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The Affecting Presence
1 A broad concept of the absolute is universally applicable and we can study cultural variations in the articulation of perception. To study these articulations, we can look at whether they involve an individual or a group, whether the absolute or the human is the subject and whether this is understood implicitly or explicitly.
2 (In the published book a table summarizes the possible relations).
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“Transitivity”
3 In Mesopotamian religion, the relationship with the absolute exhibits an intransitive character and there is no direct relationship with an object as such. In Biblical tradition, the relationship is transitive and direct, which implies deep structural differences.
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Intuition and Revelation
4 Human perception of the hidden can be defined as intuition on the part of an individual or a revelation by the affecting presence, although in both cases it is the individual who communicates their perception to others.
5 In both Mesopotamian polytheism and Biblical monotheism, three aspects are discernible: 1. the articulation of intuitions and perceptions that find their expression in a certain body of explicit statements; 2. a systematic crystallization of the conceptual whole into an organic whole which articulates their mutual cohesion; 3. an impetus that can lead to hyper-canonization whereby systematic crystallization becomes an end in itself, so that the point of reference for interaction becomes the system instead of the original perception from which the system was derived in the first place.
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Inference, Epiphany, Incarnation
6 Historically, the absolute is a demonstrable reality to the extent that it is perceived as conditioning life an affecting presence, inferentially documented because of the cultural testimony of those who are affected by it. We can distinguish three types of perception: inference, epiphany, and incarnation.
7 In inference, the divine presence is an assumption comparable to a vanishing point in perspective: the point does not appear physically in the picture, but it is a demonstrable presupposition based on the convergence of the straight lines that are connected to it. The inference of the absolute concerns the furthest possible vanishing point, the one on which all other possible vanishing points depend.
8 Epiphany consists of explicit manifestations of the divine presence, only possible in the monotheistic system. They are unique historical events where a perception is communicated by an individual who has experienced the epiphany to the larger community, which has not.
9 In incarnation, the affecting presence becomes physical; the epiphany is embodied in the concrete world. While epiphany can be the transmission of a perception that does not depend on the factuality of the event, the perception transmitted by incarnation is necessarily grounded in apparent fact. It is unique to monotheism.
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Some Key Concepts
10 Trust in the Mesopotamian perception is the answering of a need, while the Hebrew term implies firmness and faith which may even be strengthened by catastrophe. The Bible mentions struggling with God (a psychological clash with fate/destiny) and tempting God (a closure to divine initiative), rare in Mesopotamia. Praise is common to both traditions but gratitude, which is essential to Christianity, is strikingly not present in either of the two older traditions we are considering.
11 The Bible attributes jealousy, faithfulness, and mercy to God, human dimensions which are not present in the anti-incarnational polytheistic concept of the divine.
12 Asymmetrical reciprocity between the human and the divine can be seen in the concept of faithfulness, blessing, and love in the Bible.
13 We have no real form of atheism in Mesopotamia or the Biblical world and conversion is only possible between monotheism and polytheism. Instances are rare.
14 Religion is a technique to put man in contact with the absolute. Both Mesopotamian and Biblical religion was institutional, involving standards of legitimacy and codifications of spirituality.