What we need

Let us never forget: If God is a symbol, He is a fiction. But if God is real, then He is able to express His will unambiguously. Symbols are makeshifts, necessary to those who cannot express themselves unambiguously.

There is darkness in the world and horror in the soul. What is it that the world needs most? Will man-made symbols redeem humanity? In the past, wars have been waged over differences in symbols rather than over differences in the love of God. Symbols, ceremonies are by their very nature particularistic. Symbols separate us, insights unite us. They unite us regardless of the different ways in which they are expressed. What we need is honesty, stillness, humility, obedience to the word of God. What we need is a new insight rather than new symbols.—Abraham Joshua Heschel in Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays, 99 (emphasis original)