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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To believe in God
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How Much Can a Person Endure?
“Human existence is not for cry-babies, for people who can live only when and where there is no trouble. It takes stamina to be a man, or as Tillich puts it, “courage to be.” Rabbi …
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Why Men Fight
“What will set the atom bombs bursting in the air is not the natural instinct of man to fight. What may blow us all to smithereens is our failure to deal with the causes of …
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Unless we protect
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Faith and Laughter
“Is God a reality, as real as a truth in science or as reasonable as a conclusion in logic? Can one demonstrate that God is as real as the experiment that H2O is water? In …
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There Is No Compromise With Evil
“Is there any basic law of morality?” When President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in downtown Dallas on November 22, 1963, Rabbi Olan was one of approximately 2,600 community leaders awaiting the president’s arrival at …
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Will God Keep His Promise?
“What we believe does make a difference.” The title of Rabbi Olan’s November 10, 1963 radio sermon suggested that his listeners would hear an address about the trustworthiness of God. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, the …
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Who Created the World?
“The most insidious aspect of our modern day is the conspiracy which makes of God a convenient fiction and a useful illusion.” Rabbi Olan begins his sermon “Who Created the World?” (November 3, 1963) with …
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Life’s Work Is Never Done
“No one really has enough time to complete the work of life.” People of faith sometimes pray for forgiveness of sins of omission – the good that we have left undone. In his October 20, …
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It is not enough to pray
“It is not enough to pray and to fast so that God will save us. We are called to go out and do justice, act with mercy, and work in humility among men. The Biblical faith is an optimistic one, hope is a duty, but it depends upon men discharging their obligations to justice and love.”
-Rabbi Levi A. Olan. “A Time to Hope.” October 27, 1963.
