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    A Course in Biblical Mysticism
    A Course in Biblical Mysticism
    A Course in Biblical Mysticism
    Ebook90 pages1 hour

    A Course in Biblical Mysticism

    By Ed Hurst

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    This is a syllabus for academic study with references to outside reading material. It presumes familiarity with the text of the Bible and a mind ready for baccalaureate level study in cultural backgrounds. The course traces the development of Western intellectual traditions and how they affect reading of Scripture. This is then contrasted with the history and development of the very different outlook of the Hebrew people who gave us the Bible. The course ends with a discussion of some implications of the differences and urges the student to at least understand, if not embrace, the proper biblical perspective.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherEd Hurst
    Release dateAug 2, 2013
    ISBN9781301354320
    A Course in Biblical Mysticism
    Author

    Ed Hurst

    Born 18 September 1956 in Seminole, OK. Traveled a great deal in Europe with the US Army, worked a series of odd jobs, and finally in public education. Ordained to the ministry as a Baptist, then with a non-denominational endorsement. Currently semi-retired.

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      Book preview

      A Course in Biblical Mysticism - Ed Hurst

      A Course in Biblical Mysticism

      By Ed Hurst

      Smashwords Edition

      Copyright 2013 by Ed Hurst

      Copyright notice: People of honor need no copyright laws; they are only too happy to give credit where credit is due. Others will ignore copyright laws whenever they please. If you are of the latter, please note what Moses said about dishonorable behavior – be sure your sin will find you out (Numbers 32:23)

      Permission is granted to copy, reproduce and distribute for non-commercial reasons, provided the book remains in its original form.

      Cover Art: A section of the Flammarion engraving, public domain.

      Other books by this author include Ancient Truth: Old Testament History and The Mind of Christ. Get your free copies at Smashwords.

      Table of Contents

      Introduction

      Spoiler

      Part 1

      Chapter 1 – The Meaning of Western

      Chapter 2 – Greek Philosophers

      Chapter 3 – Roman Organization

      Chapter 4 – Germanic Mythology

      Chapter 5 – The Western Church

      Chapter 6 – The Enlightenment

      Part 2

      Chapter 1 – Approaching Biblical Mysticism

      Chapter 2 – The Ancient Near East

      Chapter 3 – Abraham from Mesopotamia

      Chapter 4 – Covenant Nation

      Chapter 5 – Hellenization

      Chapter 6 – Judaizers and the Early Church

      Part 3

      Chapter 1 – Implications

      Chapter 2 – Mystical Reading of ANE Literature

      Chapter 3 – Human Motivations

      Chapter 4 – Recap

      Introduction

      This is a syllabus for a course of study. A thorough study will require reading material that is not included in this syllabus.

      Objective: This course offers a comparative cultural anthropology study of the unique intellectual approach from which the Christian Bible is written. It presumes the student is Western and is not wholly aware of what it means to be Western, or how radically different it is from the culture promoted by Scripture.

      Structure: The material is presented in a standard academic Western approach. The course first summarizes the meaning of Western cultural identity. We will review seminal sources that help to reveal the formation of Western intellectual assumptions. Then we will turn to the contrasting approach of the people who gave us the Bible. This approach assumes the biblical identity is profoundly alien to Westerners. This course presumes familiarity with typical Western academics on at least a baccalaureate level of education.

      It is not necessary to actually read whole libraries. There is nothing wrong with reading good summaries as a review of previous surveys. Some of that material will be summarized here, but the reader will cheat himself if he has never read the sources.

      Those with a purely academic interest in the subject can benefit from this survey. However, let the reader make no mistake: This course is a weapon aimed at the very heart of Western Civilization. The West is a battered and leaky vessel, and passengers would do well to disembark at the earliest opportunity. Such a departure requires a conscious choice in favor of some other means to moving through life. This course assumes consciously and without debate that the biblical civilization is both different and better.

      Perspective: There has to be a reason, leading to a motivation, for bothering with all of this study. Simply acquainting the reader with history and literature is not an end in itself. At some point we have to admit we hope people change, that they adopt an outlook and sense of purpose informed by all of this background.

      Virtually all of humanity stretching back into the dim mists of ancient times was born into a social context. Someone always took the responsibility of teaching and training the youth in the ways of those among whom they were born. The primary means was the collective mythology of the culture and society. While in common usage the words myth and mythology tend to be used as handles for dismissing something as irrelevant to real life, in reality this is nothing more than rejecting one mythology for another. The function of mythology in any society is providing structure for addressing oneself to reality.

      All societies operate on a mythology as the very ground from which thought itself is formed. The frame of reference, the matrix and structure in which the hooks are fixed for catching and holding experiences so that sense can be made of them, cannot come from nothing. The human mind is wired that way. Western society pretends its own matrix is reality itself, but that very belief is mythology by academic definition. Every previous civilization that came before Western Civilization asserted the same thing, and civilizations that follow will be just as dismissive of the West as the West is of all those coming before it.

      It would be of little use to organize and offer a course such as this without an underlying motive of trying to sell readers on the idea of adopting something that is better, more consistent with reality, than the Western view. Failing that, the readers will at least be able to grasp the nature of what they choose and what they reject more consciously.

      Therefore, the following study is cast in terms of implications. It is not enough to study Western Civilization; there is a wealth of courses on that subject itself. The same is true of previous ancient civilizations. While some courses are critical in approach, the underlying assumption is to help you celebrate being Western, or at least see the potential for moral goodness in Western Civilization. It’s a call to be proud. This course counters that call, and attempts to define the same wealth of facts and theories as something worthy of shame.

      If we could restate the description of this course, it would be one of comparative morality. Most people never consciously examine the fundamental assumptions of what constitutes and defines good and bad. Rather, they simply assume that their own view is roughly equivalent to that of God Himself, as it were. It never occurs to most people that their own context is just one of many possibilities. Worse, virtually the entirety of Western Christianity assumes their Western brand of religion is precisely what is portrayed in the Bible. The aim of this course is to show that assumption is manifestly false. Not that any

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