Moltmann on Heshel and the pathos of God
Tuesday, January 27, 2009 at 12:50AM
It was Rabbi Abraham Heschel, who, in his Berlin dissertation of1936 and later in his book The Prophets (1963), first named the theology of the prophets a theology of pathos. Significantly, he attained this insight through a critical consideration of the ancient tradition in medieval Judaism. The prophets did not have a new idea of God, but rather understood themselves and the people of Israel in that God-situation which Heschel calls God's pathos. In pathos, the all-powerful God goes outside of himself and enters into a relationship with a people of his choosing. He places his complete interest in his covenant with his people. Hence he is affected by the experiences, actions, and suffering of Israel.
His pathos has nothing to do with the whims of the mythical gods. It is his free relationship to creation, to people, and to history. God takes man seriously to the point that he suffers from the actions of man and can be injured through them. The prophets did not identify God's pathos with his essence, but rather saw in pathos the form of his relationship to the world, of his involvement and concern.
Prophecy is therefore not the foretelling of the future, as determined by fate or by God's plan of salvation. It is rather an insight into the present pathos of God, in suffering at Israel's disobedience, and in passion for justice and honor in the world.
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