The Meaning of Chosenness in Judaism, Christianity and Islam

this program is a presentation of uctv for educational and non-commercial use only this evening i'm going to talk about chosenness and we already know the answer to the question and that is of course we are the real chosen people if you happen to be jewish or if you happen to be christian or if you happen to be muslim there is some aspect of that in our sense of who we are as religious people but i'm not going to talk about it in that way i'm going to tell you i'm going to actually tell you three stories give you three narratives and then i'm going to read a piece of the book you all have the handouts right you have the texts if anybody doesn't have a text raise your hand anybody everybody pretty much everybody has one there are a couple people maybe someone can pass them the texts i tell my students i teach a lot of text because i teach both at usc and at hebrew union college at hebrew union college i teach students who are trained to become rabbis and jewish educators and we study a lot of religious texts and we talk a lot about text and i tell my students always never believe anyone who stands in front of you and says the good book says this the good book says that insist on them giving you the text because i can say anything i'm an authority right i'm a rabbi i'm a professor i can tell you the good book says this and you shouldn't believe me no one should believe anyone who stands in front of you and tells you what scripture says unless you have a copy of the scripture in front of you because i can say anything i want to so i'm giving you the copies of scripture or at least the pieces that we're going to be looking at this evening i'm going to give you more than what we're going to look at this evening and having done that you still shouldn't trust me because keep in mind that i have selected those texts to give you i could have selected another set of texts and i probably could tell you a different story so you have to be careful about what texts are being given to you remember that scripture is like a sea it's like an ocean it has a lot of material in it and there are many ways to understand the material of scripture and you have to be sensitive to that as well when you're reading the text so okay so i gave you the text you're aware of that you also have to be careful because i translated those texts and i translated those texts a certain particular way and i'm going to be reading them in a particular way so you have to be a little bit suspicious about that as well so having said that i hope you'll trust me for the rest of the evening as i tell you these stories story one uh living in los angeles i'm in the movie business in my mind and i look at the book of genesis in the hebrew bible we're going to be using pc terms now we don't call that text or that set of texts that scripture the old testament because that's a theological statement that those books of scripture are the old testament that is a testament of an old covenant that is now no longer really enforced that's a theological position a christian classical theological position we don't want to take a theological position on that text so the pc term for looking at the so-called old testament is the hebrew bible so we'll be looking at the hebrew bible first and in the hebrew bible the first book genesis is a book that begins with the creation of the universe now it's really interesting what happens with this book because what we do is we have a kind of focusing it's almost like a movie sometimes you you see the beginning of a movie you'll see a big panorama shot and then it will slowly focus on the characters or the theme or the environment the location in which you're going to really center your view and that's what happens in the bible as well first is god of the entire universe not just the world the entire universe god creates the luminous lights in the heavens creates the sky and creates the earth then you have a first narrowing because the history that is the bible because the bible is very much a historical text the bible's history begins with the history of creation of everything and immediately begins the job of focusing the first focus is on earth on the world and then god proceeds to create living beings and god does this in a very systematic way the hebrew says god says let there be light right and or he says yahi or let there be light and then the narrator says and there was light and that's the trope there's a kind of a a rhythm god says yahi something and then vaihi it becomes and that goes for the creation of the seas the waters the firmament and then all of the animals on earth and animals in the water everything is equal until you get to one specific animal one specific creation there's a new focus the language changes and we're focusing in now the history of the world no longer the history of the universe history of the world is now going to be focused on the history of humankind the creation of humankind is different than the creation of every other creature on earth second narrowing and so god creates adam first and then eve or in another version both adam and eve together or the man and the woman together there are two different creation references some people say two different creation stories and we proceed with the history of the universe the history of the earth through the history of humankind anything else any living being on earth any aspect of the universe that is going to continue in the story of the history of the world or or the universe is through the history of humanity and so we have four stories after creation four stories about humanity and those four stories are four stories of failure what's the first failure how do humans fail the first time let's hear it they what do they do they eat from the tree that was a no-no that was a failure god speaks to adam god speaks to eve they fail fine then the next failure is what what happens in the next generation cain and abel uh and what is the error what's the what's the failure there