The Sacred Cosmos - The Ancient World of Many Gods (47)

ESSAY 47

"WHAT IS REALITY" SERIES

THE SACRED COSMOS - A THEOLOGY OF REALITY

The Sacred Cosmos - The Ancient World of Many Gods

Theology II - Ancient Cosmologies and Divine Multiplicity

How the Idea of God Changes Over Time

Affecting Religion, History, and the Divine Idea

by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT

The history of religion is not the story of an unchanging God,

but the story of humanity learning, generation by generation,

how to speak the name of the divine.

- R.E. Slater

Reality is process,

our understanding of the divine

grows as reality unfolds.

- R.E. Slater

Religion is what the individual does

with his own solitariness.

- Alfred North Whitehead

Series Objective

To articulate a relational ontology grounded in contemporary
physics and biology, in which reality is understood as coherence,

information, and process rather than as substance, isolation,

and atomistic models of reality.

Series Architecture

What Is Reality? series → foundational ontology
Cosmic Becoming Cycle → poetic and metaphysical expansion
Embodied Process Realism → formal philosophical framework
Processual Divine Coherence → theological bridge

How Reality Persists → continuity within becoming

Essay Outline

Series Prologue

Introduction

Religion as Historical Experience

Sacred Texts as Theological Archives

Why Theologies Develop

The Road Map of This Series

A Living Idea

The Listening God

Series Quotes

Bibliography

Apdx A - A Simple Historical Map of the Evolution of the Divine Idea

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Series Prologue

The Long Journey of the Divine Idea

Human beings have always searched for meaning beyond themselves. Long before temples were built or sacred texts were written, people looked toward the sky, the mountains, and the sea and wondered whether some deeper presence lay behind the forces shaping their lives. Thunderstorms, fertile harvests, and the seasonal turning of the stars all suggested that the universe may be animated by powers greater than human understanding.

From these early experiences arose humanity’s first attempts to speak of the divine, both rightly or wrongly. At times, giving too much away to supernaturalism, and at other times, not enough.

Across the centuries these (theologizing) attempts took many forms. Ancient cultures at first imagined various gods and goddesses dwelling in mountains and rivers. As nations arose, they envisioned patron deities which guided their destinies. Early (religious) philosophers (later, "philosophic-theologians") began to describe the divine as the source of order, reason, and being itself. Each generation inherited the religious language of the past which reshaped, as well as challenged, it's (cultural) responses to the past and its (sociological) experience of the present.

The story of faith is therefore not the story of a single fixed idea of God but the story of an unfolding conversation. Communities have continually wrestled with suffering, justice, hope - including the mystery of existence - and through that (psychic) struggle have gradually expanded societal understanding of the sacred across a spectrum of religious-faith ideologies (sic, beliefs). Resulting "Sacred Texts" have preserved these earlier reflections, allowing us in our present generations (re ... Renaissance, Reformational, Enlightened, Modern, Post-modern, Meta-modern ... ) to glimpse the long process through which humanity has tried to name the divine, or sacred-divine.

This series explores that process...

Beginning in the ancient world of many gods and moving through the religious transformations of Israel, the rise of Jewish apocalyptic thought, the teachings of Jesus, and the theological developments of early Christianity, the essays that follow will trace the historical evolution of the Divine or Sacred-divine - both as an idea and as a belief. Along the way, we will see how changing cultural influences, historical experiences, philosophical insights, and spiritual reflections have continually reshaped the ways people-and-societies have imagined God.

To recognize this history is not to diminish religious faith. On the contrary, it reveals the depth of humanity’s spiritual journey to explain the unexplainable. Each generation stands within a long stream of meditative reflection stretching back thousands and thousands and thousands of years. The questions we ask today are part of that same unfolding search.

If the universe itself is dynamic and evolving, then it should not surprise us that humanity’s understanding of the divine evolves as well. The language of faith grows as the human horizon expands.

The story of how God “became God” in human thought is therefore not a story of decline or invention. It is the story of a continuing discovery - an ever-widening attempt to understand the sacred presence encountered within the unfolding drama of the world.

It is this story that is still being written today....

---

Illustration by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT

Introduction

The Puzzle of the Changing God

Many people assume that religion begins with a fixed understanding of God. In this view, divine truth descends from heaven complete and unchanged, and the task of religious communities is to simply preserve that fixed truth intact through the centuries.

Yet the historical record tells a very different story.

Across civilizations and across time, ideas about God change. They expand, contract, and transform in response to new experiences, new crises, and new cultural environments:

The gods of ancient Mesopotamia differ from those of Greece. The philosophical God of medieval Christianity differs from the personal deity of the Hebrew prophets. Even within the Bible itself, the character and role of God appear in multiple forms.

In some passages God is portrayed as a warrior leading Israel into battle. In others, God becomes the universal creator of all nations. In still others, God appears as the compassionate father welcoming prodigal children home.

These differences are not contradictions to be eliminated but clues pointing toward a deeper truth: religious traditions develop over time. They are shaped by the historical journeys of the communities who carry them.

This series explores that development.

