Culture and Symbols

Ashtarth with Hathor head and snakes, standing on her lion.

This is a relief of Asherah, a Caananite godess of fertility.

And these are the logos for Starbucks (both past & updated), featuring a siren who may be of a common symbolic archetype.
 

Hebraica

I suppose, that if Josephus provides us a good view of social and historical location of the New Testament and of early Christianity, Maimonides may provide us a good summary of metaphysical currents in theology at the turn of the first millennium.  I had heard of his name in a Pentateuch class, only recently (about three years later) had I the chance to go through a rather nice slender 1969 volume that presents the important tenets of Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon of 1135, from Spain of all places.
A precocious Maimonides, at the age of sixteen, published his first work Milot Ha-Higayon (Logical Terms), later to become both a commentator on the Mishna (published at the age of 33 in Arabic) as well as a renowned physician.  Editor translator Gilbert Rosenthal comments that even though religiously orthodox, that Maimonides had a phenomenal liberality of thought, finding religious faith and scientific knowledge compatible and mutually complimentary.  The volume is divided into three sections:  1) Man and Himself; 2) Man and Man; and 3), Man and God.  Some interesting catalogues in the first section includes:  a) Five Different Types of Speech: i) sacred; ii) forbidden; iii) common [neither useful nor sinful, neutral in the moral sense]; vi) most desirable: those that exalt intellectual and ethical faculties and those that denigrate their deficits; and v) practical speech [useful, to distinguish from iii)].  It turns out that a certain economy of words is regarded as a virtue.   b) Eight Degrees of Charity:  i) The highest: To aid those in need by giving a loan, or forming a partnership with, or providing work to promote self-supporting life without assistance of welfare; and these are listed in increments of lower degrees, lower- ii) charity where both donor and recipients are anonymous; iii) charity where the donor knows the recipient but the recipient not the donor; iv) charity where the recipient knows the donor but the donor not the recipient; v) when the donor gives without being asked; vi) when the donor gives after being asked; vii) when the donor gives less than what is required by the poor person, but does so willingly; viii) The lowest degree: when one gives begrudgingly.
An interesting subsection titled "On Inter-Religious Relations" in Man and Man, is a curious acknowledgement of Jesus as being at par with Mohammed who have both in their missions "helped pave the way for the coming of the Messiah by improving the nature of mankind through the universal worship of God that has brought them near to His service." quoting Zephania:  "Then will I turn to the peoples a pure language that they may all call upon the name of the Lord to serve Him in unity."  He concludes this section dismissing Christians as Supersessionist, and Muslims as Mohammedan mystics.  Maimonides maintains a messianic expectation.  "But I believe that when the true Messiah rises among us and triumphs over all and is exalted and honored, then all religions acknowledge his teachings and will return to the source of their faith and correct the errors of their Prophets and ancestors." (p.43-44)
The final section "Man and God" has some very interesting apophatic theology that may have influenced Aquinas.  Most notably, Maimonides' hamartiology stands at stark contrast against a deterministic interpretation of the fate of man which can be one of the central tenets in the theology of Apostle Paul and John Calvin (in fact contests "Reformed" Christian Theology in general) .  In a subsection titled "Man: Master of His Fate," he states:  "Man is the master of his fate and free will is given to us all... Do not, therefore, delude yourself with the nonsense spread by fools that states that the Holy One preordains from birth whether a man will be righteous or wicked.  This is sheer nonsense:... For if God decreed whether man is to be a saint or a sinner,... then how could the Prophets commands us to act this way and not act another?"  Maimonides holds fast to a fairly idealistic neutrality of human disposition except those that maybe hereditary, "Man is born without any innate merit or corruption.  True, it is possible that he is born with certain dispositions based on biological factors.  But, normally, man's actions are entirely up to him,... since free will is given to man.  This must be so or else we arrive at an absurd position.  For example, if Simeon killed Reuben, how can you hold Simeon guilty since he was predestined to ill reuben and Reuben was predestined to be killed?" (p.73)  For Maimonides, his anticipation of the messiah is one who "rises among us and triumphs over all" but man himself is able to change his own character.  The Christian dependence on God as the chief catalyst for character change is markedly void: "a man must accustom himself to virtuous deeds until they become part of his character.  And he must abstain from sinful acts until he sheds his natural depravities.  He must never say: 'I cannot change my ways and improve.'  For a man can change his character from good to evil and from evil to good.  Everything depends on his free choice and will."  With a very interesting conclusion of this subsection:  "When does man lose his free will?  Only when God punishes him for his sinfulness by depriving him of his free will."  I find that this last part has some definite Pauline echoes:  (1Cor 5:5, 1Tim 1:20)  I wonder how is it that it eluded Maimonides that it is all too conceivable, that the messiah did not "rise among" men but descended from heaven?  This Christological difficulty seems to be maintained in the idea that God cannot become man and that the messiah of Jewish anticipations is limited to extraordinary human leadership.  Couldn't hesed be personified?  A window into the Jewish thought via Maimonides may allow Christians the relative magnitude of Christian claims.  The highness of God is indwelling in each of us who believe.  For Maimonides it seems, that moral excellence tempered by intellectual perfection is the point of departure while for Christians, the precise opposite:  An awareness of our own moral failures in light of God's moral perfection is the first step to salvation.  This imitable perfection, concretized in Jesus Christ.

