8 quotes
The God who appears to me is the comforter of the poor and their avenger in world history. This avenger of the poor is the God I love.
The Concept of Religion in the System of Philosophy (1915)
Only the idea of God gives me the confidence that morality will become reality on earth. And because I cannot live without this confidence, I cannot live without God.
Reason and Hope: Selections from the Jewish Writings of Hermann Cohen (1971)
In this light the God who appears to me is the comforter of the poor and their avenger in world history. This avenger of the poor is the God I love.
The Concept of Religion in the System of Philosophy (1915)
As faith in mankind, Israel's faith is hope. And it is this epitome of Israel's prophetism, this hope in mankind's future, that comprises the substance of the messianic idea.
Reason and Hope: Selections from the Jewish Writings of Hermann Cohen (1971)
Worm that I am, consumed by passion, cast as bait for selfishness, I must nonetheless love humanity. If I can do this, and insofar as I can do this, I can also love God.
The Concept of Religion in the System of Philosophy (1915)
Love of God implies love of religion. And religion exemplifies that creative spirit of God which is at work in history as well as in the mind of man. Thus, one ought to love any religion, that is, religion as such, and in any form—as a manifestation of the moral spirit, the divine spirit of mankind.
Reason and Hope: Selections from the Jewish Writings of Hermann Cohen (1971)
Ethics must not remain a lovely abstraction; it must be concretized into valid truth. At this point ethics joins forces with religion because ethics too has ultimately no other recourse but to hypothesize the idea of God: not for the personal redemption of the moral individual but as a guarantee for the eventual realization of morality in this world.
Reason and Hope: Selections from the Jewish Writings of Hermann Cohen (1971)
Wherever rights are denied the poor, the prophetic anger is turned not merely against the incumbent rulers but equally against the means society employs to gloss over its own mendacity. And foremost among these means is art. Catering to luxury and emphasizing only the beautiful, art denies the fact that wretchedness and destitution have a tight grip on the poor. This is the reason why the prophetic zeal turned against art, and not merely against the luxury of women and the pretentiousness of the rich.
Reason and Hope: Selections from the Jewish Writings of Hermann Cohen (1971)