Sunday, December 16, 2012

Isaiah's Job

Isaiah's Job was linked in a comment section, about prophesying to the masses versus the remnant. It was written for The Atlantic by Albert Jay Nock in 1936.

It's not quite true, or at any rate, I disagree with much of it.  I don't have so much contempt for the masses as Nock, and I don't think intellect is quite so much a key.  It is all rather elitist in tone.  Yet I think it might be better than half-true, an encouragement for some who are weary, and a message not heard so very often.

It is at a minimum interesting.

5 comments:

james said...

Interesting. Unfortunately the role of prophet to the remnant is too flattering a role to resist, and we seem to be a-swamp in artists trying to be Jeremiah without the tears.

Dubbahdee said...

"Not SO MUCH contempt for the masses..."

nice.

Assistant Village Idiot said...

Well, I was raised a New England Liberal.

SJ said...

He does seem to assume that the purpose of the prophet and the job of the intellectual are equal. Or highly comparable.

Still, I don't think I can disagree with his comparison between the rightly-believing people of Isaiah's day and the careful-intellectuals of the 1930s (or the current decade). Many are unable or unwilling to listen.

"Keep on hearing, but never understanding; Keep on seeing, but never perceiving." (Isaiah 6:9)

Did this describe a universal problem that manifests in many ways, or a problem specific to Isaiah's time and audience?

Luke Lea said...

Quote:

"Many jobs which do not pay well are yet profoundly interesting, as, for instance, the job of research student in the sciences is said to be"

Not what I hear. :)