The Lonely Man of Faith

Of what can any living mortal, or any man, complain in view of his sins?   Lamentations 3:39  NASB

Complain – My Italian friend told me, “All Italians know they are guilty.  They just don’t know why?”  But we do, don’t we?  We, who are followers of the One True and Holy God know very well what it means to be guilty.  There are hundreds of commandments and multiple infractions that justify the verdict.  Paul was absolutely right when he wrote, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” and he wasn’t even Italian.  So, when the author of Lamentations asserts that none of us have any right to complain given our moral state, we are confronted with one of the great conflicts in Western civilization.  Religion is not a solution to this ubiquitous moral calamity.

“ . . . Western man who is affiliated with organized religion and is a generous supporter of its institutions.  He stands today in danger of losing his dialectical awareness and of abandoning completely the metaphysical polarity implanted in man as a member of both the majestic and the covenantal community.  Somehow, man of majesty considers the dialectical awareness too great a burden, interfering with his pursuit of happiness and success, and is, therefore ready to cast it off.”[1]

“Nevertheless, no matter how conscientious and devoted a fellow member he is, he belongs not to a covenantal faith community but to a religious community.”[2]

“ . . . the religious community is dedicated to the attainment of dignity and success and is—along with the whole gamut of communities such as the political, the scientific, the artistic—a creation of Adam the first, all conforming to the same sociological structural patterns.”[3]

“The prime purpose [of the religious community as opposed to the covenantal community] is the successful furtherance of the interests, not the deepening and enhancing of the commitments, of man who values religion in terms of its usefulness to him and considers the religious act a medium through which he may increase his happiness.”[4]

“The situation has deteriorated considerably in this century; which has witnessed the greatest triumphs of majestic man in his drive for conquest.  Majestic Adam had developed a demonic quality: laying claim to unlimited power—alas, to infinity itself.  His pride is almost boundless, his imagination arrogant, and he aspires to complete and absolute control of everything.  Indeed, like the men of old, he is engaged in constructing a tower whose apex should pierce Heaven.  He is intoxicated with his own adventures and victories and is bidding for unrestricted dominion.”[5]

“He, of course, comes to a place of worship.  He attends lectures on religion and appreciates the ceremonial, yet he is searching not for a faith in all its singularity and otherness, but for religious culture.  He seeks not the greatness found in sacrificial action but the convenience one discovers in a comfortable, serene state of mind.  He is desirous of an aesthetic experience rather than a covenantal one, of a social ethos rather than a divine imperative.  In a word, he wants to find in faith that which he cannot find in his laboratory, or in the privacy of his luxurious home.  His efforts are noble, yet he is not ready for a genuine faith experience which requires the giving of one’s self unreservedly to God, who demands unconditional commitment, sacrificial action, and retreat.  Western man diabolically insists on being successful.  Alas, he wants to be successful even in his adventure with God.  If he gives of himself to God, he expects reciprocity.  He also reaches a covenant with God, but this covenant is a mercantile one.  In a primitive manner, he wants to trade ‘favors’ and exchange goods.  The gesture of faith for him is a give-and-take affair and reflects the philosophy of Job which led to catastrophe—a philosophy which sees faith as a quid pro quo arrangement and expects compensation for each sacrifice one offers.”[6]

What are we to say?  No complaining allowed!

Topical Index: Soloveitchik, complain, guilty, Lamentations 3:39

[1] Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, The Lonely Man of Faith (Three Leaves Press, Doubleday, 1965), p. 87.

[2] Ibid., p. 87.

[3] Ibid., p. 88.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid., p. 97.

[6] Ibid., pp. 98-99.