The notion of “absolute” plays a central role in my understanding of religion in general, and thus, in particular, of the Mesopotamian and biblical spheres with which this website is concerned – mindful as we must be of the fact that this category has no place in the current research trends.
The absolute, as I understand it, is a category that allows us to go upstream of religion: as such, it is a proper universal, which helps explain how the two very asymmetrical systems we are considerng (Mesopotamia and the Bible) may otherwise be properly compared. It is important therefore that the concept should be clarified and analyzed in its component parts.
The question then arises as to the impact that this “universal” would have had on the two focal points of our inquiry, Mesopotamia and the Bible. The direct confrontation with the absolute may be studied under the category of spirituality, while religion reflects the effort at dealing concretely with the ultimate absolute, in culturally well defined terms.
about politics, see Origins 6.4, 6.7 IMP
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