"WHEN ON HIGH THE HEAVENS..." : mesopotamian religion and spirituality with reference to the... biblical world

This English translation of Giorgio Buccellati’s ambitious work offers readers an insightful discussion of ancient Mesopotamian religion and spirituality in its relationship to the biblical ethos. Our understanding of ancient Mesopotamian religion, while shaped by a wealth of archaeological, artistic, and epigraphic evidence, remains limited with regard to a proper hermeneutic approach. In this volume, Buccellati sheds light on the spirituality of Mesopotamian polytheism by drawing comparisons with that of biblical monotheism. These comparisons are used to better understand the divine-human relationship in the Mesopotamian context, as both individuals and members of a wider community. In addition, Buccellati provides detailed discussions on divination and the central role of fate in ancient Mesopotamia. Buccellati’s understanding of Mesopotamian religion and spirituality as illuminated by biblical texts, now available to an Anglophone audience, offers much food for thought on this challenging subject. "When on High the Heavens...": Mesopotamian Religion and Spirituality with Reference to the Biblical World provides a wide-ranging and thorough exploration of Mesopotamian religion for students, scholars, and researchers in Near Eastern archaeology and history, biblical studies, and the history of religion and spirituality. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents Preface to the English Edition Foreword Introduction: Methodology and Historical Framework 1 Religion and Spirituality 1.1 Religion 1.2 The Absolute as Divine Element and as the Matrix 1.3 Structure of Religious Systems 1.4 Spirituality 1.5 Piety 1.6 Revelation and Intuition 1.7 Myth and History 1.8 Explanation and Faith 1.9 Expertise and Sensitivity 1.10 Objectivity 1.11 Levels of Analysis 1.12 Culture and Experience 2 Mesopotamia and the Bible 2.1 The History of Religions 2.2 Structural Comparison 2.3 Mesopotamian Religion as a Research Model 2.4 “Before Philosophy” 2.5 The Mesopotamia/Bible Polarity 2.6 The “Bible” 2.7 Cohesion and Coherence of Cultural Tradition 2.8 A Structural Vision in a Synchronic Sense 2.9 Analysis and Awareness 2.10 The Historical Framerwork 2.11 Culture and Nature 2.12 Space and Time 2.13 Mesopotamia, Syria, and Syro-Mesopotamia 2.14 Ancient Israel 2.15 The Interlocutors 2.16 The Presence of the Past Part 1 The Divine Element 3 The Concept of the Divine 3.1 Ranges of the Absolute 3.2 Polytheism and Monotheism 3.3 Ways of Perception – Cumulative and Non-Cumulative 3.4 The Absolute 3.5The Eternal and the Infinite 3.6 Anthropomorphism and Iconicity 3.7 Holiness and Sacredness 3.8 Transcendence 3.9 Time 4 The Encounter with the Divine 4.1 The Nature of the Encounter 4.2 The Epistemological Approach 4.3 The Ethical Approach 4.4 Guilt and Sin 4.5 Modes of Contact 4.6 Personal Intuition and Social Organization 5 Structure of the Divine 5.1 The Plurality of the Divine 5.2 The Unity of the Divine 5.3 Fate/destiny and the Divine 5.4 Ancient Israel: Perceptions of the Absolute Beyond the Relative 5.5 Fragmentation of Modes of Perception 6 Diachronic Developments 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Inferences About Prehistory 6.3 Hellenistic Interpretations of a Mesopotamian “Genesis” 6.4 Inspiration in Mesopotamian Polytheism 6.5 Biblical Religion 6.6 The Historical Context of Patriarchal Traditions 6.7 The Transmission of Mesopotamian Elements of the Patriarchal Tradition 6.8 The Exile Hypothesis 6.9 The Evolution of the Perception of God in Monotheism 6.10 Consistency of the Referent Part 2 The Human Element in his Relationship with the Divine 7 The “Affecting Presence” 7.1 The Interactive Dimension 7.2 Table of Topics 7.3 Transitivity and Not 7.4 Intuition and Revelation 7.5 Evolutionary Patterns 7.6 The Presence 7.7 (a) The Great Inference 7.8 (b) Epiphanic Moments 7.9 (c) The Embodiment of the Presence 7.10 Psychological Attitudes 7.11 The Divine Counterpart 7.12 Reciprocity 7.13 Rejection and Conversion 7.14 Institutional Channels Section One: The Individual A. The Divine Manifestation at the Individual Level 8 Morality 8.1 At the Roots 8.2 The Canon of Morality 8.3 The Social Context 8.4 The Divine Element as Guarantor or Founding Principle 8.5 Infringement of the Order 8.6 Demons – Curses and Blessings 9 Divination 9.1 Nature of Mesopotamian Divination 9.2 Abnormal Fetuses: Subversion of the Natural order in the Animate World 9.3 Astrology: Harmonic Convergences in the Celestial World 9.4 Animal Livers: Mapping the Emotional Center 9.5 Refractory Liquids: Lack of Integration of Homogeneous Elements 9.6 The Biblical Attitude 10 Prophetism 10.1 Structural Comparisons with Divination 10.2 The Creation Ethos 10.3 The Absolute Event 10.4 Cultural Configurations: The Classical Prophets 10.5 Relationship with the Institutions 10.6 The Interlocutors 10.7 The Mesopotamian “Prophetism” 11 Apparitions 11.1 Sense Perceptions of the Divine Element 11.2 Theophanies: Visions 11.3 Epiphanies: Signs and Wonders 11.4 The Sense of the Miracle 11.5 Theophanic Dreams: A Confrontation 11.6 Epiphanic Dreams: The Symbol 11.7 Necromancy B. The Search for the Divine at an Individual Level 12 Meditation 12.1 The Concept 12.2 The Wisdom Tradition 12.3 Gleams of Religiosity in Mesopotamia 12.4 The Biblical “Non-Theodicy” 12.5 The Social Context 12.6 The Biblical “Writings” as “Scripture” 13 Magic and Rituals for the Individual 13.1 Nature and Function of Rituals 13.2 Transference to the Level of Sacred 13.3 Restoration of Order 13.4 Cultural Implementation in Ritual Practice 13.5 Circumcision in the Biblical World 13.6 Ritual Prostitution in Mesopotamia? 