Time and Place:New York at Kaufman Concert Hall on May 21, 1964

Abstract: The lecture series Humanism and the Hebrew Bible presents first results of Fromm’s book project You Shall Be as Gods. A Radical Interpretation of the Old Testament and Its Tradition which was published in 1966. In the forth lecture on The Concept of God Fromm first reminds to the idea of alternativism and the question of sin and repentance in Jewish tradition and particularly in the psalms. The second part discusses what God contributes to human history and how the concept of God has developed throughout history. To Moses, God reveals himself as the Nameless One—and any statement about God becomes idolatry. From this follows: Man must make his own history, and God does not interfere in this history with anything that changes man’s heart. It’s up to man to decide and act. – The lecture was given by Erich Fromm on the invitation of the Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Association at Kaufman Concert Hall. The lecture (63’) is followed by Fromm’s answers (30’) to questions from the audience.

The text of the lecture and discussion can be downloaded as a PDF file.

ID in the directory of Erich Fromm’s works (https://fromm-online.org/en/works/original-writings/): 1964p-eng