Chapter 46: Pilgrimage as Process: Cultivating Radical Amazement

Rabbi and scholar Abraham Joshua Heschel teaches about radical amazement by pointing to the ineffable. His life models not just beholding the mystery, but the call to repair and transform the world. He believed that “something is asked from us”. He also said, “some are guilty, but all are responsible”. His lifework testified to the importance of being partners with God. This partnership was central as was his belief that religious diversity is God’s will.
 
As pilgrims, we can discover humanity’s heritage that takes us beyond our individual stories and life histories, to embrace our world heritage. Heschel’s legacy reminds us of the dimension of wonder-the dream of a world redeemed.
 
When my sister Cathy and I converged in a reunion with our birth family before our maternal grandmother died of cancer, I experienced the “ineffable”. Our reunion story has allowed me to cultivate radical amazement elicited by the mystery surrounding our homecoming.
 
This radical amazement is the catalyst for sharing my story with the world. I hope that my readership will be touched by our family’s reunion story in a way that will reinforce their own ability to see the ineffable more clearly in their lives. It is through wonder and radical amazement that we can find our unique way to partner with God, upholding the covenant between God and humanity.  This partnership opens toward a way of wonder filled with gratitude and a sense to serve. In his last interview he says that life is a celebration and that one should live life as if it was a work of art.

​Here is a link to Heschel’s last television interview:

Here is an article about Heschel’s “depth theology”.

Here is a link to a recent film about Heschel’s lifework.