EZEKIEL
Marijean S. Rue
Part
I
I. A—Personal
Life Context
Raised
by a practicing Episcopalian mother in the United States, late twentieth-century, having come to adulthood in an era of
heightened awareness of the church and state issue, and as a graduate student
pursuing my Masters in Theological Studies, I consider myself a person aware of
and sensitive to Christian concerns. But as the daughter of a Catholic
apostate, the niece of the leader of a large New Age organization, and someone
who has had positive exposure her entire life to members of many religions, I
am also aware of the diverse forms of yearning for and connecting to God that
abound both in the United States and the rest of the world. My life experience
has taught me to value all paths that earnestly seek truth and peace, but also
to critically assess all paths as blazed and walked by human beings, and
therefore prone to twists, turns, and sometimes dead-ends such as selfishness,
hypocrisy, and being a source of harm to others. Because I feel very strongly
about the ethical treatment of all people and the accessibility of God to all
people through diverse means, I have been unable to find a religious
institution to identify with. What I have done instead is identify ritual
practices that create what I perceive to be sacred space and divine connection,
and develop these practices mostly on my own or in small groups with other
seekers. These experiences have aided me in developing my personal theology and
way of life. The way of life I favor is living as though God is present and
manifested to me in all living things, and I have a responsibility to love each
creation as though I were encountering its Creator. Thus, I have begun to
define myself as a “Neo-Pagan.”
The label “Pagan” can be applied to
a variety of spiritual beliefs, from Hinduism to the religions of the American
Indians, but “Neo-Pagan” has come to refer to the diverse group of people,
mostly in North American, Europe, Australia and New
Zealand, building
their own religious practices based on their perception of Divine Manifestation
through nature (See Endnote 1). These people may utilize religious practices
such as divination, chanting, dancing, prayer, group ritual, spells,
preparation of herbal incenses or infusions, spiritual journeying or questing,
sweat lodges, meditation, and also acts like caring for animals or other people
in need, reusing and recycling, growing gardens. All these and more are
selected by an individual because he or she experiences a connection to God and
learns God’s will for him or her through the practice. Individual Neo-Pagans
may identify what I have been referring to as “God” in many different ways:
God; Goddess; by an ancient deity’s name like Pan, Aphrodite, Bridgid or Wodan;
a pantheistic concept of God; a dual divinity system (God and Goddess); or an
entire Pantheon of deity figures. Many Neo-Pagans do gather in groups at
specific times of the year, or even monthly or weekly, to practice together.
Probably many more are what are known as “solitary practitioners,” often
because of constraints of time and location, but sometimes because of the need
to protect oneself from persecution. Due to all this diversity, Neo-Pagans can
only be linked together loosely in a religious category.
Ideologically, however, most
Neo-Pagans share much in common. With few exceptions, Neo-Pagans reject
cruelty, exclusion, and hatred. They believe in the freedom of the individual,
but the individual’s close connection with all other creations, and thus
believe all must respect and care for one another to achieve peace. Despite
myths to the contrary, it nigh unheard of to encounter any form of sacrifice in
Neo-Pagan religious practice, unless one counts a gift of cut flowers or bread
to one’s deity as sacrifice, and any form of non-consensual activity within
ritual or lifestyle is likewise anathema, especially sexual activity. There is
a generally accepted adage against harming or manipulating others in any way,
including magic, for any reason whatsoever: “’An thou
harm none, do as thou wilt.” “None” is generally accepted to refer to oneself
as well as other people, animals, and the earth. The second half of the adage,
however, is responsible for the diversity in religious practice as well as
lifestyle. It is very common to find Neo-Pagans with lifestyles considered
alternative to the “norm” of heterosexual union, 2-parent family, 9-5-M-F
employment, etc., though there are plenty of heterosexual, married, monogamous
Neo-Pagans raising children and working in offices five (or more) days a week.
It is also very common, as in all religions, to find various levels of
seriousness and commitment among the members. Some are participating in the
latest thing, or seeking personal gain through metaphysical arts. But many are
on a genuine quest for the Divine, and live by the doctrines and values
communicated to them through their faith tradition: love of others as family;
stewardship of and reverence for the earth, and respect for personal
experience.
