The Sublime

“The grand premise of religion is that man is able to surpass himself; that man who is part of this world may enter into a relationship with Him who is greater than the world.”

This is my summary of God in Search of Man, Chapter 3-The Sublime. Read related posts Ways to His Presence, Philosophy and Religion and God in Search of Man Part I.

Picking up from Chapter 2, Heschel says that one of the primary starting points of contemplation about God is; The way of sensing His presence in the world, in things. But how does one find the way to an awareness of God through beholding the world here and now? How does one find a way in this world that would lead to an awareness of Him who is beyond this world?

Over the next several chapters, Heschel will try to ascertain what the world means and to comprehend the categories in which the Bible sees the world: the sublime, wonder, mystery, awe and glory.

Heschel begins by noting that there are three ways in which we relate ourselves to the world; we may exploit it, we may enjoy it and we may accept it in awe. The Greeks learned in order to comprehend. The Hebrews learned in order to revere. The modern man learns in order to use.

“Knowledge is Power” is the mantra of our day. This is how people are urged to study, for knowledge = success. Religious knowledge on the other hand is thought by many to be the lowest form of knowledge and not useful for post-modern man who has been dazzled by the brilliant achievements of his intellect in science and technology. To the modern man everything seems calculable; everything reducible to a figure. He has supreme faith in statistics and abhors the idea of a mystery. He ignores the fact that we are all surrounded by things that we apprehend but cannot comprehend; that even reason is a mystery in itself. He is sure of his ability to explain all mystery away.

Are the claims of modern psychology true? Are our religious beliefs nothing more than attempts to satisfy subconscious wishes? Is the conception of God merely a projection of self-seeking emotions, the self in disguise?

“In future generations, people will find difficulty in understanding how at one time generations existed who did not regard the idea of God as the highest concept of which man is capable, but who, on the contrary, were ashamed of it and considered the development of atheism a sign of progress in the emancipation of human thought.”  Walter Schubart

“Out of a system of ideas where knowledge is power, where values are a synonym for needs, where the pyramid of being is turned upside down-it is hard to find a way to an awareness of God….If the world is only power to us and we are all absorbed in a gold rush, then the only god we may come upon is the golden calf.” If nature is used only as a means or resource to satiate our appetites for more comforts and luxuries, then we lose the ability to see beyond it through it’s granduer and sublimity. Our systems of education teach our children how to exploit the power aspects of nature and the techniques of measurement and weight, but there is no education in how to revere, how to sense wonder and awe.

Sublime defined - Of such excellence, grandeur, or beauty as to inspire great admiration or awe: The word sublime doesn’t get used much in our vernacular today compared to awesome, which is a similar word that has all but lost its true sense of meaning in our modern culture where just about everything is deemed “awesome“.

“The sublime is that which we see and are unable to convey….it is a silent allusion of things to a meaning greater than themselves.” Here is where the Biblical view of the reality of nature serves as a guide. Heschel says that the theme of Biblical poetry is the  grandeur and sublime aspects of nature, not just its charm or beauty. The sublime may be beautiful or fearful, quite or loud, small or large. The sublime might be thunder and lightning, a destructive tornado, the boundless ocean or it could be a single drop or rain, snowflake, a sprouted seed or even “the still small voice” (1 Kings 19:22).

“The sublime is not the ultimate…..the sublime is but a way in which things react to the presence of God.” The sublime is never an ultimate aspect of reality, a quality meaningful in itself. It stands for something greater; it stands in relation to something beyond itself that the eye can never see. The Biblical man in sensing the sublime is carried away by his eagerness to exalt and to praise the Maker of the world:

1 Shout for joy to God, all the earth;
2 sing the glory of his name;
give to him glorious praise!
3 Say to God, “How sublime are your deeds!  – Psalm 66:1-3

Heschel makes one final point in this chapter about the Biblical man’s experience of the sublime. “The most exalted objects such as the heaven or the stars and he himself have a mystery in common: they all continually depend on the living God.” In Colossians 1:16-17, the Apostle Paul gives further revelation of this fact about Messiah Yeshua (Jesus) that ”all things were created through him and for him….and in him all things hold together.” Now that is a sublime thought indeed!

May grace and shalom be multiplied upon you in the name of Yeshua (Jesus) the Messiah!