
Contents
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The Dead in Biblical Israel The Dead in Biblical Israel
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Utopian Religion? Utopian Religion?
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Was There Once an Ancient Cult? Was There Once an Ancient Cult?
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Biblical Evidence Biblical Evidence
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Ancestors Take the Blame Ancestors Take the Blame
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Horror of Dead Bodies Horror of Dead Bodies
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A Centralizing Programme A Centralizing Programme
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Purgatory Purgatory
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Modernization Modernization
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Intergenerational Tension Intergenerational Tension
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Religious Dynamism in the Calabari Delta Religious Dynamism in the Calabari Delta
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Balance Disturbed Balance Disturbed
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The Frustration Factor The Frustration Factor
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Conclusion Conclusion
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Pure Monotheism Pure Monotheism
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8 8 One God, No Ancestors, in a World Renewed
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Published:November 2004
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Abstract
Focuses on the absence of ancestor cults in the Bible, and notes that the ground already covered in the book indicates that the priestly editors of the Pentateuch in the sixth and fifth centuries bce, and their interpretation of monotheism, make it unlikely that there would have been room for such an idea. Considers the limited role of the dead in biblical Israel in the context of the major advance that was monotheism, and asks whether Leviticus represents a Utopian religion or a real one that was actually practiced in the past, emphasizing the intellectual consistency of the Pentateuch in its uncompromising monotheism. The question is asked as to whether Israel ever had an ancestral cult, and the biblical evidence against such a cult is reviewed. The possible benefits of an ancestor cult in taking the blame are discussed, along with some alternative views to this (notably, the horror of death), and the possibility of the forcible suppression of ancestor cults as part of a centralizing government programme (here certain parallels are drawn with other cultures, and the cult of purgatory is discussed). Other ways in which cults of the dead can fade are discussed in the last part of the chapter; these include the secularizing effect of modernization, intergenerational tension, the character of the resource base in relation to the fate of ancestor cults (as illustrated by religious dynamism in the Calabari Delta of Nigeria), religious change instigated by changing regimes in which either the old or the young may become ascendant, and the position of eighth‐century Israel as having everything that would favour a revolt by the young – thus setting a trail for the priestly editors that had been laid centuries before, and embodied the central doctrine of monotheism.
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