Spiritual Geography

[kenhonken]

“Rather than being subject to law (as in Mesopotamia), pharaohs saw themselves as the source of law.”

In her book "Dakota," Kathleen Norris makes an observation about Jello that has always remained with me: it was a status symbol among Plains women in the 20th century as electricity and refrigerators made their way from the cities to the countryside. As a son of the Great Plains, the great matriarchs of my lineage--my mother, my maternal grandmother, my mother-in-law--have all nourished their families on some version Jello and fill-in-the-blank: fruit, pudding mix, Cool-Whip, etc. Living in a particular place shaped their lives.

I think the concept of spiritual geography should inform how pastors view law in the ANE. Egypt was not Mesopotamia, and Mesopotamia was not Egypt. In Egypt, taming the chaotic flooding of the Nile in order to support life in the desert required centralization, a unity of command devoted to turning the river's otherwise devastating waters into an abundant source of life. This social contract allowed the pharaoh to accrue to himself god-like status, even fusing himself with the god of the sun in his daily death in the west and resurrection in the east. From a Yahwist perspective, this simply would not do, of course. But from the Egyptian perspective, this seemed like a perfect description of how the world worked: pharaoh was god, the rest worked for him in order to live. Mesopotamian kings could not convince people of the same because the Tigris and Euphrates behaved differently. Life was possible apart from the rivers, and so life was possible apart from the king. The desert was present but not absolute, so the king was present but not absolute. There was a higher authority: the gods.

Of course, Egypt's perspective eventually failed. And so did Mesopotamia's. As Peter Zeihan demonstrates in his "The End of the World Is Just the Beginning," wheat production passed away as the primary means to political power, giving way to metallurgy and other ways of dominating others. Nevertheless, geography shapes people spiritually, even today.