Media and Monotheism: Presence, Representation, and Abstraction in Ancient Judah 33

In this study, Joachim Schaper investigates the transformation of the pre-exilic Yahweh religion into the monotheism of the post-exilic period which was triggered by a new constellation of key media: writing, images, and money. He thus reconstructs Judah's religious history in its most important epoch and one of the key developments in the religious history of humanity. Cover Titel Preface Acknowledgments Table of Contents Abbreviations Introduction Chapter 1: Images, Writing and Money: Three Media and the Rise of Monotheism 1.1 The Visual, the Textual, and the Numerical in the Earliest Notation-Systems 1.2 The Earliest Alphabets and the Changing Constellation of the Visual, the Textual, and the Numerical 1.3 The Development of Writing in the Context of the Division of Labour 1.4 Presence, Representation, and Abstraction in Ancient Religions 1.41 Presence and Representation in (the Study of) Religion 1.411 Spoken Language and Written Texts: ‘Orality and Literacy’ and the ‘Technology of Writing’ 1.412 Writing and Images, Verbal and Visual Representation, and Abstraction 1.413 Money, Representation, and Abstraction 1.5 Media and Monotheism 1.51 What Is a Medium? 1.52 What Is Monotheism? 1.521 ‘Monotheism’, Its Detractors, and the Question of Other ‘Monotheisms’ Influencing the Development of the Yahweh Religion 1.53 The Structure of the Present Study Chapter 2: The Word–Image Dialectic and the ‘Production of Presence’ 2.1 Conceptualisations of Divine Presence in Mesopotamia and in Greece 2.2 Early Conceptualisations of Divine Presence in Israel and in Pre-Exilic Judah: Judges 17–18 2.3 The Problem of Aniconism 2.4 Prophecy and the Word–Image Dialectic 2.41 Hosea 2.42 Deutero-Isaiah 2.421 The Terminology Used in the Anti-Idol Polemics of Isaiah 40–55 2.422 Anti-Idol Polemics in Isaiah 40–55 – a Dialogue with Genesis 1:26–27, Interpreted against the Background of Deuteronomy 4 2.423 Anti-Idol Polemics and Monotheism 2.43 Jeremiah 2.44 Ezekiel 2.5 The Word–Image Dialectic in the Hexateuch 2.51 Genesis 1:26–27 2.52 Exodus: the Acousmatic Voice, Writing, and Images 2.521 Media in the Book of Exodus: Voices 2.522 Exodus 3: Hearing the Voice 2.523 Exodus 19 and 20: Hearing and Seeing – Experiencing the Divine Presence 2.524 Exodus 24: Yahweh’s Visuality and Visibility, His Voice, His Speech, and Its Notation 2.525 Exodus 32–34: Writing and Image 2.526 Media and Presence in the Book of Exodus: Anthropological Facts, Theological Statements 2.53 Deuteronomy 4: A New View of Reality 2.531 The Structure and Content of Deuteronomy 4:1–40 2.532 The Representation of Yahweh in Deuteronomy 4 as an Expression of Theoretical Monotheism 2.533 Absence and Presence, Word and Image – and the Uses of Divine and Human Writing 2.534 The ‘Dialectic of Seeing and Hearing’, the Deuteronomistic ‘Name Theology’, and the Signifier and the Signified 2.54 Writing, Memory, and Divine Presence in Deuteronomy and Joshua 2.6 From Images to Writing, from Presence to Representation : The Transition towards ‘Metaphysics’ and Monotheism 2.7 Writing as a Human Technology and as a Divine Activity in the Hebrew Bible 2.8 The (Spoken) Word and ‘Real Presence’, Writing, and Individuation Chapter 3: Money, the Self, the State – and God 3.1 On (Value-)Abstraction and the Origins of Money 3.2 The Judahite Weight System, Pre-Coinage Money, and the Rise of Coinage 3.3 Value-Abstraction, Writing, and the Rise of a New Social Formation 3.4 Value-Abstraction, the Subject/Object Divide, and Monotheism Chapter 4: Representation through Abstraction: A ‘Progress in Intellectuality’? 4.1 Writing, Pictorial Representation, and Aniconicity 4.2 A ‘Progress in Intellectuality’? 4.3 The Image and the (Spoken and Written) Name 4.4 From Presence to Representation: The ‘Progress in Intellectuality’ Revisited Chapter 5: Representation, the Rise of the Subject, and the Emergence of Monotheism: Summary and Outlook 5.1 The Judahite Transition to Monotheism 5.2 Israelite Monotheism – a Product of the ‘Axial Age’? Bibliography Index of Sources Index of Names Index of Subjects "'Symbolising' - i.e., representing through the use of media - is a more elementary, more foundational activity than the self-conscious use of the intellect. Its exploration is central to this investigation of the transformation of the pre-exilic Yahweh religion into the monotheism of the post-exilic period. That transformation was triggered by a new constellation of key media in the pre-exilic and exilic periods: writing, images, and money. The central objective is to understand how their use contributed to a decisive increase in abstraction in representation and led to changes in the conceptualisation of divine presence and its representation that ultimately resulted in the transition from monolatry to monotheism. In this study, Joachim Schaper explores neglected areas of Judahite material culture and contributes to an in-depth reconstruction of Judah's religious history in its most important epoch, and thus of one of the key developments in the religious history of humanity." --From publisher's description Der Mensch ist ein »animal symbolicum« (Cassirer), und zum Symbolisieren benutzt er Medien. Das ist zentral für Joachim Schapers Studie zur Transformation der vorexilischen, monolatrischen Jahwe-Religion in den Monotheismus der nachexilischen Zeit. Der Autor zeigt, dass der Auslöser das Entstehen einer neuen Konstellation wichtiger Medien war: Schrift, Bild und Geld. Sie führte zu einer entscheidenden Zunahme der Abstraktion in der Repräsentation, die den Übergang von der Monolatrie zum Monotheismus auslöste