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One the Hermeneutic of “Wax and Gold”

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One the Hermeneutic of “Wax and Gold” NOTES One The Hermeneutic of “Wax and Gold” 1. Knowledge system, here, is taken not as a specific skill or technique of getting things done. It is understood as a philosophical and ideological construct that influences ways of understanding. 2. See Budge, A History of Ethiopia, pp. 142–51, for more detailed discussion on pre-Christian religious practices in Abyssinia. 3. While claiming a Christian confession, the church is no stranger to diverse practices of purification, healing, magic, and divination. 4. We continue this discussion in the following subsection, under “Society.” 5. Gadels are a part of the noncanonical (hagiographic) books in which the heroic deeds of the church fathers are crafted with the aim of cementing spiritual values on the lives of the readers. As strange, and even bizarre, as its stories at times may sound, they nevertheless are a part of the important books in the EOC tradition in terms of influencing its worldview and philosophy. It has to be noted that Gadel is the name of books (e.g., Gadel of St. Marry, etc.) as well of a genre. When I discuss the genre I use Gedel (or Gedels), while I use Gadels when I refer to individual books. 6. The works of Claude Sumner, especially his book, The Source of African Philosophy: The Ethiopian Philosophy of Man, could be a good illustration of such a claim. 7. The Amharic world nefs, literally soul, has its etymological roots in nefas, wind. But, while it is often used to refer to soul as opposed to body, it is also used to refer to the whole person. For example, an expression, “I made one soul happy” infers that someone made a person (with no discrimination between soul and body) happy. 8. See Synaxarium: The Book of the Saints of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, translated by Sir. E. A. Wallis Budge (Garland, TX: Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Debre Meheret St. Michael Church). 9. One of the best examples could be Meropius (both merchant and philosopher by profes- sion) motivating his friend Metrodore, who eventually was killed by natives because of the prevalent Greco-Roman tension with Ethiopia. 10. See his book New History of Ethiopia (1682, First Edition). 11. See the works of Edward Ullendorff, especially his Ethiopia and the Bible (1968), for a lengthy discussion on the Ethiopian relationship with the Bible and critical treatment on the con- texts in which Ethiopia is mentioned in the Bible. (cf. footnote 20) 12. See my discussion on the first part of this chapter. 13. I address the notion of covenant and its relation to Ethiopia in coming chapters, especially the fourth, in detail. 188 Notes 14. See chapter four for more detailed discussion of these ideas. 15. See the discussion above under “Metaphysics” to see how God’s transcendence is used in the wax and gold paradigm to give a way for a dualistic understanding of reality. 16. Although Plato may not have tried to justify his hierarchical understanding of society on hereditary basis, he advocated strict marriage relations among the Guardians and Auxiliaries to raise and educate children so they would fit their future tasks (Republic, Book 5). 17. This literature was written approximately between 200 and 170 bc by an individual who identifies himself as “Jesus the son of Eleazar, son of Sirach of Jerusalem.” It is apparent that Ben Sirach ran a school known as the “House of Instruction.” While the work was origi- nally written in Hebrew, its prologue shows it was translated into Greek by a grandson of the writer. 18. This trend is clearly exhibited in what is generally called “the wisdom poems”: Chapters 1, 2, and 24. 19. See for more discussion on this http://mb-soft.com/believe/txs/sirach.htm. 20. It has to be noted here that some scholars, such as W. C. Trenchard, accuse Ben Sira of being too patriarchal and/or too negative towards women. This accusation derives from Ben Sira’s apparent claim that woman—Eve—is the source of sin. Trenchard’s kind of interpretation of the Book of Sirach, besides ignoring its historical context, also seems to fail to note the positive contribution the book makes to neglected members of contemporary society; Ben Sira’s attitude toward women and slaves are outstanding examples. See The Book of Ben Sira in Modern Research edited by Pancratius Peentjes (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1997) for more discussion on this. 21. Please note, this is not to claim that the EOC worldview is the sole reason for Ethiopia’s economic problems. This study accepts that the reason for the economic problems is far more complicated. However there seems good reason to consider the significant contribu- tion of such an attitude in light of the fact that those students are deliberately instructed to beg and experience hardship as a means of escaping “this world.” 