fratricide killing a sibling tempting but not a good idea what's the next failure of humanity noah and the flood right humanity is violent god decides we're just we're going to end it now and start over again each time god has a relationship with adam and eve god has a relationship with cain at least cain and abel god has a relationship with noah but the relationship is fleeting it's not all that involved and then what is the fourth failure of humanity no fourth failure is the next story the tower of babel so there's a tower of babel humanity has great arrogance and hubris and decides it's going to get up to god and god doesn't allow that to happen and humanity becomes dispersed then we have the next narrowing so what we first we narrowed from the universe to earth then we narrowed into the creation from animals to humans and now we have a new narrowing of focus in the book of genesis and that begins with chapter 12 of genesis when god has a special relationship with one individual who is that individual that individual is abraham so let's take a look at the first text on the first page genesis 12 the lord said to abram his name is abram here go forth from your native land and from your father's house to the land that i will show you i will make of you a great nation and i will bless you i will make your name great and you shall be a blessing i will bless those who bless you and curse him that curses you and all the families of the earth shall be blessed through you why did god choose abraham according to the book of genesis it's a trick question where does it say that in the book of genesis abraham rejected the answer is abraham rejected idolatry where does it say that in the book of genesis it doesn't right so the first reference to abraham is the one verse before the first verse of genesis 12 it's not there i can assure you don't trust me look at it yourself i can assure you it doesn't give you the answer the answer is not explicit in the book of genesis abraham is chosen by god god has a relationship with abraham and from then on god's relationship with humanity changes first god places adam and eve in the garden basically says go for it they fail cain and abel an instruction here or there go for it can enable failure the generation of the flood total failure the generation of the dispersion that is the tower of babel another failure from now on with abraham there's a new modus operandi god is going to be involved personally with this person and then his immediate family and then his extended family and his children who become a set of tribes eventually a tribal nation and now the history of humanity is no longer the history of humanity it's the history of one community of humanity and all the rest of the humans on earth the assyrians the babylonians the canaanites the moabites you name it all the people that appear in the bible only appear in so far as they are in relationship with abraham and his extended and family and descendants it's the final narrowing of focus and it all happens in the first book of the bible in the book of genesis fascinating interesting question that's a good question who wrote it who wrote the book now here's the rules of engagement for this evening you can ask a question any question but i may not answer it the reason i won't answer it is either it will take us a little bit too far off topic and i'm very easily distracted or because i don't have the answer and i don't want to let you know that i don't really know it so i'll tell you it's off topic um the the question of who actually wrote scripture is a is a complex question and we can't really deal with it this evening i'm sorry okay because we're gonna it's gonna be we're gonna get distracted from the direction of where we're going today so now we have abraham we have his family and that special relationship between abraham and his family and his descendants is defined in the hebrew bible through a an institution called covenant covenant is a special relationship and the covenant par excellence is described in genesis chapter 17 that's the next box when abraham was 99 years old the lord appeared to abram abram here and said to him i am el shaddai walk in my ways and be blameless i will establish my covenant between me and you and i will make you exceedingly numerous now i bolded walk in my ways and be blameless that's because i think that is actually giving us part of the basic reason for the relationship between or at least the demands of the relationship between god and abraham the hebrew is it means something like this really if you walk around in front of my face this is god speaking you will be innocent you will be blameless in the hebrew bible until the last book the last chapter of the last book in daniel chapter 12 there is a reference to a world to come or perhaps a resurrection but that's the only reference that is clear in the entire hebrew bible to something that happens to us after death that is related to our behavior on life in life that is that there's there is no sense in the hebrew bible of punishment in hell or reward in heaven in the hebrew bible punishment and reward is all meted out in this world after you die in the hebrew bible you go to a place called sha'al it means something like the place of question everyone goes to the same place evil people go righteous people go there is no sense of heaven and hell in terms of punishment in an afterlife that comes into the world of the near east only at the very end of the second temple period at the end very end and after the canonization or the formation of the hebrew bible so one is rewarded or punished by god in the torah in the bible in the hebrew bible in the tanakh in the old testament solely on this earth right there is no sense of reward in the world to come so god is saying to abraham i think here if you walk around in front of my face so i watch you and you do as i say and i am involved with you and you respond to me positively you will be blameless if you're blameless that means i will protect you the gods in the ancient