My theory for the increasing
commonality of Neo-Paganism in First World countries has to do with the harmful effects of standardization,
post-modernity, technology and globalization. As materially and educationally
privileged citizens of the world, we are aware of the discrepancies between
ourselves and others which are perpetuated by the soulless institutions of
industry and power everywhere. We see these institutions as a result of a lack
of connection with the earth and all its creatures, a lack of understanding of
the earth and all beings as divine creations, and a lack of respect for the
power of the Divine within the world and beyond it. Our response to these lacks
is to develop a tradition of faith that explicitly requires honoring and caring
for all life as sacred, as though we are connected to all things, and as though
the Divine can be found within all beings.
Most Neo-Pagans have no form of
religious institution, no official sacred scripture, and no documented history
of their tradition--and some desire no such authority or structure at all. But those who do have to create that structure and history, and
have looked to the past and engaged in what is now known as “Reclaiming
Theology.” This involves excavating ancient traditions no longer in practice,
from Egyptian and Mesopotamian to Celtic and Native American Indian, for
labels, practices and cosmologies one can apply to current religious life.
Often these labels and practices have been oppressed in history, violently so,
so any texts, places of worship, and especially the original practicing
communities have in most cases been destroyed, and the terminology and symbols
once used by those traditions have been demonized. It may also be the case that
the original tradition had no textual heritage to begin with, and thus when the
last adherents died, much of the tradition became unknown. So often whatever is
preserved of these traditions is in partially or mostly destroyed monuments,
and in texts written by the oppressors of those traditions. Thus those who
would take their traditions from such sources have to read critically, aware of
the context of the authors, and reinterpret the traditions they describe so
distortedly. Many will assume labels like “witch” “magus” or “priestess” and
interpret such labels positively, rejecting longstanding associations with evil
practices or devil worship. (Actually, most
Neo-Pagans do not believe in the devil, as Satan is a Christian figure,
developed in that tradition. Most do recognize the problem of systemic evil,
and dedicate themselves to working against it, as opposed to worshiping
anything associated with it).
In addition to reinterpreting
labels, Neo-Pagans often reassume practices that were absorbed into other
religions in periods of mass conversion and social change. For example, the
Jewish festival of Shavuot, once a purely Pagan harvest festival involving
offering the first of the harvest to the deity responsible for its production,
became also a festival celebrating the giving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai, yet the
practice of presenting the first cut of the harvest at a high altar remained.
Easter traditions are also a good example—the hunting of colored eggs is a
practice many have struggled to connect with the actual Pascal event of Jesus’
Resurrection, and its source lies in the folk practice of hunting for the eggs
of wild birds, which are often shades of blue, green and yellow, as signs of
Spring at the Vernal Equinox, and which would be used as talismans. The word
“Easter” is itself derived from the name of a Teutonic goddess—Ista—and the Celtic
name for the Vernal Equinox—Ostara. Christians who don’t speak English use
derivations of the word “Pascal” to refer to Jesus’ Resurrection.
In addition to reclaiming such
labels and practices through critical reading and historical research,
Neo-Pagans also study the religious traditions thriving today and assume
elements from them they resonate with, making them part of their personal
traditions. This can apply to any aspect of a religion—meditation practices, a
cosmological structure, wisdom for living life—and sources for these aspects
are often the sacred scriptures of these traditions themselves. The Bible is
used by some Neo-Pagans both as a source of inspiration and as a source for
material to reclaim, and thus it is through the Neo-Pagan context I have
described that I will approach the Book of Ezekiel.
I.B—Analysis of this Context
Like most prophets in the pre-Jesus
half of the Bible, the Prophet Ezekiel (or the group of writers/redactors
responsible for producing this text) has much to say about idolatry and worship
of gods other than the Lord of Israel—all of it negative. In the case of this
text, idolatry is one of the major instigators of God’s wrath leading to the
Babylonian exile, the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, and the
loss of countless lives. The sentiment in Ezekiel against fetishes and false
gods would seem to explicitly denounce and reject the Neo-Pagans and the
religious movement I have described. But all people are the people of God—all
are created and loved by God; no matter how far removed from the divine within
creation and themselves they become, they remain God’s concern and part of
God’s family. So I believe there must be
something here for Neo-Pagans besides censure. It is not, I would argue, the idols
the Lord denounces, but the idolatry practiced by the people of Israel,
and I shall examine sections of Chapters 6, 7, and 8 to demonstrate this. The
selfish, inauthentic motives of gaining wealth, power and prestige through
other nations, and the attributing of all power to
grant these things to the physical representations of deity these nations
imported to Israel is the problem in this text. It is entirely possible to be an
idolater in any context—a Christian who believes that it is an actual cross or
a picture of Jesus that has the power of God, or even, some would argue, the
Christian who worships only Jesus, and not God through Jesus, is an
idolater (W.C. Smith, 62-66). Inauthentic spirituality and worship, intended to
increase the wealth and power of those who practice and promote it, and not to
minister to the wellbeing of God’s people, is the problem.
