Politics and Religion

Pre-philosophical religious practice appear to originate from either a general fear of the unknown, or the attribution of special significance to some obvious benefactor. Most deities in the ancient pantheon appear to fit into this puzzle, for lack of some better term. Perhaps this should not be surprising given a complex environment which cannot be immediately understood by the inhabitants. Needless to say effects of the power of suggestion, heard mentality, peer pressure, and mass coercion are obviously primary contributing factors to the evolution of primitive religion.

Primitive people are know to worship the things they eat, while agrarian societies have worshiped the animals which serve them. Check out the golden calf of Exodus 32 as an example of this. Others have worshiped their ancestors. Some believe the house hold gods of Genesis 31 may be associated with ancestor worship. Some portend to to see the future through the spirit of a deceased ancestor, friend, or other acquaintance. Another example is given in the 28th chapter of the First book of Samuel as King Saul’s request to the witch of Endor to bring back the prophet. After the rise of civilization, the more ancient deities appear to be associated with the land and people of a particular tribe. An example is found in Second Kings 5:17 where the man from Aram requests earth to take home with him so he can worship the God of Israel.

Abraham, the Judean ancestor originates from the headwaters region of the Babylonian rivers. This area is known to have ancient and continuing Zoroastrian influences. He and his family travel down river to Ur. Later he returns, crosses into the coastal Mediterranean region and travels south toward Egypt. In Genesis 14 he encounters the king of Salem, who seems to have a similar outlook. While there is scholarly discussion as to the origin and context of these verses, taking them at face value suggests that Abraham and Melchizedek share a philosophical and religious heritage. His monotheistic religious philosophy is maintained through out extensive travels in the region, despite the fact that polytheism appears to be the predominate religious practice.

Abraham appears to travel with his flocks and herds along the water ways between the relatively small named places which comprise early civilization. His descendants continue this lifestyle and their monotheistic practices. Later they settle in Egypt, where they are eventually enslaved by the Pharaoh. One of their number is raised and educated in Pharaoh’s house hold. In time he becomes their leader, directing them from slavery back into the deserts of Sini. They are led into the Jordan valley, where they establish themselves and become a nation. Their first leaders are judges who give religious direction and settle disputes. Later a king is appointed, at which time religious and political power are separated. Monotheistic practices persist until after the time of David the King, circa 950 BCE. The nation of Israel was challenged by the aggregation of local kingdoms first by the Assyrians, and then the Babylonians. Monotheism seems to have been largely abandoned by the time the armies of Babylon sacked Jerusalem in 586 BCE. The Persians displaced Babylon and allowed the exiles to return within a century. , Greeks, and eventually Rome. The period between the aggregation of local kingdoms

Even now individuals of the middle east and southern Asia are associated by name with their ancestral country, city, or village of birth. Early Christians were similarly identified. Saul of Tarsus is one prominent example. During the early Roman times people and the gods they worshiped were known to be associated with the land they inhabited. Part of Romanization had to do with convincing conquered populations they were worshiping the same gods as Rome, perhaps under different names. The reasons probably have to do with the amount of time spent in worship, which is time spent not paying tribute or making things to send to Rome. Paul the Apostle mentions two thousand deities on Mars Hill in Athens. The Romans admired most things Greek, however the habit of collecting deities was likely not one of them. By the time Rome ruled the world, the sheer number of deity, temples, and statues demanded simplification.

By the the time the city of Rome was 700 years old the republic was the most powerful political entity in their known world. That gave divisive political interests the opportunity to make troubles. Politics in the republic appear to have declined into political disarray, with the somewhat democratic republic having generally failed because every issue before the senate divided the votes evenly enough that no consensus could be reached. The eventual result of this general inability to resolve anything ended with the dictatorship of Julius. After the assassination of Julius, the republic transitioned to empire under Augustus.

By the city of Rome’s 950th year civil wars had engulfed the empire. Prior to Hadrian, Roman emperors had built temples to local deities to pacify subservient populations as well as to stimulate their local economies. To some extent Rome had assimilated the deities of conquered populations as a way of keeping their loyalties. After Hadrian, if not before, more effort appears to have gone into simplifying the deities, in part by determining that everyone was actually worshiping the same five or seven, so that all who venerated Jupiter as he rode across the sky, worshiped under that Roman name.

Roman policy had a lot to do with keeping the public peace. Thinking seriously and speaking openly about making trouble could cost one his or her life. Following the difficulties of the preceding century, the promise of the Roman peace must have seemed enticing. Initially the Judean civil and religious structure was not immediately disrupted, however Roman alliances with a collection of unsavory characters challenged public goodwill. One of these, Herod the Great, rebuilt the Temple in Jerusalem. His own destructive tendencies and later intrigues of his heirs created a need for a Roman governor rather than a local ruling hierarchy. By this time local Judean politics and religion were woven into a tight matrix which did not like each other and did not appreciate outside interference. The partisans involved had learned to make the threat of Rome part of their interactions. These local political and religious intrigues may have been a primary cause of the Crucifixion.

In contrast Abraham’s descendants arrive with a philosophy which collides with the religion of that time. The result is perhaps not unlike a collision of galaxies. There is a lot of space between stars, and thus few actually slam into each other, however everyone gets pulled around a lot, the results last for a very long time, afterwhich nothing will ever be the way it was before.

Judea presented a special religious problem simply because there were no Roman equivalent to the singular God of the Hebrew religious society. Having been used by religious leaders, and having financed the rebuilding of the temple, perhaps the Roman hierarchy felt compelled to take action. In their quest to extend political domination of Judea into the religious domain several attempts were made after 40 CE to enshrine Caesar worship on the temple mount. While this abomination which brings desolation standing in the place where it ought not, was given as a sign to Christians to leave Jerusalem, the Judean Zealots saw it as a sign to gather, take over, and defend the city.

