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Comparative Religion - 1954

Volume 8

 

... religion is set with speech; that every act of speech in society testifies to our belief in God. Because God is not an abstraction, but the power by which peace, truth and efficiency are united. Something is true, gentlemen. But if I say it, I hope that somebody else will acknowledge the truth. That is, truth will become a power.

That's my hope. My act of faith is that this is true. My act of hope in the same sentence is that somebody will help me to live by this truth.

Truth in itself is perfectly powerless, you see. You have to have a witness. You have to have somebody who subscribes to this truth, who sticks his neck out and says, "It is true." Before, it isn't of any efficacy in society.

You don't see this, gentlemen, that every one sentence moves in three directions. It wants to stem from the truth into my heart. I want to be out of the truth. I want however to make my -myself powerful, because I proclaim the truth and I want to be acknowledged for this truth, and other people are going to buy my book, for example, or to go to my lectures, or to support my claim that I have the best -produce the best camera in the world and then buy it, on my word. Everybody hopes that for power, gentlemen, of his truth. That's the outgoing power, gentlemen. And in the meantime, there is of course his own trembling heart, and his own critical mind. And his heart, which feels that we should be good to each other, wants to convince also his own mind that this is a good thing. And in just making this recommendation, it philosophizes and its says, "We have time for this." Even the mere philosopher, gentlemen, has self-love. The teacher has love for others. So without self-love, you wouldn't debate so fervently inside yourself. Am I right?

... It is very strange, gentlemen. The freedom to doubt comes from our love. The power of conviction comes from our certainty that we are in the truth, that the truth is -- we are serving the truth. We are servants of the truth, that we are willing to admit the truth, you see. To let it in, and not to block it. And it is our hope that mankind is just crazy for the truth. Of course, in the course of time, we find out that Satan, the Devil, is very much in domination in the world, because the liar -that's his name, as you know, of the Devil, the slanderer -says, "Nobody says the truth. Everybody lies." And so he puts our listeners in a dead state of paralysis. And you sit here to get credit, but not to know the truth. That's the Devil."

October 12, 1954

Comparative Religion - 1954 does not provide a review of world religions by Rosenstock-Huessy. He starts instead by examining religion itself. He discusses philosophy and religion; American religion; religion and timing; religion and speech. Having established religion as the power to undergo change, he discusses in depth five spheres of change people face: mechanical, organic, working, loving, and political. He suggests that religions can be compared on the basis of their relationship to these spheres of change. It is more a course on whether and how one should compare religions than an exercise in comparison. Lecture 10 is an unusually good example of Rosenstock-Huessy outlining his thoughts to a class. Lecture 26 contains an excellent overview of the historical principles found in Soziologie II. Twenty-eight 1-hour lectures.

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The Rosenstock-Huessy lectures are available in two versions:
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Comparative Religion - 1954 on DVD ISBN: 978-1-937253-01-1 $30

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The paper package of Comparative Religion - 1954 consists of a printed, bound paper transcript of all 28 lectures, which should be ordered separately, below.
Comparative Religion - 1954 ISBN: 978-0-912148-27-4 $40

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