1. Introduction:

In the Jewish, Christian, and Islam faith systems and traditions a personal Creator, Sustainer is not only the Ground of all being (GOAB), but a committed partner in its creation and sustaining, particularly to humankind, created to its image.

Unknowable only to experience in “His, Her, Its” actions with a purpose that, being the Alpha and the Omega, is the GOAB itself.

Basically it is up to us humans to unravel the mysteries and to deepen out our love and relationship with our Creator.

This relationship and its conditions, nature but not the purposes, have been distinguished gradually since the early times of the introduction of the human race. Ultimately it was fixed in mythes, tales, religions systems, rituals, and religious communities based on those Holy Scriptures which came to be fundamental.

The literal commands, rules of conduct attributed to God turned out , to say the least, to be made not in heaven but on earth, under a godly inspiration defined in many contradicting ways.

The rational capacity to investigate, used in the past centuries, on those scriptures, institutes have to a very large extend, eliminate the need to look for godly intervention in the” classical “ways as maintained by the official religious institutes.

Consequently religion became a” doing” more a way of life than a belief in dogmas and structures.

Large religious communities started to crumble and the exodus of the believers is rapidly progressing, leaving quite a lot of people in the “ FOG.” ;thrown of balance, abashed, bewildered, confused lost in a “ pea soup”.

Being a Christian -still-despite the fog- I will in this paper focus on the Hebrew Bible – Tanahk , composed around the 5th century BC, a library giving testimony of the development, the history of a community and their God.

I will offer some reflections on an evolving, growing and changing religion/Tradition.

2, Religion versus Philosophy :

We enter a complicated situation where today the role and purpose of those two important intellectual , personal and communal endeavors is blurred and often misunderstood.
Humans are binaire creatures, blessed with a mind/brain, intelligence and inner feelings. Or, like is put otherwise spiritual creations dotted with a body ) Opposing forces but making us the humans we are.

From early times human races had religious reflects, mostly based on fear for nature and its uncontrollable forces. After having discerned the good from the bad natural elements they started to fear the forces behind all those elements. So they tried to please and control them.

Soon a three level cosmos was worked out by more clever people, earth for the humans, heaven for the Gods and underworld(Sheol) for the deceased.

Elders of tribes, most probably, started to manipulate those fears and developed rituals to protect them against the Gods and if possible asking for gifts and favors.
At their disposal was their language and experiences as a tribe. So they devised the heavenly abode in similar human ways and concepts. So the heavenly occupants were given anthropomorphic characteristics That, anyhow, made co-habiting and communication possible.
A concept that even to day is highly in regard and use.

In the Greek antique world Aristotelian thinkers started however to conceive then in a non anthropomorphic abstract beings, not involved in the daily human affairs.

The Hebrew religious leaders, around 5/6 BC started to stress the unknown aspects of the Godhead(s) even of His Holy Name. But He was never out of sight and remained an active God of the Hebrew people who turned Him into a monotheistic God.

The three staged cosmos concept was abandoned slowly, though somehow, somewhere is still lingering in the minds and traditions.

Scientific developments, hardly to contest as based of facts, have slowly destroyed the beautiful complex system followed for centuries and which is still too dear to many to throw it overboard.

But the result was and is obvious: gone the dogmas, the rituals, the structures, the priests and their godly given powers.

Only fog has been left, trust in mysteries, uncertainties. No more a clear detailed planned path in front of us, no more rules by the Godhead and his clerics, no more rituals to bribe God.

The certainties and easy life gone??

For sure we go through a substantial change in our Tradition. Not for the very first time that was forced upon earlier centuries as well and sometimes as drastic as it is facing us today.

Having left no place, no role to play the godhead has largely evaporated, at least the image we had of Him.

For the Abraham religions tough, God is still all over present and in all different times actively engaged, a partner of us, his co creators. We still communicate in human words and concepts and belief he is Love and take joy but also have sorrows of what we are doing or lacking to do.

How else can we speak to it or try to enter into communication, relationship with the Godhead.?

3, Fundamental change in concepts :

With the presently natural world knowledge we know that the creation is embedded in a seamless network and that only natural causes can be used to explain the steady developing, complex systems material as well as time departing from simple basic entities.

In analogy with the relationship of a person, his brain and body we can understand, with all the limitations of this analogy, and can now present gods working with his creation in an understandable way. Because as a thinking, rational, emotional, conscious person we are more than our brain and body despite the fact that they allow us to live, move and act; thus we are psychosomatic natures.

It is mainly in the Anglicisms world that they have redefined the old concept on pantheism into Panentheïsme. Thus looking at the creation as the “body” of this creator/Sustainer. They worked out a daring model including Emergentism, Naturalism and Panentheïsme. ( for details see my paper “All that is” a comment and rendering of Arthur Peacock highly recommended book “Nunc Dimitis”.)

