The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (984 page)

(1907–72).
US Jewish scholar. He was born in Poland, descended from
asidic
rabbis. A close associate of Martin
Buber
, he became a refugee from Nazi Germany, first in London, then in the USA. There he taught at the
Hebrew Union College
and the
Jewish Theological Seminary
. He wrote important studies on
kabbalah
and was a highly influential philosopher of religion. In
Man is not Alone
(1951) and
God in Search of Man
(1956), Heschel tried to define the existential question to which Judaism provides the answer. It lies in the true use of freedom. God longs for his creatures but will not coerce them. Judaism exhibits the response of love and devotion when the commands of God are accepted in that style. His strong emphasis on ethical behaviour as the demonstration of religion took him into the Civil Rights movement, and into
dialogue
with other religions, especially in the discussions which led to the revised attitude of
Vatican II
to Judaism.

 
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(1812–75).
German socialist and
Zionist
. As an ethical socialist, Hess believed, in the early part of his life, that Jews should
assimilate
into the majority culture. By 1862, he had published
Rome and Jerusalem
(Eng., 1918) which recommended the ‘founding of Jewish societies of agriculture, industry and trade in accordance with Mosaic, i.e., socialist principles’.

 
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(from Gk.,
hesychia
, ‘quietness’). Tradition of contemplative prayer associated above all with the monks of Mount
Athos
. Many antecedents can be found in the early
Fathers
, but its full expression is found in the 14th cent. in Gregory of Sinai, Nicephorus of Mount Athos, and especially
Gregory Palamas
. Its central feature is constant recitation of the Jesus Prayer, combined with optional physical techniques of a crouched posture and synchronization of such recitation with
breathing
, so that the mind is united with the heart, and the whole person is drawn into ‘prayer of the heart’. This leads to a vision by the bodily eyes of the Uncreated Light of the Godhead, the light that surrounded Jesus at the Transfiguration, none other than the uncreated energies of the Godhead.

 
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Heteroglossolalia
(a form of speaking in tongues)
:

see
GLOSSOLALIA
.

 
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Hetu
.

In Buddhism, a ‘root-condition’, good or bad, which brings about a thought or action. The six root-conditions are
lobha
,
dosa
, and
moha
and their opposites.

 
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