THEISM AND THE DIVESTITURE OF POWER

                   Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty,
                             give unto the Lord glory and strength.

                                                                               Psalm 29:1

Having ventured into realm of secular religion for the past several posts, I return to theistic religion and will focus on its importance to human existence.   As I have repeatedly said in these posts, religion is about power; the appeal to power and the acquisition and use of power.  


Theism arose from both experience and intuition; experiences with forces greater than mankind and intuitions related to cause and effect.  The ultimate ontological question, "Why are we here?" demanded an answer that humanity has yet to obtain a definitive answer to, but that question ultimately gave rise to a sense of power beyond the reach of human possession.

JUSTICE

Apart from the modern theism of atheism, ancient theisms developed a sense of cosmic or divine justice; that there was a power beyond the grasp of human possession which could only be appealed to and upon which life was dependent.  Humans understand power, use it, but cannot effectively control it without running the risk of killing off our own species.  That risk remains, and today, we have the means to do it more efficiently than ever. 


Instinct may have led homo sapiens to survive in prehistoric times, but with the emergence of the reasoning mind, instinct could be overridden by desire, greed, and a lust for dominance.  Human history is full of sordid tales that exemplify this.   As humans began to dominate their environment, survival as a species became less of a concern; turning the instinctual drive to survive into an intellectual desire to succeed.  Nevertheless, there remains the reptilian mind beneath the intellectual mind of humans. The urge to dominate one's environment as survival has become an urge to eat one's own in order to succeed.  


To curb the instinctual drive and intellectual desire that often proved fatal to our own kind, a sense of justice emerged early in human social development that was theistic in nature.   What prevented us from killing ourselves off long ago is a fundamental knowing that we need others in order to survive and succeed.  Along with that knowing, there emerged a sense of justice aimed at limiting the drive to survive and the desire to succeed at all costs. 

At a primal level, justice could be defined as a trade off for actions deemed unreasonable.  The basic question, then, became whether an action against an other was necessary to survive or succeed.  This remains the fundamental basis for justice in the modern world.

Compensation in the form of retributive punishment has been the mainstay of administering justice throughout human history.   The notion of a life for a life, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth was an early example of limited retribution - the idea that no more than what was lost should be taken from that which caused the loss.  As barbaric as this may sound today, this most likely represents a giant leap in the administration of justice from a human perspective.

The fact is justice, like any form of power over the other, can become excessive, as Lord Acton famously said, "Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely."  Justice can be manipulated by human desire, greed, and lust as demonstrated throughout our history.  As theism evolved, justice emerged as a central tenant.   This evolution is particularly observable in the Hebrew Scriptures.

THE STORY OF CAIN



Divine power and justice are evident at the very beginning of the Hebrew scriptures.  The Book of Genesis is one of the most carefully written pieces of theistic literature and begins by depicting an advanced understanding of justice and power that belies its title.

Genesis is a book that calls us to reason deeply through its use of myth and legend. According to Genesis, the human adventure begins with an appeal to acquire power, to become like God, knowing good and evil (to use power as divine justice).  The difficulty is that this knowing destabilized Adam's and Eve's use of it.  They immediately feel judged by their act and are expelled from the Garden of Eden.  Pure or true knowledge bears a weight that no one can fully bear.  The lightness of paradise, the lightness of just being, is lost to them and their actions force them into the world that is other, the world of "What is."

This powerful mythic story is revealing about human nature on so many levels, but what follows is a story that I would draw attention to as setting the stage for the divestiture of human power. The story of Cain and Abel represents a turning point in the concept of power and divine justice.
What is important to note is that the justice employed in this story is far advanced than the "eye for an eye" justice that is found four books later in the Book of Deuteronomy 19:21.


The story of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4 is mythic; in that, it conveys a truth that requires an illustration to grasp.  The premise of the story is that Adam and Eve have two sons, Cain and Abel.  The youngest, Abel, is a keeper of the flock and the eldest, Cain, is a worker of the soil and tends the fields.  They are both offering sacrifices to God.


Abel offers the firstborn of his flock and Cain offers some of the fruits of his labor.  God looks with favor on Abel's offering, but didn't on Cain's. One could say that Cain's sacrifice did not match the level of Abel's; that Cain held back, but I think that misses the point of the story, entirely. The point is, I believe, that God is testing Cain to see if he can resist evil, which Cain fails with disastrous results.

Cain is overcome with jealousy but cannot get even with God. So he opts to get revenge on what God favors. God, knowing this, warns Cain that evil is trailing him.  Nevertheless, Cain kills Abel for being favored by God.  This is no simple murder.  It is fratricide as act of vengeance against God.  What could be more deserving of death than that?

But God doesn't kill Cain. 

Instead, Cain is confronted by God about Abel.  God asks Cain, "Where is your brother?"  Cain plays dumb and says he doesn't know and goes on to question God with the infamous line, "Am I my brother's keeper?"

God points out that Abel's blood cried out to God and the earth that soaked it up will refuse to give Cain its produce and he will be a wanderer in the land.  The guilt, remorse, and fear - the knowledge Cain has is more than he can bear and he tells God others will seek him out and kill him for what he did.  God tells Cain that he would be marked so that no one would kill him and should any one kill him that person would suffer vengeance seven times worse.

The story concludes with Cain having children and establishing a city.  From his lineage are those who create musical instruments and tools and weapon made of iron. This is not the outcome one would expect in a human world; in a world of retributive justice.  The chapter ends with Seth being born to Adam and Eve, as a replacement to Able, and then the writers of Genesis make the curious statement that at that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord.  I will expand on this curiosity in my next post.

What Genesis establishes from the start is humans are prone to acquire power and use it, but cannot control it; that in our hands it is subject to our desires, greed, jealousy, and lust.  We are prone to acts of injustice rather than justice because of our limited vision and our inability to fully know.  It is God who demonstrates a tempered justice, who sees value where we see none, a knowing justice that proceeds from care and love.  What is established from the start of the Hebrew narrative is a journey into restorative justice, a forgiving justice that redeems and builds up rather than tears down.

This, of course, is not always exemplified in the Hebrew scriptures, but restorative justice undergirds the entire narrative found in Abrahamic monotheism.   What these scriptures stress is that humans lose sight of our own frailty, our proclivity to abuse power when we fail to call upon the name of the Lord. This calling on the Lord (worship) is a recognition that power and justice can only rightly administered in the loving hands of a merciful God.

Until next time, stay faithful.