Book Review: The Way of Man

A few days ago I ran into a couple of books by Martin Buber at the thrift store. To top it off, they were 60% off! So I purchased both, along with a small library of fiction books, and yesterday finished Buber's short work, The Way of Man. Buber is, of course, most well known (and rightfully so) for his monumental I and Thou. The issue with his popularity being based specifically on one (fantastic) book is that we forget his other works, which turn out to often be just as, or nearly as, brilliant. And we forget Buber's Zionist beliefs, as well as never even hearing his extrapolations on earlier Hasidic practitioners. The Way of Man is a brief entrance into that world.

In The Way of Man, Buber uses six short essays, each starting with stories and teachings from great Hasidic rabbis of the past, to give a framework for the way man should live according to Hasidism (or at least, his definition of Hasidism).

A (far less profound than the book) summary: living the Hasidic lifestyle starts with self reflection, to realize that one has hidden himself (I use "he" following Buber) from God and must admit and repent of this to begin. It is subjective, involving a realization of who one is, where one is at, and living out one's faith in a way specific to the individual. In other words, there is no universal way to live the Hasidic life, but it depends on the individual, his relationship to God, and the place and personality he has been given. Although this is the starting point, it is not the endpoint. The endpoint is to let go of not only past sins, but past repentances, and to move forward into doing good. In his specific context, both in time and place, the specific individual who has his own relationship with his Lord and his own personhood which sets him apart from any other person, a man lives the Hasidic life right where he is located.

Perhaps it is only because I just reread the last four chapters of MacIntyre's monumental work this morning, but The Way of Man truly reminded me, and even seems to proceed, After Virtue. It involves a continuity with the past and its moral and lifestyle teachings. Although Buber begins with the individual, part of his goal is to rediscover tradition and a form of community-living that can be practiced healthily. In its own way, it calls a specific group of people back to a morality (virtues) that works for them in a time when morality has/had become a joke.

As a Christian, I read this book with a sense of awe and wonder. There is so much in Buber that I commend and am challenged by. So much of it sounds like the teachings of the early desert Christians, not to mention the Acts church itself, that I would declare we are simply saying the same thing, if only Jesus were a part of Buber's thought. Buber writes of living out the way. Maybe this is a good reminder to myself (and perhaps you as well), that there is a way that seems right to a man, but Christ is the way. Do you live in such a way that shows you believe this to be true?

One final quote from the book, which I shall not expand upon, but leave you to wrestle with:

"One of the main points in which Christianity differs from Judaism is that it makes each man's salvation his highest aim. Judaism regards each man's soul as a serving member of God's Creation which, by man's work, is to become the Kingdom of God; thus no soul has its object in itself, in its own salvation. True, each is to know itself, purify itself, perfect itself, but not for its own sake-neither for the sake of its temporal happiness nor for that of its eternal bliss-but for the sake of the work which it is destined to perform upon the world."

Peace,
Matt