Google Internet Archive. It's a free online library and search under the titles if you are interested. There might be a wait list for some of them. But they are excellent reads in my opinion.
I’m
not sure if this was discussed in Sunday school or my Great Religions
class at the U of O, which was taught by a retired minister by the
way. But, once things start bouncing around the old brain box who
knows what will come out. The Sabbath was presented as an improvement
over earlier religious practices because it set aside a day as holy.
Well duh, turns out that the so called pagans had holy days and
festivals year round. Many of them could last several day. One of the
most famous was the Olympic Games but it wasn't the only one.
Greek
philosophy described an ultimate God/dess who had more than one face.
And some of the Gods had more than one face as well. Poseiden was the
God of the sea, but he was also known as Earth Shaker. There were
various versions of Apollo, Athena, or Artemis and they all had
festivals. Dionysus was not only the patron of the vine but of actors
and the theater.
Many
of the festivals presented tragedies and comedies as part of a
contest, sometimes as part of actual worship. And, in theory, actors
were under the God’s protection so they could travel from city to
city even if those cities were at war with each other. Of course the
troop might find that circumstances had changed since the contracts
were signed. You might get to your next stop only to find that the
men were away fighting, the women and kids were barricaded at home
and the occupying troops were bivouacked in the theater using the
scenery for the cook fires. Whoops, guess we don’t get paid for
that trip.
There
was a rich spiritual life that has been either dismissed or barely
acknowledged because what became our way also became the only way.
Period, end of discussion.
What
was accomplished by setting a specific day as holy, by breaking the
links to a changeable calendar that was tied to sun and earth? It
undermined the authority of the astronomer/priests for starters.
Among their responsibilities was tracking the coming of the full moon
for certain festivals of the goddess. Also they kept track of the
orbit of the sun to signal the passing of one season to the next and
the solstices and equinoxes that were the midseason festivals.
By
undercutting the authority of the astronomer/ priests it helped to
reinforce the authority of the Mosaic priesthood. And it isolated the
followers of the Mosaic Law from their neighbors. No shared
festivals. No ties of guest friendship that allowed people to travel
from town to town and be sure of some sort of welcome even if your co
religionists didn’t live there.
Under
the old calendar any day could be a holy day for somebody. If one day
is set aside as holy what does that make of the other six days of
days of the week? If only one group within a society is labeled holy
because they were born into that “tribe” where does that leave
the rest of us? If God lives up on a “holy” mountain, is the rest
of the earth not holy?
I
don’t think so. I believe that holy ground is right outside my
door. And I also believe that if we listen the way we should, any one
of us can hear the Song.
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