The mission of this blog is to stimulate interest in the deeply perceptive and still-relevant teachings of Levi A. Olan (1903-1984) by sharing from the Levi A. Olan Sermons and Images at Bridwell Library Digital Collection. The title "Conscience of the City" was applied to Rabbi Olan by a Fortune magazine reporter in 1964. Although Olan's city was Dallas, his thought transcends locality. Our goal is to...
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Religion–The Experience of Life’s Wholeness
“Men and women today live in an imbalance. Our emphasis is upon the practical, the rational, the logical. We are alien to the world which can be known only by experience, by feeling…. There is …
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The Moon and I
“The phenomenal achievement of the human mind exhibited in the journey to the moon illuminates in shining brightness the sickness of the human condition.” On July 21, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first person to …
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Science – Another False Messiah
“Science is my shepherd, I shall not want.” Rabbi Olan concluded the broadcast year on April 27, 1969 with a sermon containing familiar themes.* One of these was the assertion that humans are spiritual beings …
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Modern Man’s Need for Prayer
“Can prayer have any meaning at all for a modern person? If it cannot ask God to set aside the laws of nature and perform a miracle, and if it is not aimed at changing …
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A Time to Speak
“There is a time when we must speak, when to remain silent is immoral.“ Radio listeners in the DFW area who tuned in to the Temple Emanu-El Program on Sunday, December 7, 1969, heard Rabbi …
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On Being Given Another Chance
“If we could live our lives all over again, what changes would we make? How differently would we do things from what we did in the past?” December 28, 1969 found Rabbi Olan in a …
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War Is Always Immoral
“If there is no justice, there can be no peace.” In this sermon, Rabbi Olan wrestles with an intractable problem: he believes that all wars are immoral, but that some wars are also just or …
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The Ideal Religious Person
“If you would answer for yourself the question ‘Am I a religious person?’ then, measure your life by the standards of Biblical picture of an ideal religious person, Moses.” The 1960s was a decade of …
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To Live With a Mission
“Those who know their mission and work earnestly to fulfill it are really alive.” In this sermon, delivered on March 16, 1969, Rabbi Olan, the preacher, turns preaching on its head, and says that it …
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Rabbi Levi A. Olan: The Conscience of the City 