Who Is the God of Jewish Sacrifice? Part 1 - Ancient Practices

Who Is the God of Jewish Sacrifice?

Examining the Ancient Practice of Sacrifice

apart from Jewish theology and teaching

Part 1

by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT-5

Who Is the God of Jewish Sacrifice? Part 1 - Ancient Practices

Who Is the God of Jewish Sacrifice? Part 2 - Jewish Theology

 Who Is the God of Jewish Sacrifice? Part 3 - Process Theology

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Introduction

In the ancient Near East, sacrifice was the language of religion. To appease the gods, secure harvests, or maintain cosmic balance, animals were slaughtered and blood spilled. Within this shared cultural world, the Hebrew tribes also offered sacrificial lambs. Yet when examined carefully, their practice points to a strikingly different conception of deity. The Hebrew God was not imagined as hungry for offerings or capricious in mood, but as a Being who set stable  and consistent relational terms through covenant. From Abraham’s tokens of fidelity, to Sinai’s ordered rituals, to the prophets’ cries for justice, and finally into the New Covenant’s turn away from blood altogether in Jesus' final act of atonement on the Cross, the Hebrew sacrificial system reveals a God who is relational, serious about morality, and increasingly oriented toward inner fidelity rather than outward slaughter (though it could be argued that God was always about interiority rather than exteriority).

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Question 1

In the old testament the Hebrew tribes slaughtered a sacrificial lamb per its religious teachings on atonement. What might one infer about their God's character from this practice - WITHOUT referring to their Jewish theology then or now?

Proposal

Suppose we set aside Jewish theology (both ancient or modern) and just look at the practice of slaughtering a lamb as part of atonement rituals, what might we infer about the Hebrew tribes perception of their God?

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1. A God Who Demands Seriousness About Offense

The very fact that a life must be taken implies that wrongs committed before this God were not trivial. The shedding of blood signaled that misdeeds, sins, and evil, had weight and consequence. This suggests a deity seen as morally weighty - who was not indifferent to human behavior.

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2. A God Who Accepts Substitution

Rather than demanding the life of the offender, the deity accepted the life of another creature in the offender's place. This portrays a God who allows symbolic exchange thus indicating i) flexibility - and, ii) mercy within severity. The lamb became a stand-in, hinting at divine willingness to mediate justice through ritual.

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3. A God Bound to Ritual and Symbol

The act was not random slaughter but carefully structured: the lamb had to be without blemish, slain in a prescribed way, and offered at the right time. This reflects a God conceived as order-oriented, who interacted with humans through patterned, symbolic action rather than chaotic or arbitrary demands.

Why this Need for Order?

• Chaos is threatening. In the ancient world, life was precarious - famine, disease, war, unpredictable weather. Ritual provided a sense of stability, a way to align life with what was felt to be the deeper order of the cosmos.

• Rituals create rhythm. Regular sacrifices, festivals, and prayers marked time, turning chaotic existence into a patterned calendar of meaning.

• Symbols make the invisible visible. Through lambs, altars, and blood, people could “see” their relationship with God enacted in tangible form.

Theologically,

• Order reflects the divine. In Hebrew thought especially, God was seen as a God of creation, who brought cosmos (order) out of chaos (Gen. 1). To worship this God was to mirror divine order in ritual life.

• Holiness requires separation. The laws of purity, clean and unclean animals, prescribed sacrifices - all these reinforced that God was distinct and holy, and that access to God required careful boundaries.

• Covenant is not arbitrary. By giving structure, God’s demands were knowable and consistent. This separated Israel’s God from capricious Near Eastern deities whose moods had to be guessed.

Socially and Communally Religious Order Provided:

• Unity. Shared ritual bonded tribes into a people; sacrifices at the Tabernacle or Temple were collective acts of belonging.

• Memory. Rituals transmitted history — e.g., Passover not only offered sacrifice but retold the Exodus, embedding identity in a sacred story.

• Accountability. Order made fidelity measurable: one could see if Israel was keeping covenant or straying.

Religiously,

• Order signals reverence. A God of justice and holiness must be approached in a way that reflects seriousness.

• Order teaches fidelity. A God of relationship gives a people patterns to live by, so they know what fidelity looks like.

• Divine relationship requires felt experience. A God of life anchors divine-human connection in tangible forms (blood, sacrifice, seasons), so that the sacred is enacted in daily life, not left as vague abstraction.

Conclusion

Religion (and by extension, the God behind it) found order important because order creates a living bridge between chaos and cosmos, between human need and divine holiness. Without ritual structure, relationship with God could feel arbitrary or unstable. With it, people could enact fidelity, experience belonging, and trust that divine presence was real and near.