near east protected the people who protected the gods it was a symbiotic relationship if you weren't good to the gods the gods wouldn't be good to you here is a monotheistic image or notion of god and god is saying to abraham you do the right thing and you will be rewarded that's the basic statement that's being made here okay so there is a covenant covenantal relationship between god and a particular family the sign of the covenant is circumcision and that is the way it works for many generations until the israelites go down to egypt when there's famine in the land and after 400 years in egypt according to the biblical chronology basically they are redeemed from egypt through an exodus and they now they went down there were 72 people who went down to egypt that is the 12 sons of jacob and their families 72 people do you know how many people left egypt according to the book of exodus according to the book of exodus 600 000 males of fighting age left egypt 600 000 men between the ages of probably 16 and 24. if you then extrapolate a full population from that you arrive at roughly 2 million so according to the book of exodus 2 million people now belong to this community that started simply as abraham and his family and they left egypt and when they left egypt they went into the desert and they received a revelation from god in the torah this is a a re-affirmation of that covenant slightly differently it's a new version now it seems as if god can't have a personal relationship with every individual of the two million people and that community that is called israel now israel israel is a term not in traditional jewish law and in the biblical world it doesn't mean the modern state of israel it means the people of israel or the children of israel those are the descendants of abraham through the twelve tribes the twelve sons of jacob and a number of other communities that joined them when they left in the exodus there are a couple of references that that weren't just a kinship group it wasn't just a genealogical relationship of all of those people that received the torah or the revelation at mount sinai but rather a combination of israelites and other communities as well and then at mount sinai a new formulation of the old covenant is taking place the covenant is renewed and we see that basically in exodus chapter 19. so it's also on page one i'll just read it to you pretty quickly and you'll see that now instead of a personal relationship between god and a small family where the family has to behave in front of god properly god is going to give instruction which is called in the hebrew torah torah instruction and this huge large massive community now has to obey god's instruction that is written in the torah and remains in that special relationship with god if they do obey the instructions they will be rewarded and if they don't they are punished so exodus chapter 19 on the third new moon after the israelites that is israel had gone forth from the land of egypt moses went up to god the lord called him from the mountain saying thus shall you say to the house of jacob and declare to the children of israel you have seen what i did to the egyptians how i bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to me now then if you will obey me conscientiously and keep my covenant you shall be my treasured possession among all the peoples of the earth i'm sorry of all the peoples for all the earth is mine and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation that's a pretty strong statement now the entire community is in a chosen-ness relationship divine election with god all of this is narrated in the text of the torah and the tanakh the hebrew bible and this becomes a national literature through which directly or indirectly all three families of monotheism understand their origins this story that i told you and i told you remember i told you my version of the story this story in one way or another is understood to be the foundational story of all three religious traditions that's the first story that i'm telling you now i'm going to tell you a different story a story about how religion functioned in the ancient near east in the ancient near east there wasn't really much of a difference between a tribal community and a religious community every nation when i say nation i don't mean a nation state i mean an ethnic community an extended ethnic community every ethnic community had its own ethnic god now in the ancient near eastern world of polytheism there were powers that were understood by the people that ran the universe not just a single god but a variety of gods okay this is polytheism and in the way it was practiced in the ancient near east there were powers or gods or goddesses who ran the weather who were in charge of fertility to make sure that your crops came in that your your goats and sheep had babies so that you could survive there were powers or gods that were associated with the weather did i say that already and that also with the seas and the water issues like that but in addition to that each tribal community had its own tribal god and they had a very special relationship with that god we know this we know this not only from biblical writings but from the writings that we've dug up in archaeological digs we have confirmation between some sections of the hebrew bible and archaeological remains that include stories we have a famous story about a conflict between the israelites and the moabites it's told in the book of kings i'm sorry in the book of numbers no it's told in the book of kings i think and it's also told in a stone the the same story of the same battles we're told in a stone called the moabite zone or the mesha stone that actually said the same story except that each side said they won so can't get any corroborative information to know exactly who did someday we'll in an archaeological date we'll find the dvd and then we'll know but until then we have to be patient so all the various groups so for example the moabites had a god named kimosh the ammonites had a god