Richard Skeen teaches on Abraham Joshua Heschel's theology of radical amazement

Among the 20th century's most influential theologians, Abraham Joshua Heschel is popularly admired for his active role in the Civil Rights movement and for his recasting the way we think about time and space in his seminal "The Sabbath". Born to Hassidic royalty, educated in pre-war Vilna, friends with Martin Burber and Martin Luther King Jr. and a force for three decades at the Jewish Theological Seminary, Heschel seemed connected to every major Jewish 20th century trend and influenced virtually every Rabbi in the non-Orthodox world. But Heschel's message is more nuanced and profound than the quick quotes in our siddur or images of him marching with Dr. King can provide; maybe more than any other Jewish thinker of the modern era, Heschel seemed intent on summoning the message of the Biblical prophets of justice for Heaven's sake.

Heschel’s ideas are inseparable from the language and idioms he uses; in this series we'll sample some of his "deep cuts" to explore his  ideas of "Radical Amazement", harsh criticism of "dull and insipid religion" and prayer, his poetry that so beautifully captures the tension between Heaven and earth around topics like culpability for the Shoah and finally Heschel's eloquent calls for action: 
“...morally speaking, there is no limit to the concern one must feel for the suffering of human beings, that indifference to evil is worse than evil itself, that in a free society, some are guilty, but all are responsible.”