Back to top: Chapter 23
The Ruin of the Sacred
1 When the Mesopotamian world collapsed, the object on which the search for the absolute was fixed dissolved, and with it the very conception that the various Mesopotamian populations had formed of the absolute. It transformed itself into other cultural configurations.
2 In the Bible, destruction of sacred things is seen as disastrous but also purifying. The catastrophes are foretold, and urge the separation of realities from icons.
3 While in Mesopotamia, after the disappearance of the concrete object in its iconic form, it was natural to identify the absolute with other alternative icons, in the biblical sphere the object was also a subject from which a new initiative was expected. The tragedy now lay in the question as to whether the subject had in fact disappeared, or even if it had ever existed. The apex of desire coincided with the apex of doubt.