Page 9 - Issue 31

In true faith the ultimate concern is a concern about the truly
ultimate; while in idolatrous faith preliminary, finite realities
are elevated to the rank of ultimacy.., (pp. 11-12)

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A summary understanding: The aims of true faith are
INFINITE. The aims of false faith are FINITE.

It is instructive to see the concept of “ultimacy” link to the
reality of changing social values in Israel as described
perceptively already over forty years ago.

In 1979, the veteran educator from Kibbutz Ein Hashofet,
Zipora Efrat (1914- 2012), writing in the Seminar Hakibbutzim
Annual on ”Youth Movements in the Current Social Reality
of Israel” quoted the sociologist Shmuel Eisenstadt (1923-
2010) that “the revolt of youth (in all youth movements)
aimed to integrate changing personal identity with the future
identity of society” (Education and Youth, 1965). “The
youth movement members who care”, wrote Efrat, “see the
problems of the collective society as their personal
problem”.

In the context of Tillich’s “ultimate concern” it is easy to see
that both Eisenstadt and Efrat were talking about a
generation of youth where the “ultimate concern” of (Israeli)
society’s purpose was beginning to change. 1979 – Think:
Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.

Our second article on faith will deal with the ideas of A.D.
Gordon, the philosopher of the Labor Zionist movement and
the possible synthesis of his ideas with those of Paul Tillich.