Why the theologian Martin Luther King Jr. called a prophet was a radical mystic

Ideas & Philosophy · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Abraham Joshua Heschel, a Polish-born rabbi who fled the Holocaust, redefined the Jewish encounter with the Divine. By shifting focus from cold law to the "Divine Pathos," he argued that God feels human suffering, transforming theology into a clarion call for civil rights and social justice in America.

Born in 1907 to a lineage of Hasidic masters, Heschel’s life was defined by both profound loss and intellectual rigor. After escaping Warsaw for London just weeks before the German invasion in 1939, he lost his mother and two sisters to the Holocaust. He never returned to Europe, carrying the weight of that trauma into his American career at the Jewish Theological Seminary. There, he became a bridge between ancient mysticism and modern existentialism, famously arguing that Judaism is a religion of time rather than space.

Heschel’s theology challenged the traditional view of God as an unchangeable, independent entity. Instead, he proposed the "Nachmanidean" perspective, emphasizing a mutually dependent relationship between God and humanity. Central to his work, such as 'The Prophets,' is the concept of 'anthropopathy'—the idea that God possesses human feelings. He argued that the prophets were not merely diviners of the future, but receivers of 'Divine Pathos,' feeling God’s sorrow and wrath over the plight of the poor and oppressed. This belief fueled his activism; he marched with Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma and spoke out against the Vietnam War, insisting that religious truth cannot be monopolized by any single community.

Beyond his political engagement, Heschel was a prolific scholar of Kabbalah and rabbinic theology. His masterwork, 'Heavenly Torah,' explored the nature of revelation through the conflicting worldviews of 2nd-century sages Rabbi Akiva and Ishmael ben Elisha. He cautioned against 'pan-halakhism,' or an exclusive focus on legalistic behavior, arguing instead for the necessity of inner devotion and 'radical amazement.' By the time of his death in 1972, Heschel had left an indelible mark on both Jewish thought and the American moral landscape, teaching that the failure to ask 'Who is Man?' leads to a civilization built upon a fundamental misinterpretation of human existence.

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