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4. A God Who Links Life and Holiness

Blood was viewed as the seat of life. Offering it up to God suggests that life itself belonged to this deity, and that returning it was a way of acknowledging divine ownership of creation. It portrays God as intimately bound with vitality and mortality.

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5. A God Who Makes Relationship Conditional

Because atonement required sacrifice, access to divine favor was not assumed - it was mediated. This points toward a God who was relational but not automatically approachable, whose closeness had to be continually renewed through ritual acts.

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In short: from the outside, without the interjection of religion or theology, one might infer that the Hebrew tribes imagined a God of moral seriousness, ritual order, and life-demanding holiness - yet also a God willing to accept symbolic substitution as a way for flawed humans to remain in relationship.

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Question 2

In regards to a broader cultural approach, how then does Israel's sacrificial religion compare to other ancient Near Eastern religions and gods of their time? By looking across other ancient cultures, can we gain a bit more clarity of Israel's tribal God's character?

This comparison then goes back to the original question posed: "Who is God? What is God? How is God?" That is, what can be said of God when studying Israel's practices in relationship to the other local and regional religious practices of their time?

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1. Moral Seriousness vs. Divine Appetite

• Surrounding cultures (Mesopotamian, Canaanite, etc.) often framed sacrifice as feeding or appeasing the gods. Blood, grain, or incense were “divine rations,” ensuring the gods’ favor or staving off anger.

• Hebrew tribes, in contrast, did not depict God as needing food or sustenance. The lamb’s slaughter was not nourishment for a deity but a moral-symbolic act. One can infer that their God was viewed as ethically demanding rather than nutritionally dependent.

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2. Substitution vs. Continuation of Wrath

• In many ancient settings, divine anger could only be soothed by extravagant offerings, even human sacrifice (e.g., Phoenician/Moabite rites).

• The Hebrew pattern - the substitution of an animal for a human - suggests a God both serious about justice yet open to mitigation. Instead of endless cycles of appeasement, the lamb was a way of bridging the gap without escalating to costlier human offerings.

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3. Orderly Ritual vs. Magical Transaction

• Babylonian and Assyrian sacrifices often carried magical overtones: precise formulas and incantations to manipulate outcomes.

• Hebrew sacrifices were also structured, but the emphasis was less on magic and more on covenantal order: following God’s prescribed ritual acknowledged belonging and fidelity. This points to a God who values order and relationship more than ritual power-games.

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4. Holiness and Life vs. Cosmic Maintenance

• In Egypt and Mesopotamia, sacrifices helped maintain cosmic balance or ma’at. The gods required offerings to keep creation from collapsing into chaos.

• For the Hebrews, the link between blood and life gave sacrifice a moral-relational frame rather than a cosmic maintenance one. Their God was imagined as Lord of life itself, who required acknowledgment of that fact rather than sheer cosmic upkeep.

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5. Conditional Relationship vs. Transactional Favor

• Ancient Near Eastern gods often acted like capricious rulers - you gave gifts, they gave rain or victory (if they felt like it).

• The Hebrew God was also seen as demanding, but sacrifice carried covenantal weight: it was about maintaining relationship, not just securing favors. This suggests a God whose interaction with humans was rooted in fidelity rather than whimsy.

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In Summary

Compared with other Near Eastern deities, one could infer that the Hebrew God was imagined as:

• Morally weighty rather than appetitive.

• Relational rather than capricious.

• Life-oriented rather than chaos-fearing.

• Orderly and covenantal rather than magically manipulated.

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Expansion of Point 5:

Conditional Relationship vs. Transactional Favor

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In the wider Near East Context:

• Transactional sacrifices were common: you give something (grain, wine, an animal), and the god might give something back (rain, harvest, victory, healing). The relationship was more like tribute to a king: if you stop paying, expect punishment or neglect.

• These sacrifices were often pragmatic and immediate - a bargain struck in hopes of material gain or protection.

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In the Hebrew setting:

• Sacrifice did not guarantee automatic blessings. Instead, it was bound up in the covenant framework - the idea that Israel and their God had a mutual, long-term bond, with obligations on both sides.

• When a lamb was offered for atonement, it wasn’t simply “buying” rain or health; it was renewing the relational bond after wrongdoing had strained it.

• This suggests that the Hebrew God was not imagined as a deity you could manipulate with gifts, but One who required fidelity and integrity in an ongoing relationship.

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Key inference about their God

• Not capricious: Unlike gods who might or might not respond to offerings, this God had set terms for how relationship was to be maintained.

