“To have faith in the possibility of love as a social and not only exceptional-individual phenomenon, is a rational faith based on the insight into the very nature of man.”

—  Erich Fromm , book The Art of Loving

Source: The Art of Loving (1956)
Context: To speak of love is not "preaching," for the simple reason that it means to speak of the ultimate and real need of every human being. That this need has been obscured does not mean it does not exist. To analyze the nature of love is to discover its general absence today and to criticize the social conditions which are responsible for this absence. To have faith in the possibility of love as a social and not only exceptional-individual phenomenon, is a rational faith based on the insight into the very nature of man.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Dec. 16, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "To have faith in the possibility of love as a social and not only exceptional-individual phenomenon, is a rational fait…" by Erich Fromm?
Erich Fromm photo
Erich Fromm 119
German social psychologist and psychoanalyst 1900–1980

Related quotes

Erich Fromm photo

“Rational faith as well as rational despair are based on the most thorough, critical knowledge of all the factors that are relevant for the survival of man.”

Erich Fromm (1900–1980) German social psychologist and psychoanalyst

Source: The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness (1973), p. 483
Context: Optimism is an alienated form of faith, pessimism an alienated form of despair. If one truly responds to man and his future, ie, concernedly and "responsibly." one can respond only by faith or by despair. Rational faith as well as rational despair are based on the most thorough, critical knowledge of all the factors that are relevant for the survival of man.

Felix Adler photo

“Religion is not necessarily allied with dogma, a new kind of faith is possible, based not upon legend and tradition, not upon the authority of any book, but upon the moral nature of man.”

Felix Adler (1851–1933) German American professor of political and social ethics, rationalist, and lecturer

Founding Address (1876), Life and Destiny (1913)
Context: To those who are longing for a higher life, who deeply feel the need of religious satisfactions, we suggest that there is a way in which the demands of the head and the heart may be reconciled. Religion is not necessarily allied with dogma, a new kind of faith is possible, based not upon legend and tradition, not upon the authority of any book, but upon the moral nature of man.

Reinhold Niebuhr photo

“The naïve faith of the proletarian is the faith of the man of action. Rationality belongs to the cool observers.”

Reinhold Niebuhr book Moral Man and Immoral Society

Source: Moral Man and Immoral Society (1932), p.221
Context: The naïve faith of the proletarian is the faith of the man of action. Rationality belongs to the cool observers. There is of course an element of illusion in the faith of the proletarian, as there is in all faith. But it is a necessary illusion, without which some truth is obscured. The inertia of society is so stubborn that no one will move against it, if he cannot believe that it can be more easily overcome than is actually the case.

“Faith is a universal human phenomenon. All people live by some faith.”

Roger Haight (1936) American theologian

Source: Dynamics Of Theology, Chapter One, Faith As A Dimension of The Human, p. 15

C.G. Jung photo

“Faith, hope, love, and insight are the highest achievements of human effort. They are found-given-by experience.”

C.G. Jung book Modern Man in Search of a Soul

Source: Modern Man in Search of a Soul

Michael Löwy photo

“The most surprising and original part of [ Lucien Goldmann's] work is, however, the attempt to compare—without assimilating one to another—religious faith and Marxist faith: both have in common the refusal of pure individualism (rationalist or empiricist) and the belief in trans-individual values—God for religion, the human community for socialism. In both cases the faith is based on a wager—the Pascalian wager on the existence of God and the Marxist wager on the liberation of humanity—that presupposes risk, the danger of failure and the hope of success.”

Michael Löwy (1938) French sociologist

Source: The War of Gods: Religion and Politics in Latin America (1996), p. 17 http://books.google.com/books?id=gyOHaZFpvL8C&pg=PA17

Jacob Thoomkuzhy photo

“Knowing nature closely and intimately enhances faith. So loving and caring for nature is a way of protecting your faith.”

Jacob Thoomkuzhy (1930) Indian archbishop

Source: Young People See Faith Violation In Environmental DegradationUpdated https://www.ucanews.com/story-archive/?post_name=/2007/10/26/young-people-see-faith-violation-in-environmental-degradation&post_id=28210 (25 October 2007)

Lyndon B. Johnson photo

“Our society is illuminated by the spiritual insights of the Hebrew prophets. America and Israel have a common love of human freedom, and they have a common faith in a democratic way of life.”

Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973) American politician, 36th president of the United States (in office from 1963 to 1969)

From a speech on the state of the Middle East, September 10, 1968 http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/lbjpeace1.html
1960s

Related topics