The prologue to Martin Buber’s I and Thou, written by Walter Kaufman, provided a very unique background to understanding Buber. Kaufman includes a Biblical chapter from Isaiah: “When you come to appear before me, who requires of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no vain...defend the fatherless, plead for the widow” (Buber, 1970, pp. 28-29). Considering Buber’s need of an omnipresent Being, this quote provided a great example of what Buber might deem too little in understanding how God is self-actualized in man. Specifically, the last few lines: “...cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow” (p. 29).
I love this thought. With Buber, my understanding with him is that God is in everything, therefore man has a unique relationship with Him. But how is this made present to us? By reading a chapter from the Christian Bible! Basically, God is only known to each of us through our unique relationship with Him. It very subtly eliminates organized religion, provides a self-aware sense of commitment to a higher being, and potentially gives man a cause to live. As a Catholic/Christian, I love the combination of philosophy with religious actualization.
That is my likeness to my life: the realization that I can understand Buber more fully by connecting it to my own knowledge of Christianity. While not written by Buber of course, I still think how Kaufman connects this passage from Isaiah to religious self-transcendentalism is fascinating.
Part of me wonders where Kaufman thought to use Isaiah from. Buber (1970) said: “But as surely as God embraces us and dwells in us, we never have him within. And we speak to him only when all speech has ceased within” (pp. 152-153). Perhaps as a way back to understanding an omnipresent God, man must (as Isaiah says) to cease evil, do good, seek justice, etc. My understanding of Buber is simple: we talk to God mostly when we fail to do as Isaiah says. When that point happens, man learns again to talk to God and see Him as an omnipresent being.
Buber, M. (1970). I and thou. Touchstone: New York, NY.
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