1 Yahweh was the supernatural lord who had his enemies and favourites, a jealous god who ordered genocide and loved the smell of offered roasting meat. He laid down the law and was the male who dominated an unequal marriage and if she disobeyed she was chastised; he reigned supreme and she could not disparage. Later he improved in gentleness and asked his people to improve as well: 'I want kindness and not sacrifice.' Jesus saw him as a loving dad, his Abba who took care of each of us and every sparrow in this world he made. 2 Then Christ is God come down to us, become a common man and also head and figurehead of the human form divine. A social body finally including everyone with all of equal moral worth, sharing bread and wine. A commonwealth that reigns in peace, a kindly world and fair, where all are free to be themselves and good news for the poor. The city new Jerusalem is where stands the tree of multifarious life for each and tears are wiped away. 3 The gods of Greece were supernatural too and favoured mortals at their will or whim. They had no pretensions to be moral and simply did what suited her or him. Some Greek philosophers, dissatisfied with those old stories, said supremely real had to be the idea of the good, an abstract form above, beyond it all. Still their beyond, like the gods' home on high, are both imagined by the human brain, as is the Christ and so was Lord Yahweh. They may personify, be metaphors. Imagination is the way in which we try to see what might be, picture hopes or fears. 4 This is a common treasury which should not be lost. It feeds the fabric of the mind and must not go to waste. Human poetic genius is what did create these overarching mythic tales, a breadth to celebrate. In the stories sifted critically for wisdom they contain the insistent splendid vision shines that quashed will rise again. With a great cloud of witnesses and seekers to belong to the fullness and the working word the struggle carries on.