named milkome the philistines had a god named dagon the tyrians from tsur had a goddess a goddess named ashtoret the babylonians marduk and the israelites had a god as well now i'm sort of making a transition and i'm going to be a little bit how do i say this uh syncretistic sectarian and heretical according to current biblical scholarship the israelite community that people that we call the israelites or the children of israel were polytheists at one time and they made a transition from polytheism to monotheism it took many generations what we think of when we read the hebrew bible today is we think of israel as a monotheistic community but there's a lot of evidence in the hebrew bible that it was a very difficult transition to transition from polytheism to monotheism and the israelites were the first community to do that successfully the israelites had a god at one point that was no more powerful than the gods of the neighboring peoples and that god had a name because all the gods had a name why did a god have to have a name because when you made an offering to the god you wanted to make sure that your god got to smell the sweet aroma of the offering and not somebody else's god so he said i'm making an offering in the name of so-and-so so that that god would smell the aromas now that's important because in the old polytheistic system of the ancient near east there was a symbiotic relationship between the gods and the people the gods needed the people as much as the people needed the gods the gods were more powerful but they needed to be fed by the people how do we know this there's vestiges of it even in the bible but if you know the gilgamesh epic you know the noah story in the gilgamesh epic or the flood story in the gilgamesh epic the gods destroyed humanity on earth why did they destroy humanity in the gilgamesh epic anybody know too noisy i mean i can relate to that too but it was a little excessive because once people were destroyed the gods had nobody to feed them and so when the noah character do you know his name in the gilgamesh epic yes he when he made it to the island and he offered an offering of thanksgiving the image that is in that book is phenomenal it says the gods flew around the smoke of the sacrifice like flies because they were so hungry because they hadn't been fed for such a long period of time so it was important to know who your god was so that the sacrifice went to the right place and it's also telling because by knowing the name of the god oh this is really fun by knowing the name of the god it says something about the relationship between the community and the god or the power that is in relationship with that community what does it say it says that there was more equality in the relationship than there would be if you had a relationship with a god whose name you didn't know what does that mean it's a psychology of knowing names you know if you've ever been to a a party and somebody knows your name and you don't know their name and you feel very much at a disadvantage yeah or you were dumb enough to walk down the street with a cap that had your name on it and somebody who you didn't know like what happened to me when i was really nerdy i mean i i got over it right the nerdy part i think uh i walk down the street and somebody says hey ruvain oh and i don't know who the guy was he was bigger than me and he made fun of me because i had a name on my cap and i said right i felt really stupid because he had a certain power over me because he knew my name i didn't know his name there is a sense of relationship and connection of knowing names and knowing identification in in many cultures a baby children are not named until after they become viable so that's so that the angel of death or the evil powers may not get them so there is a sense of knowing names the name of the god of israel was made of four letters that we do not know how to pronounce in the jewish world some christian communities pronounce it yahweh right or jehovah but what that really is talking about what that is conveying is that in the ancient world the israelites knew the name of their god just like the moabites and the ammonites knew the names for their gods but when at some point in history the israelites made a transition from a polytheistic relationship with a limited god to a sense of a universal all-powerful all-knowing god it was impossible it's inconceivable that they should know the name you know we don't know the name of god in the islamic tradition either it's just allah simply means the god it's not frank not jim not penelope right so that seems to be indicative of that change now if you don't believe me and you it's okay for you not to believe me it's okay for you to be wrong um i'm continuing on this motif earlier let's turn to the next uh item on page two second kings i'm just going to read you the first couple of verses here this is a statement about the reforms that were made by a king named josiah he destroyed all of the idols that were being worshipped in jerusalem by the israelites because he was a real staunch supporter of monotheism then the king ordered the high priest hilkiah the priests of the second rank and the guards of the threshold to bring out of the temple of the lord this is yet all of the objects made for baal and asherah these were god it was a god and a goddess and all the hosts of heaven he burned them outside jerusalem in the fields of kidron he removed the ashes to bethel he suppressed the idolatrous priests whom the kings of judah had appointed to make offerings at the shrines in the towns of judah and in the environs of jerusalem and those who made offerings to baal to the sun and moon and constellations all the hosts of heaven it goes on there's a lot more so israel this community was the first community to make a successful transition from polytheism to monotheism and israel and israelites eventually jews were associated with monotheism they were the founders of monotheism now there's evidence by the way that there may have been other communities that