For Neo-Pagans on the quest for an
authentic spirituality, this is a valid and vital warning. Many people are drawn to new spiritual
movements because they want quick-fixes, or see an opportunity to develop power
and prestige amongst a group of people still trying to get organized and lay
foundations. The results of the reign of selfish oppression in the guise of
religion demonstrated in Ezekiel present the Neo-Pagan community with
guidelines by which to construct a faith tradition: it must be based on
motivations of knowing God, not gaining power or wealth; and it must promote
care for creation, most especially in the form of one’s community, not foster
hierarchy, domination, violence or gaps in the provision for anyone’s daily
needs.
It is very possible to read Ezekiel
as ostensibly supporting the kind of idolatry I am reading against in this
commentary. Alessandro Gallazzi’s commentary on
Ezekiel makes this point, as he reads the last eight chapters of Ezekiel as a
“theoretical project that Israelite intellectuals developed in Babylon for the
Jews who remained in Judea. The purpose of this project concerned the priestly and monarchical
elites, who had lost their leadership positions because of the exile; it was a
matter of restoring them to power…Our analysis of Ezekiel 40-48 will reveal the
mechanism of domination…open our eyes to recognize when and how power inside
our churches follows the logic of oppression” (Gallazzi,
247). The construction of the new Temple and new society in the last chapters of Ezekiel, to Gallazzi, is a construction of a new idolatrous power
structure, and can be used to legitimate harmful authority.
I read the Book of Ezekiel as neither
explicitly nor implicitly advocating religion outside of that proscribed to
Israel, and thus I read the text from the position of claiming what I think is
valid for my tradition: with no established authority or authority wishing to
reestablish itself, I can focus on the aspects of the text—in Chapters 6, 7,
and 8 and previously stated—advocating spiritual authenticity. But this is not to
say the text does not prove somewhat problematic. Whether as a literary device
or a thinly veiled position statement on women, the author of Ezekiel employs
multiple, graphic metaphors that depict women sexually and equate them with the
elite of Israel practicing idolatry and dirty politics, as in Chapter 23, and
especially Chapter 16, on which I will focus most of my attention. It also
specifically denounces women who are diviners in 13:17, and
makes constant reference to the uncleanness of the menstruation cycle. Whatever
the intention of these parts of the text, these selections are inherently
violent towards women, and betray an agenda, whether intentional or
unintentional, of marginalizing women sexually, politically, and spiritually.
If the language about idolatry calls me, the Neo-Pagan reader, to claim from
the text an admonition to authentic spirituality, then the language about women
calls me to reclaim from the text
images of powerful, mystical women who are sacred, not profane, because of
their cycles of fertility, gifts of foreknowledge, and talents for attraction. The
violent, degrading images of women are in fact an expression of the inauthentic
spirituality denounced elsewhere in Ezekiel, because they serve to harm rather
than care for part of the community, and serve the interests of those left in
power over the subjected, villainized female. I will
read these sections of Ezekiel in terms of the Feminist Neo-Pagan Reclaiming
tradition in order to preserve and further develop the call to authentic
spirituality I find elsewhere in the text.
Part II—Contextual
Commentary
II.A—Overview of Ezekiel (See Endnote 2)
The
content of this book of the Bible was most likely written during three
periods—following Babylonian conquest and first extradition of Jerusalem’s
elite to Babylon, directly after the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem and
the Temple, and when exiles began to return to Jerusalem to
rebuild—and then compiled in its final form by redactors, who probably were
members of the priestly tradition. Its overarching themes of dispossession and
restoration, developed through numerous other themes, and its use of diverse
literary genres and devices make it a very sophisticated work, and its rich and
sometimes bizarre mystical elements have made it attractive to contemplatives
and mystics for generations—it is the source of the Kabala tradition, and has
lent credence through its example to the experiences of the Christian mystics.
