|
Showing 1 - 1 of
1 matches in All Departments
The ancient Israelite authors of the Hebrew Bible were not
philosophers, so what they could not say about God in logical
terms, they expressed through metaphor and imagery. To present God
in His most impenetrable otherness, the image they chose was the
desert. The desert was Ancient Israels southern frontier, an
unknown region that was always elsewhere: from that elsewhere, God
has come -- God came from the South (Hab 3:3); God, when you
marched from the desert (Ps 68:8); from his southland mountain
slopes (Deut 33:2). Robert Miller explores this imagery, shedding
light on what the biblical authors meant by associating God with
deserts to the south of Israel and Judah. Biblical authors knew of
its climate, flora, and fauna, and understood this magnificent
desert landscape as a fascinating place of literary paradox. This
divine desert was far from lifeless, its plants and animals were
tenacious, bizarre, fierce, even supernatural. The spiritual
importance of the desert in a biblical context begins with the
physical elements whose impact cognitive science can elucidate.
Travellers and naturalists of the past two millennia have
experienced this and other wildernesses, and their testimonies
provide a window into Israels experience of the desert. A prime
focus is the existential experience encountered. Confronting the
deserts enigmatic wildness, its melding of the known and unknown,
leads naturally to spiritual experience. The books panoramic view
of biblical spirituality of the desert is illustrated by the ways
spiritual writers -- from Biblical Times to the Desert Fathers to
German Mysticism -- have employed the images therefrom. Revelation
and renewal are just two of many themes. Folklore of the Ancient
Near East, and indeed elsewhere, that deals with the desert /
wilderness archetype has been explored via Jungian psychology,
Goethean Science, enunciative linguistics, and Hebrew philology.
These philosophies contribute to this exploration of the Hebrew
Bibles desert metaphor for God.
|
|
Email address subscribed successfully.
A activation email has been sent to you.
Please click the link in that email to activate your subscription.