The goal is not to diminish faith but to understand how the idea of God has grown through centuries of human reflection, struggle, and hope. By tracing this history, we can see how ancient religious experiences gradually evolved into the theological traditions that shape the modern world.

---

Religion as Historical Experience

Religious belief does not emerge in isolation. It is born within the lived experience of communities confronting the mysteries of existence.

War, exile, empire, and cultural encounter have repeatedly forced religious communities to rethink their understanding of the divine.

When Israel experienced liberation from Egypt, God was remembered as a deliverer who acts in history. When the kingdom of Israel faced corruption and injustice, the prophets proclaimed God as a moral judge demanding righteousness. When Jerusalem fell and the people were carried into exile, the question arose whether God had abandoned them or whether God ruled beyond any single land or temple.

Each of these crises pushed religious imagination in new directions.

In this way, theology often develops not during periods of stability but during moments of profound disruption. Crisis becomes a catalyst for reinterpretation.

---

Sacred Texts as Theological Archives

One of the remarkable features of the Bible is that it preserves these evolving interpretations rather than erasing them.

Instead of presenting a single uniform theology, the biblical tradition contains multiple voices reflecting different historical moments.

Early texts describe a world in which many nations worship many gods, while Israel follows its own covenant deity. Later texts proclaim that the God of Israel is the only true God and the creator of the universe. Still later writings explore themes of cosmic justice, resurrection, and the ultimate transformation of history.

These layers reveal that sacred texts function not merely as doctrinal statements but as archives of theological reflection. They record how generations of believers wrestled with the meaning of God in changing circumstances.

Recognizing this historical depth allows us to appreciate the Bible not as a static system of ideas but as a living conversation across centuries - both in pre-biblical, biblical, and post-biblical eras.

---

Why Theologies Develop

Several forces commonly drive religious development.

Historical crisis is one of the most powerful. When established beliefs can no longer explain lived experience, communities seek new interpretations that preserve faith while addressing new realities.

Cultural interaction also plays a role. When religious traditions encounter new civilizations and philosophical ideas, they often adapt their language and concepts to engage these influences.

Finally, internal reflection contributes to theological change. As communities meditate on their own sacred traditions, they reinterpret earlier teachings in light of new insights.

Over time these processes gradually reshape the understanding of God.

What begins as a tribal protector may become a universal creator. What begins as a distant ruler may be reimagined as a personal presence within the world.

The idea of God grows along with the human capacity to imagine the divine.

---

The Road Map of This Series

The essays that follow will trace several major stages in the historical development of the divine idea.

The journey begins in the ancient Near East, where Israel’s earliest religious traditions emerged within a world of many gods and competing mythologies. It continues through the prophetic revolution that reshaped Israel’s understanding of divine justice. It then moves through the crisis of exile, which produced a new vision of universal monotheism.

From there the story enters the vibrant theological landscape of the centuries before Jesus, when Jewish thought expanded dramatically through apocalyptic literature, messianic expectations, and philosophical reflection.

Only then do we arrive at the teachings of Jesus and the early Christian reinterpretation of God that would follow.

By tracing this history step by step, we can see how the concept of God was continually reimagined as communities sought to understand the divine presence within the unfolding drama of history.

---

A Living Idea

The story of religion is often told as if God remained the same while human understanding stayed fixed. Yet the historical record suggests something far more dynamic.

Across centuries, believers have continually revisited their understanding of God in light of new experiences, new knowledge, and new moral insights. Each generation inherits the theological reflections of the past while adding its own interpretations to the ongoing conversation.

The result is not a static portrait of God but a living tradition shaped by the struggles and aspirations of countless communities.

This series will explore that unfolding story in a future theological series once the ontology and metaphysics of reality have been completed.

For now, the story of God is the story of how humanity’s understanding of the divine gradually evolved - and how, through that long historical process, the idea of God itself came to take the form we recognize today.

If the story of faith is truly a living story,

then the question is not whether

the idea of God has changed,

but how that change continues to guide

humanity toward deeper understanding.

- R.E. Slater

---

The Listening God
The Becoming of the Divine

by R.E. Slater

Across the ages
humankind has spoken many names
into the dark.

Storm-gods,
river spirits,
keepers of mountains and stars.

Each name
a reaching.

Each prayer
a question.

And somewhere within the turning cosmos
the universe listened
through the minds and hearts
of those who asked.

The divine was not discovered
all at once.

It unfolded slowly
like dawn across a long horizon.

In desert exile
God grew larger than a temple.

In prophetic fire
God grew deeper than sacrifice.

In the quiet of conscience
God became justice.

And still the story continues.

For if the universe is alive with relation
and history itself is a living stream,
then every generation learns again
how to speak of the holy.

Not as something fixed beyond time
but as presence
moving through time,

inviting the world
toward greater beauty,
greater compassion,
greater truth.

The many voices of history
become one unfolding song.

And the song
is not yet finished.

R.E. Slater
March 12, 2026
@copyright R.E. Slater Publications
all rights reserved

SERIES QUOTES

The history of religion is not the story of an unchanging God,

but the story of humanity learning, generation by generation,

how to speak the name of the divine.

- R.E. Slater

Reality is process,

our understanding of the divine

grows as reality unfolds.