Because there is no historical evidence confirming that a person named Ezekiel
ever did exist (the name means “God strengthens” and is found in only one other
place in the entire Old Testament, which may suggest the name is contrived and
the character Ezekiel is a fictional device), and scholars do not know much
about the destruction and exile (how many people were actually killed and taken
is very debatable, though ancient war was undoubtedly horrific and
devastating), it is difficult to describe the actual context of this biblical
book, and scholars make assumptions based on close analysis of the text itself
and what archeological efforts have suggested. It is certain that some members
of this society were taken to a foreign land, and later learned of the
destruction of their home and most sacred center of worship, and it is fairly
certain that, due to the religious nature of their lives and society, these
events resulted in deep crises of identity, faith, and purpose in the world.
The historical context, then, as I see it, is one of interpretation of these
events, a search for their causes, and as the lives of those experiencing the
events were structured largely around cultic life and specific status as a
people in relation to God, it is natural that the causes would seem to be fault
in that cultic life and abuse of the status in relation to God. It is, in
addition, a context of seeking for redemption and promise for the future, a
context yearning for relief and a reestablishing of tradition, safety, and
reassurance.
II.B Authentic
Spirituality—Rejection of Idolatry
It
must be noted that part of the restoration hoped for and outlined in Ezekiel
does reaffirm much of the status quo predating the exile and destruction.
Before and after these events, in reality and in Ezekiel’s visions, there
existed a patriarchal society constantly concerned with maintaining men as
leaders, inheritors, and spiritual authorities. Even after the new Temple of Ezekiel’s
vision is built and the new political and spiritual leaders are performing
correct cultic practice and not exploiting the less fortunate, they are still
excluding, oppressing, and degrading women by denying them access to central
places of spiritual power, inheritance and ownership of property, and depicting
their natural and creative bodily functions as dirty and infectious. These acts
and attitudes are all a part of Ezekiel’s context, but though we live thousands
of years later, these same acts and attitudes are not foreign to us today.
Neither, I would argue, is the situation of trying to make sense of one’s life
and world through a search for the Divine hand in events. But more valid in my
modern context are the unique messages and opportunities for a new community
that the Book of Ezekiel offers.
In Chapter 6, the Lord declares the
shrines and fetishes in the mountains of Israel
will be destroyed, and those who worshiped them will be slain. In 6:9, the
reasoning behind the violence is made known through the survivors who are taken
into captivity: “how I [the Lord] was brokenhearted through their faithless
hearts which turned away from Me, and through their
eyes which lusted after their fetishes.” The people have turned from the Lord,
but the manner of their turning is qualified. They have not turned to other
gods or other faiths. In fact their hearts are entirely “faithless,” without
trust, hope or fidelity at all. And they do not worship fetishes, or make use
of them—they “lust after” them. They are devoid of spirituality and do not try
to connect with the Divine at all. What they seek is entirely worldly.
This worldliness is emphasized in 7:19-22,
where the new idols are equated directly with the wealth and power the people
have sought:
“They shall throw their silver into the streets, and their gold
shall be treated as something unclean. Their silver and gold shall not avail to
save them in the day of the Lord’s wrath—to satisfy their hunger or to fill
their stomachs. Because they made them stumble into guilt—for out of their
beautiful adornments, in which they took pride, they made their images and
their detestable abominations—therefore I will make them an unclean thing to
them. I will give them as spoil to strangers, and as
plunder to the wicked of the earth; and they shall defile them. I will turn my
face from them, and My treasures shall be defiled;
ruffians shall invade and defile it.”
It is money,
material wealth, which the people of Israel
have been worshiping. Riches and power are what they have been looking towards.
Their “images and abominations” are the symbols to those around them of how
prestigious they are, how affluent. In this passage, it is the exorbitant wealth
and flagrant delight in it that God denounces and promises to rid the community
of. Though Israel has made prosperity her god, instead of interpreting
prosperity as flowing from God, and great rifts have developed between rich and
poor, the Lord declares: “Nothing comes of them, nor of their abundance, nor of
their wealth; nor is there preeminence among them” (7:11). The hollow and
harmful quest for money and power is devoid of divinity and without a future.
In Chapter 8, Ezekiel is depicted as
transported by God to Jerusalem, where he is given a vision of the leaders of Israel in
God’s Sanctuary. “O mortal, have you seen what the elders of the House of
Israel are doing in the darkness, everyone in his image-covered chamber? For
they say, ‘The Lord does not see us; the Lord has abandoned the country’” (8:12).