• Not for sale: Sacrifice was necessary, but it didn’t purchase divine favor in the ordinary transactional sense; it acknowledged dependence and repaired relationship.

• Conditional, yet stable: Access to God’s favor required obedience and ritual, but the God was not arbitrary. There was a consistent order by which people could approach Him.

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So the Hebrew sacrificial lamb practice points toward a God of covenantal consistency rather than a god of unpredictable favors.

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1. The Covenant as the Frame

The Hebrew people did not view sacrifice as a free-floating ritual. It was embedded in a covenant - a binding agreement between their God and their community. With Abraham, the covenant established:

• Divine promise: land, descendants, blessing.

• Human response: fidelity, loyalty, ritual markers. As example, circumcision was a symbolic act acknowledging Israel's covenant relationship to God... which were later  embellished with codified laws under Moses when returning to the lands of their Patriarchal Fathers: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob).

This meant that God was not just another deity to be placated but a partner in an evolving, structured relationship.

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2. Sacrifice as Covenant Maintenance

When wrongs occurred, sacrifice functioned as the means to renew covenant standing.

• Instead of endless bribes to keep an unpredictable god happy, offerings acknowledged that the people had breached covenant terms and needed to realign.

• The lamb’s life marked both the seriousness of the breach and God’s willingness to accept a symbolic substitute to restore the relationship.

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3. Fixed Terms vs. Arbitrary Demands

In many Near Eastern religions, the gods’ demands were shifting and opaque - requiring diviners, omens, or dreams to guess what the deity wanted.

In the Hebrew covenant, God’s terms were revealed and stable:

• “Walk before me and be blameless” (Genesis 17).

• Rituals of atonement spelled out in detail (later, in Leviticus).

Thus, one could infer that their God was conceived as a deity who set knowable, reliable conditions for relationship - firm rather than fickle.

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4. Conditional, But Secure

The covenant gave a paradox:

• Conditional: Blessings were tied to obedience, and wrongs required sacrifice.

• Secure: God’s promises were long-range and not easily revoked - unlike other gods who could abandon worshipers without warning.

This paints a picture of a God both demanding and committed - setting terms but binding Himself to those terms as well.

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So, when looking at the sacrificial lamb structure within Israel's first covenant, the Abrahamic Covenant, it signals a God who was not merely appeased by gifts but who established clear relational conditions and held both Himself and His people accountable to them.

Point 5 therefore shows that the Hebrew God was not approached through mere transactions of favor, but through a conditional relationship structured by covenant. 

Unlike neighboring peoples who tried to appease their gods with unpredictable gifts, the Hebrews believed their God had set terms for maintaining relationship. Those terms were not arbitrary but revealed in an evolving relationship - first to Abraham, then to the nation at Sinai, and later deepened by the prophetic voice.

In this way, the sacrificial lamb practice cannot be understood as an isolated ritual. It was central to the entirety of God's covenantal unfolding of Himself to His people, Israel.

• In Abraham’s day, sacrifice marked God’s binding oath of promise.

• At Sinai, it became a regulated, religious system for renewal between God and His people.

• By the time of the prophets, it was critiqued and reoriented toward justice and mercy as the truer expressions of covenant loyalty.

Thus, one may infer that Israel's God was conceived not only as a deity of serious demands and stable terms, but also as one who gradually shifted emphasis from ritual obedience toward ethical fidelity.

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The Covenantal Evolution

of Structure and Promise

Let’s now trace how the “setting of terms” evolved from Abraham → Sinai → Prophets, focusing only on what the sacrificial lamb practice suggests about their God.

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1. Abrahamic Covenant (Genesis 12–17)

• Terms set by God: God promised Abraham descendants, land, and blessing. The human side was fidelity expressed through obedience and circumcision.

• Sacrifice’s role: Blood rituals (e.g., Genesis 15’s covenant ceremony, animals cut in two) dramatized the seriousness of covenant loyalty. The God inferred here is one who binds Himself by oath but expects embodied signs of loyalty.

• Of note, only God walked between the sacrifices, not Abraham, indicating God's commitment as well as the only party which could fulfill the covenantal obligations (later, under the New Covenant, Christ became both sacrifice and the One who fulfills covenantal obligations).

• Divine character implied: A deity who establishes relational bonds with permanence, but who demands tokens of allegiance and obedience.

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2. Sinai Covenant (Exodus–Deuteronomy)

• Terms clarified in law: The Sinai covenant systematized the conditions of relationship through Torah - especially in Leviticus. Now sacrifice was regulated: types of offerings (burnt, peace, guilt, sin) and specific requirements (unblemished animals, priestly mediation).

