Atheists are often told that God means more to them than to nominal Christians.
Blake was no atheist, nor was he a 'nominal Christian'. Northrup Frye referred to him as a 'Bible soaked Christian'.
There are many posts on William Blake:Religion and Pschology that concern 'God' and 'Bible'; I have chosen a few that seem appropriate here:
"Within the mind of man there is confusion: to which image of God will we give our allegiance? Satan claims godship and is worshipped as God of this World. He convinces us that the here and now are the real and that Eternity is the illusion; he promotes war....."
(That from EIGHTH DIVINE IMAGE III)
Blake perceived that the ancient Hebrews had changing meanings for God. He had various names for the various epochs and cultures:
From The Four Zoas (Erdman 381):
1. "Lucifer refus'd to die & in pride he forsook his charge
And they elected
2. Molech, and when Molech was impatient......
3. Triple Elohim came: Elohim wearied fainted: they elected Shaddai.
4. Shaddai angry,
5. Pachad descended: Pachad terrified, they sent
Jehovah
6. And Jehovah was leprous; loud he call'd, stretching his hand to Eternity......
7. Then Jesus Came & Died willing..."
Lucifer in Christian tradition is a proper name for Satan.
Molech was a Canaanite god, sometimes involved in the sacrificial burning of children.
(It was Molech who told Abraham to burn his son, but a higher God superceded Molech in Abraham's case.
Elohim taught 'an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth', a God of Vengeance.
Shaddai is unclear and disputed among Bible interpreters. It's used several times in Genesis as a name for God.
Pachad from Genesis 31 verse 53 it is sometimes identified as "The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us."
Jehovah is perhaps the most common name for the Old Testament god.
Jesus (the Seventh Eye) was the primary object of Blake's worship.
Blake did not think that God excites fear:
"Thinking as I do that the Creator of this world is a cruel being, and being a worshipper of Christ,
I have to say: "the Son! oh how unlike the Father":
First God Almighty comes with a thump on the head;
then J.C. comes with a balm to heal it."
(This from Thursday, August 16, 2012 God I)
3 comments:
Good morning, Larry!
"To which image of god will we give our allegiance" -- indeed!
Of course we tell ourselves that our allegiance is to God, not to an image of God, but how can we help but make or serve images?
Every direct encounter quickly slides away to imagery, like a vivid dream that, if you tell it to someone, quickly fades and the story becomes the proxy.
from your God 1 post:
"An authentic person consciously creates his own vision of reality. He chooses to be who he is rather
than to borrow his identity from a group or from a charismatic figure.
Each person's ultimate reality is his God. There is no known objective God"
hmmmm.... well, maybe we mean different things by "no known objective God" :-) :-)
just because the images on Plato's cave wall were not, themselves, real, doesn't mean there wasn't a real reality outside the cave :-)
Thank's Susan. In my Hypertext Bible Commentary
(http://lclay3.50webs.com/1.htm) there is a section called Vsions of God
(http://lclay3.50webs.com/visions.htm) that has a detailed group of people's visions of God.
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