Last night, Religion & Ethics Newsweekly did an excellent piece on the life of Abraham J. Heschel. Heschel was a Jewish theologian, a social activist and a mystic among other things. If you've never read his stuff, you really should. Heschel spoke out loudly against the Vietnam War and he walked boldly and proudly on the front lines of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s marches. In fact, it was during these marches that he said: "I felt like I was praying with my legs." So, on MLK Day, I speak not so much about King himself (many others have already done that in the blogosphere and rightly so) but rather of one of the lives he touched: Abraham J. Heschel. To learn and see more, check out the following link: Life of Heschel.
Michael,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post and link. I am old enough to have marched in some of those marches. Later, I began to talk about not only a religion of the heart and a religion of the head - both very important, but for me was also the relgion of the feet.
While I am not particularly evangelical, I have walked down the aisle more than once singing "Yes, I want to be like Jesus, in my heart."
This is all "public theology" - be it an altar call or an trip to the table or a peace demonstration or a walk for the cure.
Thanks,
John