Word: herberg
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Parochial and private schools should get government funds, said Jewish Philosopher and Author Will Herberg, adjunct professor of Judaic studies and social philosophy at Drew University, Madison, N.J. In addition, he told a conference called by the National Conference of Christians and Jews in Chicago, some way should be worked out to put religion into public education. "The American people are becoming more and more religion-conscious today, and yet the most important institution of the community is barred to religion-an untenable position...
...Biblical origin of the three faiths is not so important in this connection, Herberg believes, as the idea "that they are three diverse representations of ... the 'spiritual values' American democracy is presumed to stand for." Thus "it becomes virtually mandatory for the American to place himself in one or another of these groups . . . For being a Protestant, a Catholic or a Jew is understood as the specific way, and increasingly perhaps the only way, of being an American and locating oneself in American society...
...Secularism. Herberg cites a poll which asked U.S. citizens whether they obeyed the Biblical law of love toward a member of another religion (yes, 90%); of another race (yes, 80%); of a "political party that you think is dangerous" (no, 57%). "While the Jewish-Christian law of love is formally acknowledged, the truly operative factor is the value system embodied in the American Way of Life. Where the American Way of Life approves of love of one's fellow man, most Americans confidently assert that they practice such love; where the American Way of Life disapproves, the great mass...
Americans have faith in faith; they "believe in religion in a way that perhaps no other people do" as a "good thing" for man and nation, without making theological distinctions. Herberg quotes President Eisenhower: "Our form of government has no sense unless it is founded in a deeply felt religious faith, and I don't care what...
...Herberg sums up: "The familiar distinction between religion and secularism appears to be losing much of its meaning under present-day conditions. Both the 'religionists' and the 'secularists' cherish the same basic values and organize their lives on the same fundamental assumptions." True Christian or Jewish witness, Herberg points out, may be "much more difficult under these conditions than when faith has to contend with overt and avowed unbelief...