Creation and redemption
pp. 383-386
in: Wolfgang Yourgrau, Allen D. Breck (eds), Cosmology, history, and theology, Berlin, Springer, 1977Abstract
The concept of God which the people of Israel developed in the course of their history stemmed directly from their deliverance from Egypt. Yahweh was revealed in history, and the Israelites experienced Him in mighty, saving acts. Yahweh was Redeemer, and He was Redeemer both of the individuals of which the nation was composed, and also of the nation as a whole—for the Israelites did not distinguish, as sharply as does modern Western man, between individual personality and corporate personality. But the Israelites were not an isolated people; they lived in Canaan among many different tribes. And the religion of these tribes had little to do with historical experiences; for these tribes religion was concerned with Nature and its own peculiar rhythms. Their gods were concerned with the seasons, the natural cyclical periods of Sun and Moon. These gods had to be propitiated in order to ensure the continued fertility of the soil and a plentiful supply of rain and sunshine in order to water and fertilize the crops on which the survival of the tribes depended.