Pan-Abrahamism, An Ecumenical Theology (Substack)

[MorganBlack]

Wow. Still mulling this over, but maybe David Armstrong is onto something I've overlooked in the evolution of our mythic thinking.

I was still seeing the Canaanite "El" as a "pagan" god - meaning the earlier and "stupid" version, becasue in my reading of history he precedes Hellenic Neoplatonism - the "smart" paganism monotheism (expressed henotheistically, sure, but splitting hairs)

I was still thinking in of three stages of monotheism

1 . the original Paleolithic Monotheism of the Sky God. Our first "religion," that preceded the variety of the natural world's spirits.
2. the much more sophisticated big-picture monotheism of the "One" of the Greek Neoplatonists.
3. From there, following Russell Gmirkin, only then is YHVH "elevated" as a name for for the One, the Ground of Being of NeoPlatonism, and we move into the third stage of both the Hebrew cosmic vision, Catholicism/Orthodox Christianity and Islam.

But maybe, as Armstrong suggests there, these "big" universe-visions were there in the shared mythic ideas of the peoples there before the Greeks. Like I said, still mulling it over, and pinning it for later exploration

Pan-Abrahamism An Ecumenical Theology (Substack)
From David Armstrong

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[Ziran]

But maybe, as Armstrong suggests there, these "big" universe-visions were there in the shared mythic ideas of the peoples there before the Greeks. Like I said, still mulling it over, and pinning it for later exploration

In support of this, any extent archeological evidence is "TAQ", Terminus Ante Quem, "the latest beginning". See here ( in a code block for strict adherence to the forum's rules )

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following Russell Gmirkin, only then is YHVH "elevated" ...

Whatever archeological evidence is being brought in support of this needs to be interpreted TAQ. If Grimkin didn't do that, the dates used to conclude "only then. is YHVH elevated...." will be significantly warped in favor of a late emergence of YHVH as Eternal-One.

For example, if the evidence is coming from a temple inscription. If the inscription is dated 500 BC, then, that's the latest beginning. Even though the inscription is dated 500 BC, the date of conception of the belief in YHVH as Eternal-One will be much earlier than that. Temple institutions take a long time to develop.

 

[Robert Ramsay]

Akhenaten has entered the chat from 1350 BCE

 

[MorganBlack]

Thank you for that, Ziran, and Robert Ramsay. I needed to challenge my own working model's timeline a bit.

As a starting point for further research, and starting at the earliest point on my timeline with Paleolithic Monotheism, I asked AI (yes, always bit fraught) about our earliest conceptions. I had assumed it would come back describing a "dumb" paganism mythic worldview, but was it was rather seems to have been much more nuanced than I originally thought, according at least to one researcher.

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The "Sky Father" as the Original Ground of Being

Scholars like Wilhelm Schmidt (the Urmonotheismus theory) argued that the earliest human belief wasn't actually a "messy" polytheism, but a singular, distant, and ethical High God.

Unlike the "dumb" paganism of later periods - where gods are just humans with superpowers who fight and sleep around - the Paleolithic High God is often Aniconic (has no image). He is the Sky, the Wind, or the "Breath." This is a god that doesn't "do" things in the world; he is the context of the world. He is the "Witness."

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The Memphite Theology (c. 2500 BCE or earlier)

If we look at the Memphite Theology (recorded on the Shabaka Stone), we find that the Egyptians had formulated a "Ground of Being" concept as early as the Old Kingdom—thousands of years before Plato or the Library of Alexandria. The Shabaka Stone (though a later copy) preserves a theology from the Old Kingdom of Egypt. This is arguably the first time in recorded history that "Mind" is placed before "Matter." It posits that the universe existed as a "thought" in the heart of Ptah before it was spoken into existence.

It is tempting to see the progression from "person-like" gods to "abstract" principles as a move from "dumb" to "smart," but the Egyptian theology of Ptah provides a massive wrench in that timeline.

Ptah: The Logos Before the Logos

In most ancient mythologies, gods create the world through physical acts: molding clay, killing a monster, or even masturbation (as in the case of the Heliopolitan god Atum).

Ptah is different. He creates through Mind and Word.

The Heart (Sia): The Egyptians viewed the heart as the seat of thought and intention. Ptah first "conceived" the universe in his heart.

The Tongue (Hu): He then gave form to those thoughts by speaking their names.

The Result: Reality is a physical manifestation of divine thought. This is almost identical to the Greek concept of the Logos (the Word/Reason) that appears in the Gospel of John and Neoplatonism.

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[Beyond Everything]

The "Sky Father" as the Original Ground of Being

Scholars like Wilhelm Schmidt (the Urmonotheismus theory) argued that the earliest human belief wasn't actually a "messy" polytheism, but a singular, distant, and ethical High God.

If that were the case, there would be more monotheisms in existence. Studying 'primitive' peoples would rapidly disabuse this theory. Schmidt was working with very limited data.

 

[MorganBlack]

Schmidt was working with very limited data.

I hear ya. Still working on challenging my Hellenic / Neoplatonic bias and getting all, or many, legos - and just lego-looking pieces - on the table before I try to organize them. There's not a lot of hard data for pre-history so natually much will still be speculative. Usually I just start paying atttention at Gobekli Tepe and then skip right to Alexandria.