A God who needed no temple, transcended all, was accessible to or within everyone

A History of God

Karen Armstrong, A History of God
Ballantine Books, 1993
ISBN-13: 978-0345384560

A history of the concept of God

Is the Universe wholly apart from God, or is Creation in some sense, a part of God? Is God solely One in nature, or is there a Threeness, or a Manyness, or an Infinitude to God? Is God knowable or beyond knowledge? Is God personal or impersonal? Does God have feelings? Billions of people have had an opinion on these matters, and that's the subject of this groundbreaking book. Those who depend upon the unshakeableness of their beliefs may find this book upsetting or worse, but to those who consider and question their faith, Karen Armstrong's A History of God will be challenging and illuminating, and perhaps, as I found it, even thrilling.

The title goes for brevity over accuracy. Perhaps it could have been titled "A History of the Idea of God in Judaism, Christianity and Islam," but that would have lacked panáche, to say the least. Armstrong concentrates on the changes in the concept of God, particularly the unique aspects of monotheistic theology, for instance, God as separate from Creation, God having a "personal" nature, and so forth.

Religious cultures in conflict

Armstrong makes theological history simply fascinating. Beginning with the evidence for near-universal worship of a Sky God in prehistory, Armstrong traces the shift from the Sky God to the Earth Mother to polytheism, and then focuses on the revolutionary development of Abraham's faith in one God which would clash with Canaanite, Egyptian, and Mesopotamian paganism for the next 1500 years. Many Christians interested in objective Biblical scholarship are familiar with the "Documentary Hypothesis" of the Pentateuch stemming from sources J, E, P, and D. Yet never have I seen an attempt to reconstruct the history and interplay of these perspectives throughout ancient Israel and the surrounding regions, and not in my wildest dreams would I have imagined it would be so illuminating...

For instance, Armstrong shows the revolutionary effect of the prophets in Judaism, beginning with Isaiah, at the time when the J and E material was still being written. She shows that prophetic Judaism was an "Axial religion," a development of the Axial age when cities became the centers of culture in Asia and the Mediterranean. Other Axial religious developments included the teachings of Socrates, Plato, Zoroaster, the Upanishadic sages, the Buddha, Lao- tse, and Confucius. These all taught a universal ethic, insisting that God or the Absolute needed no temple, transcended all, was accessible to or within everyone, and that compassion was the highest virtue.

The prophets' teaching that "God desires mercy, and not sacrifice," was in sharp contrast to the priestly, Temple-based establishment, which insisted the Temple was the ultimate dwelling on God on Earth, having chosen the Israel out of all the nations. (This was the beginning of a clash which would endure until John the Baptist and the ministry of Jesus.)

But this is just the beginning. Instead of specializing on a single religion or period in time, Armstrong boldly takes up all the threads of theology throughout the four millennia of the monotheistic religions. With them, she weaves a tapestry of our collective religious experience which can help us understand our faith and ourselves better. Subsequent chapters focus on the life of Christ, early Christian theologies, understandings (and misunderstandings) of Trinity, the influence of Greek philosophy upon Christianity and Islam, mysticism, the Reformation, the Enlightenment, and Fundamentalism.

Three Persons or three personae?

A special treat is her insight on Trinitarian thought. It was a surprise to learn that the term "persons" in "One God in three Persons" came from the Latin word personae, referring to the masks of characters in a drama. Personae was the Latin translation of the Greek word hypostases, "expressions." The different words used in Greek and Latin to describe the Trinity reflected (and influenced) very different understandings of God's nature. For the Eastern bishops, the Trinity described how One God, whose essence (ousia) is mysterious, ineffable, utterly beyond and above being known or described in any way, imparts his energies (energeia) to Creation through the expressions (hypostases) of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In other words, the Eastern view of the Trinity reconciled knowledge of God as both personal and beyond personal, knowing and loving in his expressions, and yet beyond any human conception at all in essence. Have you ever heard it like that before?