• Sacrifice’s role: It moved from occasional covenant-cutting to ongoing maintenance. Every misdeed or impurity had a ritual remedy (teaching all mankind sins and requires atonement-making by God). Atonement lambs, especially during Passover and the Day of Atonement, symbolized renewal of the covenant as a people.

• Divine character implied: A God of order, holiness, and justice, who provided a structured system so His presence could dwell with humans without consuming them. Not arbitrary but exacting: relationship required careful obedience to revealed instructions.

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3. Prophetic Critique (Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Micah, etc.)

• Terms reframed: The prophets challenged the reduction of covenant to ritual mechanics. They proclaimed that sacrifice alone was insufficient if it wasn’t matched by justice, mercy, and fidelity. This also became the focus of Christ in his ministries to the people and judgments upon the religious temple system.

• Sacrifice’s role: No longer the center, but a symbol pointing to deeper covenant faithfulness. God’s preference was “mercy, not sacrifice” (Hosea 6:6) and “to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly” (Micah 6:6–8).

• Divine character implied: A God who transcends ritual, who values ethical transformation over blood rites. Still relational, but now shown to care more about the heart than the lamb, one's actions of grace than acts of religiousity.

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Trajectory of Inference

• Abraham: God as covenant-maker, requiring symbolic tokens.

• Sinai: God as covenant lawgiver, requiring ritual order to sustain His presence.

• Prophets: God as covenant renewer, insisting on ethical fidelity beyond ritual.

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So if we stand back and look at the Hebrew's sacrificial lamb practice across these stages, one could infer a God who began as a bond-forming deity, became structured as a lawgiver, and was ultimately re-envisioned as one who prized justice and compassion above ritual.

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The Transformation of Israel's Covenant's in Christ

as God's Model and Foundation for New Covenant

Next, let’s carry the covenantal thread forward into the New Covenant (as it would be understood in continuity with the Abrahamic → Sinai → Prophetic progression), but still keeping to our original question of what might be inferred about God from Israel's practice of covenantal sacrifice - as versus diving into theological dogma.

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1. Continuity from Abraham

• Abrahamic Covenant: God bound Himself by promise but required signs of fidelity (circumcision, obedience, sacrifice).

• New Covenant continuity: The same God is inferred to be a promise-keeper, still committed to relational bonds across generations. But the sign of belonging shifts away from physical rituals toward more inward, universal expressions of loyalty and faith.

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2. Continuity from Sinai

• Sinai Covenant: God’s presence required ritual order - sacrifices, priesthood, holy days. Lambs and other offerings were prescribed means of maintaining divine–human relationship.

• New Covenant shift: The inference now is of a God who no longer requires continual ritual slaughter but provides a once-for-all symbolic act. This signals a God who moves beyond repetitive sacrificial systems toward direct, unhindered relationship.

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3. Continuity from the Prophets

• Prophetic critique: God desired justice, mercy, humility, and fidelity over blood rites. Sacrifice was not abolished but relativized.

• New Covenant fulfillment: This points to a God who now internalizes the covenant, writing it on hearts (as Jeremiah 31 envisioned). Inference: this God is less concerned with external tokens and more with ethical transformation and inner fidelity.

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Character of God across the Covenants

1. Abrahamic God: Bond-maker, demanding tokens of loyalty.

2. Sinai God: Lawgiver, dwelling among a people through ordered ritual.

3. Prophetic God: Ethical judge, demanding mercy over sacrifice.

4. New Covenant God: Relational transformer, bypassing animal sacrifice to dwell directly with humans in spirit and life. (side note: but again, this God was already do so whether admitted or not by the Old Testament).

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Overall Inference

From the lamb sacrifice to the New Covenant, one could infer that the Hebrew God was conceived as a dynamic, evolving relational deity:

• At first, demanding visible tokens.

• Then requiring precise sacrificial systems.

• Later insisting on justice and mercy.

• Finally, opening a way beyond blood altogether, toward immediate relationship and inward fidelity. (side note: Which was ever and always the reality then as now.)

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Now let’s highlight how the New Covenant shift away from animal sacrifice stood out against the religious world of its time as well as with Israel's covenantal practices.

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1. Ancient Near Eastern Continuity

Most religions surrounding the Hebrews never abandoned sacrifice.

• Mesopotamia & Canaan: Sacrifice remained the central way to appease gods, often seen as feeding them or securing favors.

• Greco-Roman world: Public sacrifice (oxen, goats, pigs) was the glue of civic religion. It bound city and empire, making ritual slaughter essential for both gods and state.

• Persian/Zoroastrian faith: Though more dualistic, still emphasized ritual offerings and fire ceremonies as ongoing means of cosmic alignment.

