The Way of God

The Way of God – Moshe Chaim Luzzatto

I consider Luzzatto’s book, Mesillat Yesharim, a critically important work in the explication of the power of the yetzer ha’ra and the obligation each of us has toward others. The book elaborates a step-by-step evaluation of the “fearless moral inventory” needed to combat the subtleties of the yetzer ha’ra while it provides a philosophical and theological basis for loving our neighbor as ourselves.

But Luzzatto is often regarded as a heretic, even in Jewish circles, for statements he made outside of Mesillat Yesharim. When I recently read his work, The Way of God [translated and annotated by Aryeh Kaplan, Feldheim Publishers, Jerusalem, sixth revised edition, 1998], I paid careful attention to any material that might have lead to this conclusion. What I found in The Way of God was essentially consistent with a Neo-platonic, rabbinic, classical theology, not essentially incompatible with many Christian positions. In other words, Luzzatto’s theology seems to be a product of his age and culture, laced with the influences of Plato’s dualism and Aristotle’s foundation to the via negativa. If Luzzatto weren’t Jewish, one could almost read this work as if it were from the hand of Aquinas.

Luzzatto follows the typical dualism of body-soul, maintains the pre-existence and immortality of the soul, believes simultaneously in free will and divine sovereignty (more on this later), advocates the necessity of efforts toward human perfection, believes in miracles, holds that God exists outside of time and space, believes in the expiating power of suffering and in the application of the Noahide laws to all mankind. Classical Christian thinkers basically argue the same.

Where Luzzatto departs from the usual theological material is his belief in the reincarnation of the soul (“A single soul can be reincarnated a number of times in different bodies and in this manner, it can rectify the damage done in previous incarnations” p. 125), the paradox of divine determination (“The Highest Wisdom, however, determines what should befall each individual, and in the same manner determines the mean through which this would come about. Everything is ultimately decreed with the utmost precision, according to what is truly best” p. 131), the emanations from God through various levels of angels until the last step involves the physical world (“God thus first influences an angel, who in turn influences another angel on a lower level. This continues step by step until the final angel acts upon a physical thing” p. 149), and the influence of the stars (“All things in the physical world are given the power to exist through influences transmitted to them via their respective stars” p. 163). Luzzatto’s doctrine of angels, his Neo-platonic idea of levels of emanations and his astrology probably contributed to the charge of heresy, but these elements are not without parallel in both Christian and Jewish thought. Luzzatto’s section in this work on the power of divine names reminds one of the Christian penchant to treat the name of “Jesus” as if it were a magic formula. Toward the end of the book, Luzzatto seems to be enamored with gnostic ideas, suggesting that the more esoteric understanding of God and the world is open only to the initiated. By the end of the text, Luzzatto seems to be wandering in the realms of mystics. Of course, none of this is unique to Luzzatto. Both sides of the religious aisle have plenty of prior examples of Gnostics and mystics.

I point out only one of the arguments of Luzzatto, one that I believe is also found in nearly all classical theologians whether Christian or Jewish. This is the argument that God exists outside of time and space and therefore His knowing is without limit. Luzzatto states: “With regard to God’s Perception, we are already aware that He knows everything. It is absolutely impossible that He be ignorant of anything, with in the past, present or future. Everything that exists is revealed and known to Him, in its every aspect. Absolutely nothing is concealed from God [and His knowledge is not bound by time]” p. 147. This is, of course, the classical formulation of the doctrine of omniscience. As I have argued elsewhere, it ultimately fails logically and epistemologically. It cannot be reconciled with the biblical prerogative of culpable free will nor can it explain the ubiquity of the human awareness of choice. But this doesn’t mean that theologians who are primarily committed to a Platonic God (i.e., a God who is wholly other) don’t assert sovereignty at the expense of choice. Luzzatto is not without company here.

Luzzatto’s work presents many elements that are typical of classic theologians. His astrology, gnosticism and ideas on reincarnation push him outside the usual camp, but his thoughts on creation, sovereignty, humanity and ethics are familiar. In the end we are left with the same methodology we use for all post-biblical material. Discern! Be Berean. See what fits with Scripture and carefully evaluate the rest.

Luzzatto might have been a heretic, but at least he was an interesting one.