Scripture: Genesis 11:1-9
The Honourable Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Thiru. M. Karunanidhi made a statement which was reported in the Hindu Newspaper says that “God does not want to be of approved by anybody, because God is not going to be a candidate in elections. God loves those who all are doing good to humanhood irrespective of the caste, colour or religious differences or even atheists.” We are living in the midst of Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Parsies, Buddhists, atheists and people who are following several other religious faiths. They are our neighbours and they form the part of this diverse society of ours as a beautiful one. One of the papers of World Council of Churches contains this beautiful statement. “God’s oikumene or house is the whole inhabited earth and not just the Christian part of it.” As we celebrated our 62nd Republic day two days ago, the passion for a secular republic is yet a challenge to all of us.
From a theological perspective different positions have been developed on Christian attitude to other religious faiths over the years. These positions are roughly divided into three, exclusivism, inclusivism and pluralism. While exclusivists believed that Christianity alone is true religion, inclusivists are open to other religious faiths embracing all their good values into the over arching frame work of cosmic Christ or the Kingdom of God. But by insisting a category of their own faith as the ground of all religions they also prove to be exclusive in an indirect way. On the other hand pluralists consider different religions as equal and relative constituting together the absolute truth. I would like to draw your attention to reflect on the read passage towards accepting the religious pluralism and seeks to know how the language of dominant religiosity becomes a threat to the common identity of human beings as God’s creation irrespective of religious faiths.
Tower of Babel as a Hegemonic Structure Created by Delusions of Unity and Splendour
The conventional way of interpreting the passage Genesis chap.11:1-9, views the dispersion at the Tower of Babel as a punishment of God over the human pride. But we need to understand that the dispersion has already started right after the flood, when the sons of Noah filled the earth, and it was seen as the gist of the blessing. Both in Genesis chapters 9 and 10 this dispersion is positively acknowledged. The linguistic division of peoples has already appeared in chap 10:5, 20 & 31 as has the spreading abroad or the scattering of the nations. Moreover Babel has already been named in Chap 10:10. The V. 14 explains that people are afraid of being scattered. The fear of being scattered should not only be understood geographically but also ideologically. We must not make the mistake of thinking that all are equally afraid of being scattered. But we have to assume that the people, who were having economical and political control, are the ones who are afraid of being scattered.
Within the religious realm also those who wanted to rule are trying to keep all unite. Mega projects could be understood as the means to manipulate and hold people together. The building of the tower of Babel was not the necessity of the common people. It was the project and ambition of the dominant. The phrase ‘name for ourselves’ in the same verse is also problematic. It implies the integration of the diverse identity of the humankind into ‘one name’, most probably to the dominant ‘name and identity’ existed at that time.
It may signal an autonomous attempt to secure their own future. The building projects constitute a bid to secure their own future as a unified community, isolated from the rest of the world. Both in psychology and political life, we know the presumption that “need to have a name, as well as the drive for megalomania, are responses to the human fear of losing control and domination.” Through the building of the tower, the ambitious among the human beings were trying to integrate all the cultures and faiths into theirs. Thus tower of Babel was going to be the graveyard of diverse cultures, religions and languages. In this context God is going back with the people of Babel to the created order of differences.
The Confusing of Languages as God’s revisit to Affirm Differences
Vv. 7 & 8 says “Come let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth and they left off building the city”. Here the plural “Let us” indicates that, Godself visits the humanity in the varied and multiple attributes, in the disclosures and ways in which God appeared to the people in various time and space. That visit itself ignites the people to rethink about their distinct cultures, languages, religions and identity. So when we look into the episode of confusing of the language, it must be seen as the emergence of varied opinions that stopped the building of the tower, and not just the confusion. It shows the peoples retroversion to their distinct faith systems. God desired the multiplication and spread of people over the earth, but people wanted to stay in their safe mode of Homogeneity.
The languages are part of deliverance and blessing from God. The Austrian-born English philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein in his book Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus purports that "What can be expressed can only be expressed by means of a language, and so that which is necessary for the understanding of all cannot be expressed through language." The limits of language correspond to the limits of thought; hence there are certain things that cannot be thought. The proposers of the Babel through their unity of language and might, tries to express their language of pride through the tower of Babel. Here God gives the diversity of languages as a protection against domination. Diversity in language and thus culture is given in order that people may be free and develop themselves according to their own dreams. Babel stands for an imposed unity, without freedom of culture, language or religion.
