The Decline Of Religion

“It is customary to blame secular science and anti-religious philosophy for the eclipse of religion in modern society. It would be more honest to blame religion for its own defeats.

Religion declined not because it was refuted, but because it became irrelevant, dull, oppressive, insipid.

• When faith is completely replaced by: creed, worship by discipline, love by habit…
• When the crisis of today is ignored because of the splendor of the past…
• When faith becomes an heirloom rather than a living fountain…
• When religion speaks only in the name of authority rather than with the voice of compassion…

Then its message becomes meaningless and it’s promises of transformation become powerless.”

– Rabbi Abraham Heschel