were monotheist even before israel or maybe proto-monotheist or nearly monotheist one one option is in egypt who was a is probably at least a proto-monotheist but it didn't survive the the idea didn't didn't hold out israelites were the ones that were able to to make it work and kept to it and so the israelites were made that transition to monotheism there's one thing i neglected to tell you in this story and that is that when you have a personal relationship with the tribal god you have a very special relationship it's it's like like we're made for each other your god helps you when you go into battle against your nasty neighbors who live on the other side of the river and are peeing upstream your god goes into battle with you and their god goes into battle with them and the more powerful god or the better god or the god who is better fed by his community through sacrifices is the god that prevails so there's a sense of intimacy between the community and it's god the community probably really loves its god as well as it probably fears it's god and that is a relationship that i described as chosenness it was like we were chosen for each other it's an intimacy now the israelites had that notion with their god and although we have no written evidence that the moabites or the ammonites or the ash the ashdodians or the the philistines they never wrote we are the chosen people that we have found in any text so far i am extrapolating i assume that probably everybody in the ancient near east had the sense of chosen relationship with their own god israel retained that sense of personal relationship with the god of israel because it's called the god of israel in the torah when it made that transition to monotheism so it associated its once tribal god now the god of the universe who's the god of all with a special intimate relationship it's an accident of history because how could the god of the universe also have a chosen relationship with one small people it doesn't make sense and yet it's so deeply embedded in the culture of ancient israel that they couldn't let it go even though there were some ambivalence and we'll look at some texts that show that they were ambivalent about it so the israelites were monotheists and they retained the sense of intimacy with the god who is now the god of all humanity now what happened to all of those ancient religions of the ancient near east they all died out the only surviving vestige of the ancient near eastern religions is the religion of israel and the religion of israel which is now judaism carries within it some vestiges of those old times one is that sense of relationship with god a kind of sense of chosen relationship an accident of history now all of the ancient religions died out by the roman period the end of the roman period um and that's a longer story it's in the book i would tell you you should buy the book but what can i say it's not here now i'm going to move up a little bit in history and i'm going to end this piece of the story when in the period of the greco-romans around the time of jesus and even before 100 years before jesus there was a developing anxiety and malaise among many greeks and romans because they didn't really believe their old religious traditions they were into philosophy they were also into sacrifice they didn't it didn't make sense anymore the bickering gods in olympus acting like humans there was a better option here it is there's one great god a moral ethical god who created the universe not bickering not silly not jealous not having sexual relationships with humans and creating hercules and doing dumb human things but a transcendent god and a beautiful god and a god that demands moral ethical behaviors instead of the non-immoral or amoral behaviors of the gods of the ancient greco-roman world and there was an option that was available and that was monotheism and monotheism was a package deal there was only one option in the early period and that was biblical monotheism and that included a sense of chosenness so when you bought into monotheism you became chosen you became part of the deal and contrary to some popular beliefs it was possible and it happened a lot the people converted to judaism in the second temple period greeks and romans became jewish through conversion that's the end of story number two story number three and we're going to move a little more quickly now the last narrative is the story of the emergence of new religions you know there are new religions coming into history at all times uh even in our own generation what do we call new religions today cults we don't call them religions do we is cult a negative a neutral or a positive designation negative on a good day we might call a cult a sect might sound a little bit better sex are also negative why don't we call new religious movements new religions because they're new because we most of us certainly people college codgers like me represent establishment religions establishment religions don't like new religions why don't establishment religions like new religions because new religions are threatening to establishment religions because maybe my children will not come home for passover or for shabbat and spend time with me because maybe they're going to go and follow a new i'm not going to say prophet but i'll say guru or some guru actually is not a negative term it's only a negative term in 60s post-60s american discourse because we are we i as a religious person i am threatened by a new religious movement what my religion isn't good enough and as an establishment religion a representative establishment religion i don't want a new religion to be successful and so i do all i can to prevent the new religion from being successful i call it a cult i say it's a bunch of we say in latin nourish kite that's a yiddish term really it means silliness and the prophet is not a real prophet and the message is not a real divine message we do everything we can to prevent a new religion from becoming successful and most religions fail there are more than two thousand