13.7 Mesopotamian Magic as a Genuine Religious Experience 13.8 The Interlocutors 13.9 Mesopotamian Witchcraft as a Criminal Offense 13.10 The Main types of Magic in Mesopotamia 13.11 The Mesopotamian Gods as High Priests 13.12 The Absence of Magic Rituals in the Biblical Context 13.13 Biblical Sacrifice Rituals 13.14 Death and the Afterlife 13.15 Ritualism as Degradation of Experience 14 Individual Prayer 14.1 Ritual Prayer and Spontaneous Prayer 14.2 Spontaneous Prayer in Mesopotamia 14.3 Spontaneous Prayer in the Biblical Context 14.4 The Problem with Intercession 14.5 The Determination of fate in Mesopotamia 14.6 The Biblical notion of Intercession 14.7 Mystical Contemplation 15 Materializations 15.1 Modes of Expression 15.2 Prayer Gestures 15.3 Behavioral Aspects of Giving Witness 15.4 Private Representations of the Divine Section Two: The Community A. The Divine Manifestation at the Community Level 16 Politics 16.1 Tensional Factors and Social Integration 16.2 Religion and Politics 16.3 Mediated and Unmediated Systems to Relate to the Absolute 16.4 Spirituality and Ideation 16.5 Kingship and State in Mesopotamia 16.6 Nation and Kingship in the Bible 16.7 The Interlocutors 16.8 The Differential Impact of Spirituality in Politics 17 Narrative 17.1 Descriptions of the Absolute as Subject 17.2 “Before Philosophy” 17.3 The Dynamics of Causes 17.4 Mesopotamian Myths 17.5 Biblical Narratives 17.6 Apocalypse 17.7 Technicians and Interlocutors 17.8 The Canon as Super-Narrative 18 Representations 18.1 Typology 18.2 “Pagan Idols, work of the Hands of Man” 18.3 Mesopotamian Symbols as Referents 18.4 Biblical Aniconicity 19 History 19.1 History as a Manifestation of the Divine 19.2 The Nature of the Contrast 19.3 The Institution as the Center of History in Mesopotamia 19.4 The Community of People as the Center of History in the Bible 19.5 Biblical Political Historiography B. The Search for the Divine at the Community Level 20 The Temple 20.1 For a Theory of the Temple 20.2 The Concept of Dwelling in Mesopotamia 20.3 The Interlocutors of the Mesopotamian Temple 20.4 The Concept of Dwelling in the Bible 20.5 The Interlocutors of the Biblical Temple as an Assembly 20.6 The Semiotic Evolution of the Biblical Temple 21 Proclamation 21.1 Narrative and Proclamation 21.2 The Kerygmatic Nature of Narratives 21.3 Proclamation as Presence 21.4 Mesopotamian Proclamation as a Static Presence 21.5 The Biblical Proclamation as a Dynamic Presence 22 Worship 22.1 Divinity–Object or Subject? 22.2 Nature of Sacrifice 22.3 Forms of Control 22.4 Sacralization 22.5 The Control of time in the Mesopotamian Perception 22.6 The Control of time in Biblical Perception 22.7 Space 22.8 Death and the Netherworld in Mesopotamia 22.9 Death and the Afterlife in the Biblical World 22.10 Matter 22.11 The Cult Technicians 23 The Ruin of the Sacred 23.1 Mesopotamia 23.2 Biblical Perspective 23.3 The Sacred and the Holy Conclusion: The Apex of Desire 24 Them and Us 24.1 A Value Judgment 24.2 The Suspension of Judgment 24.3 The Appropriation of Perceptions 24.4 The Limits of Authority 24.5 Consistencies and Structural Contrasts 25 Fatigue and Catharsis 25.1 Absolute Conditioning 25.2 Confrontation with the Absolute 25.3 Confrontation with the Relative 25.4 Binary Opposition 25.5 The Structure of Desire 25.6 They too Lived 26 Afterword 26.1 The Four Banks 26.2 The Cost of Solidarity 26.3 The Imprint of the Spirit 26.4 The Shapes of Fantasy Appendix Index This English translation of Giorgio Buccellati’s ambitious work offers readers an insightful discussion of ancient Mesopotamian religion and spirituality in its relationship to the biblical ethos. Suitable for students and scholars of Near Eastern archaeology and history, biblical studies, and the history of religion. Ancient,polytheism;,Ancient,Mesopotamian,religion;,Near,Eastern,religion;,Near,Eastern,archaeology;,Divine-human,relationship;,Mesopotamian,spirituality;,Biblical,literature;,Ancient,Near,East;,Ancient,spirituality;,Ancient,Mesopotamia;,Ancient,religion;,Biblical,studies;,Near,Eastern,literature Ancient polytheism,Ancient Mesopotamian religion,Near Eastern religion,Near Eastern archaeology,Divine-human relationship,Mesopotamian spirituality,Biblical literature,Ancient Near East,Ancient spirituality,Ancient Mesopotamia,Ancient religion,Biblical studies,Near Eastern literature