Pattern: Sacrifice remained an enduring transaction - give offerings, keep the gods satisfied, maintain balance.

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2. Hebrew Trajectory Up to the Prophets

By contrast, the Hebrew story already began to question sacrifice:

• Prophets insisted: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice” (Hosea), “Cease your endless offerings” (Isaiah), “What does the Lord require? To do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly” (Micah).

• This hinted at a moral and relational reorientation of religion, where blood rituals pointed to something deeper rather than being ends in themselves.

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3. The New Covenant Breakthrough

Here’s where the distinctiveness crystallized:

• The New Covenant eliminated the cycle of repeated animal sacrifices, claiming they were no longer necessary.

• Relationship with God was no longer mediated through temple slaughter but through direct, ongoing fidelity and inward transformation.

• Inference: their God was not ultimately bound to ritual maintenance at all, but was moving toward universal accessibility, inner moral law, and relational immediacy.

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4. Radical Uniqueness in the Ancient World

From the outside, this would have seemed almost unthinkable:

• Imagine a Greek watching - no temple sacrifices? No altars? Religion without slaughter? That was unheard of.

• Imagine a Persian priest - a god who cared more about inward transformation than outward fire offerings? Astonishing.

• Even within Jewish culture, moving beyond temple sacrifice to a New Covenant was seen as revolutionary.

The inference is that the Hebrew God was not static but progressive and relational, moving history toward a religion centered not on ritual appeasement but on ethical fidelity and direct communion.

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Summary Contrast

• Others: Gods stayed bound to perpetual sacrifice.

• Hebrew God (through the New Covenant): Sacrifice was provisional, pointing toward a higher way. Once fulfilled, it was set aside.

In historical terms, this made the Hebrew God (and later the Christian God) one of the first deities in recorded religion to transcend sacrificial blood entirely, favoring inner transformation over ritual slaughter.

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Conclusion

From the outside, one could infer that the Hebrew God was unlike the gods of their neighbors. While other deities remained tied to perpetual sacrifice and transactional favors, the Hebrew trajectory showed movement: from covenant tokens, to ordered sacrificial law, to prophetic critique, to the New Covenant’s direct accessibility.

This suggests a God who was not static but relationally dynamic - a deity who valued justice over ritual, mercy over appeasement, and fidelity over blood. In the ancient world of endless sacrifices, this vision was radical: a God who set clear terms, kept them, and gradually led His people beyond sacrifice toward an ethic of compassion, justice, and inward transformation.

Do we reflect God or does God reflect us? Questions on Human v Divine Nature

Do We Reflect God or

Does God Reflect Us?

Questions on Human v Divine Nature

by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT-5

In every reflection, we seek the face of God,

only to find that God’s face is also seeking ours.

- re slater & chatgpt

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INTRODUCTION

Do we reflect God or does God reflect us?

When coming to Christian theology this simple statement seems to be the heart of our question.

• Positively, if we reflect God (part a), then human dignity is grounded in God's goodness and love;

• Negatively, if God reflects us (part b), then God becomes little more than a mirror of human instability: fickled, wrathful, unreliable,and changeable. God is too much like us at our lowest (or, perhaps worst) than God's Self.

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Too Often We Make God Into Our Image

Such concerns are not unique to Christianity. In Greek mythology, these observations always seems to be asked of the gods. The gods often appear less transcendent and more human - embodying passions, rivalries, and inconsistencies rather than divine perfection. One could say they reflected the very flaws of the people who worshiped them.

Similarly, in the Semitic pantheon which shaped the Hebrew imagination, deities were often depicted in human terms as well. The biblical narrative shows this evolution: from many gods (polytheism) to one God (monotheism); from a covenantal God of faithfulness and blessing (Abrahamic covenant), to a God of wrath and judgment (Mosaic/Sinaitic covenant), to a God dwelling among his people through kingly and priestly structures (Davidic covenant), culminating in the promised New Covenant in Christ and his church.

Across the centuries of church history, this tension has endured. Theologies of God’s apparent changeability - sometimes merciful, sometimes wrathful; sometimes loving, sometimes punishing - have shaped Christian belief, worship, and behavior. Too often, God has been portrayed as a binary being governed by emotions rather than as a purposeful, consistent presence moving history toward its intended goal (teleology and eschatology).

It is precisely here that process theology, grounded in process philosophy, offers a vital corrective. By re-envisioning God not as variable in character but as relationally constant in love, persuasion, and creative aim, process thought keeps Christian faith “close to the knitting” - centering God’s nature in steadfast goodness while also affirming God’s dynamic involvement in the unfolding of history.