- R.E. Slater

Religion is what the individual does

with his own solitariness.

- Alfred North Whitehead

Faith is not the preservation of ancient answers

but the continuing search for deeper truths.

- R.E. Slater

Every generation inherits a vision of God -

burdening every generation to rethink it.

- R.E. Slater

If the universe is still unfolding,

then our understanding of the divine

must also unfold continually.

- R.E. Slater

The story of God in human thought

is the story of humanity learning

to see the sacred in ever widening horizons.

- R.E. Slater

The history of religion is not the story of an unchanging God,

but the story of humanity imperfectly learning

how to speak more correctly about the divine.

- R.E. Slater

The divine is not discovered once for all.

It is encountered again-and-again in every age.

- R.E. Slater

The many voices of divine history

become as one unfolding song reflecting

humanity's idea of itself.

- R.E. Slater

---

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Ancient Near Eastern Religion

• Jacobsen, Thorkild. The Treasures of Darkness: A History of Mesopotamian Religion. Yale University Press, 1976.

• Smith, Mark S. The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel. Eerdmans, 2002.

• Smith, Mark S. The Origins of Biblical Monotheism. Oxford University Press, 2001.

---

Israelite Religion and the Hebrew Bible

• Kaufmann, Yehezkel. The Religion of Israel: From Its Beginnings to the Babylonian Exile. University of Chicago Press, 1960.

• Dever, William G. Did God Have a Wife? Archaeology and Folk Religion in Ancient Israel. Eerdmans, 2005.

• Cross, Frank Moore. Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic. Harvard University Press, 1973.

---

Second Temple Judaism

• Collins, John J. The Apocalyptic Imagination. Eerdmans, 2016.

• Nickelsburg, George W. E., and James C. VanderKam. 1 Enoch: A New Translation. Fortress Press, 2012.

• Wright, N. T. The New Testament and the People of God. Fortress Press, 1992.

---

Early Christianity

• Hurtado, Larry W. Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity. Eerdmans, 2003.

• Dunn, James D. G. Christology in the Making. Eerdmans, 1989.

• Ehrman, Bart D. How Jesus Became God. HarperOne, 2014.

---

Process Theology and Process Philosophy

• Whitehead, Alfred North. Process and Reality. Free Press.

• Whitehead, Alfred North. Religion in the Making. Cambridge University Press.

• Cobb, John B., and David Ray Griffin. Process Theology: An Introductory Exposition. Westminster Press.

• Suchocki, Marjorie. God, Christ, Church: A Practical Guide to Process Theology. Crossroad.

• Keller, Catherine. Face of the Deep. Routledge.

---

APPENDIX A

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Illustration by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT

A Simple Historical Map of

the Evolution of the Divine Idea

This series will explore several major turning points

in the development of religious thought.

Sacred Cosmos
↓
World of Many Gods
↓
Yahweh Among the Gods
↓
Prophetic Revolution
↓
Crisis of Exile
↓
Intertestamental Explosion
↓
Message of Jesus
↓
Rise of Christology / Philosophical God
↓
Modern Crisis of God
↓
Relational God

1. The Sacred Cosmos
c. 1500 BCE and earlier

• The world is experienced as alive with spiritual force.
• Mountains, rivers, storms, animals, and stars are all bound up with sacred presence.
• Religion begins as participation in a living cosmos.

2. The World of Many Gods
Ancient Near Eastern Polytheism
c. 1500 - 1200 BCE

• Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Canaan develop structured pantheons.
• Gods are linked to fertility, war, kingship, weather, and land.
• Divine order mirrors political and social order.

3. Yahweh Among the Gods
Early Israelite Religion
c. 1200 - 1000 BCE

• Early Israel emerges within the ancient Near Eastern world.
• Yahweh appears as the covenant God of Israel.
• Israelite religion is not yet fully philosophical monotheism.

4. The Prophetic Revolution
Prophetic Ethical Monotheism
c. 800 - 600 BCE

• Prophets emphasize justice, righteousness, and covenant faithfulness.
• God becomes increasingly understood as morally concerned with all nations.
• Ritual is subordinated to ethics.

5. The Crisis of Exile
Exilic Transformation
c. 586 BCE and after

• Jerusalem falls and Solomon's temple is destroyed.
• Israel must rethink God beyond land, monarchy, and temple.
• Universal monotheism intensifies.

6. The Intertestamental Explosion
The Development of Intertestamental Theology
c. 200 BCE - 70 CE

• Jewish theology diversifies dramatically.
• Apocalypticism, resurrection belief, angelology, demonology, and messianic expectation expand.
• Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, and other groups debate Israel’s future.

7. The Message of Jesus
The Jesus Movement
c. 30 CE

• Jesus proclaims the Kingdom of God.
• His teaching integrates prophetic ethics, apocalyptic hope, and radical mercy.
• God is announced as near, active, and relational.

8. The Rise of Christology / The Philosophical God
Early Christian Christology
c. 30 - 500 CE

• Early Christians reinterpret Jesus in increasingly exalted theological terms.
• Greek philosophical ideas shape doctrines concerning God, Christ, and the Trinity.
• The divine idea becomes increasingly articulated through metaphysical language.