All the cultic and political leaders of Israel
are depicted in the Temple, where, “all detestable forms of creeping things and beasts and all
the fetishes of the House of Israel were depicted over the entire wall” (8:10).
Instead of seeking God where they fear God cannot be found, the people of Israel
have taken matters into their own hands, and have sought power in objects and
god concepts they perceive as having power for other nations—women wail to
Tammuz in 8:14, and in 8:16 people bow to the sun. Desiring only the power and benefit of God,
of being God’s people, these representatives of Israel
have stopped developing their relationship with God and turned exclusively to
seeking power and benefit wherever they can find it.
Each of these examples demonstrates
not the inherent wickedness of idols or alternative spiritualities, but the
destructiveness of the idolatry of Israel
because of its selfish, isolating spiritual deadness. In seeking gain for
themselves instead of relation to the Divine, the Israelites have become
worshippers of whatever gratifies their greed and sense of self-importance in
the most immediate way. There was as time when their wealth and prestige had
been secured through being the people of God, but when trade and political
interaction with other countries revealed the others’ vaster power and richer
treasuries, the people of God traded covenant for what they saw as worldly
symbols of God’s favor. This is a danger for all religions, to perceive one’s
group as the blessed one, and ultimately trust more in the signs of blessing
than in the source of blessing, and as a largely unorganized group
unaccountable to a structured community, Neo-Pagans are particularly
susceptible to it. The wide array of symbols, Divine names, and allowed
practices could easily lead a practitioner to chose the aspects of his or her
tradition based on what seems to have the biggest payoffs—attracting more
followers, resulting in material gain or experiences of prowess and status,
creating a sense of personal power or an adrenaline rush, or total detachment
from the world. But creating a religious practice that serves only the limited
goals we have for ourselves is not a valid spirituality, and that is the
crucial message of this text for the Neo-Pagan. The choice to follow a unique
path to God has to come from the desire to seek the deepest and most honest
relationship with the Divine one is capable of with God’s help.
Authentic
Spirituality—Reclaiming Female Imagery
But as a woman who views the female
body and female sexuality not only as valid as but as sacred as the male, the
Book of Ezekiel raises many problems for me. It would be impossible for me to
pursue a fully developed relationship with God in a community that views me as
secondary, views my cycle of menstruation—a powerful thing, part of my personal
creative capacity and a gift from the greatest Creator, linking me to that
Creator—as a dirty, unclean process, and uses female sexuality as a negative
metaphor for the destructive habits of society. These positions on women,
perpetuated by language that demeans women, create a barrier for me as a woman
to perceiving myself as beloved of God, sacred to God, and capable of
experiencing God in all aspects of my life and experience. Examples of these
beliefs and uses of language are striking in Ezekiel, and need to be subjected
to re-reading through Reclaiming in order to be applicable to the Neo-Pagan.
Chapter 23 of Ezekiel describes the
cities of Samaria and Jerusalem as two sisters who “played the whore in Egypt;
played the whore while they were still young” (23:3). Their activities,
described in great sexual detail, lead to their deserved punishment by
violence. Though what the author is actually talking about is the political
intrigues and assumption of aspects of Egyptian, Assyrian and Babylonian
cultures that the leaders of Israel thought would secure their power within
those empires, the vivid language of the employed metaphor reduces the events
to the frivolous wantonness of women, driven by no motive other than their
uncontrollable sexual desires. They are a picture of the consequences of female
sexual freedom—total indiscretion and extravagance leading to destruction of
society as a whole.
This theme is developed even more
explicitly in Chapter 16. Jerusalem is compared to a female child whom God found and raised into
beauty, but who then took all the gifts of God and used them to entice many
lovers, not even for self-advancement or material gain, but just to spend
herself sexually. Delivering the lowest blow possible, the author describes
“her”: “Yet you were not like a prostitute, for you spurned fees; [you were
like] the adulterous wife who welcomes strangers instead of her husband…you
made gifts to all your lovers, and bribed them to come to you…You were the opposite
of other women: you solicited instead of being solicited; you paid fees instead
of being paid fees” (16:31-34). This is total debasement, a woman taking the
initiative, choosing and wooing her sexual partners in disregard of her marital
commitment. But the most graphic depiction of female sexuality is in 16:17:
“You took your beautiful things, made of the gold and silver that I had given
you, and you made yourself phallic images and fornicated with them.” Here is a
female sexuality that removes the male from the picture entirely, and is
self-fulfilling. The result of these practices is the complete destruction of
the family: “You even took the sons and daughters that you bore to Me and sacrificed them to these [images] as food” (16:20).
