Page 90 - Eclipse of God

Religion and Modern Thinking 63

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longer prayed. And indeed, as Heidegger once said in inter-
preting the words of Hölderlin, who understood poetry as the
combined work of the inspiring gods and the men inspired
by them, not only does man need god, but also “the heavenly
need the mortal.” God needs man independent— man has di-
vined that from of old— as partner in dialogue, as comrade in
work, as one who loves Him; God needs His creature thus or
wills to need him thus.
In no sphere or time in the history of the relations between
the divine and the human, however, has that proved true which
Heidegger further asserts, namely, that “neither men nor the
gods can ever of themselves bring about the direct relation
to the holy.” Always, again and again, men are accosted by
One who of Himself disconcerts and enraptures them, and,
although overcome, the worshipper prays of himself to Him.
God does not let Himself be conjured, but He also will not
compel. He is of Himself, and He allows that which exists
to be of itself. Both of these facts distinguish divine from de-
monic powers. It may not be, indeed, unimportant to God
whether man gives himself or denies himself to Him. Through
this giving or denying, man, the whole man with the deci-
sion of his whole being, may have an immeasurable part in the
actual revelation or hiddenness of the divine. But there is no
place between heaven and earth for an influence of concept-
clarifying thought. He whose appearance can be effected or
co- effected through such a modern magical influence clearly
has only the name in common with Him whom we men, ba-
sically in agreement despite all the differences in our religious
teachings, address as God. To talk of a reappearance of this
conjured god of thought is inadmissable.
It is not that Heidegger is not somewhat aware of what is at
stake here. Once in 1936, again in a Hölderlin interpretation,