Wonderful! I’m looking forward to this very much. I had a similar experience at a Hindu temple when I was in high school, except I was an atheist at the time. Though I tried to dismiss it, it made quite the impression on me. I’ve always tended towards the more ritualistic and elaborate in matters religious. Probably why I became Orthodox. And while I have no fear of change (even to the liturgy) I usually pray that it tends more in the direction of Hindu cultus than of Protestant minimalism.
Great piece! The concept of "temple" seems to me to raise so many fascinating questions, which I'll list out in a rambling fashion:
1. Going back to your series on Jesus, if Jesus was healing in order to make people pure for the Temple, does that not raise the question whether ritual purity is in itself an oppressive concept: a luxury for the rich and a burden for the outcast? Certainly it was (at the very least) more of a burden on women than men. So what to make of it? A salvagable concept in need of revision, or a vestige of patriarchy and hierarchy unworthy of the true God?
2. Protestants often speak as though the full legitimacy of the Temple was in question during Jesus's lifetime. Is there any truth to this? Given the lively nature of the presence of God in the Old Testament, did anyone wonder whether Herod's Temple, despite its architectural grandeur, was a pale imitation? Solomon's Temple was supposed to have been built at YHWH's explicit command; Herod's, presumably, was not. Did that even matter? Perhaps my residual Protestant intuition that magnificent temples are built by slaves and funded by plunder makes it hard for me to enter into the mindset of a first century Jew. (I also can't help but despise the kind of realpolitik Herod's Temple represented, as though any religious group that refuses to defer to the more "cosmopolitan" mindset of their conquerors deserves what they get).
3. How should the purported history of the Temple (the stone altars of the patriarchs, the mobile Ark and Tabernacle, the dispute between Jews and Samaritans) shape our view of "temple" in Abrahamic faiths? You touch on this a little in this article, but are we getting more in the sequel?
Are there any widely available books on the origin of Islam as a pan-Abrahamic revival moment, or is all the material still in the scholarly papers and whatnot? It would be a very interesting read.
Also, imagine an alternate timeline where Julian did rebuild the Temple. That just strikes me right there. I wonder what would have happened? A large-scale Jewish revival? A new Jewish-Christian movement? Or maybe Christian riots. And is there anything on how Julian's revivalist Hellenic synthesis incorporated the Jewish God? I guess just as a parochial ethnic god, as Porphyry thought
How often do you currently visit other religious temples and participate or observe their worship practices? I've often thought of doing that.
Wonderful! I’m looking forward to this very much. I had a similar experience at a Hindu temple when I was in high school, except I was an atheist at the time. Though I tried to dismiss it, it made quite the impression on me. I’ve always tended towards the more ritualistic and elaborate in matters religious. Probably why I became Orthodox. And while I have no fear of change (even to the liturgy) I usually pray that it tends more in the direction of Hindu cultus than of Protestant minimalism.
Great piece! The concept of "temple" seems to me to raise so many fascinating questions, which I'll list out in a rambling fashion:
1. Going back to your series on Jesus, if Jesus was healing in order to make people pure for the Temple, does that not raise the question whether ritual purity is in itself an oppressive concept: a luxury for the rich and a burden for the outcast? Certainly it was (at the very least) more of a burden on women than men. So what to make of it? A salvagable concept in need of revision, or a vestige of patriarchy and hierarchy unworthy of the true God?
2. Protestants often speak as though the full legitimacy of the Temple was in question during Jesus's lifetime. Is there any truth to this? Given the lively nature of the presence of God in the Old Testament, did anyone wonder whether Herod's Temple, despite its architectural grandeur, was a pale imitation? Solomon's Temple was supposed to have been built at YHWH's explicit command; Herod's, presumably, was not. Did that even matter? Perhaps my residual Protestant intuition that magnificent temples are built by slaves and funded by plunder makes it hard for me to enter into the mindset of a first century Jew. (I also can't help but despise the kind of realpolitik Herod's Temple represented, as though any religious group that refuses to defer to the more "cosmopolitan" mindset of their conquerors deserves what they get).
3. How should the purported history of the Temple (the stone altars of the patriarchs, the mobile Ark and Tabernacle, the dispute between Jews and Samaritans) shape our view of "temple" in Abrahamic faiths? You touch on this a little in this article, but are we getting more in the sequel?
Are there any widely available books on the origin of Islam as a pan-Abrahamic revival moment, or is all the material still in the scholarly papers and whatnot? It would be a very interesting read.
Also, imagine an alternate timeline where Julian did rebuild the Temple. That just strikes me right there. I wonder what would have happened? A large-scale Jewish revival? A new Jewish-Christian movement? Or maybe Christian riots. And is there anything on how Julian's revivalist Hellenic synthesis incorporated the Jewish God? I guess just as a parochial ethnic god, as Porphyry thought