Showing posts with label monotheism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label monotheism. Show all posts

Wednesday, 1 May 2013

One God the Father, a compendium of essays



One God, the Father (Ed. T. Gaston, sponsored by the Christadelphian EJournal of Biblical Interpretation (www.christadelphian-ejbi.org), and published January 2013, 310 pages, £8.99)


Synopsis
One God, the Father is a compendium of essays about Biblical Monotheism. It explores the continuity of monotheism from the Old Testament presentation of God through to the Synoptic Gospels, the writings of Paul and John. It traces the development of Christian ideas about God from the original, biblical, monotheism to the emergence of the doctrine of the triune God, a doctrine that has dominated Christian thought ever since. It describes thinkers and communities, both historical and contemporary, who have held to Biblical Monotheism, often in the face of significant opposition. It also explores the implications of Biblical Monotheism for Christian doctrine and practice.

Essays and contributors are:

PART ONE: THE BIBLE
One God: The Shema in the Old and New Testament (J. Adey)
Jewish Monotheism in the First Century (A. Perry)
Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels (P. Heavyside)
Jesus in John’s Writings (P. Wyns)
Jesus and Paul: A Summary of Pauline Christology (J. Thorpe)
The Holy Spirit (M. Allfree)

PART TWO: HISTORY
After the Apostles (T. Gaston)
The Trinity in the Fourth Century (D. Burke)
Before the Reformation: Medieval Christianity (K. Stewart)
Biblical Monotheism in the Radical Reformation (J. Andrews)
Antitrinitarian Textual Criticism in Early Modern Europe (S. Snobelen)
Biblical Monotheism in the Nineteenth Century (A. Wilson)
Biblical Monotheism Today (R. Hyndman)

PART THREE: DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE
Manifestation or Incarnation? (A. Perry)
Monotheism and the Atonement (R. Benson)
Worship, Prayer and Jesus (M. Morris)



Wednesday, 23 March 2011

Asherah called the wife of God

The Bible's Buried Secrets
BBC's Religion and Ethics

Mixing one religion with an other is a theme of every day. So, the ancient Israelites did not escape it either.

In 1967, Raphael Patai was the first historian to mention that the ancient Israelites worshiped both Yahweh and Asherah. The theory has gained new prominence due to the research of Francesca Stavrakopoulou, who began her work at Oxford and is now a senior lecturer in the department of Theology and Religion at the University of Exeter and presents Bible's Buried Secrets. Francesca Stavrakopoulou's passion for the Bible springs directly from the fact that it's such a fantastic and diverse collection of texts that can tell us something about the beliefs, concerns and cultures of the people who wrote them.
Information presented in Stavrakopoulou's books, lectures and journal papers has become the basis of a three-part documentary series, now airing in Europe on the BBC, where she discusses the Yahweh-Asherah connection.
According to her the Bible itself contains many different versions of the past it seeks to describe, and some of these are often the stories that are more commonly overlooked.
So the legitimate nature of the worship of the goddess Asherah was an obvious story to tell in the documentary series, as was the alternative view of the Garden of Eden presented in biblical books beyond Genesis.

"You might know him as Yahweh, Allah or God. But on this fact, Jews, Muslims and Christians, the people of the great Abrahamic religions, are agreed: There is only one of Him," writes Stavrakopoulou in a statement released to the British media. "He is a solitary figure, a single, universal creator, not one God among many ... or so we like to believe."

J. Edward Wright, president of The Arizona Center for Judaic Studies and The Albright Institute for Archaeological Research, backs Stavrakopoulou's findings, saying several Hebrew inscriptions mention “Yahweh and his Asherah." He adds Asherah was not entirely edited out of the Bible by its male editors.
"Traces of her remain, and based on those traces... we can reconstruct her role in the religions of the Southern Levant," he told Discovery News.
Aaron Brody, director of the Bade Museum and an associate professor of Bible and archaeology at the Pacific School of Religion, says the ancient Israelites were polytheists, with only a “small majority” worshipping God alone. He says it was the exiling of an elite community within Judea and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 586 B.C that lead to a more "universal vision of strict monotheism." (via Discovery News)
Stavrakopoulou bases her theory on ancient texts, amulets and figurines unearthed primarily in the ancient Canaanite coastal city called Ugarit, now modern-day Syria. All of these artifacts reveal that Asherah was a powerful fertility goddess.
Asherah's connection to Yahweh, according to Stavrakopoulou, is spelled out in both the Bible and an 8th century B.C. inscription on pottery found in the Sinai desert at a site called Kuntillet Ajrud.
J. Edward Wright, president of both The Arizona Center for Judaic Studies and The Albright Institute for Archaeological Research, told Discovery News that he agrees several Hebrew inscriptions mention "Yahweh and his Asherah."
"Asherah was not entirely edited out of the Bible by its male editors," he added. "Traces of her remain, and based on those traces, archaeological evidence and references to her in texts from nations bordering Israel and Judah, we can reconstruct her role in the religions of the Southern Levant."
BLOG: Atheists Best Informed About Religion
Asherah -- known across the ancient Near East by various other names, such as Astarte and Istar -- was "an important deity, one who was both mighty and nurturing," Wright continued.
"Many English translations prefer to translate 'Asherah' as 'Sacred Tree,'" Wright said. "This seems to be in part driven by a modern desire, clearly inspired by the Biblical narratives, to hide Asherah behind a veil once again."
"Mentions of the goddess Asherah in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) are rare and have been heavily edited by the ancient authors who gathered the texts together," Aaron Brody, director of the Bade Museum and an associate professor of Bible and archaeology at the Pacific School of Religion, said.
Asherah as a tree symbol was even said to have been "chopped down and burned outside the Temple in acts of certain rulers who were trying to 'purify' the cult, and focus on the worship of a single male god, Yahweh," he added.
SLIDE SHOW: Sacred Techs: Religion and Spirituality 2.0
A British scholar claims that God may have had a wife.

> The Bible's Buried Secrets

Monday, 9 March 2009

Christelijke monotheïsten

Interessant om te bezoeken is de site van enkele christelijke monotheïsten of Bijbelse Unitaristen: christianmonotheism

> one God conferences

> Who was the historical Jesus? watch the documentary
vind debatten > debates
en een feature aritkel met de Restoration fellowship Anthony Buzzard & met Jamie Engelbert >

featured item [9:10]


Vind o.a. ook artikels of media (audio of film):
Who is Jesus? (43)
Who is God? (31)
unitarian texts (26)
difficult texts (25)
Trinity (25)
three persons (17)
pre-existence (14)
What is the Holy Spirit? (9)
Son of God (8)