In this concept God is working via natural processes with the human as “ independent”co creator.

Thus defining three active influences : God, nature and humans.

God still remaining unknown in his essence but knowledgeable through his working. Being immanent and transcendent simultaneously God being a mere determinative factor, strictly speaking not a causal factor. Not devoid of super personal characteristics
Peacock stresses his approach as tentative and expressed with inadequate human definitions and languages. God will always be a Mystery, never be able to be grasped and defined. Therefore faith is basically not knowledge but trust, an emotional, relationship an acquired certainty.

This Ground of All Being – GOAB- is thus capable to interfere and develop processes via surrounding factors and information transfers. Respecting the laws of nature, even those we misinterpret of are still unaware of. Thus GOAB is a working partner and is giving purpose and motivation to humanity. But we are the independent hands, feet and mouth of this GOAB.

So joy and sadness will be its part too.

Another analogy may cast some light on the mystery as well. This is the sun, the sun is giving light and energy on regular times being available all time. Humans have only to make an effort to use it properly, to receive it in the open nature , not to hide themselves from it. Another analogy is our communication through waves in the atmosphere. Everybody can put a message in the system and everybody on our world can receive it either in writing or speech. We only has to act properly to emit and receive.

Those two natural wonders,also developed by the human intelligence and capabilities are strangely enough never considered with awe and wondering. What we, human can do, most surely the our creator will have possibilities and might do immensely better. How, in his Godly ways of course!

As stewards of our creation and our world we have an immense responsibility, given to us and to be developed by us as well.

We humans cannot expect GOAB to fill the gaps of our knowledge, to repair what we destroy, to fix our happiness and cure our sorrows and shortages, to deal with our bad feelings and deeds. All this is our responsibility.

We surely have to address this GOAB with awe and thankfulness, we even can in our Tradition argue with Him, open up our hearts and minds and have continuously to search what we have to perform and act to realize His dreams and intentions. As a community of people with intelligence, a will and a heart/mind we have to open us to His communications. Not sticking to dogmatic systems and beliefs but acting properly for the well being of all people, nature, for justice, and peace.

All is given us free of charge but responsibility, gratitude, respect should be our response.

Bearing good fruits of our efforts and institutions. Each in his own Tradition and life time and conditions.

That this is no easy game is too obvious looking at history and our present times.
Evil is still to be warred at, greed and lust of power, selfishness abuse of religion, abuse of communities and individuals, injustice etc.etc.

The fog is not only our critical attitude, doubts, adherence to instilled habits and rituals or the Mystery that is God and his working and His oft seemingly absence or retreat from our world.

It is also the overwhelming new godly made modern “gifts”, independence; wealth, drugs in all forms deceit easel distributed in the multiple media etc.etc. A basic element of this fog is the conviction that we are master of our destiny, our life, personal as well as communal, that we are complete independent units and the overwhelming surrounding beneficial gifts of nature and our societies.

Empty lives, loneliness, disorientation, growing destruction of our planet all this is taking us in the grip of a loss of purpose and responsibility.

History has proven that humans are easily loosing track. In all religions it was individual persons who were able to develop a deeper insight and who by their word and deeds have grounded religions or spiritual movements and communities who for centuries has guided their believers, inspiring hope and trust, binding communities together and with rituals instilled a feeling of comfort, trust and hope. Those communities have most of the time developed a wide variety of structures and concepts and took , most of the time, the current knowledge into their concepts, changing the content when need was obvious. Those that because of abuse gave bad fruits to mankind collapsed in due time. Those becoming so rigid that relevancy melted down disintegrated in many offshoots.

To day in our post modern societies we see again such a drastic revolution with established religious organizations rapidly losing control and condemned to a survival with fundamentalist members capable of living in a dichotomy.

For us Christians the life and teachings of Jesus must again be the solid rock to build our lives and our communities. Being the Lights of our world to day or at least trying hard to shed some light.

This will make the fog not to disappear or even becoming transparent for us and our human fellows.

I will at least show a way how to go and to live our lives
The fog being our human limited capacities. We will have to strive to coop with this burden, science will help us to clear it systematically. The fog will remain but as with the Israelites wandering in the desert for centuries nearly at a loss they knew that in the clouds their God was walking with them.

St Paul has already put our much needed attitude in very clear words: take what is good , improve it for your needs of the moment and reject what is bad or lost relevancy.
That is what we have to do with our traditions , their content and their structures.
We will have to remain in the soil in which we can grew even more and subtract the nutrients for to day survival and wellbeing. Not only by knowing its history but also by making it relevant for to day and the coming generations. Not in the least to stick to adherence to dogmas, structures and rules but by bearing good fruits.

Alex Kinnet
15 August 2017