9. Classical Christianity
The Formation of Classical Christian Theology
c. 300 - 1500 CE

• Christian theology becomes systematized through the work of church councils and medieval scholars.
• Biblical thought is increasingly integrated with Greek philosophical frameworks, especially Platonism and Aristotelian metaphysics.
• The idea of God enters a period of reconstruction.
• Questions of transcendence, immanence, and divine action re-emerge.
• This synthesis forms the dominant theological structure of medieval Christianity.

10. The Modern Crisis of God
Early Modern and Modern Transformations
1500 - 2000 CE

• The Scientific Revolution, Enlightenment philosophy, and modern historical criticism challenge the assumptions of classical theology.
• Science, historical criticism, and philosophy force theologians to reconsider traditional ideas about divine action, revelation, and authority.
• Questions of transcendence, immanence, and divine participation in the world become central to modern theological reflection.

11. The Relational God
Open-and-Relational Process Theology
1900 CE - Present

• Process, relational, open, and panentheistic theologies explore new ways of understanding the divine within an evolving universe.
• God is increasingly understood less as static omnipotence and more as dynamic relational presence.
• The divine is reimagined as participating in the unfolding creativity of the cosmos.

Four Christians. Four Conversations. One Faith.

Illustration by R.E. Slater and ChatGPT

Four Christians. Four Conversations.

One Faith.

A Five Act Play

by R.E. Slater and ChatGPT

Christ against empire.

Love against fear.

The gospel is not ideology.

Faith does not live by power.

Where power asks devotion,

idolatry has begun.

---

The Characters (Dramatis Personae)

Jonathan Creed

A Christian nationalist theologian and public advocate. Intelligent, articulate, confident. Believes Christianity and civilizational order are inseparable.

N. T. Wright

Biblical scholar and theologian. Defender of kingdom, cruciform power, and the church as an alternative polis (a self-governing, independent body politic).

Elias Vale

A philosophical and prophetic witness. Concerned with truth, power, and theological deformation.

Silas Reed

A pastoral and ethical witness. Concerned with human dignity, consequence, and the fruits of belief.

---

The Setting

A smallish, round wooden table is set within a warmly lit library. Books on various topics rest on shelves along the walls covering topics such as "Scripture, History, Philosophy, Theology, Political thought...."

Four chairs are arranged for conversation. A single lamp burns on the lone table. Outside, distant thunder rolls, flashing a coming storm. The year is unspecified. The crisis is not.

---

The Movements

Act I - Why Christianity?

Act II - Christ and Empire

Act III - Borders and Human Dignity

Act IV - Faith and Power

Act V - Recovering Witness.

---

Prologue

A voice, neither seen nor named, speaks out in the lamplit den. It is the reason the group had agreed to gather and see if they might work out their understandings of "Christ in the public square." On their invitation was written:

"There are times in the church's history when theology is argued in books. And there are times when theology must answer in the presence of existential crisis. This is such a time."

The invitation leaned against the lamp on the small table that held the center of the room as it was read aloud by one of the four. Each of the respondents had automatically gathered around near to one another. By agreement - and by testimony - one would defend church-state power; one would question this arrangement; and, two would represent a "left-of-middle" witness to what would follow.

Their dispute concerned no small matter. It concerned whether the Christian faith, having entangled itself into the tentacles of state power, could still remember their Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ, during the years when it was methodically oppressed and without popular voice.

The lamp continued to burn quietly as a pause settled around the carpeted room. Then one of the voices, a Jonathan Creed, begins. He has eagerly awaited this gathering for several months now to express his views. Near to him, an N. T. (Tom) Wright smiles weakly. To his right, an Elias Vale silently watches from the sidelines while his colleague, Silas Reed, leans back in his chair from the other side of the group, listening intently.

No one rises. Jonathan Creed is the first to the match....

---

Act I - Why Christianity?

(Curtain rises.)

Prominent TV host and podcaster, Jonathan Creed, speaks out. His youth has played out. He finds himself in his middle years with a wife and family, slightly graying, but healthy. He wants to rouse a nation to its feet believing it to be a Christian nation and worthy of defending. He begins by firmly stating,

"Christianity exists because all societies require moral order. Without God's transcendent authority, cultures decay. Without shared virtue, their liberty collapses. Without religious foundations, moral nations lose their coherence."

"... The Christian faith is not merely about personal salvation. It is about civilizational necessity - which I will not apologize for. I hold to this confession in the strongest of terms. A faith that cannot preserve its people can scarcely guide a nation."

(Pause.)

"Further, if Christianity has historically aligned itself with past kingdoms, laws, and nations, perhaps this relation is not corruption, but responsibility, wisdom, and blessed by divine guidance. Certainly, not all power is temptation... but preservation of the faith by Almighty God."

Each of the listening figures adjust themselves in their seats. One, an older figure, leans forward in cautious reply. He is wearing a vest over a wool shirt, and plaid socks closed within laced shoes. His name, N.T. Wright, an reputed Oxford don, known and loved by Christians around the world.