religious movements have begun in the united states and europe since the second world war it's been counted by academics who study new religious movements most of them fail some new religious movements succeed by the way what's the difference between a cult and a religion the answer is a hundred years if you can live a hundred years you're no longer a cult you become a religion so today and i don't mean anything negative in my statement but there are new religious movements that were considered cults and had no respect at all that now after 100 or 150 years are now becoming finally accepted as acceptable new religious movements but with difficulty the probably the most famous one is what uh baha'i and the lds church lds church may be even more than baha'i today but baha'i as well right so um okay so now what makes a new religion successful now that's been an object of study in the academic field of religion for about two decades maybe a little bit more and there is a problem that new religions have and that is how do you demonstrate that you're authentic how do you demonstrate to a pool of potential believers that what you have to offer them is real how can i convince you that i'm really a prophet and the message i'm giving you is truth and that i have been i'm an emissary of god the only way to do that successfully is to use paradigms that already are respectable if i say to you for example i'll give you a great example i'm a i'm a prophet now let's see i want to i'm a prophet now okay and i'm going to tell you my message and my message might be lovely and very deeply moving and very spiritual and you ask me how do i know what i know and i'm going to tell you the truth i receive my message from my like it's like a transmitter in my pinky you're already giggling and the only time i really get that message is when i'm sitting on the toilet more giggles now that may be true what if it really is true what if it really does happen i mean it's possible that that could be but i could never convince you of that because the paradigm is not respectable it's not something that is seen as authentic i need to demonstrate to you that i'm an authentic prophet and my prophecy not only the message but the way in which it comes to me and the way i convey it to you is one that is recognizable to you and so new religious movements always incorporate within themselves the motifs and symbols of established religions abraham for example he is the individual who is in relationship with god the first and the most intimate relationship with god at least in the ancient world and so he shows up in not only in the torah in the hebrew bible but in the new testament and the quran as well so when a tradition is successful it's successful partially because it's able to utilize the motifs that have been demonstrated to be successful motifs in history chosenness was so deeply associated with monotheism in the ancient world that all new expressions of monotheism seem to in one way or another a little bit less so in the more modern period define themselves as chosen people you can see this with david koresh you could see this with a lot of movements in the 60s and the 70s and because chosenness was so closely associated with authentic monotheism by an accident of history when israel made the transition from polytheism to monotheism that it became an item of importance but then the question is who's the real chosen people and new religious traditions tend to make the case that they are the real chosen people and so when christianity emerged into history there was a sense an agreement between both jews and christians that only one community could be truly chosen at a time the jews said we're chosen of course we have the evidence and christians said you were chosen but now we're chosen so i would like to show you another uh text here uh we'll go to page three bottom of the page hebrews letter to the hebrews chapter 8. in fact the ministry which has fallen to jesus is far superior to theirs as are the covenant he mediates and the promises upon which it is legally secured had the first covenant been faultless there would be have been no need to look for a second in its place but god finding fault with them says the days are coming says the lord when i will conclude a new covenant with the house of israel and the house of judah it will not be like the covenant i made with their forefathers when i took them by the hand to lead them out of egypt because they did not abide by the terms of the covenant and i abandoned them says the lord i'm just going to in the interest of time i'll skip down to the bottom by speaking of a new covenant he has pronounced the first one old and anything that is growing old and aging will shortly disappear in the articulation of covenant in the hebrew bible there's only one covenant that's between god and israel in the articulation of covenant in the new testament there can only be one covenant at a time it's a zero-sum game if we are the chosen you are not the chosen so it becomes an exclusive not no less exclusive in the new testament than in the hebrew bible five or six hundred years later another religion emerges into history very successfully and that is islam and we have some interesting information about islam that comes from the quran remember that that scripture is the earliest evidence we have for a new religion the earliest text that we have for judaism is the torah is the bible the earliest text we have for christianity is the new testament and the earliest text we have for islam is the quran but there was a difference in the world in which islam emerged that was significantly different than the world in which christianity and israelite religion emerged when israelite religion emerged it was the only option that was monotheist it was natural for it to consider itself chosen when christianity emerged there was one monotheism previous and it was natural for christianity to believe that since there could be one chosen people there can't be two at a time and so there could it's a zero-sum