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Faith
Faith by hannahclark via Flickr
In secular usage “faith” [Latin fidere = trust] refers to believing in something or someone. “I have faith in the system” the man or woman on the street might say when asked about societal problems.
In a non-denominational, spiritual sense it refers to believing in a loving, supernatural power or God and that things will eventually work out. That is, it’s a view of optimism.
In the general religious sense, faith in part refers to believing in a fixed set of teachings.
The Hebrew term for faith (emunah) originally meant trust in God but in the Middle Ages it came to mean believing that God exists and that the Jewish dogmas were correct.
In Hinduism faith generally means a belief that things will eventually work out and that justice will be served – for the good and the bad – as a result of the law of karma.
In Christianity, faith generally refers to the belief and acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior—a perfectly loving and good, omnipotent, omniscient eternal Being belonging to the Holy Trinity.
In Catholicism faith is understood as both an objective truth and a subjective virtue. The Catholic Encyclopedia says:
Objectively, it [faith] stands for the sum of truths revealed by God in Scripture and tradition and which the Church…presents to us in a brief form in her creeds, subjectively, faith stands for the habit or virtue by which we assent to those truths.¹
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¹ http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05752c.htm
Related Posts » Aquinas (St. Thomas), Duns Scotus, Faith and Action, Faith and Morals, Faith and Reason, Justification, Luther (Martin)
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Jewish Mysticism
Signature of Israel Baal Shem Tov via Wikipedia
Jewish mysticism, as a means towards getting closer to God, has both orthodox and unorthodox strands.
The Jewish Bible tells of a series of prophets who’ve seen or received messages from God. This is a kind of mysticism, to be sure. But it differs from the more Gonstic influenced forms in that the Biblical prophet doesn’t necessarily earn a visionary experience (or spiritual knowledge) through self-discipline and purification.
When it comes to choosing prophets, the God of the Jewish Bible seems to choose whomever he pleases.
S. G. F. Brandon, suggests that “all the great figures in the history of religion were, basically, mystics.”¹
Martin Buber has been described as a modern representative of a heterodox form of Jewish mysticism called Hasidism. This was
founded in 18th century Eastern Europe by Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov as a reaction against overly legalistic Judaism.²
The most popular form of Jewish mysticism, however, is arguably that of Kabbala, especially since being embraced by the pop icon Madonna.
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¹ A Dictionary of Comparative Religion, S. G. F. Brandon ed., New York: Scribner, 1970, p. 463
² See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasidic_Judaism
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Torah
Torah by David Porter
Torah [Hebrew torah: instruction]
The first five books of the Jewish Bible, known as the Pentateuch.
Although traditionally ascribed to Moses, contemporary scholars suggest they have been compiled from different sources.
The Torah outlines the beginnings of the Jewish people and their patriarchs, to the Exodus from Egypt and various events in Sinai before the entry into Canaan.
The Torah also contains detailed legal instruction.
Another meaning for Torah is the scroll on which the Hebrew characters are written, normally found in a synagogue.
Torah additionally refers to the entire corpus – oral and written – of Jewish literature and law within the Old Testament and the Talmud. » Hebrew, Judaism, Kabbala, Moses, Rabbi, Yahweh
On the Web:
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Talmud
IMG_1282 by TikkunGer
Talmud
This is the second most important body of writing in Judaism, containing teachings from Palestine and Babylon.
The Talmud is composed of the Mishnah (the codification of the oral Torah) and a large body of rabbinical commentary.
Later commentaries and the code of law and ritual called halakhah were compiled in the latter part of the Middle Ages. » Lilith
On the Web:
- The Babylonian Talmud translated by Michael L. Rodkinson » http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/talmud.htm
- The Babylonian Talmud edited by Rabbi Dr. Isidore Epstein » http://www.come-and-hear.com/talmud/
- Jewish Virtual Library – The Talmud » http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Talmud/talmudtoc.html
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Winnowing
Winnowing
In Old Testament farming this is the separation of the edible grain from the chaff–that is, the inedible stalks and husks (Ruth 3:2).
The grain was either raked with a “winnowing fork” or thrown into the air where the breeze would blow away the chaff but not the heavier grain.