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I. THE HUMAN NATURE

Human nature can be understood as the composite of qualities that characterize humanity:

• Rationality and creativity (our capacity for reason, imagination, and design)

• Relationality and empathy (our need for community, love, and meaning)

• Moral ambiguity (our ability to choose good, but also to inflict harm)

• Finitude and variability (our mortality, limitations, and shifting desires)

It is this mixture - noble aspiration and flawed imperfection - that frames the reflection between God and man. It is also why the human nature may be seen as morally ambiguous.

Calling the human nature morally ambiguous captures the tension:

We are capable of remarkable acts of love, generosity, and creativity, yet are just as capable of cruelty, indifference, and destruction.

That ambiguity is precisely what makes the question “Who reflects whom?” so provocative: 

Does the divine explain our nobility, or does our brokenness distort the image we project onto God?

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The Christian Assertion

Within much of Christian tradition, human nature is described as fallen. Rooted in the Genesis story of Adam and Eve. The doctrine of the Fall asserts that humanity has turned away from God, resulting in a distortion of our will, desires, and actions. Rather than simply being morally mixed, this view emphasizes a corruption of the good creation, whereby sin infiltrates every aspect of human life.

Hence, the problem is not ambiguity but an inherited brokenness: our nature is bent away from God’s goodness, needing redemption.

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A Cultural/Societal Redress to Christian Assertion

From another perspective, the human nature may be seen not so much as fallen but as morally ambiguous - a tension produced by the interplay of biology, culture, and circumstance. Societies shape moral codes, and cultures reinforce behaviors that can incline individuals toward compassion or cruelty, generosity or selfishness. What Christianity calls “fallen” could also be interpreted as the result of systemic forces, inherited traditions, and social conditioning that magnify our weaknesses as much as nurture our strengths.

In this sense, the human condition is less an ontological fall from perfection and more an ongoing struggle within a dynamic moral landscape.

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So, we could frame it like this:

• Christian assertion: Human beings are fallen, fundamentally needing grace and redemption.

• Redressed view: Human beings are morally ambiguous, their nobility and depravity emerging within cultural, historical, and societal variables rather than from a primordial rupture alone.

But, is there another approach which we might use in describing the human condition and it's apparent reflection of God and of ourselves? Yes, I think there is... it's known as the Lacanian Lack.

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Definition of “Lack” in the Philosophical / Psychoanalytic Tradition

“Lack” is a concept that appears especially in psychoanalysis, i) notably in Jacques Lacan, but also in ii) existential philosophy. Some key features:

• Lacan’s Lack (manque): The idea that human desire is structured around something missing, some gap - not just an absence of a particular object, but a lack as such, often lack of being. There are different kinds of lack in Lacanian theory: e.g. lack of being (a fundamental existential gap), lack of having, etc. Desire arises because of lack: if we had full satisfaction, we’d have no reason to desire. Wikipedia

• Existentialist notions similarly speak of alienation, finitude, or nothingness: humans are aware of limits (death, meaninglessness, contingency), and this awareness carries a sense of absence or insufficiency or incompletion.

So “lack” is more than simply “we want something” — it’s a structural absence, something that cannot be fully filled, that shapes human subjectivity, striving, longing.

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Lacan's manque (lack)

The human nature is wholly possessed by a "lack of being." It is a fundamental, constitutive aspect of human subjectivity, arising from the inherent gap in our being and the inability of language or any single object to provide complete satisfaction. It is the lack of a stable, complete self and the fundamental lack-of-being (manque-à-être) that drives desire, as we perpetually search for something to fill this void. This lack is not merely an absence but the very condition for human desire and identity, a perpetual, metonymic journey that can never be fully satisfied.

The Source of Desire

• Not a deficiency, but a condition - Manque is not a simple lack of a thing or object; rather, it is a structuring absence that makes us who we are (our identity is our lack or absence which would fulfill us;  as human, we can never feel complete or fulfilled).

• The desire of the Other - Our desires originate from the Other, and we seek to answer what the Other desires, creating a space of lack and desire within ourselves.

• Desire is a surplus - Desire is not the desire for a specific object but the surplus created when need is transformed into demand by the Other.

Key Aspects of Manque

• Lack of Being (Manque-à-être) - This is the fundamental lack of a complete, self-present self. We are "wanting-to-be" because we never fully "are".

• The objet petit a - While not a thing, this is the elusive object-cause of desire that represents the ultimate, unfillable void, forever promising but never delivering satisfaction.

• Metonymy - Desire is caught in metonymy, constantly moving from one signifier to another in an endless pursuit of something that can never be fully grasped or found.

