AN ABSTRACT GOD
Aleron Zemplin
Yehhi, five thousand years ago, was as far removed from the dawn of civilization as we today are from his time. Yehhi sensed the mind boggling age of his world as he marveled that the irrigation canals in Sumer and the vast girth of the cedar trees in the mountains, but he really had no idea of the true age of his world, or even of his species. As the product of eons of evolution and thousands of years of civilization he believed in a range of gods, big and small. Big gods like Nanna, Enlil, and Baal were venerated by whole cities or whole peoples. But these gods, like human rulers, held sway in their own localities. If one traveled to a different land, it was wise to find out what gods were powerful in that land and how to please them. Yehhi also believed in the existence of small gods and ancestor gods such as Ulak. Of course, Yehhi began his own career as a god, as a small god, a venerated ancestor. In Yehhi’s way of thinking, a god was associated with an object: a statue, an idol, a mountain. If the object representing the god was missing, then the god was absent. This line of reasoning was typical of ancient Near Eastern belief in the time of Yehhi.
In An Accidental God, Abraham produced an advance in abstract religious thought. If he had simply lived out his life as a privileged citizen of Ur, he probably would not have had any new ideas. However, violent upheavals, strong event fluctuations, turned his life upside down, and he adapted. He came to believe that his family god, Yehhi, was portable and thus could protect and aid him in the foreign land of Canaan. Abraham also came to believe that he did not need a statue or idol of his god for his god to be present. Abraham was not strictly a monotheist, and he did not specifically reject the idea or the efficacy of idols. He would have liked to bring the idol of Yehhi with him when he was chased out of Harran, but his father would not let him have it. So, Abraham was forced to make mental adjustments, which led to a breakthrough in his understanding of his god. It was only after Abraham’s thinking on these issues evolved that Yehhi himself, somewhat to his surprise, came to understand that his reach extended to Canaan.
The more advanced concept of an abstract god, as developed by Abraham in An Accidental God, was no doubt a significant advantage for this particular god over other more primitively conceived gods, in the competition for hearts and minds throughout the ages. Eventual this abstract god supplanted all other deities in the Western World.
In An Accidental God, Abraham produced an advance in abstract religious thought. If he had simply lived out his life as a privileged citizen of Ur, he probably would not have had any new ideas. However, violent upheavals, strong event fluctuations, turned his life upside down, and he adapted. He came to believe that his family god, Yehhi, was portable and thus could protect and aid him in the foreign land of Canaan. Abraham also came to believe that he did not need a statue or idol of his god for his god to be present. Abraham was not strictly a monotheist, and he did not specifically reject the idea or the efficacy of idols. He would have liked to bring the idol of Yehhi with him when he was chased out of Harran, but his father would not let him have it. So, Abraham was forced to make mental adjustments, which led to a breakthrough in his understanding of his god. It was only after Abraham’s thinking on these issues evolved that Yehhi himself, somewhat to his surprise, came to understand that his reach extended to Canaan.
The more advanced concept of an abstract god, as developed by Abraham in An Accidental God, was no doubt a significant advantage for this particular god over other more primitively conceived gods, in the competition for hearts and minds throughout the ages. Eventual this abstract god supplanted all other deities in the Western World.