Citation

Oberg A. Religions (Basel) 2022; 13(1).

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publications Institute)

DOI

10.3390/rel13010078

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Life can be a difficult phenomenon to acquiesce to, much less embrace. Tragedy is seemingly around every corner, and very many philosophies and faiths both ancient and modern have championed the exit from existence over its entrance. Existentialism and nihilism proclaim the seizure or suicide of one's undesired birth, moksha and nirvana the blessed non-return of a wandering soul. Yet against these currents the Jewish ideational approach to being, with its ever-old and newness, has consistently given the world a 'yes', and this apparently despite having every reason not to; although perhaps "because" is more appropriate to that prior clause than "despite". In what follows we therefore consider how we might uncover from within Judaism an abstracted "spirituality" for our times, a numinousness that is not necessarily a "belief": a "faith" that is more in line with a hope. Our objective is to learn how to think differently rather than to convert, and thus towards this more modest goal we set out to explore some images from Hebrew poetry and narrative, attempting to bring forth core conceptualities which could then be applied to an affirming notional framework befitting anyone who would ponder--who would feel--a way through. How might we state this 'yes' for our lives?. © 2022 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Language: en

Keywords

Spirituality; Judaism; Phenomenology; Interpretation; Ezekiel; Poetry/literature