On February 8, 1878, Martin Buber was born. Buber was an Austrian-born scholar of Judaism and a philosopher whose influential book “I and Thou” posited a direct personal dialogue between God and the individual.
“A person cannot approach the divine by reaching beyond the human. To become human, is what this individual person, has been created for.”
“All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.”
I couldn’t agree more. Thanks for the reminder. For many of us, affirming God is easy. Getting to know the meaning of the relationships behind that affirmation is the all-important next step however. Fortunately, Martin Buber was there first. In the human being the I-thou, I-it, aspects of the world arise. Buber taught that it is in “presence,” a presence other then I-it, that the eternal You achieves the power of articulation—the God-presence that occurs in and through human relationships. In, I And Thou, Buber illustrates this point often and with elegance:
“Of course, God is ‘the wholly other’; but he is also the wholly same: the wholly present. Of course, he is the mysterium tremendum that appears and overwhelms; but he is also the mystery of the obvious that is closer to me than my own I.” (p. 127)
“…in truth, there is no God-seeking because there is nothing where one could not find him. How foolish and hopeless must one be to leave one’s way of life to seek God: even if one gained all the wisdom of solitude and all the power of concentration, one would miss him.” (p. 128)
Thanks for the opportunity to comment.