The speaker of the Chapter, the Lord, promises to punish this woman, to deprive
her of everything, stone and stab her, leave her desolate.
The implications of these passages
are that any woman allowed access to power and exposure to the larger
world—politically, spiritually, economically, etc.—is going to devolve into
destructive promiscuity, a completely self-involved free-for-all of
self-fulfillment, and bring all of society down with her. Despite the fact that
men, as leaders of ancient societies and religions were the ones “whoring” with
Egypt, Assyria and Babylon, turning their backs on the ways of their ancestors
and opening their arms to what they perceived as powerful and gainful, the
author finds it necessary to depict this series of events as a sex-obsessed, entirely
ungrateful and selfish woman. Both unrealistic and unhistorical, this metaphor
and others like it in the text have a greater purpose than a literary device.
They undermine the true power of female being and sexuality in order to secure
the patriarchal structure of Israel’s
society and religion.
Though each woman, like each man, is
an individual with flaws and prone to mistakes, women in general attach far
more emotional meaning to the sexual act than men do, and are far less likely
to participate in “promiscuity,” however one may define said. Women are also
more likely to be compelled toward monogamy, and of course cannot be separated
from their ability to bear and sustain the life of children through nutrients
from their own bodies. These natural abilities and general conditions are the
parts of the female human that contribute to the part of her personal power
that is unique from that of the male human. And these powers are the actual
sustenance not only of society but of all humankind. The generation of the
species, much less the stabilization of society, would
be lost without the female half of the human creation, for it takes both male
and female to perpetuate and develop the human race. I speculate that it is out
of fear of having to share the credit for the God-given power and God-sustain
prosperity of humanity, and thus “lose” the sense of their own power, that men
throughout history have tried to “secure” the fabric of society by suppressing
women into the exclusively familial, procreative category of existence. Though
by sharing this power, and attributing its source to God alone both sexes would
enjoy greater freedom and higher quality of life, fear and the worship of the
power aspect of the Divine and creation has led to the use of language like
that in Ezekiel and the perpetuation of oppression for women.
I would like to suggest that the
image of the woman lying on the “tapestried
platforms” (16:16) she’s made for herself to “fornicate” on can be reclaimed into a
positive metaphor, utilizing female sexuality as a symbol of unification and
healing. Through the sacred act of love, could not this powerful woman be
embracing the representatives of nations with which Israel
has been in deep conflict and restoring their relationship peacefully? Could
she, in a creative act, be healing competitive and violent rifts with love, and
learning to enjoy what is good and beautiful in these other cultures? Could
they not be learning to enjoy and appreciate her as well, respecting her for
offering herself freely, but maintaining her personal power of choice and her
true identity? There is the possibility that, through this act of sharing, this
woman might conceive a child—and whose child would this be?
With so many possible fathers from so many different cultures, would this
bastard be a source of contention and division? Or is it possible that, through
the love they bore for its mother, the potential fathers of this child might
love what they helped create, wishing to work together to protect and share in
the product of their creative act? The wanton women of
Ezekiel has become a healing force, mother to a new opportunity for
peace and understanding. This is how her sexuality is positive, powerful,
healing and stabilizing for the world, not self-involved and shattering for all
of society. The future Ezekiel envisions through God—the healing of Israel
and the respect and wonder of all nations—is better realized through this
positive feminine metaphor.
Part
III—Contextual Commentaries Contrasted
Commentators Samuel E. Amada of Buenos Aires and
Alessandro Gallazzi of Brazil,
writing from the Amazon, both relate the context of their religious communities
to the Book of Ezekiel. Each, though they treat different parts of the text,
sees Ezekiel having social and economic implications, calling on those in
power, such as multinational corporations, to stop their exploitation and enact
justice for God’s people. Both see money and power as the false gods of today’s
powers, and equate them with the false gods in Ezekiel. But while Amada (Global Bible Commentary, pp. 234-245)
sees Chapters 1-39 of the text through the hermeneutic of liberation theology,
and interprets it as speaking explicitly about social and economic justice, Gallazzi (Global
Bible Commentary, pp. 246-252) reads Chapters 40-48 of the text as a
problematic section used to establish control over the people and squelch
religious diversity. Thus Gallazzi reads the text
“from the margins” (p. 247) to capture the perspective of those being
oppressed, and reinterprets the text as a tool to recognize those who would
create a word of God in order to maintain their positions of authority. Each
uses the text differently, but their somewhat similar contexts lead them to
interpretations that advocate for similar groups of people—the oppressed—and
speak to the role of relationship with God in the social and economic questions
of our world.
