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destiny are explored in the Book of Job, which was produced by quite different circles, namely, the
upper strata, and which culminates in a renunciation of any solution of the problem and a submission to
the absolute sovereignty of God over his creatures. This submission was the precursor of the teaching of
predestination in Puritanism. The notion of predestination was bound to arise when the pathos of
divinely destined eternal punishment in hell was added to the complex of ideas just discussed, involving
compensation and the absolute sovereignty of God. But the belief in predestination did not arise among
the Hebrews of that time. Among them, the conclusion of the Book of Job remained almost completely
misunderstood in the sense intended by its author, mainly, as is well known, because of the unshakable
strength of the teaching of collective compensation in the Jewish religion.
In the mind of the pious Jew the moralism of the law was inevitably combined with the aforementioned
hope for revenge, which suffused practically all the exilic and post-exilic sacred scriptures. Moreover,
through two and a half thousand years this hope for revenge appeared in virtually every divine service of
the Jewish people--a people indissolubly chained to religiously sanctified segregation from the other
peoples of the world and this-worldly promises of God. From such a compensatory hope the Jews were
bound to derive new strength, consciously or unconsciously. Yet as the Messiah delayed his arrival, this
hope receded in the religious thinking of the intellectuals in favor of the value of an inner awareness of
God or a mildly emotional trust in God's goodness as such, combined with a readiness for peace with all
the world. This happened especially in periods during which the social condition of a community lost
complete political power. On the other hand, in epochs characterized by persecutions, like the period of
the Crusades, the hope for retribution flamed up anew, either with a penetrating but vain cry to God for
revenge, or with a prayer that the soul of the Jew might "become as dust" before the enemy who had
cursed him. In the latter case there was no recourse to evil words or deeds, but only a silent waiting for
the fulfillment of God's commandments and the cultivation of the heart so that it would remain open to
God.
To interpret resentment as the decisive element in Judaism would be unacceptable deviation, in view of
the many significant historical changes which Judaism has undergone. Nevertheless, we must not
underestimate the influence of resentment upon even the basic characteristics of the Jewish religion.
When one compares Judaism with other salvation religions, one finds that in Judaism alone resentment
has a specific trait and played a unique role not found among the disprivileged status of any other
religion.
(E.9.c) Theodicy of Disprivilege
A theodicy of disprivilege, in some form, is a component of every salvation religion which draws its
adherents primarily from the disprivileged strata, and the developing priestly ethic accommodated to this
theodicy wherever it was a component of communal religion based on such groups. The absence of
resentment, and also of virtually any kind of social revolutionary ethics among the pious Hindu and the
Asiatic Buddhist can be explained by reference to their theodicy of rebirth, according to which the caste
order itself is eternal and absolutely just. The virtues or sins of a former life determine birth into a
particular caste, and one's behavior in the present life determines one's chances of improvement in the
next rebirth. Those living under this theodicy experienced no trace of the conflict experienced by the
Jews between the social claims based on God's promises and the actual conditions of dishonor under
which they lived.
(E.9.c.1) Jewish Theodicy
This conflict precluded any possibility of finding ease in this life for the Jews, who lived in continuous
tension with their actual social position and in perpetually fruitless expectation and hope. The Jews'
theodicy of disprivilege was despised by the pitiless mockery of the godless heathen, but for the Jews
the theodicy had the consequence of transforming religious criticism of the godless heathen into ever-
watchful concern over their own fidelity to the law. This preoccupation was frequently tinged with
bitterness and threatened by secret self-criticism.
The Jew was naturally prone, as a result of his lifelong schooling, to casuistic watch upon the religious
obligations of the fellow Jews, on whose punctilious observance of religious law the whole people
ultimately depended for Yahweh's favor. There appeared that peculiar mixture of elements characteristic
of post-exilic times which combined despair at finding any meaning in this world of vanity with
submission to the chastisement of God, anxiety lest one sin against God through pride, and finally a fear-
ridden punctiliousness in ritual and morals. All these tensions forced upon the Jew a desperate struggle,
no longer for the respect from others, but for self-respect and a sense of dignity. The struggle for a sense
of personal worth must have become precarious again and again, threatening to wreck the whole
meaning of the individual's conduct of life, since ultimately the fulfillment of God's promise was the
only criterion of one's value before God at any given time.
Success in his occupation actually became one tangible proof of God's personal favor for the Jew living [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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