22. For more on this see Tesfaye Gebreab’s “Yegazetegnaw Mastawesha” (A Journalist’s Memoir) (Cape Town: Tesfaye Gebreab, 2009). Two The Hermeneutic of Demystification 1. Literally means “committee”; and the name taken by the Communist regime in Ethiopia. 2. See Phillip James’s Ethiopia’s Kremlin Connection (January 17, 1985) online at http://www. heritage.org/Research/RussiaandEurasia/bg404.cfm. 3. See Harold Marcus’ article on Socialist Ethiopia: http://www.britannica.com/eb/ article-37710/Ethiopia. 4. Gudina Tumsa is an exception who briefly showed the promise of the direction in which Ethiopian Protestant churches have grown in terms of addressing social issues using theo- logical concepts. 5. For instance, paying taxes and giving alms to tribal kings, practitioners of witchcraft, and rainmakers on a seasonal and yearly basis is prevalent in, at least, southern Ethiopia. It was customary to come across people who bitterly resented the oppressive aspects of traditional religious ideologies. 6. As noted in chapter one, the term “monism” is not used in contrast to religious cosmology (i.e., Islam, Christianity, and Judaism), as Darwinist tradition puts it. I use the term from a Christian background against the EOC metaphysical conception which tends to picture nature in a dualistic tension between sacred and secular. This notion has already surfaced in Notes 189 Zará Yaeqob’s philosophy as “order of creation” and will be further elucidated in following sections on creational order. 7 It is apparent, from the title of his song album, that Dereje was told to remain silent (by someone probably claiming to be neutral or the regime itself). But when his human identity is defined without his object of belief (God), Dereje felt he had to violate the status quo by speaking up or rather singing, about his convictions. 8. Genesis 1:26 (NIV). 9. See the example of the Maale ethnic group in Donham’s “Revolution and Modernity in Maale: Ethiopia, 1974–1987.” 10. For instance, the only church not closed down by the regime, EECMY embraced members of other denominations in their organization. EECMY also benefited from the spiritual experiences of the Pentecostal churches. As a result, it became customary for a Lutheran church to hold a healing ministry, for instance. By then, many Pentecostal churches were not positive about education—theological or otherwise. However, after a positive interaction with non-Pentecostal churches (EECMY) that did have a favorable attitude to education, few Pentecostal young people were challenged, for instance, to join theological schools. 11. Paul E. Hoffman, “Evangelical Churches and Theology in the Ethiopian Revolution, Part II”: July 12, 2006, http://www.crossings.org/thursday/Thur011206.htm. 12. Ibid. 13. Ibid. Luther would not object; his two realms did not mean separation, but distinction: God rules both realms, but with different means and objectives. 14. Zemecha, literally meaning campaign, was one of the methods used by the Marxist regime to denounce the old way of thinking and introduce a new philosophy to build a better order based on a new interpretation of reality. Some students seemed really passionate about it, but according to reports, many espoused Marxism before fully understanding what it was about, just as a way of expressing their disenchantment with “stagnant” imperial rule. 15. See Donald Donham’s “Revolution and Modernity in Maale: Ethiopia, 1974–87,” pp. 44–57 for a fascinating study of how student revolutionists changed the course of tradi- tional, religious, and political life in a small southern ethnic group of Maale. 16. Friedrich Engels’s witness is very important not only because he was a part of the movement, but also because he had first-hand knowledge of Marx as a person as well as a thinker. 17. This does not mean that the arrival of Marxism completely eradicated the EOC concept of philosophical anthropology. Still, it provided the political and educated elites with an alternative to understand the human person among other things. 18 See for more detailed discussion on this John W. Hall’s article: “Changing Conceptions of the Modernization of Japan.” 19. Black gives historical precedence to the United Kingdom and France, while the United States and former British Dominions are placed in the second rank. Other European coun- tries belong to the third rank whereas the Latin American countries are put in fourth place, followed by Ethiopia, Russia, and a small group of Middle East and Asian countries (Japan, China, Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan, and Thailand) in fifth rank. Finally, the sixth and sev- enth ranks are given to the remaining Asian and African countries. 20. Messay Kebede, Bringing Reason Back to the Ethiopian Politics, Ethiomedia: October 4, 2004, http://www.ethiomedia.com/newpress/bringing_reason_to_politics.html. 21. Read Messay Kebede’s “From Marxism-Leninism to Ethnicity: The Sideslips of Ethiopian Elitism,” Addis Tribune, October 19, 2001, wmich.edu/~asefa/Conference%20and%20 Seminar/Papers/2001%20papers/PaperIII1.pdf 22.
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