While I do share the concerns Gallazzi and Amada express for their marginalized
communities and the indignation they feel towards the powerful entities that
exploit so many in the world, my focus in the text is shifted not so much
because of my economic or national status, but because of my religious status.
The two commentators speak from established faith systems, complete with doctrines
and tradition, through which they are trying to interact with the world. But I
speak from a developing system of faith, which is being built from the ground
up, taking concerns like those expressed above into explicit consideration as
they develop. Thus what Ezekiel spoke to in terms of my context was not social
or economic, but spiritual.
Part
IV—Overall Conclusions
I hope I have demonstrated here both
how the Book of Ezekiel, as just one example of the vast richness of the
biblical tradition, can both shape and inform the Neo-Pagan movement, and be
further opened and shaped by that movement in turn. As a new, yet not so new,
emergence of expression of humanity as the people of God, Neo-Paganism must
seek to be created by the guidance of the Divine, and thus must be open to any
and all sources of Divine wisdom, but must guard against those powers, however
traditional or institutionalized, that would undermine the sacred nature of all
creation.
The writing of the Book of Ezekiel was an act
of interpretation of a place and time, which we who view the resulting text as
part of a sacred canon must now subject to our own acts of interpretation in
our place and time. It is possible to follow the example of the prophet,
whether he existed historically as depicted here or not, in his courage and his
openness to God, and ask hard questions of ourselves and our traditions in
order to move closer to God, the Divine, in all aspects of our lives, in any
context.
Endnotes
1)
The information
in this section is drawn from information that has pervaded my experience of
the Neo-Pagan community, and thus it is difficult for me to pinpoint exactly
what I learned where. A very formative essay for me is Isaac Bonewits’ “What Neopagans
Believe, or Neopagan Polytheology
101,” cited below, along with several other texts and websites that contain
similar overviews and more detailed information. The Neo-Pagan community is
highly oral, lore-based, and makes extensive use of the internet as a resource
for education, communication, and community contact.
2)
The information
in this section is drawn from two sources: the Anchor Bible Dictionary and the
commentary/introduction found in The
Jewish Study Bible, both cited below. The Book of Ezekiel I used to write
this commentary is the translation found in The
Jewish Study Bible.
Bibliography
Almada, Samuel E. “Ezekiel 1-39” in
Daniel Patte, ed. Global Bible Commentary
(Nashville: Abingdon
Press, 2004) pp. 234-245.
Bonewits, Isaac. “What Neopagans
Believe, or Neopagan Polytheology
101.”
http://www.neopagan.net/NeopagansBelieve.html
Cyprian. “A Brief Assessment of Neopagan
Theology as Offered by Cyprian at
the Pan-Pagan Festival, August 1980.”
http://www.paganlibrary.com/introductory/brief_assessment_theology.php
Fisher,
Amber Laine. “Neo-Paganism in the
Post-Modern Age.” Journal of the
Western Mystery Tradition, No. 6, vol. 1, Vernal Equinox 2004.
http://www.jwmt.org/v1n6/editorial.html
Boadt, Lawrence, “Ezekiel, Book of.” The Anchor
Bible Dictionary, Vol. 2
Freedman, David
Noel, ed. (New
York: Doubleday, 1992) pp. 711-722.
Gallazzi, Alessandro. “Ezekiel 40-48” in
Daniel Patte, ed. Global Bible
Commentary (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2004) pp. 246-252.
McCoy, Edain. Sabbats: A Witch’s
Approach to Living the Old Ways
(St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn
Publications, 2003).
Smith,
Wilfred Cantwell. “Idolatry: In Comparative Perspective” in John Hick
and Paul F. Knitter, ed. The Myth of Christian Uniqueness: Toward a
Pluralistic Theology of Religions (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2004) pp.
53-68.
Stewart-Avalon, Virginia
(Sibylline Priestess and Elder). “Thoughts on Neo-
Pagan Theology.”
http://www.sibyllinewicca.org/voices/ed_perspective.htm
Sweeny,
Marvin A. “Ezekiel” in Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler, ed. The
Jewish Study Bible (Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2004) pp.
1042-1045.