Consequences of Manque

• Unending Quest - Because desire is the difference between what we demand and what we truly need, it can never be fully satisfied.

• Subjectivity - The awareness and expression of this lack are crucial for a subject to truly articulate their history and achieve a form of self-knowledge.

• Psychoanalytic Practice - Understanding manque is central to psychoanalysis, which involves helping subjects confront the irreconcilable nature of their desire and lack, rather than seeking to eliminate it.

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Bringing “Lack” into Human Nature: Christian and Cultural Perspectives

Christian View (with Lack)

In Christian theology, you might see this “lack” as tied to the Fall:

• Recognition/Confession - Because of sin, human nature becomes aware of something missing: communion with God, moral righteousness, fullness of joy, etc. We experience spiritual emptiness, guilt, alienation.

• Redemption/Act - In Christ's atonement is presented the way to address that lack: the promise of restoration, of being filled (with grace, the Holy Spirit), and ultimately, reconnection not only with self but with God.

In Christian terms, the lack is not only descriptive (what we are missing) but normative and teleological (there can be fulfillment, and Christ's salvation provides it).

Cultural / Societal Lens on Lack

From the cultural or societal angle, “lack” might also be shaped by:

• Social structures: Inequality, injustice, poverty can produce lack (lack of resources, lack of opportunity) that becomes internalized as part of persons’ sense of identity.

• Cultural expectations / alienation: Sometimes what is “lacking” is recognition, meaning, belonging, purpose. Modern societies often produce disconnection or fragmentation, making people aware of missing connections or missing meaningful narratives.

• Consumer culture: Persistent advertising and social media can amplify sense of lack: “If only I had X, then I would be fulfilled,” but in fact every acquisition proves partial and temporary.

So then, culturally, “lack” may refer less to a metaphysical condition of sin, more to structural or existential deficits embedded in living.

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Comparison: "Christian Fallen Nature + Lack" vs. "Morally Ambiguous View + Lack"

Putting these together gives us sharper contrasts:

Aspect	Christian Fallen + Lack	Morally Ambiguous + Lack (Cultural View)
Nature of Lack	Rooted in sin and separation from God; spiritual emptiness; moral brokenness; lack that needs divine remedy.	Rooted in social, psychological, existential dynamics; lack of community, of dignity, of meaning.
Scope	Universal (all human nature is affected by Fall).	Varies by cultural, social, historical context; some people less affected, others more.
Possibility of Fulfillment	Through grace, redemption, spiritual transformation; ultimate fulfillment in Christian hope.	Through societal reform, psychological healing, cultural renewal, meaning-making; but may never be fully resolved.
Moral Implications	Responsibility, repentance, moral striving, dependence on God.	Responsibility too (structures, empathy, institutions), but more emphasis on systemic change and relationality.

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A More Complete Statement of Human Nature Including “Lack”

Here’s how we might incorporate lack into a revised definition:

Human nature comprises a human being created for relationship, moral goodness, and meaning - but is also a condition fundamentally marked by lack of wholeness, incompleteness, or felt lack of identity: it is not only a spiritual, existential, or moral gap or condition but also structurally concrete in its signifying felt-identifiers and self-expressions.

In Christian theology - this lack arises from the Fall and results in alienation, sin, and separation from God;

In cultural and societal terms - this lack often takes shape as unmet needs (of recognition, justice, belonging), structural injustice, and inner yearning.

Therefore, the human condition is not simply ambiguous or fallen, but always in search - seeking fulfillment of something beyond what is immediately given. 

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II. WHO REFLECTS WHOM?

Let's again provide a descriptive statement of the human nature as we did at the outset. That the human nature can be understood as the composite of qualities that characterize humanity:

• Rationality and creativity (our capacity for reason, imagination, and design)

• Relationality and empathy (our need for community, love, and meaning)

• Moral ambiguity (our ability to choose good, but also to inflict harm)

• Finitude and variability (our mortality, limitations, and shifting desires)

It is this mixture - noble aspiration and flawed imperfection - that frames the reflection between God and man.

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Four Statements (2+2)

(a) Man reflects God

• Positive: If we reflect God, then our best qualities - creativity, compassion, and love - are expressions of divine goodness shining through us. Human dignity and worth are grounded in God’s own being.

• Negative: If we reflect God, then why are we also violent, selfish, and destructive? Either God bears responsibility for our flaws, or our reflection is cracked and distorted.

(b) God reflects us

• Positive: If God reflects us, then divine imagery becomes accessible - we see God in human struggle, yearning, and history. God becomes relatable, sharing in our joys and sorrows.

