Overview

"Piety is often regarded with a pejorative bias: a ""pious"" person is thought to be overly religious, supercilious even. Yet historically the concept of piety has played an important role in Christian theology and practice. For Abraham Heschel, piety describes the contours of a life compatible with God's presence. While much has been made of Heschel's concept of pathos, relatively little attention has been given to the pivotal role of piety in his thought, with the result that the larger methodological implications of his work for both Jewish and Christian theology have been overlooked. Grounding Heschel's work in Husserl, Dilthey, Schiller and Heidegger, the book explores his phenomenological method of ""penetrating the consciousness of the pious person in order to perceive the divine reality behind it."" The book goes on to consider the significance of Heschel's methodology in view of the theocentric ethics of Gustafson and Hauerwas and the post-modern context reflected in the works of Levinas, Vattimo, Marion and the Radical Orthodoxy movement."

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9780567663115

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The text is very fertile soil, and rewards the careful reader. -- Joseph McGarry, St Margaret's Anglican Church, New Zealand * Theological Book Review * To Jewish scholars interested in Heschel, it will offer a fresh take on his work, emphasizing piety as a central theme that has nevertheless been neglected in previous critical studies. Christian theologians will not only be introduced to an unjustly neglected Jewish conversation partner, but will also be pointed to a fruitful methodological focus on piety that is transferable to their own work. The book points a way for these connections to be made by drawing attention to a wide variety of intersections between Heschel's work and other contemporary Christian theological projects, showing that there is something important to learn from-and not just about-Heschel's theology. -- David Kelsey, Luther A. Weigle Professor Emeritus of Theology, Yale Divinity School This lucid, meditative study provides the key to Heschel's biblical thinking and develops substantial comparisons with Christian thinkers from Augustine, through Kant, Schleiermacher, Scheler, Heidegger, as well as Rowan Williams and postmodern theologians. The careful analyses of Dilthey and Levinas are especially welcome. Britton interprets the full range of Heschel's works and the critical literature with both sympathy and critical candor. This book is indispensable to grasp Heschel's phenomenology of piety which combines mysticism and ethics in a relational theology. -- Edward K. Kaplan, Brandeis University, USA In this outstanding book, Joseph Harp Britton highlights the major theme in the writings of Abraham Joshua Heschel and at the core of his life, action and devotion: piety as 'a mode of engagement with the other'. Heschel's key category of 'pathos' - in its theological and anthropological dimension - is the object of Britton's phenomenological inquiry. Piety is the human counterpart to God's pathos, how we respond to and engage with the covenanted relationship desired by God. Piety pervades the human awareness of the divine as it is enacted in spiritual and moral activity. Pathos and Piety deconstruct the totalitarian control of the cogito over reality and God's being, and disclose a different way of understanding human subjectivity. Britton's book helps scholars and interested readers to view Heschel as a forerunner of Postmodern theology. -- Paolo Gamberini S.I., Pontifical Theological Faculty of Naples, Italy

To Jewish scholars interested in Heschel, it will offer a fresh take on his work, emphasizing piety as a central theme that has nevertheless been neglected in previous critical studies. Christian theologians will not only be introduced to an unjustly neglected Jewish conversation partner, but will also be pointed to a fruitful methodological focus on piety that is transferable to their own work. The book points a way for these connections to be made by drawing attention to a wide variety of intersections between Heschel's work and other contemporary Christian theological projects, showing that there is something important to learn from-and not just about-Heschel's theology. -- David Kelsey, Luther A. Weigle Professor Emeritus of Theology, Yale Divinity School This lucid, meditative study provides the key to Heschel's biblical thinking and develops substantial comparisons with Christian thinkers from Augustine, through Kant, Schleiermacher, Scheler, Heidegger, as well as Rowan Williams and postmodern theologians. The careful analyses of Dilthey and Levinas are especially welcome. Britton interprets the full range of Heschel's works and the critical literature with both sympathy and critical candor. This book is indispensable to grasp Heschel's phenomenology of piety which combines mysticism and ethics in a relational theology. -- Edward K. Kaplan, Brandeis University, USA In this outstanding book, Joseph Harp Britton highlights the major theme in the writings of Abraham Joshua Heschel and at the core of his life, action and devotion: piety as 'a mode of engagement with the other'. Heschel's key category of 'pathos' - in its theological and anthropological dimension - is the object of Britton's phenomenological inquiry. Piety is the human counterpart to God's pathos, how we respond to and engage with the covenanted relationship desired by God. Piety pervades the human awareness of the divine as it is enacted in spiritual and moral activity. Pathos and Piety deconstruct the totalitarian control of the cogito over reality and God's being, and disclose a different way of understanding human subjectivity. Britton's book helps scholars and interested readers to view Heschel as a forerunner of Postmodern theology. -- Paolo Gamberini S.I., Pontifical Theological Faculty of Naples, Italy

Author Information

Joseph Britton is President and Dean of the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale University, USA, where he teaches Anglican history and theology as the McFaddin Associate Professor (Adjunct) of Pastoral Theology. He completed his doctoral studies at the Institut Catholique de Paris, France.

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