Similar agricultural methods are still used in the 21st century in the Near East, Africa and Asia.
The image of winnowing is found several times in the Old Testament, symbolizing the dispersion of Israel during the exile. It is also used as a metaphor for the judgment of Yahweh.
In the New Testament, which for many Christians fulfills the Old Testament, the image of winnowing designates a final judgment and eternal separation of good souls that enter heaven and evil souls that descend to hell.
Along these lines, John the Baptist await the Messiah (Jesus) who holds a winnowing fork (or fan) to clean the threshing floor, gather the good wheat and throw the useless chaff into the eternal fires of hell.
His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Luke 3:17).
Catholic teaching has to some degree elaborated on this ancient view of ‘salvation vs. damnation’ with the idea of purgatory.
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Yuga
Yuga
In Hindu Vedic and Puranic cosmology, a yuga is an extremely long time period, especially when measured on the human scale.
The Hindu conception of the yuga suggests that time itself differs for gods and humans.
In the Mahabharata an entire human year translates into a single day for the devas.
Each of the four different Yugas represent four general ages of the devas.
As with the ancient Greek and Hebraic sense of time, these ages progress from an initial, ideal Golden Age (Krita yuga) to increasingly corrupted ages.
The four Yugas and their human equivalents
are:
| Yuga | Deva Years | Human Years |
| Krita | 4800 | 1,728,000 |
| Treta | 3600 | 1,296,000 |
| Dvapara | 2400 | 864,000 |
| Kali | 1200 | 432,000 |
| Mahayuga (Great Yuga)* | 12,000 | 4,320,000 |
A single day for the god Brahma is 1,000 Mahayugas (4,320,000,000 human years). One year for Brahma is 1,555,200,000,000 human years. Brahma’s life span is 155,520,000,000,000 human years.
All this indicates that Brahma exists in an entirely different time frame than human beings.
An arguably mythical, quasi-scientific scheme like this may seem irrelevant to contemporary thinkers but it points to the notion, worth considering, that the universe contains different yet interacting regions of space-time, each region containing its own unique properties and beings. » Mahabharata, Puranas, Ragnarok, Veda
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*A Mahayuga (Great Yuga) is one complete cycle of the four Yugas.
Table condensed from Keith R. Crim (ed.) The Perennial Dictionary of World Religions. New York: Harper & Row, 1989, pp. 818-819.
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Yahweh
Yahweh One of the names given to God in the Hebrew Torah and Christian Old Testament (OT).
Due to its unsurpassed holiness, from postexilic times pious Hebrews declined to pronounce the name in reading and only the consonants YHWH were written.
The vowels we commonly see today were later added by religious scribes.
The precise meaning of the Hebrew name Yahwey is open to debate. Some say it builds on the Hebrew word haya meaning “be, become” or “cause to be.”
In a Masoretic Text a vowel is included, bringing the word closer to donay and suggesting the meaning “Lord.”
In the story of the Burning Bush (Exodus 3:14) God reveals himself to Moses, saying his name is “I Am who I Am.” And many other names and titles are used for God throughout the OT, such as “Ancient of Days” (Daniel 7:13), “Father” (Jerimiah 3:19) “Maker” (Isaiah 17:7) and “Lord of hosts” (Amos 4:13).
» Archetypal Image, Aton, Bible, Christianity, Jesus Christ, Manichaeism
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Abel
Abel In the biblical book of Genesis (4: 2-16), Abel is the second son of Adam and Eve who was killed by his brother Cain.
Cain’s motives were most likely jealousy and anger.
Abel was a shepherd and Cain a farmer. Cain and Abel had made sacrificial offerings to God but only Abel’s was acceptable to the Lord. After Cain murdered Abel the Lord cast him out of the land, placing a special mark on his forehead.
This mark protects Cain from those who might harm him out of resentment for murdering Abel.
Cain goes on to establish a city. He becomes materially prosperous but is forever alienated from God.
It seems, broadly speaking, that Cain represents the abrasive, worldly-minded person while Abel symbolizes the gentle, spiritually-minded person.
Although God punishes the murderer, Cain, with a life of alienation, he does not utterly destroy him and indeed allows him to prosper materially. Some see this as a sign of God’s inherent injustice, others, as evidence of God’s great mercy.
