Martin Buber 1878-1965 Great Jewish scholar living in Vienna, Austria

Excerpts from the book Martin Buber: The Life of Dialogue by Maurice S. Friedman.

Chapter 12: The Eternal Thou Here are the hree most important aspects of Buber’s I-Thou philosophy. The first is the alternation between I-Thou and I-It. The second is the alternation between summons, the approach to the meeting with the eternal Thou, and sending, the going forth from that meeting to the world of men. The third is the alternation between revelation, in which the relational act takes place anew and flows into cultural and religious forms, and the turning, in which man turns from the rigidified forms of religion to the direct meeting with the Eternal Thou.

Chapter 13: What is Man? Buber defines ‘philosophical anthropology’ as the study of ‘the wholeness of man,, and he lists the following as among the problems implicitly set up by this question: Man’s special place in the cosmos, his connexion with destiny, his relation to the world of things, his understanding of his fellowmen, his existence as a being that knows it must die, his attitude in the ordinary and extraordinary encounters with the mystery with which his life is shot through.

Jämför med...
Principernas, beskrivning av Människan som Skapelsens Herre & Mikrokosmos.

Den tredje välsignelsen som Gud gav människan, visar på människans mål att kärleksfullt dominera skapelsen. Gud skapade människan som mikrokosmos av de strukturer, funktioner och nödvändiga kvaliteter hos allt han tidigare skapat.

http://www.euro-tongil.org/swedish/6t1.htm#I8

Adam and Eve were to become the good ancestors of humanity, conditional upon fulfilling their responsibility to obey God's commandment not to eat of the fruit. Accordingly, God did not absolutely predestine that Adam and Eve would become our good ancestors. The same holds for all fallen people: they can become the ideal people God has foreordained them to be only when they complete their responsibility. Therefore, God does not predestine in absolute terms what kind of people they actually turn out to be.

To what extent does God determine the fate of an individual? The fulfillment of God's Will through an individual absolutely requires that he complete his responsibility. Hence, even though God predestines someone for a particular mission, God's ninety-five percent responsibility and the person's five percent responsibility must be accomplished together before the person can complete his given mission and fulfill God's Will. If the person does not complete his responsibility, he cannot become the person God has purposed him to be.

http://www.unification.net/dp96/dp96-1-6.html#Sec3