The Abrahamic Trinity
The historic timeline that led from Judaism's worship of Yahweh, a singular god, to Christianity and its trinity of figures, then on to Islam is a lengthy one, with an interval of beginnings and no ends, born in the crucible of the hostile terrain of the Middle East among migrating tribes with their singular tribal customs and traditions of conquest and repulsion; our progenitors.Judaic writings in the Old Testament foretold of prophetic warnings and admonitions, the message and the tablets of the law that Moses brought to his wandering people enslaved in Egypt - of a land that God promised to them. This was a fierce desert imperator of a god, in whom was set the monotheistic template. No graven images, yet humankind formed in His image. A tradition born of Jews speaking directly and personally to their god, arguing, promising, pleading, dedicating themselves.
Christianity was formed through the pity of God for fractious humankind, never quite seeming to understand the message, finally forwarding an emissary, the supreme messenger. None other than God's dearly beloved son, to offer himself as the ultimate sacrifice - in duty to God, his Father - and on behalf of undeserving mankind. The messenger a Jew whose purpose was to more effectively proselytize and pull believers into God's sphere of influence. The compassionate side of that desert God, the human-loving God, who demanded that humans in turn adore him.
Islam was created as a synthesis of the original and the duplicate, taking those elements of the origins and originators as suited the purpose of warring Bedouin tribes, to be finally united under the banner of another holy messenger, the Prophet Muhammad, a genius who understood his people and their need. Total submission to the will of Allah, the true face of God. There are no other options; no brazen arguments or complaints, only acceptance. Never to allow God's presence to lapse from consciousness and perception; mould the personal to the public and the public to the personal.
God, in any event, always there at times of need; omniscient, omnipresent. But salvation to be earned; a privilege, not a given. One-sided onus: God has no need to earn trust; mankind must earn God's trust. Implacable, neutral, demanding, regal and noble beyond human dimension and understanding; submit, trust, believe - and expect nothing.
Judaism founded in a time of huge despair and loss as a means to gain pride and the protection of an all-powerful desert God against the violent depredations of other tribal challenges to primacy, to empowerment, to ownership of prized landscapes and larger territories and the means to establishment and security and the acquisition of wealth. Ask not of thy Lord what He can do for you; act in obeisance to His word and His demands. My God challenges your god.
The Christian tradition of proselytizing, based on a directive from on high to bring salvation to a wider audience, the clamouring masses of undirected unbelievers. Accomplished through the dedication of those who accepted God's mission to bring pagan worshippers into the fold. By means fair and foul, and no means might be considered foul if they led to success, regardless of the blood spilled in carrying God's message to the greater world of the uninitiated. Still, the Christian message was not the sword, although the sword was too often used, as was the auto da fe, and scurrilous torture mechanics. The message of Christianity was the Word.
Islam, founded on a base of conquest and domination, the clan and the tribe, satisfied the primitively instinctual drive of a nomadic people struggling to subsist in a hostile landscape. In the certain knowledge that other tribes were also engaged, anxious to secure territory, animal herds, opportunities, alliances, dominance. Allah's wishes, seen through the prism of tribal advantage and the message of His Prophet, was to wage an unrelenting war of religious conquest, burning its way through the Middle East, Asia, India, and parts of Europe. Mass slaughter in the face of resistance was to pay Allah His due.
The oldest and the next-born in an eventual state of prime reflection finally reaching some modicum of maturity. Through the inexorable process of time, introspection and inspection. Through the mediating effects of enlightened perspective, mellowing original purpose and distinctions. The youngest, latest, mired in an estate of self-defeating, juvenile arrest.
The original static; confined to the acceptance of a very finite ethnic, cultural audience. Historically combating threats to the group's existence. Generally apprehended as a hostile, alien presence within the larger populations of any geography they infiltrate through occasionally forced migration. Superior aspirations, inferior designation within the larger group. Capable, highly intelligent, creative, provident, fearful.
The second; great mass appeal, firing the imagination, fulfilling the spiritual needs of huge masses. Dividing itself, diluting the original message and intent. Preaching, incapable of practising. Oppositional to the clarity and verities of proven science. Preying on the insecurities of followers and offenders alike. Ultimately finding patience and humility. Divisions persisting and insisting on separate visions, despite the indivisibility of the One True God. All agree on the sacred love due Christ the Messiah in appreciation of his sacrificial mission.
The third seeing itself an overlooked, albeit well endowed orphan whose power has been underestimated, grating on its collective sensibilities. The greater majority of believers calmly accepting of their vision of a great and good Presence blessing their existence. In whose name every aspect of their lives gives primacy of position to the honour due Allah, carefully prescribed through Koranic instruction. The kindly disposition of the majority in blatant contrast to the vestigial yet still-raw yearnings of the tribalist Islamist minority.
We are ever fractiously needy. Nature remains oblivious.
posted by Pieface @ Friday, January 11, 2008
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