Part 2: Chapters 6-9 Summary and Analysis

Divine anger, Heschel states, has created a problem. He discusses the Gnostic, Marcoin, who states that since the world is so full of filth and sin that a just and loving God couldn't have created it—and the thought that God is capable of a divine anger only adds to his point of view. Marcoin announced that a good God was not able to get angry and was free from all affections. Marcoin was expelled from his church and his teaching thrown out in 144 C.E. Heschel explains that there were many ideas throughout the years; that God is impassible and is incapable of a feeling such as anger. Heschel also describes the fact that in ancient times Israel only knew God as mysterious and terrible, and only in much later times did they believe him...