"Now I wonder Jonathan on whether one begins with Caesar or with Jesus? Because if one begins with Jesus, one finds rather quickly the Christian faith did not arise to stabilize empires. Rather, it arose announcing another kingdom. A kingdom not of this world. It was a rather awkward pronouncement for any empire to hear, let alone entertain."

To the side, there was a small, cheshire-like smile spreading across Silas' face, who lightly averred -

"It seems, my friends, that the first Christians did not imagine themselves custodians of Roman order. They imagined themselves as witnesses to a crucified and risen Lord put to death by that same Roman order. That is a rather different vocation of Christianity than as you had just advocated."

He continued, "The church was not born asking, 'How do we preserve civilization?' It began by asking, 'What has God done in Christ, and how shall we live because of it?' Those are not identical questions."

The hook had been set. The bait taken. Jonathan quickly replied, self-sure and building steam, "But surely you would not deny that societies need moral order? Or that Christianity can help provide that order as decreed by God above?"

"Of course not," agreed Wright too quickly. "But the question is whether moral structure comes from the fruit of a loving gospel... or is the driving purpose behind the rule of empire. And those are very different things."

A small pause again held the room for a moment when finally Elias Vale, speaks out, "At issue, - as I see it - whether Christianity exists to underwrite moral social order... or to call all state orders into the witness of divine judgment. This too is no small distinction.

His longtime friend and counselor, Silas Reed, then ventured a another response... a much different response based upon his many years in community ministry, "Perhaps a Christian faith should serve the vulnerable first, rather than a society's moral order? I have often felt the two are not together in their views of morality."

And with that, a long silence settled in as each heard the slow roll of cavernous thunder rumble across the fields towards the cottage home. Each look down in their lap or at the mug of coffee in their hand. Jonathan Creed, having started the conversation, looked up and began anew, preparing for another ideological campaign....

"Very well. Then let us ask directly. If Christianity is not for the preservation of a civilization... what good is it's charters for?"

A quiet smile crossed Wright’s face. Not dismissively. More as one recognizing the right question had finally been asked. One that he might redirect....

"Dear Jonathan, 'What good is Christianity for?' That is precisely the question. It is for announcing that in Jesus, God’s own heavenly kingdom has drawn near. It is for forming a people whose life together bears witness to another way of being human within the sacred-divine. It is for teaching forgiveness where vengeance rules; reconciliation where division hardens; and hope where fear governs."

"And most certainly, a Christian faith is for making Caesar less absolute."

A faint stir passes through the room. Too quickly, too self-assured, Jonathan Creed replies to the sturdy figure whose very presence spoke creedal authority, "But that sounds all-together inward. Spiritual. Beautiful, perhaps. But very, very thin on the outside of things."

"Let me ask forthrightly, 'What of nations? What of borders? What of social collapse? What of enemies? Can such a faith  weak in power be able to survive itself let alone history?'"

Carefully, Wright folded his aged hands. "My dear Jonathan, the early Christians asked exactly that - except with hungry lions viciously growling nearby."

Silas laughed softly into his coffee. "Well played, Tom, well played."

Wright continued, "The question is not whether Christianity survives history. The question is what Christianity becomes when religious survival is made its highest aim. And therein, I think, lies our greatest difficulty."

Elias leaned forward for the first time in reply, "Perhaps what Mr. Wright suggests is that Christianity ceases to be itself when preservation becomes its first principle. For what begins in fear may end in domination."

Jonathan answered sharply, though not angrily, "And what begins in Christian idealism may also end in ruin!"

Silas Reed quickly looked up as if feeling the pain of Creed's implication - "Or perhaps what begins in love may yet end in justice!"

Another silence. The rumbling thunder moving further off.

Jonathan Creed slowly nodded, as if granting the argument had reached a place he had not intended, when he spoke again, "If what you say is true, Tom..."

and here Wright smiled at the familiar use of his name,

"... then we have not yet spoken of empire at all."

Wright answered, "No. We have only just this moment arrived at it."

The lamp flickered with the last flash of lightening holding each figure in their thoughts...

End of Act I.

(Curtain falls.)

---

Act II - Christ and Empire

(Curtain rises.)

The storm had silenced. Evening dusk was gathering. The collected group was moving about stretching their legs, refilling their drinks, snatching a small finger sandwich, and standing or sitting loosely about. The ever strident Creed is the first to launch believing his role to be that of protagonist and admonisher. His voice are calmer. His sentences more deliberate. Almost professorial.

"Very well Tom, let us speak of empire. If Christianity has always stood apart from power, why did it not remain in the catacombs? Why did it allow Constantine? Why did the medieval institute of Christendom form over the centuries as if it needed to protect itself? More importantly, why were the laws that lasted throughout Western civilization seemed to be shaped by Christian moral vision? And why did those nations, however imperfectly, seek to order public life under a Christian God rather than some other god?"

He paused. Then leaned toward Wright. "Or shall we say, that two thousand years of Christian civilization was merely a mistake?"

In Creed's own mind, that was a magnificent salvo and deeply entangled provocation. It would force Wright to answer history - not merely to his Christian ideals.

But Wright did not answer immediately. He took off his glasses. Turned them once or twice across his fingers. Wiped them a bit absent-mindedly, then spoke quietly, "No, Jonathan. Not a mistake. But perhaps a temptation."

