The god of mystics, ch 7, a history of god

Pesonal god in all religion

It became a dangerous liability

Personal god to impersonal god transition - god of mystics

Historical monotheism not mystical - God's will on earth

Throne mysticism - rabbi Akiva, Rabbi. Ishmael and Rabbi Yohannan - mystical ascent to god's throne - visions 7 heaven

Shiur Qomah - describes figure of god seen by Ezekiel

Sefer Yezirah - book of creation - symbolic account

Prophet Mohammed night journey and journey through 7 heavens

St:Augustine's ascent to God with his mother

Mystical experience of god in all religion has certain common characteristics - deliberate creation not unawares

Pope Gregory(604) disagreed to vision of god

Western Christian concept

Eastern Christian concept

Icons ans iconoclasts

Sufism

Al bistami

Al Junayd

Al hallaj

Al ghazalli

suhrawardi

Al Arabi

Rumi - masnawi

Ashkenazi - Jew mystics

Kabbalah - Jew mystics in Muslim world

-en sof and 10 sefiroth

Abulaifa - kabbalist

(not exhaustive notes)

A history of god, ch 6: The god of the philosophers

9th century Arab came to contact with Greek science and philosophy

Nestorian Christians translated Greek text to Arabic

More scientific discoveries in abbaside empire

Falsfah - broader and richer meaning than philosophy

-god of Greek philosophers identical to Allah

-rationalism advanced form of religion

faylasufs, good Muslims, believed in god, wanted to prove rationally

-wanted a universal religion, where god itself was reason

-scientific revolution demands rational explanation in everything including god

-wanted to find general laws than based on concrete events in history

Prophetic philosophy - based on revelation and science

Had influence from Persian, Indian and Gnostic - not just Greek and Arab

Al-kindi(died 870) - inspired knowledge of prophets superior to human insights of philosophers, unmoved mover doing ex-nihilo

Abubakr ar-Razi(died 930) - creatio by demiurge and beleived in emanation

ar-Razi-2, what abt common people, hard to understand philosophy, against egalitarian spirit

Al-Farabi(died 980) - Turkish - dealt with problem uneducated mass - Renaissance man - like in Plato's Republic Prophet was kind of ruler he envisaged and expressed timeless truth - Shia carry out this with wise imam

-10 successive emanation - last has man body from earth and soul and intellect partakes divine reason

-esoteric tradition similar ro dogma

Ismaili,fatimides or seveners vs twelvers

- imams, light of muhammed

Batinis - 10 emanation, each sphere presided by starting from 1 muhammed, Ali, 7 imams and fatimah

Tawil - inner meaning of Koran

al-Sijistani(died.971) - ismaili - talk abt god in negative - eg: not ignorant

Brethren of purity - offshoot of ismaili - 'he who knows himself, knows his god' - unity of truth - emanation - return to the One by purifying rational powers

Ibn-Sina(d.1037) - decline of caliphate - neoplatonism - belief of ordinary people - demonstratio of God's proof - primal unity - necessary being - emation 10 phases - 10th Gabriel - oriental philosophy

Jew philosophers

-Saadia ben Joseph 942

-Solomon ibn Gabriol 1070

-Bahya ibn Pakudah 1080

Al-Ghazzali(1111) - the incoherence of philosophers - distress - Sufism

His influence

-Joseph ibn sadiq(1143)

-Halevi(1141)

Ibn-Rushd(1198) - truths essential to salvation

Maimonides(1294) - disciple of Rushd

Crusading religion of western chistendom

Christian theology in this period

Thomas Aquinas(1274) - uses Aristotle and Ibn-Sina

A history of God, ch5, Unity: The God of Islam

Mecca - thriving city

From nomadic to settlement, money from, capitalism

Individualism superseded communal ideal

Muruwah, pre Islam ideology, tribal, egalitarian

Sayyid, tribal chief

Jahiliyyah

Influence of empires surrounded to Arab world from merchants

al-Lah similar to god in Judaism and Christianity - some Arab belief

Kaaba, hajj, reason for mercantile success

Bedouin valued independence,  didnt accept foreign ideology

Haniffiyyah, 4 followers, religion of Abraham

Hira in 610, revelation

Gabriel, holy spirit

Khadija consoled

Waraqa said Muhammad prophet

Revelation, bit-by-bit, at times clear, but sometimes inarticulate

-Difficult process

Koran is central to spirituality, repetitive, for liturgical purpose

Muhammed role was warner to start with

Preaching of Muhammad in mecca, salat, egalitarian stance

Koran, No theological speculation

Koran, talk about god in parables

Koran, stresses need for intelligence

-last judgement,paradise,etc.. Not literal but ineffable reality

-koranitself is wonder,to be recited in Arabic - divine dimension

- wonder and shock felt by early converts - umar

-new literary form not ready for some but thrilled others

-deep congruence between art and religion

Initial years, Islam was developing until it turn to strict monotheism

Satanic verses - from Tabari, venerated banat-Allah, Gabriel told its satanic origin, replaced with srong versus against