game when islam emerged into history in the seventh century there were numbers of different expressions of monotheism not only was there judaism and christianity but there were different types of christianity that were arguing with one another over which was the best expression of christianity and there were different types of judaism as well so when islam emerged into history it didn't it wasn't natural to think of chosenness as a zero-sum equation it saw jews who were chosen people it saw christians who were chosen people it saw other christian communities that said were maybe a little more chosen than the other christian community it saw there were other neo-monotheistic communities even living in arabia that we know of as well and so the islamic perspective on chosenness is a little bit more uh open than either the hebrew bible or the new testament it's actually more pluralistic but it still needs to make the case that it is in a better position than the previous religions because remember that when islam emerges into history the establishment religions are what judaism christianity and arabian paganism or arabian idolatry and it needs to make a case against these traditions that are trying to prevent it from being successful so if you read on the bottom of page four this is a statement from god articulated in the quran god made a covenant with the children of israel and we this is god speaking and we spent sent them 12 chiefs or leaders god said i am with you if you engage in prayers and you give required giving or required charity you believe in my messengers and help them or honor them and lend to god a good loan which is an idiom for in contributing your resources to the community i will absolve you from your evil deeds and cause you to enter gardens through which rivers flow so whoever of you believes after that has his disbeliefs after that has strayed from the right way but because of their breaking their covenant we have cursed them and made their hearts hard they distort or change words from their places it seems to be a reference to scripture and forgot part of what they were reminded through revelation you will continue to discover the treacherous among them except for a few but forgive them in pardon for god loves the good and those who say we are christians we made their covenant but they forgot a part of what they were reminded through revelation so we incited enmity and hatred between them until the day of resurrection when god will tell them what they have done this is a kind of invalidating not the covenant of the jews or the covenant of the christians but the way that the jews are christians are practicing the covenant it opens up a a way a place for a religion that will correct the errors that were being practiced by the jews and christians beforehand so here we have a kind of opening of islam as a new religious movement to find its place within that constellation of monotheisms that were in existence at the time and so we have a a situation where we have a continuing argumentation between new religions and establishment religions over who is more authentic than the others the reason for the argumentation from a using the language of uh of economics is essentially that the religions are competing with one another for a market share of believers in order to be a successful religion you need to have enough followers to pay the salaries of the religious leaders to build the synagogues and the mosques and the churches and to develop the education i mean it you need a substance substantive base if you don't have the base you won't survive and there's a limited base a kind of competition for that base of believers that is what chosenness is all about it started i believe as a an accident of history a reflection of ancient near eastern religion that became embedded in monotheism and became an item a notion a symbol of authenticity that was picked up by new religious traditions as they emerged into history and it became a point of contention now i'm going to read to you two pages not too long and with that i'll hint we've taken a journey through history in the notion of chosenness we've observed its birth in the cauldron of ancient near eastern polytheisms and how it became a core part of the self-concept of one small community of monotheists we observed how it became an authoritative marker of authenticity in the polemics and arguments between competing expressions of monotheism we have observed how the notion of election triumphed along with the victory of monotheism as christianity and islam were established as the imperial religions in the world's greatest empires the notion of chosenness became a cinequon of monotheism it has been so deeply linked to monotheism that it's difficult to conceive of monotheism without the notion of true believers believing in a special intimate and unique relationship with the one great god we're all of humanity to believe in the same kind of monotheism or even if only all monotheists would believe in the same kind of monotheism then we would all belong to the same community in chosen communion with god if this were to occur and all would consider themselves part of the same elect community then perhaps the elitism of chosenness would disappear and the tensions that lead people to bicker brawl and sometimes go to war would end but humanity has never believed in the same kind of monotheism the human species seems to have been created in such a way that its members simply and naturally disagree they argue they inevitably have different opinions the human condition seems to be that if we see that we see things differently from one another and we feel entitled to our own opinions into our own perceptions of the universe even those who grew up in the same household with the same family education and the same religious experiences and education and training often have very different views of god humanity in the universe was humanity created to be contrary i doubt whether that would have been part of the great design but it says in the hebrew