A stillness again settled from respect as much as for reflection...

Wright continued, "Constantine was not the first arrival of God's kingdom on earth. It was the historical accommodation by both church and state to create a more worthy kingdom of God on earth. Perhaps, a providential one, as some might say, but history might question that line of thinking."

"... Let us also say that accommodation of the gospel to the state - versus the gospel itself - are not identical things." He leaned slightly forward towards Creed in careful interplay, "The question is not whether Christianity had entered history, is it?"

"Of course it did, said Creed.

To which Wright replied, "Ah, but the question, I think, is if in entering into power the church also began forgetting how power had crucified its Lord?"

Jonathan’s jaw tightened slightly. "Surely you cannot dismiss Christendom so easily."

"I am not dismissing it," Wright replied. "I am distinguishing it. There is a difference between the church influencing society... and the church imagining itself secured by empire. Those are not the same thing."

Elias Vale, who had been pacing slowly near the window, turned. "Perhaps the deeper question is whether Constantine converted the empire... or whether the empire, in part, converted the church?"

Silas let out a small breath, "That," he said, "is a dangerous question to place on a supper table."

A small laughter moved through the room. Even Jonathan smiled. But only for a moment. Then he answered,

"And yet nations do not govern by Sermons on the Mount. They govern by law. By force, when necessary. By borders. By arms. Surely you do not imagine Rome, or America, can be run on Christ's Beatitudes alone!"

Wright looked up. "No. I imagine the Beatitudes were given precisely because empires cannot imagine them."

Another silence. Longer now. More thoughtful. Outside, a late wind moved through the wet trees. Jonathan slowly folded his arms as if setting his battlements, then spoke with more energy than before,

"If Christ and empire cannot be reconciled... What becomes of Christian civilization?"

Wright answered, "That depends, Jonathan, on how we respond. How the church determines its responsibilities in response to its governing powers... on whether Christian civilization is our hope... or our idol.

Jonathan did not answer at once. He looked into the lamp as though the question had altered shape before him. Then spoke out, "And if what you call idol..." he paused, "...another calls divine inheritance?"

No one spoke. It was Silas who finally answered. "Then perhaps the question is whether godly blessing you call 'inheritance,' serves life... or demands sacrifice by those excluded from it."

Jonathan turned quickly toward Silas, "Excluded?"

Silas nodded. "The migrant. The stranger. The woman refused voice. The neighbor and her family who are threatened with deportation. The ones empire always names as outsiders."

This time the room held still. It's breath caught mid-sentence. Elias sighed and stated, half under his breath, measuring his friend Silas' instincts, "Then perhaps empire is not first tested at its center... but at its borders." It was a practical observation that he and Silas both had observed in recent years.

Wrenching about, Jonathan looked at him sharply. Then at Silas. And lastly at Wright. "Borders...?"

"Yes, Jonathan," Wright answered, "Borders. We have at last arrived where you had intended to go. To bless a nation's cruel migrancy laws by cloaking its borders in a Christian gospel that drips with the pained lives of those living on the edges of Christian enculturation."

End of Act II.

(Curtain falls.)

---

Act III - Borders and Human Dignity

Part I

(Curtain rises.)

The remains of the day were falling. Supper was entertained in the dining hall. Wall sconces and chandeliers shone about. The uneasy occupants offered prayer, bread, and wine, in informal communion with one another. Though the room was larger, more lit, it somehow felt smaller. No further words on the subject had been offered. Only light banter and familiarity.

“Borders.” The word hung in the air unable to find escape through the nearest paned window. It was Silas who was the first to speak. Not loudly. Almost as if thinking aloud within his pastoral soul.

"When a nation speaks of borders, I often imagines lines. But when those standing on the line speak... they speak of children. Families. Fear. Hunger. Refuge. Asylum...."

He paused. Then looked directly at Jonathan. "I wonder, whether what governments call security... is what the vulnerable too often experience as abandonment and betrayal?"

Jonathan sensed the challenged, not really appreciating it, never having lived as an "unwanted" or "illegal." He was careful to answer, but remained thickly dense to Silas' challenge. Callously, if not cruelly, he retorted, "And I wonder whether a nation without borders remains a nation at all?" He had fully excluded the difficulty of the challenge and re-entered his early assessments of the priority and right of Christian nationalism.

"Compassion cannot erase order," rose Silas' reply, ignoring Jonathan's repositioning.

"No society survives if it cannot distinguish guest from citizen... or, refuge from chaos," rejoined Creed.

Silas nodded. "That may seem a fair assessment. But perhaps the question is not whether borders exist. But how Christian theology justifies that they be enforced."

Silverware continued to clattered about the plates. Cups were raised and lowered. The unspeaking figures listen carefully to the heated repartee. Then N. T. Wright spoke up, "... And whether Christians see strangers as threats... or as neighbors as the good Samaritan had."

Unsatisfied, Jonathan leaned back ready for the challenge, "Must every political prudence now be called cruelty?!"

Elias can no longer sit quietly. He must say something. "No. But every cruelty defended as Christian prudence should be questioned!"

A long pause.

