Page 17 - Issue 32

CORE VALUES for INTENTIONAL COMMUNITY (3)

FAITH – A.D. Gordon

In the previous article on faith, we related to the
question of faith as presented by the German
protestant theologian, Paul Tillich. Tillich focused on
the question of "ultimate concern" as a re�lection of
one’s faith. With regard to “ultimate concern” he
differentiated between true faith (in�inite aims) and
false faith (�inite aims).

In this article we present three aspects of faith as
understood by A. D. Gordon (1856-1922). Gordon was
the philosopher and mythic personality whose ideas
had a seminal in�luence on the pioneering generation
(the chalutzim) of the kibbutz movement. We bring
three excerpts from his writings and their possible
implications.

First: Gordon’s rationale for faith in the Zionist project.

Second: How that faith should express itself in a
change of purpose in the life of the individual.
Third: The true meaning of "Exile" (Galut)

1. A People in the Image of God (1920)
“…We created words for the nature of our Land and
said ‘: ‘The human created in the Image of God’…Now
we come to create a new saying for this nature that
lives within us: a people in the Image of God…This is