• Negative: If God reflects us, then why isn’t God as fickle, contradictory, and inconsistent as we are? A God who merely mirrors humanity risks shrinking into a projection of our shifting moods and biases.

These four statements illustrate the paradox: either we reflect God or God reflects us. Both possibilities expose the depth of human dignity and the danger of projection.

• If we reflect God, our highest virtues testify to divine goodness, though our vices raise troubling questions.

• If God reflects us, divine imagery becomes accessible and human, though it risks collapsing into mere projection.

(c) Who's in Whose Image?

The mystery remains: are we made in God’s image, or do we continually remake God in ours?

Practically, we see the Christian Bible written in very human terms of God - both in projection of who God is and how God acts, as well as in justification for our own acts of sin and evil upon ourselves and others. The texts bear witness to a God of love and covenant, yet they also echo humanity’s own fears, biases, and violent impulses. Scripture becomes both revelation and mirror: it discloses divine faithfulness and compassion, but it also reflects the limits of the cultures and communities that produced those theologies as verity and assertion.

This tension invites us to read the Bible with discernment:

• If the image of God presented is sometimes shaped by human projection, then interpretation must distinguish between the voice of divine love and the echoes of human distortion.

• To confess that we are made in God’s image is to affirm our dignity and capacity for goodness; to recognize that we remake God in our image is to remain vigilant against turning our fears, hatreds, or ambitions into idols clothed in divine language.

Thus, the paradox remains unresolved. To say we reflect God honors the divine imprint within us, but to say God reflects us cautions against confusing our projections with divine reality. Perhaps the truth lies not in choosing one or the other, but in acknowledging the tension itself - living within it with humility, discernment, and hope.

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III. A PROCESS THEOLOGY MINDSET

Process theology offers a third way. Instead of asking whether i) man reflects God or ii) God reflects mans, process thought sees reflection as mutual and dynamic. God is not fixed and unyielding, nor merely a projection of human frailty. Rather, God and humanity are bound together in a relationship of ongoing becoming.

In this view, God’s eternal character is love, while God’s concrete experience includes the world’s suffering, joys, and struggles. Humanity reflects God by participating in creativity, compassion, and moral striving. At the same time, God reflects us by taking the world into the divine life, feeling our pain and weaving it into the divine memory and experience. Reflection, then, is not one-sided but reciprocal: God influences us toward greater beauty, truth, and goodness, and we in turn contribute to the very texture of God’s ongoing life.

The four statements then leave us with a paradox: to say i) that we reflect God elevates our nobility, but to say ii) that God reflects us explains divine variability. Yet neither option on its own satisfies the depth of the question. Process theology offers a more holistic view. Instead of “either/or,” it suggests a both/and:

• Cosmic grounding and divine experience - God and humanity reflect one another in an ongoing dialogue of becoming. God’s eternal love grounds the world, while God’s relational nature means the world genuinely shapes God through the lived experience of creation’s dynamic life.

• Divine/Human nature and Reciprocity - Similarly, humanity reflects God’s creative image, even as God reflects humanity’s struggles, joys, and longings by taking them into the divine life.

In this mutual reflection, the mystery is not reduced but deepened: God and humanity are co-participants in the unfolding story of creation, joined together in the pursuit of greater wholeness.

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CONCLUSION

Process theology offers a more holistic view. Instead of “either/or,” it suggests a both/and: God and humanity reflect one another in an ongoing dialogue of becoming. God’s eternal love grounds the world, while God’s relational nature means the world genuinely shapes God in God's experience of creation. Which is a plus as it means that our cries for help, our prayers for completion, our daily interactions in a dynamically changing world, all can be heard and met by a God that is near and not far; who hears and acts in response to our changing conditions; who is as much companion as eternal God.

Further, humanity reflects God’s creative image, even as God reflects our human struggle by taking our human experience into the divine life. In this mutual reflection, the mystery is not reduced but deepened: God and humanity are co-participants in the unfolding story of creation, joined in the pursuit of greater wholeness.

Process theology therefore reframes the paradox. Rather than asking whether man reflects God or God reflects man, it sees the relationship as mutual and dynamic. Humanity reflects God in its creativity, love, and striving, while God reflects humanity by taking our experiences - our hopes and dreams, joys and sorrows - into the divine life. In this way, the cosmic mirrored reflection is not one-sided but relational: God and humanity co-shape one another in the unfolding drama of creation, bound together by the constancy of divine love.

May we live as co-creators in the divine dialogue of becoming;

reflecting God’s love, even as God reflects our lives,

until all creation is joined in wholeness.

- re slater & chatgpt