Several years ago I started writing one of my first books. At some point in that mis-adventure I got into a simulation. The full piece may someday be published entirely, but for now lets just say it has to do with the evolution of religion, and the role religion has played in the development and maintenance of power. I know that some of my friends in the religious community will blow a few circuits over that line, but all should know by now that I love fixing short circuits and frustrating those who keep large herds of sacred crows. The simulation indicates that if fear of the unknown exists, power figures will ultimately find a way to use it to influence their subjects. Future leaders, who are subjects before their rise, learn to venerate these symbols of the unknown. The symbols present expectations which the future leader must attempt to fulfill. The diety thus created, eventually serve to limit the excesses of the leader.The early Christian Way seems to be more of a way of life than a religion. In this sense the ancient Judaeo-Christianity traditions appear to share philosophical space with Zoroastrianism, a more ancient set of beliefs and practices thought to originate in Iran and central Asia. Zoroastrian thought appears to be one of the most ancient monotheistic philosophies, having influenced the major surviving religions of central and southern Asia. For more information search the Open Bible.By the time Christianity arrived, Rome was a very troubled empire. Expansion to the east became increasingly difficult. Two centuries later, Hadrian built a wall across England to protect the frontier instead of conquering the dissidents. Caesar was mostly not in Rome during those centuries, simply because he was out with the army attempting to keep or impose the pax romana. The empire of Rome was built on technology, mainly in the form of roads. All roads led to Rome, but as the distance increased, the time and effort needed to respond to difficulties increased in something like a geometric progression. By the time of Constantine, the empire was simply too large to be effectively governed in the fashion expected by the primary citizens.To make some sense of this, one must understand that empire evolved from the aggregation of kingdoms starting about 1000 BCE. Prior to this kings went out to make war in the spring, perhaps to settle land disputes before crops are planted and flocks led out to pasture. This practice is mentioned in Chronicles and Samuel of the Hebrew scriptures. This evolved to include asimilation of competing hierarchies thus making for a stronger and more stable kingdom. This process evolved from city states to the first regional powers. The first of these major aggregate empires was Assyria, which succumbed to Babylon, which was taken over by Persia, which was taken by Greece. The Greek empire split into four parts after the death of Alexander. Two of these remnants became the Roman empire. Rome extended this nominal space to the western ocean and halfway across the Isle of Britain. The primary business of these aggregate empires was to collect and funnel goods and services from the remote regions to the principal city. The residents of such empires were essentially slaves. They served the robber baron who administered the affair. In the book of Daniel a dream of the Babylonian leader is described. In the dream, parts of a statue represent this progression of aggregate empires. Each empire in the aggregate series is a composite. Each aggregation requires increased oppression to maintain uniformity, peace, and profit is increased. Central to many of these disagreements is religion. By the time Rome aggregates south east Europe, the Eastern Mediteranian, and north east Africa, Religious practice has devolved to the worship of Rome’s primary gods, which are associated with the five visible planets. Although the Emperors claimed the power of a god, and hoped for a position among the gods, they also seem to have had a deep fear of their primary gods.Christianity arrives squarely into this mix in a fashion that only Deity could have imagined. The Christian message is that leaders are servants. This idea found traction in the underprivileged masses of the Roman world. The underprivileged masses included almost everyone except the Emperor himself and the principal families of Rome. Even wealthy citizens could be dragged to Rome to appear before the emperor. Those who were less than citizens were simply thrust through with sword or spear on the spot, unless a crucifixion was needed to further terrorize the local population. Christinanity seems to have somehow found traction in the hierarchical matrix of official Roman society. At first this seems to have involved Jews which were also Roman citizens. Saul of Tarsus is an example.I believe there is another. We know her as Mary Magdalene. Historically she was probably known as Mary of Magdala. Magdala was a fishing town on the sea of Galilee. Remember that some of the Apostles were fishermen in that area. Writers of the middle ages spent an enormous amount of time trying to fit her into the known matrix of Jesus Christ and his associates. The problem is that she does not fit. Late modern writers have generated enormous speculations while attempting to fit her into the family matrix of Jesus. None of these fit either. The problem is that Mary of Magdala has an assumed status in the early Christian community which is not explained anywhere. She is wealthy. She has status at both the crucifiction and resurrection. The problem is no writer ever tells us why, everybody seems to just know she is somehow special. Why is this lady among the first witnesses of the resurrection. Why do the apostles even go look when she makes her report. Because she has status. Magdala is a tax generating town, with Roman political apparatus. If she is a Roman Citizen by birth and some how related to an influential Roman family, she would automatically have credibility within all of the communities present. You can bet no one is going to talk much about it, and almost certainly no one will dare write much of anything. They don’t have to, because everyone in the original time frame knows.I find it interesting that Christian Worship is never actually described in the accepted Christian scripture. Christ and his Apostles frame Christianity as a way of living far more than worship. We have a lot of traditions concerning worship, but other than meeting in the Synagogue, praying, reading scripture, and perhaps singing, the texts are mostly silent on the issue. Christianity appears to have become more religious after it was adopted by the failing empire of Rome. The Church took over the empire. Simultaneously the Empire took over the church. The temple and cult of Zeus was part and parcel of the empire. Certainly the atmosphere, if not practice, was carried over to the Imperial church. For more on that read the book Hadrian’s Empire – When Rome Ruled the World. There is a chapter on religion and how it was used to control both populace and emperor. Prior to imperial adoption, Christianity was not symbiotically related to political power. Micah 6:8 ESV: “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”