World-wide paradigm shifts

Brilliant also is her ability to relate the historic phenomena of mysticism, reformation, rationalism, and fundamentalism beyond just the Christian perspective, into a world-wide perspective simultaneously developing in all "the religions of God." Her revelation that the Reformation was not just a Protestant reformation, but a universal one is a brilliant example. As the printing press spread, the authority of the written word took on unprecedented dimensions. Galileo, she points out, was condemned by the Catholic Church not because his heliocentric universe conflicted with any doctrine or dogma, but because it contradicted an extremely literal reading of the Bible.

Especially helpful is her knowledge about Islamic history with revealing treatments on philosophical and mystical eras in Islam, before the relatively recent phenomenon of Islamic Fundamentalism. It was fascinating to learn that some Sufi schools were so devoted to Jesus that they adapted the Shahada to "there is no God but God, and Jesus is His Prophet."

A History of God
The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
www.frimmin.com/books/historyofgod.html

A God who is in the deepest sense of the word subjective

"People, such as the ulema, might be unable to understand the Islam of a Sufi like Ibn al-Arabi. Muslim tradition makes Khidr the master of all who seek a mystic truth, which is inherently superior to and quite different from the God which is the same as everybody else’s but to a God who is in the deepest sense of the word subjective.”

Karen Armstrong, A History of God
Ballantine Books, 1993, p. 237.
ISBN-13: 978-0345384560

Main Entry: subjective
(1): peculiar to a particular individual : personal (subjective judgments) (2): a: modified or affected by personal views, experience, or
           background (a subjective account of the incident)
       b: arising from conditions within the brain or sense organs and not            directly caused by external stimuli (subjective sensations)
       c: arising out of or identified by means of one's perception of one's            own states and processes (a subjective symptom of disease)

Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

Muslims, Hindus, Christians and all have to evolve to a higher state

"That you have to be born again, that you have to be baptized, that you have to become a Pir, that you have to become a Brahmin — all these descriptions have come to us from all the great scriptures. It is very easy to say that we don't believe in God, we don't believe in any Incarnation, we don't believe in Jesus, we don't believe in any religion, we don't believe into anything; is very easy to say. Even it is easy to say that we believe in them, we believe in God, we believe in Christ, we believe in Krishna, Rama, all that. Both things are equally the same.
When you believe in God you believe in the darkness and ignorance, and when you do not believe in Him also you are in ignorance. By believing into you close your eyes, accept the faith and go along with it. Of course it shows that you are conscious of some Power which is beyond. Such people have a great chance. But in the case if you go to these extremes in this kind of faith then you start only believing in Christ, only believing in Muhammad, only believing in Krishna — I mean depending on where you are born. How human beings are so narrow-minded?

If you are born in England either you will be a Catholic, or a Protestant, or maybe one of these witchcraft people. You believe into anything because you are localized in a place; there has been some identifications because your mother believed into something, because your father believed into something, or you paid for it. And this faith can become such a blinding effect on people that you develop absurd types of groups which call themselves as Christians, Hindus, Muslims — whatever you may say — and are extremely, extremely exclusive, blind, and fanatic."

Shri Mataji Shri Nirmala Devi, Being Born Again
Caxton Hall, London, U.K. — May 12, 1980

"The religion of Christianity or any religion is the religion of the living God. At different times, there were great flowers on the Tree of Life, but we plucked them and said, "This is mine; this is mine" and we are fighting the dead. But in Sahaja Yoga, you will know the beauty of all these great prophets and you will be amazed how they have enriched us; all of them."

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, Christian tradition and Christ
Vienna, Austria - 8 September, 1984

"The Kundalini rises through a very thin line of Brahmanadi. In the beginning only a hair like thing rises, it pierces through. In some people, of course, in a big way it rises also. And then it pierces this fontanel bone area which is a real baptism, real. Today only people felt the cool breeze coming out of their heads. Can you do that by jumping, or by paying money? They felt the cool breeze in the hand. It's written in the Bible, even in the Bible very clearly, that it's the cool breeze. Cool breeze is the sign of the Holy Ghost. You start feeling the cool breeze in your hands and you start feeling the cool breeze on your head. This is the actualization.

Of course, you people don't read other books which are very good, like Adi Shankaracharya. People don't even like the mention of his name who has really and clearly said that it is the cool breeze, the chaitanya, is to be felt like cool breeze in the hands. They do not want that you should know the truth. And this is the truth that when you get your realization, you have to feel the cool breeze in your hands yourself. You have to judge yourself. I'm not going to tell you. It is you who has to see, it is you who has to feel. And then you have to grow and you have to know all and everything - all the secrets of Divine Science. You become the master then, you are the guru.