Then Jonathan quickly retorted once again, as he did in his podcaster's booth, safed from the world outside - and before a nation's rank-and-file audiences, "And what of order in creation?" he stressed. "What of male and female? Of biblical gender difference? And what of personal and societal morality? What of natural inherited forms we did not invent but are found in nature's vocabulary?!"

And there it was... it finally was declared with the heat of conviction and backed by the dead-sure assurance of Scripture - Gender. Human dignity. Morality. Ethics. And the Bible. It had all come to a head.

(curtain falls.)

Part II

(Curtain rises again.)

Wright did not respond at once. He was looking down at the remains of his meal that the kindly matron had cooked and at that moment was removing from the table. He then looked up at Jonathan, and said quietly,

"Jonathan, you have just joined several questions together as though they were one. Creation. Gender. Nationalised borders. Biblical authority. They are not identical questions."

Jonathan answered almost immediately as he always did before the TV cameras, "They are joined by divine order from a divine book under divine inspiration by the Holy Spirit of God. If you remove order, you dissolve moral reality. It's that simple."

Even as Wright nodded he disagreed with the logic and the assurances.

"I understand your concern. But order is not the same as rigidity. And moral seriousness is not secured by fear of difference."

He lifted a hand gently, "The question is not whether inherited forms matter. They do. But the deeper question is whether inheritance is interpreted through domination... or through love."

Jonathan frowned at this answer. Tom was being obtuse again. He wasn't listening. He was being his old "muddle-in-the-middle" English self responding with Anglican logic....

"Scripture has boundaries! Any common reader will find them again-and-again in the Bible!"

Unpersuaded, Wright answered, "Yes, but Scripture also has its trajectories."

Elias Vale next leaned in, "Perhaps the deeper issue is whether one reads sacred texts as fences... as borderlands... or as living witnesses?"

To this Silas nodded, then added, "And whether persons-of-difference are treated as problems to be managed... or neighbors to be encountered and embraced."

Jonathan’s voice sharpened at these exchanges. They weren't listening. None of them. He flew in again with his national-voice-of-the-people heightened in pitch, "So now all limits are oppression? All policies and morals, harsh and immoral?"

Wright quickly replied, "No. But every limit claiming divine authority should be open to moral scrutiny. For without critique and accountability, harm and oppression surely arise."

Here the dining had stopped. Forks and knives were at last laid down. For a moment a divide was being crossed. A watershed of sorts. Here, Wright marched resolutely forward as any well-bred Englishman worth his Anglican tradition would do, "The tragedy, Jonathan, is that Christians have often defended exclusions in the name of Christian order... only to later discover they were ripping apart wounds and trampling upon indignities."

No one moved.

Even Creed for once, did not answer. He had felt Wright's preternatural heat rising.

At length he said, "And who decides when order becomes wound?"

Wright answered, then paused, "That... may be where we allow the vulnerable to finally speak and share their experience."

End of Act III.

(Curtain falls.)

---

Act IV - Faith and Power

(Curtain rises.)

Diner is over. Early evening has arrived. The associates rise, remove themselves from the supper table, collect themselves. Perhaps go outside to inhale the rain-soaked air before returning inside.

The dishes have been cleared. A new round of coffee and drinks are made available. The lamps are lowered a bit to encourage a conversational room. But what was once collegiality had become tense, more tribunal-like.

No one seems eager to begin. But of course, the first out of the gate with no remittance, no second thoughts, no penitence, was Creed... his voice harder, ready for dispute, and eager for a fight.

"If what you have said is true... If empire tempts... If borders wound... If even Scripture can be misread, misjudged, misapplied... then tell me plainly. How are a Christian people to resist worldly evil? How is a Christian nation to survive the threat of opposition that it might not be persecuted again? And how is churchly power to be exercised - if at all?!

He looked directly at Wright and said, "Or have you left us only with love too weak to govern?"

This was a tremendous opening statement. It was - at its heart - the deepest, soundest nationalist objection that a Christian might project.

There was no caricature. Only serious objection.

The remaining three, now gathering up their own thoughts and convictions, did not answer immediately. They waited for Jonathan to settle down. To not feel threatened or excluded. Not diminished nor made to feel of little worth.

His vivid assertions hung in the room like acrid smoke. It was Elias, not Wright, who finally spoke in a voice which offered an unusual calmness to it.

"Jonathan, you have mistaken love for weakness. That is an old mistake. Empires have made it often. Love does not mean powerlessness. It means power refusing domination. It means force disciplined by conscience. It means refusing to make fear the architect of so-called divine order. Rightly, it sees the other as a person in their own right; responds to the other lovingly, and refuses to degrade or delegitimize the other as has been done countless times within Christian societies."

It was exactly the kind of answer Creed had heard before. He wasted no time and answered at once, "But evil does not yield to conscience. It yields to strength!"

Purposefully, Silas set down his cup. His hackles rising. "And yet, strength without conscience becomes the very evil we are to resist. How do you explain that."

That landed heavily. Jonathan turned to Wright. "And you, Tom? Do you believe Christian nations must be allowed to defend themselves both internally and externally? For if they do not preserve themselves they will fall."

