More on things as gods

The conviction of Mesopotamians that material objects such as thrones, harps, and chariots could be living, cognizant divine beings may have its roots in a Mesopotamian understanding of the world in some ways fundamentally different from our own. In her study of visual symbols used in prehistoric Mesopotamia, Beatrice L. Goff proposes that Mesopotamians in prehistoric times and later “saw the world more than we do today as ‘redundant with life’ ” and that in ritual they saw themselves “as handling living things.” [Symbols of Prehistoric Mesopotamia, 169] She cites a letter in which Thorkild Jacobsen argues that while there is “not the slightest evidence they confused animate and inanimate,” nevertheless “in moments of specific religious receptivity . . . objects became a Thou” for the ancient Sumerians (p. 166). Citing Mesopotamian lists of the potent properties of particular semi-precious stones and noting the selection of particular types of stone for use as amulets, Goff concludes, “Everything was potentially charged with power, and recognizably potent objects were sought for every concern. . . . The objects in antiquity were potent because they were animate” (p. 169). Whether or not one accepts Goff ’s essentially animistic characterization of Mesopotamian ideas of the natural world, or Jacobsen’s more nuanced position that in certain situations particular objects were perceived as living beings, the presentation of food offerings to certain selected material objects as well as to anthropomorphically conceived gods indicates that for Mesopotamians, objects were at least sometimes felt to be charged with life. By extension they were in some special circumstances recognized as living divinities.—Barbara N. Porter in What Is a God?, 189

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Well, that wraps up our rapid run through What Is a God? Pity it's no longer available, but interlibrary loan can be your friend if you want to read more.

Tomorrow, we'll start Alister McGrath, Theology: The Basics (2nd ed.). There is a newer edition available, but this is the one I have on my shelf, so I'm reading through it. I have no idea how substantial the changes between editions are.

I'm looking forward to it. I hope you are too.
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