You are the Spirit, and you should get it. It's your own which is given to you. I have nothing to do about it. I'm just a catalyst."

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi
Maccabean Hall, Australia on March 22, 1981

"The Spirit resides in our heart; it's the reflection of God Almighty. In Sanskrit language, this aspect of God which is all- pervading and is the first and the last, is called as Sadashiva; is the Father, who does not incarnate. We say Yehovah, we can say, or the God who does not incarnate. This great aspect which encompasses everything ultimately and also manifests everything is the reflection within our heart as the Spirit. This aspect is just the witness aspect; it witnesses the play of its power, the Primordial Power, the Holy Ghost, to see what is created by Her. He's the only enjoyer of the game. He sees the game, the Leela, the fun. She organises everything, it is She who gets divided into three powers, it is She who creates the whole universe, it is She who gives us this evolution, it is She who makes us human beings and it is She who has to make us the higher human being. That's the Holy Ghost, the Primordial Holy Ghost and the reflection of that is this Kundalini within us."

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi
Sat-Chit-Ananda, Houston, Texas, Oct 7, 1981

Question: I am a Muslim who absolutely am against worshipping of any idol or image. How then is Sahaja Yoga and Shri Mataji compatible with Islam?

Answer: Silence on Self

Question: We are devout Christians who are very uncomfortable with Hindu rituals, and see the same in Sahaja Yoga. Is there any way we can do without such rituals?

Answer: Silence on Self

Question: You loudly claim on your website that all religions and holy scriptures preach the same message. I don't see such evidence. What have you got to say?

Answer: Silence on Self

Question: I do not want to meditate on anything non-Christian but agree that the Holy Spirit is feminine. How do I only worship the Holy Spirit but not the Adi Shakti?

Answer: Silence on Self

Question: I completely agree with your belief that if you have to take a single step in any direction to seek the Divine you are going the wrong way. How and why did you reach this incredible conclusion only now despite spending so many years meditating, checking the scriptures and listening to Shri Mataji's speeches?

Answer: Silence on Self

Question: I do not want to follow any religious organization or yoga teacher but still am interested in spirituality. You think that is possible?

Answer: Silence on Self

Question: I am a Sikh. I am completely against any Hindu ritual or worshipping of their idols and gods. Sikhism is completely against such practices. But Sahaja Yoga is also so full of such rituals and gods. What have you got to say, being a Sikh yourself?

Answer: Silence on Self

Question: I am getting somewhat ridiculed for my own spiritual experiences regarding the crown chakra and the divine feminine. People think I'm weird by emphasizing that the Devi is the true nature of brahman and it is creating doubt about my path (despite my own experiences). Should I continue with my meditations and ignore them or try to explain to them? What do you suggest?

Answer: Silence on Self

Question: There is so much information about yoga and meditation. I am so confused and do not know which path to take. What then is the truth? How do I attain it?

Answer: Silence on Self

Question: I am a Muslim living in Pakistan who want to practice Sahaja Yoga. But there are no centers here. How can I continue?

Answer: Silence on Self

Question: What is the shortest and surest route to realize God?

Answer: Silence on Self

Question: Some religions claim that humans are divine in nature and that liberation is from within. Can you tell me how all this is realized in such a hectic and materialistic world?

Answer: Silence on Self

Question: What is the most profound and deepest enlightenment you have discovered after all these years, based on the teachings of Shri Mataji? She also claims that all religions teach the same truth about the spirit. How is that so given all the religious differences and centuries-old rivalry?

Answer: Silence on Self

Question: Hi, man-made religions, sects and denominations are wide spread. So much misdeeds and divisions are committed and blood is shed in the name of God and religion. Is there a way to make humans realize that they are all worshipping the One and same Creator, no matter how different religious organizations have made God to be?

Answer: Silence on Self

Question: It seems that religions are all preaching about a God that is to be found only in their organizations. Why then is it that the Divine can only be realized through one's own experience? What and where is God then?

Answer: Silence on Self

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