Wright rose up, paced a bit, then spoke with some gravity, "Of course Jonathan. The question is not whether power exists. The question is whether Christians baptize it too quickly." He paused. "Once the church begins calling domination providence... it crosses a very dangerous threshold to the health of a nation, let alone it's people, and the faithful within."

Jonathan leaned forward testedly, "And what of rulers who would defend the church from corruption, failure, and demise? What if imperfect leaders, even flawed leaders, are nonetheless committed to preserve Christian order against dissolution? May preachers not bless such rulers?" He was giving each word weight now....

And there it was. The room sensed it before it knew it. The question had finally surfaced. A sensible reply must find accordance with the declaration clearly made.

Silas answered immediately, "Pastors may pray for rulers. Scripture permits that. But blessing power is not the same as sanctifying it. When preachers confuse these things... they cease speaking prophetically... and begin speaking as court theologians." Yes, he too could stress words and vocabulary.

Elias gave a faint smile. "Chaplains to Caesar," he quipped.

Jonathan did not laugh. Not even a little bit. But then asked, more directly than before, "... And if the threat is apocalyptic to a Christian nature? Foreordained in Scripture itself? God's very words of warning to His people? If a people believes Christian civilization hangs by a thread? What then?"

And here we conclude. For the first time that night even Tom Wright looked troubled.

End of Act IV.

(Curtain falls.)

---

Act V - Recovering Witness

(Curtain rises.)

No one spoke. The question remained where Jonathan had left it. Intentionally. Forcefully. He felt his beliefs deeply within his bones and had no intention of leaving his three friends so easily off the hook denying the realities of life as he saw it.

If the threat is apocalyptic... what then? Like many others, he felt this intently.

Outside, the evening sun had set. The air had been washed clean by the new rain. Darkness was closing up and it was time to draw the drama to a close. 

They had each been down these roads before - perhaps not with one another, but with their congregations and audiences; with their loved ones and close friends; with the news outlets and their bible students. 

At length it was not Wright who answered. Nor Jonathan. But Silas Reed. But he did not answer the question. He offered something alongside of it...

"If a people believe civilization hangs by a thread... that would explain the societal fear of disassembly - that a nation's faith might become something other than it's inherited national identity... if not it's belief in its own national destiny by divine decree."

"... Yet this does not sanctify what fear becomes when fear acts unChristianly. Rather, it urges it's Christian faithful to inspect who they are - and who they are becoming - in light of those fears. Whether those fears, if legitimate, require a revisit to Jesus' teachings in their response to the new opportunities growing around God's children."

Creed did not respond. Neither did Wright. He had spoken enough for the evening and was becoming tired. But Elias Vale spoke-up, almost as if continuing a thought older than the room itself with its vast liturgies on printed page lining their souls.

"Perhaps every age believes itself near the apocalypse. Empires certainly do. They often name their anxiety providence. And their self-preservation destiny. But what is deemed divine exclusivity - or divine blessing - may more surely be excuse to act profanely before a loving, embracing God.

Jonathan looked at him sharply. "Then you would deny civilizational peril? Claim the onus is on us in how we act or don't act!"

"No," Elias said. "I deny that peril automatically authorizes enforced, authoritative domination. That it is we, ourselves, who must be circumspect before God in all our ways, alliances, and activities, ahead of our nation-of-residence.

Altogether weary, Wright spoke, almost to himself, "Too often the church has often mistaken crisis for divine permission rather than realizing the event as opportunity for divine seed-sowing and harvest. Power and force redeems no one. Acts of impugned self-righteousness, self-aggrandizement, overstatement, persecutorial allowances, or outright cruelty are not acts of the Holy Spirit. By divine permission, I mean permission which acts humbly, in league with one's fellow citizens, kindly, in thoughtfulness and with tenderness."

Then Jonathan, after hearing long-winded Wright out, replied "And what if you are wrong? What if history belongs to those willing to wield power while you hesitate to love and sow seeds?"

Wright looked at him sadly, "Then, in God's work of reconciliation, we fail. But better failure in acts of love than triumph in acts of falsehood and evil."

Silas closed his eyes briefly. Vale looked about. The point had been made. Nothing more could be said. Christians come or go on the dais of God. If they were to be guilty of anything, let them be guilty of loving those around them.

At length Elias spoke the final words of the evening,

"Perhaps witness begins... not when power is acclaimed,
but when power is refused ultimacy."

No one answered. Jonathan stared into his empty, darkened glass. Wright folded his tired hands. Silas looked toward the door. And Elias felt a bit alone, not for the first time that night.

The time had come to depart. A Christian fellowship had failed to unite and laid tattered about the enclave. Each had felt the heavy arguments of an outside world either wrestling for answers or stomping across the fortress lines in battlement dress.

Nothing was won or lost. But a pervasive loss was felt nonetheless. And that, more deeply by some....

Outside, the blowing wind moved through the wet branches and brush, then lifted up across the night sky towards the dawning of another day. The chimes had struck and it was time to bid goodnight.

And underneath the lamplight, on the backside of the invitation, when turned over, was read -

"The wind bloweth where it listeth. Thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit" (John 3.8)

 End of Act V.

(Curtain falls.)