Since Cain and Abel are the only two children of Adam and Eve, many believe the Bible does not explain how other people came into existence.
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Abyss
Abyss (Greek, abyssos, Latin abyssus). Myths about an abyss or bottomless pit are found in most cultures.
In Judaism the abyss lies deep within the earth, a place where evil spirits of the dead are banished (Job 32:22, Psalm 6:5, 143:7).
In ancient Greece the majority of the dead retire to a gloomy underworld, an abyss of “shades” where they endure punishment for worldly sins.
The ancient Greek idea of heaven is not well developed. In fact, only a few heroes pass on to the favorable Blessed Isles. After the 5th century BCE the belief that the dead reside among the stars appears. But this still radically differs from the concept of heaven as forwarded by Jesus Christ.
In Hindu lore, a popular version of the Ramayana epic portrays the heroine Sita being consumed by a great opening in the earth.
The Druidic tradition tells of evil foes falling down into bottomless caverns.
The biblical Satan is bound by an angel and cast into a bottomless pit (Rev. 20:3).
Mircea Eliade notes that myths about “binding” evil beings are quite plentiful.
New Testament (NT) accounts of an abyss refer to a hellish region from which a wild beast emerges to temporarily destroy prophets after they have completed their mission.
The Abyss in the NT is likewise described as a prison for evil spirits (Luke 8:31; Rev 9:1-2; 11; 11:7-8).
Interestingly, Victorian Fairy imagery is replete with watery underworlds inhabited by ghoulish beings, amidst which fairies are protected from harm by dwelling, often sleepily, within a sort of magical cocoon.
In the Beowulf myth, an evil water-troll is slain in her underwater lair by use of a magical sword discovered by the hero, deep under the water’s surface.
More recently, the invention of the bathysphere and the submarine opened the door for pulp fiction and numerous Hollywood “B” movies about underwater horrors.
An underwater abyss is also found in the science fiction film, The Abyss.
Sci-fi also depicts the abyss motif in outer space. In several episodes, Star Trek Voyager’s Captain Janeway stands perilously above an almost bottomless cylinder within a Borg ship.
Likewise, Star Wars‘ Luke Skywalker perches on a ledge over an abyss in the evil Emperor’s Death Star. And the more recent Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace is replete with strange subterranean beings.
In psychoanalytic terms, Freudians see the abyss as a symbol of the mother’s womb or the tumultuous forces of the instinctual id.
Jungians tend to regard the abyss as an archetypal image of the collective unconscious.
Regardless of which school one subscribes to, in the most general sense a fear of total destruction seems to coexist with a potential for victory over, and order arising from, the dark chaos of the abyss.
As Rod Serling put it in the close of the 1961 Twilight Zone episode “The Shelter” (pictured above), in which apparently normal American neighbors go beserk during an atomic bomb scare:
For civilization to survive the human race has to remain civilized.
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Adam
Adam (Hebrew, adam = Man) In the Bible’s Old Testament book of Genesis, Adam is said to be the first human being. He was fashioned from earthly clay and brought to life with the living breath of God.
According to Genesis his female counterpart, Eve, was created from his rib. It is noteworthy, says St. Thomas Aquinas, that Eve was not created from Adam’s head or from some other body part, such as his foot.
Being created from his rib signifies a woman’s traditional role, so Aquinas says, of fulfilling her role in marriage and offering humble service to her husband.
With Eve, Adam is said to represent the ‘first age’ of mankind, this being The Fall and Sin because the original sin of Eve (and shortly after, Adam’s sin) brings evil to the world.
Joachim of Fiore says this introduction of evil necessitated the rule of “the Law”–that is, the Ten Commandments given to Moses.
In Christian theology Jesus, the ‘second Adam,’ is portrayed as God’s perfect redeeming solution to the evil disobedience of Adam. And the Virgin Mary is often regarded as the ‘second Eve,’ the perfect counterpart to Eve’s original sin.
In Genesis 1:27, however, we find another version of the creation story in which God creates male and female in his image. No mention is given of Adam’s rib in this verse. » Evil, Hick (John), Irenaeus
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