Tuesday, December 12, 2006

From Stuttgart 1

"With the passing of time the knowledge of God has become confused. The more subtle our wisdom, the more multifaceted has our stupidity become. Had God's grace not endured eternally, what would have become of us? Men have once again reached the point where they are lost without a compass in a sea of errors, finding themsleves in the middle of a Noahite deluge of ideas. Where is the ark, where is deliverance? In a time in which humility is paraded for show, because at heart it nourishes pride, it would sound ridiculous if somebody came forth and announced: here is the ark, here is the deliverance! And yet all those who have become conscious of our calling have said exactly that..."

You might assume that the above lamentations belong to a contemporary thinker. Instead, they are lifted from the anonymous 1837 publication, "The Holy History of Mankind," released in Stuttgart, Germany. Only years later was it revealed that revolutionary Jewish socialist thinker Moses Hess, a forerunner of the European Zionist movement, wrote "The Holy History" at age 25.

How much more true are his words today?
From where and whom will the voices of deliverance finally come?
And how can they get people to listen?

1 comment:

David said...

Hess is my homeboy. I lived on the street blessed with his name in J-town.

That is all. Amen.