Syncretism, timeline of humanity, and Christianity
A mystery for the second day. Non-Covid post.
Students of history and geology oft run afoul of the timeline presented in Judeo-Christian Torah/Bible. How long have humans actually been around? This is followed rapidly by the question “How long have humans been spiritually evolved?”
That this subject has not been explored in depth within academia likely relates to 1)the slant toward atheism on the part of most historians and geologists; 2) the unwillingness of Western religious scholars to tackle what was going on with spirituality in pre-Torah period.
“Syncretism” is one term used to describe how one religion builds upon the ideas and practices of another. Examples include the adoption of Christian saints to represent Orishas/gods by practitioners of vodou, or the placement of Christian churches on sites of pagan worship. Most obvious to Westerners is the adoption of the Jewish Torah by Christians as a foundational sacred text.
Various scholars have observed parallels between stories of the “sacrificial God” Jesus and other stories from ancient Egypt, India etc. These stories are problematic for Christian scholars, who are averse to comparisons being made between Jesus and any other God.
The historical problem raised by the possibility of a long period of human sophistication prior to the Biblical era is that it begs the question of what spiritual beliefs and practices existed during these eras.
There appear to be few scholars of history who are sufficiently attuned to matters of spirituality in order to illuminate a more complete “history of spirituality,” which might help 1) resolve apparent contradictions between Great Religions I.e. Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism; 2) resolve apparent contradictions between Great and “Lesser” religions which do not have authoritative sacred texts I.e. vodou, Native American spirituality, Polynesian/Australian spirituality.
The problem with such scholarship is that it antagonizes various group: religious fundamentalists, who feel that their belief systems are being undermined; and atheists, who discount the study of spirituality as irrelevant.
Turning to Torah and New Testament to finish off, we see in both books that references are made to other/older religious practices. Some of these references are neutral or positive, I.e. the Magi.
Was Judaism built on a religious foundation of another Great Religion?
How many (tens of?) thousands of years back does enlightened human spirituality extend?
Just rediscovered you after you you got detwittered. As a theologian, I’m not sure atheism excludes spirituality. Spirituality is sensitivity to the subtle aspects of existence. I think that came from David Bohm. That understanding served me well through my graduate studies without being challenged and it did appear to help others come terms with a lot of conflict among religions and even dialogue between religion and economics as well as science and religion, the latter being my area of research. Thanks for posting and allowing your voice to be heard again, even though I’m a bit late to the party.
We always seem to think that Christianity may be built upon other preexisting belief systems. What if the older societies were reasoning, stumbling, searching towards the truth of Christianity, which was clarified in its current form by the Son of God making a substantial and definitive visit.
It might be that God has made himself manifest on earth and spoke to prophets of pre biblical times on other occasions. Visits we know of in the Bible are the appearances to Abraham just before Sodom and Gomorrah, and also the mysterious and brief appearance of Melchizedek. Other references are made also, which are not noted to be angels but a man who eats with Gideon and another previously wrestles physically with Jacob.
The Unseen Realm (Heiser) is an interesting read that covers some of the previous "visitations" ideas.