affairs or those who choose the easy path of escaping from society, rather than stay within it and to keep themselves clean of the mud of specious glories, will resent its attack on human independence."
This is all from God in Search of Man by Abraham Heschel.
We must listen to those telling us No ... (From Moses to Jeremiah, from John to Jesus to Paul, from Ireneus to Kierkegaard, from Walker Percy to Flannery O'Connor).
"Our eyes are witness to the callousness and cruelty of man, but our heart tries to obliterate the memories, to calm the nerves, and to silence our conscience. The prophet is a man who feels fiercely. God has thrust a burden upon his shoulder, and he is bowed and stunned at man's fierce greed. Frightful is the agony of man; no human voice can convey its full terror. Prophecy is the voice that God has lent to the silent agony, a voice to the plundered poor, to the profaned riches of the world. It is a form of living, a crossing point of God and man. God is raging in the prophet's words." (from Heschel's book The Prophets)
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