Friday, August 29, 2008

What is your ultimate concern?

This week has been rough because we have started up courses. I have been organizing the Coptic seminar and the Mysticism Before Mysticism seminar, which takes quite a bit of energy. So I have been dragging this afternoon and just sat down to go to the next chore when I surfed to my husband's blog to see what he has been writing this week. And I came across his post on Tillich, which made me sparkle.

2 comments:

PAULYR said...

your husband's blog on faith and
ultimate concern is excellent.
thanks for showing the way.

Leon said...

If I had an ultimate concern, it would be something concrete and not large and abstract: Maybe to eliminate — no, let's be realistic — to reduce human cruelty in the world, particularly against children and prisoners. But I don't have any chance to having an impact there.

So I'd focus on something else: The cruelty of academics telling lies about history and silencing voices from the past. Particularly 1st century Jewish history and the historical voices evidence in so many clues in the New Testamant. Why is this cruelty? I guess you have to be on the receiving end of it. If someone asked me, "Since all those ancient people are long dead, how am I or anyone personally harmed if, for example, Judas has been falsely made into a traitor, reading things into the texts that are not there?", I have no answer to that. One person's ultimate concern is meaningless to another.

Leon Zitzer