bible that a very interesting thing about the creation of humanity god said let us make human beings in our image after our likeness i seriously doubt whether humans were created for the purpose of being stubborn but i'm convinced that they were created with the potential for independent thinking part of our divine image i think is to have been created to be sentient alert attentive beings unlike simple machines or even complex computers humans were created with a unique essence in individuality that's deeply embedded in our processing mechanisms we reflect as we process the world around us we tend to think independently as we wonder at the beauty of creation and we ponder the meaning of existence given that these traits reflect our deepest and most basic nature how could it be possible that we were created otherwise should it be surprising to the creator that our human need to think independently would prevent us from agreeing even about the nature of our own creation this is a conundrum that we're unlikely to resolve a mystery for which human experience will never find a definitive answer we're unable to agree on the answer because we continue to think about the nature of our existence in new ways even the greatest theologians have not been able to agree on the nature of our human relationship with eternity or even on the nature of human existence an old jewish tradition compares the creation of coinage with the creation of god's creatures the likeness of the king on the coin or the emperor or the caliph appears the same for every one of the thousands or millions of coins that are stamped into existence but the likeness and nature of every single individual creature of god is unique there are no two alike with adequate awareness of this awesome difference we can only realize our humility and the presence of the creator of the universe each of our religious traditions reflects the truth of god and of god's creation each scripture is a revelation of the divine message but even if every single word were the exact enunciation of god we would still disagree over their meanings i can only consider this to be part of the divine plan now i personally grew up within one of many religious systems that have emerged through this mystery of human creation i count myself to be a believing member of my religious affiliation and i consider it a pathway to truth but i have enough experience studying other religious paths to transcend the naivete that only i can have the keys to truth that only i and those who agree with me can know the code that will allow me to pass through the door to redemption i know too many people much wiser than me who follow a different path and from whom i have learned great wisdom i consider myself a member of a community that's in a unique relationship and a chosen relationship with god my own community is unique there's no other like it and within my community i count myself a member of one subgroup of believers that's different than others within my larger religious affiliation we are uniquely different than many others within the community and i count myself a unique individual within my subgroup there's no other individual who seems to have exactly the same perspective as i have no one sees the world quite like me or quite like you an old dictum teaches that a minority of one is only a fool but we are all when naked and alone on the last day of our lives or on the last day a minority of one no matter what we profess our essential unique individual nature is known only to the one who created all in the same way that we are unique in our own individuality we're also unique in our small communities so also are those conglomerates of communities that make up our unique religious affiliations every religion is unique and each has access to wisdom including wisdom about god and eternity but no religion has wisdom about which all of us can agree and none has the right to be confident that it has a monopoly on truth if god created everyone to be absolutely unique are we not all chosen thank you what is your thoughts or what are your thoughts if any about there being somewhat of a paradigm shift that so long as people humankind is choosing god that the paradigm can be that then all who choose god are chosen uh read your thoughts i i think well you just said it i mean i think you said it nicely uh we we as i i believe that we i believe that the notion of being created in the image of god is what i just said at the very end of my remarks uh we are we we can't help it we're independent and we think that way even in cultures that are extremely repressive some people are willing to kind of give up their independent thinking or do it quietly but too many people won't and so we are constantly engaging in our religious texts we're engaging in what the muslims call hd had which is uh we're engaging deeply with the text uh in a personal way and it's never stopped and it continues and it will probably continue forever as long as we are human beings and so we do need to re-envision the meaning of chosenness in a way that makes sense for us in this world when we used to live in enclaves small communities far apart from one another uh you know um ecologically we could live with the sense that we're human and the rest aren't but in a world in which we don't live in enclaves anymore we're all inseparable from one another and we can't escape that that is no longer ecological it is uh too self-destructive and so your suggestion of understanding chosenness as a human voluntary choosing rather than god simply understanding humanity or one small portion of humanity as the divinely elect is a way that we is a i think a very good and honorable way to understand the notion of chosenness in a modern and postmodern way and i think it's very important do do you

Channel: University of California Television (UCTV)

Views: 2,045,457

Keywords: rabbi, reuven, firestone, chosen, jewish, christian, islam

Id: pbFEgr2kRzw

Length: 58min 54sec (3534 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 08 2009