Allah, known thru his activities, wajh-allah, 99 names

Muhammad never asked Jew Christian to convert

Hijra

Brought laws in par with Jews after reaching medina

Ummah, super-tribe

Jews rejected muhammed, and he disappointed

Some discussed bible with Muhammad and he got aware of prophets better

Arab tradition from Abraham and Ishmael

Not political leader at outset, 'no compulsion in religion', hajj

Muhammad unexpected death

Women equality, later generation hijacked that

Shia, faction based on Ali and his descendants

Hadith and sunnah

Ahl al hadith. Traditionist, direct contact with Allah and no intercessor needed

Mutazilis, rationalist, god rational

Ibn hanbal, traditionist, opposed rationalist and al-Karabisi

Al-Ashari, used rationalism to claim god is beyond human understanding

Al-Baqillani, asharite, atomism, everything in depend on god

Kalam - theology - rational methods to show god incomprehensible rationally

Rationalist minority

Other Muslims radical hellenisation of God

Philosophy and mystery of God

A history of God, Ch4, Trinity the Christian God

A history of God, Ch4, Trinity the Christian God
Theological passion - Egypt, Syria and Asia minor
Arius of alexandria- question - Jesus Christ God ?
Alexander, bishop - opposed idea
Athanasius, assistant Constantine, emperor
Nicaea, summoned both party
Platonist weakened, god created world from nothing, world is imperfect and fragile, no emanation, god and man separated
Exception, Jesus - on which side?
God created wisdom/word/Logos beginning
Through him created rest
St john - Jesus was Logos
Arius, Christ saved humanity, set trail for mankind, father is a remote god
Athanasius, logos given flesh to save mankind, father and logos of same nature
20 may 325, Nicaea
Athanasius view became official
Both continued teach their view 60 years
Homoousion - made of the same stuff - Athanasius notion on Father and Son
Marcillus, 339, loyal to Athanasius, homoiousion - similar nature
Logos was a passing phase - emerged from god -> incarnate -> melt back after redemption
Life of Antony - imitate Christ - from Athanasius
Cappadocia, turkey, 3 theologians
Basil, Gregory Nyssa and Gregory Nazianzus
Dogma and Kerygma
Kerygma - public teachings
Dogma - deeper meaning, esoteric tradition from apostles
Contemplation(theoria) to attain dogma, silence more than speech - apophatic
God single essence and 3 expression - hypostasus
Trinity not be taken literally but by contemplation
Augustine, Western trinity, psychological and highly personal
Trinity in mind - memory, understanding and will correspond to knowledge, self knowledge and love
Trinity in mind, encounter not god but traces or Presence of god
Trinity in faith, holding truth, contemplating and delighting
Original sin, eternal sin, highly misogynistic
Appolollinarius, Nestorius and Eutyches - heretics, posed difficult question, divinity vs humanity of Christ etc.
Cyril of Alexandria, stick to Athanasius teachings
Justinian, emperor, 529, closed school of philosophy in Athens
Proclus last master from school
Denys, heir of Cappodians
Maximus confessor, human has potential become divine
Anselm, western minister, Jesus came for atonement else God would have thwarted human race, harsh god
Islam adopted more semitic notion of God

History of God - Karen Armstrong - Ch1,2,3

Ch1: In the Begining:
High God - Sky God - watching over people and punish for wrong doings
mana - numina - jinn
Mother Godess
Inana in ancient Sumeria
Ishtar in Babylon
Anat in Canaan
Isis in Egypt
Aphrodite in Greece
Enuma Elish - epic poem
watery waste => Apsu, Tiamat and Mummu
Lahmu and Lahamn
Ansher and Jishar
Anu and Ea (earth)
Marduk (Sun god - son of Ea)
(not complete)
Joshua - Successor of Moses

Ch2: One God:
Isaiah (warning), Amos and Hosea - Yahweh love
King Josiah - reformation
Yahweh - Elohim
Jeremiah - fearful revelation
Ezekiel - priest - early mystic
Second Isaiah - No god but Yahweh
Cyrus, King of persia - installed Marduk
Glory of Yahweh - by P
mitzvot - 613 commandments (from 10 commandments) -
Job - dares to question divinity - vision marvels of world
Greek - Alexander of Macedonia - intro of philosophy & rationalism
Some Greek observed part of Torah
Wisdom - creation of Yahweh
Philo - platonist - Jew
God - Essence, Powers and Energies
Romans & Jews - good relation
Pogram and Deportation of Jews
Essenes and Qumran Sect - believed temple corrupt - setup monanstry
Pharisees sect - cultivated sense of god's presence in smallest detail of life
two rival schools
Shammai the elder
Rabbi Hillel the elder
no temple needed
tannaim (set of scholars) compiled Misnah from Mosaic Law
amoraim (new set of scholar) compiled Talmud from Misnah
Jerusalem Talmud and Babylon Talmud
Shekinah - synonym of God - sense of God's presence wherever
ideals of Rabbis close to Second of the God religion

Ch3: A light to the gentiles
Jesus - faith healer - new Moses/Joshua -Messiah
Mark Gospel - year 70
Rabbi Gamaliel - grandson of Hillel - rejected Jesus
John the baptist - Essene - ascetic - teacher of Jesus
Jesus, Paul - Pharisee
Son of god
Divine power for Jesus
Paul called Jesus son of god
Bakthi - bodhisattva
Nagarjuna - void school
Hindu developed trinity
Paul letter - Jesus replaced Torah
John's gospel - preexisting Jesus
Acts of apostle - Jesus man
Romans saw Christianity heresy 100ce
Educated pagans turned to philosophy 200ce
Platonist - Plato the mystic
Justin of Caesarea - philosophers and prophets foretold Jesus
Gnostics - godhead - emanation - god - emanate - god in pairs (aeon) 30 numbers - divine world (pleroma) - primal fall
Marcion - Jewish god war - Jesus another god
Tertullian - good god similar to Greek god
Celsus - Accused christians narrow provincal god
Clement - Yahweh = Greek god - calm
Bishop of Lyons - man should imitate Jesus
Paul of samosata - Jesus simply a man
Origen - pupil of Clement
-Christian could climb chain to reach god
-kinship between god and soul
-self castration
Plotinus - exploration in inner psyche
-primal unity - One
-emanation -> mind and then soul
Montanus - divine avatar - matrydom
Orthodox - rejected Gnostic, Marcionites and Montanist - settled middle road
Constantine - Roman - legalized Christianity