Primeval Religion

I'm having a hard time getting into Milton Steinberg's As a Driven Leaf, so I may save my reading of that for another time.  Instead, I'll be blogging through another book: James David Audlin's Circle of Life: Traditional Teachings of Native American Elders.

In this post, I'll use as my starting-point something that Audlin says on page ix:

"Another elder, despite growing up poor in the rural Ozarks, educated himself magnificently and became an expert on the religions of the world, studies that convinced him that Native American spirituality is but one expression of the true faith of all the Original Peoples."

This reminded me of the scholar Edward Causaubon's attempt in George Eliott's Middlemarch to find the original religion that is behind all of the world's religions.  Is this even possible?  Was there really a primeval religion----"the true faith of all the Original Peoples"?  I remember a professor telling us what she believed was the difference between the University of Chicago's approach to religion and Yale's approach.  Yale, according to her, looked at the distinct manifestations of religion throughout history, whereas the University of Chicago sought a primeval religion.  I'm not sure how true this is.  My impression (from looking at catalogs and the writings of faculty from those institutions) is that both schools look at the distinct manifestations of religion within their historical contexts.  It was interesting to me, however, that a professor of mine who got his degree from the University of Chicago began his class on religion by seeking to define what religion was, and by looking at terms that apply to a number of religions.  It's like we were going from general to specific rather than focusing primarily on the specific (which was what my Yale-educated professor did----focused on the specific), or at least that we were seeking what various religions had in common.

In terms of primeval religion, I suppose that scholars can look at evidences for the earliest religions that were in the world.  There was cave-man spirituality, for example.  It was probably very rudimentary, though, in terms of lacking the moral advancement that later religions attained.  That being the case, would we even want to embrace the "true faith of all the Original Peoples"?

There are a number of Jews and Christians who believe that the commonalities among certain religions of the world indicate descent from a common religion.  If you were to point out the similarities between themes in the Hebrew Bible and themes that appear in ancient Near Eastern religions, for example, many of them would tell you that this is not evidence that the Hebrew Bible merely copied stuff from other religions at the time.  Rather, they'd contend, there was a primeval religion, and it got corrupted in the other nations, while the Hebrew Bible preserves it in its purity.  I can't really disprove that claim.  I wouldn't be surprised if ancient Near Eastern religions had commonalities because they descended from a common source.  But I also wouldn't preclude the possibility that there were times when one culture influenced another, and vice-versa.  Life can get pretty messy.

Challenges to Elisha ben Abuyah's Faith

I started Milton Steinberg's As a Driven Leaf.  The book is a fictional story about how the first-second century C.E. Jewish figure Elisha ben Abuyah became an apostate from Judaism.  See here to read my blog post about Elisha ben Abuyah.  A friend at Jewish Theological Seminary recommended this book to me a while back because it's about a person's struggle with faith.

The title of this book is based on Job 13:24-25, which states (in whatever version Steinberg is using): "Wherefor hidest Thou Thy face...Wilt Thou harass a driven leaf?"  I suppose that's one way to describe a faith struggle: longing for God's presence and being dismayed at God's absence, yet feeling as if God actually is present and is harassing you!  On the one hand, many of us have expectations of God, based on God's reputation as one who loves us and longs to bring us blessing and peace, and yet these expectations are often (not always, or even most of the time, but often) disappointed by real life.  On the other hand, while many of us would like to give up on our search for God, something keeps drawing us back to the search----it's like we're being harassed as a driven leaf!

What was challenging Elisha ben Abuyah's faith, according to this novel?  In my reading so far, a variety of factors were mentioned.  First, there was the claim by pagan philosophy that we could arrive at certain truths by reason, apart from divine revelation.  Of course, what pagan philosophy understood as reason is not totally the same as what many of us today regard as reasonable, for we know more today: what the ancients saw through a glass darkly, we see more fully.  And, while I'm tempted to say that a lot of pagan philosophy is mere assertion rather than reason----either a priori or empirically-based----I have to retract that after more reflection, for Plato and Aristotle did base a number of their propositions on what they observed, and the conclusions that they drew from that through reason.  They were doing the best that they could, with what they had at the time.  But, returning to the theme of reason and revelation, there was a sentiment among some that pagan philosophy had a solid foundation, whereas one accepted divine revelation through faith----which (in at least some sense) is accepting something without proof.  Did that make pagan philosophy better than the Torah?

Second, related to the first challenge, there was the issue of miracles.  In my reading so far, when people express skepticism about Judaism, they mention miracles: one guy doubts, for example, that the Red Sea parted.  The basis for this skepticism about miracles is Stoicism's claim that "nothing ever happens contrary to nature" (page 33).

Third, there was the historical context of Judaism in the first-second centuries C.E.  My latest reading is set in the aftermath of the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E.  A huge hit had been delivered to Jews' national pride, and perhaps even their belief that God cared for them and had a plan to restore them.  A number still believed and performed Jewish rituals, but some, such as Abuyah (Elisha's father), left the faith.  I'm not saying that Abuyah left the faith over what the Romans did in 70 C.E.----I don't know----but it does seem to be a pressure on Elisha's faith in the book.  There were philosophical attacks, and there were attacks that related to the situation of Israel in antiquity.