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A Holy Spirit Trio

I find reading books that were handed to me as if they are assignments ἄνωθεν (from above) and they get read with higher priority than many of those I have bought, skimmed through for assignments back in seminary and now adorning the shelves in my bedroom and the church office.  After all, there must be a reason why they were handed to me.  The first title, I was given by a good friend of mine that was both quite the Reformed Presbyterian and yet a "Charismatic Pentecostal" by his own admission;  a second generation minister who graduated from FTS a whole year before me.  This book, authored by a pastor J. C. Ortiz from Argentina, who is currently the leader of the Hispanic ministry in Crystal Cathedral.  I got done with this title shortly before the church went public with its current financial crisis.  It was a very different read than anything assigned in seminary.  Pastor Ortiz has a no nonsense style of writing that nevertheless is accompanied with a great deal of Latin sense of humor and candor.  I found myself laughing out loud on a number of places.  He employs vivid, imaginative examples and illustrations that are surely bound to make it a great, quick read.  It is nevertheless, an impacting presentation of the concept of discipleship with a decidedly critical stance that points out its deficit largely in North America.  The anecdotes regarding the successes of Pastor Ortiz's ministry is instructive and inspiring.  Especially intriguing is the section where he describes how his church had agreed to disband for a period for the sake of outreach and mission, and then gather together as one whole unit again.  This is an unthinkable scenario in the ecclesiastic structures that are bound by high levels of bureaucratic machinery.  The amazing thing is the sheer number that finally gathered as a single, self-identifying church in clusters of cell groups.

The second title was lent to me by a gentleman who attends an Assemblies of God church down in La Palma while also attending our church.  He takes in quite a wide range of doses in charismatic literature while he is also admittedly fond of Joel Osteen's "Your Best Life Now,"  (I didn't get through that title yet by the way) among some other titles.  

Benny Hinn takes a bad rap from the likes of Hank Hanagraaf "The Bible Answer Man" as a straight up false teacher.  Nevertheless the narrativity of this short volume on anecdotal pneumatology appears to hold significant similarities on the importance of acknowledging the Holy Spirit as the leading person of the Holy Trinity that is really, in charge of this age.  Although Hinn is a controversial figure and in some circles, still harshly criticized for his apparently lavish, opulent lifestyle and ostentatious demonstrations of power that are often indicted as fraudulent at worst and at best, seen as highly dubious- the autobiographical presentation of the evangelist proves to be an interesting title worth considering.  There are interesting expositions of the Bible, and some parts of the Old Testament are definitely not negilible, since Hinn studied Hebrew at a fairly young age.  The section where he describes how the Holy Spirit led his ministry to the grand success that he has become, this process written quite lucidly and with simple clarity, can be a mind-opening read for any staunch reformist.

This last title was handed to me by Lou, an Egyptian Christian gentleman who attends our church.  The broad outline of this title is held by the premise of five different words for power in the Bible, which account for Greek ideas of 1) exousia - delegated authority; 2) dunamis - miraculous "dynamite" power; 3) energeia - energy; 4) kratos - dominion; 5) ischus - strength.  These are very important for the Christian to live out his or her Christian life in its fullness but the reception of these are contingent on seven keys:  1) Intimate knowledge of God and 2) his "resurrection power"; 3) embracing suffering; 4) maintenance of relevance by meeting needs; 5) serve God with faith; 6) disciple someone or find someone to mentor and 7) serve with anointing- in other words, be an "imparter."