Languages are always developed for the God- Talk. Languages got forms as they were started to be used to express the faiths. It is difficult to set apart languages without the relation of religions, faiths and philosophy. Hebrew, Sanskrit, Pali etc are examples of the languages that emerged along with the religion. So the people speaking different languages imply the re-emergence of different religions, faiths and philosophy, which were there in the pre- Babel civilization. And it is obvious that God was the one, who took initiative in promoting the heterogeneity of faith and culture.
Towards a Faith Articulation Affirming Horizontal Relationships
Finally the building of a city with a tower may not be an issue in itself. But the motivation and attitude towards the building project has to be scrutinized. The building of a city with a tower reflects the knowledge of Mesopotamian construction methods. Two kinds of towers are common in Babylonian culture. ‘Fortified city tower’ and ‘temple tower’ the latter one is also known as Ziggurat, a stepped mountain shaped structure. In Babylonian culture, the Ziggurat provided for communication between earthly and heavenly realms through priestly intermediaries. “The base of the tower was on the earth and its top in the heavens”- it is the popular description of Ziggurat. V. 4 which say, “Come let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens,” makes clear that the tower of Babel was a Ziggurat. The Ziggurat represents an indirect relationship between heaven and earth. But the verse 8 says they left off building the city.
The God who intervened in the human attempt to grow vertically, through integrating everything into the dominant side, commissioned them to grow horizontally, enjoying the diversity of faith, culture, religion and language. Today it is a strong reminder against all fundamentalist religious claims, as it pronounce the message, what humanity needs is not towers of churches and temples but a world where one can express oneself, truly without the suppressions of the dominating culture and religion.
The famous Malayalam novelist P. C Kuttikrishnan, popularly known by his pen name “Uroob” writes a story in his famous novel, “Sundarikalum Sundaranmarum.” Raman Nair, one of the characters of the novel saw an orphaned old women lying by the road side unattended and weary. He asked her to come home and only after they started to home he realized that the woman belongs to another religion and caste, and what a trouble he is inviting on himself. “Uroob” calls this action as the act of humanity that defies rationality. Indeed the God-given humanity must defy rationality that breeds selfishness.
This rationality of making compromises at the face of making just decisions is the call of the hour when there are many who wish to make “name for themselves.” They call for the annihilation of divergent views about life, love, God, and much more, to make a one single name. The revisit of God through the confusing of language in this realm of annihilation seeking unity and splendour is the expression of God’s affirmation on diversity. Languages reaffirm the divergent views on God-talk and seek our dedicated engagement with other faiths to redeem our misconceptions in stereotyped God-talks. Our faith affirmations should be a call to mind the horizontal relationships with the members of the creation, rather than being mindful in preparing highways leading to one single faith affirmation. As Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, and others we can co-operate for bringing about justice and peace in this world. Each religious community can mobilize its resources for this corporate effort. In our contexts of plurality we may still differ in our perceptions of the ultimate goals of life, yet we can work with proximate goals and strive to achieve them. May the God who revisits our life locales, call us to mind for a committed relationship with people of other faiths and be alert against call for unities of hegemony. Amen.
[Alex Das, the preacher of this Sermon is a final year student of Gurukul Lutheran Theological College and Research Institute, Chennai, India.]
The Honourable Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Thiru. M. Karunanidhi made a statement which was reported in the Hindu Newspaper says that “God does not want to be of approved by anybody, because God is not going to be a candidate in elections. God loves those who all are doing good to humanhood irrespective of the caste, colour or religious differences or even atheists.” We are living in the midst of Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Parsies, Buddhists, atheists and people who are following several other religious faiths. They are our neighbours and they form the part of this diverse society of ours as a beautiful one. One of the papers of World Council of Churches contains this beautiful statement. “God’s oikumene or house is the whole inhabited earth and not just the Christian part of it.” As we celebrated our 62nd Republic day two days ago, the passion for a secular republic is yet a challenge to all of us.
From a theological perspective different positions have been developed on Christian attitude to other religious faiths over the years. These positions are roughly divided into three, exclusivism, inclusivism and pluralism. While exclusivists believed that Christianity alone is true religion, inclusivists are open to other religious faiths embracing all their good values into the over arching frame work of cosmic Christ or the Kingdom of God. But by insisting a category of their own faith as the ground of all religions they also prove to be exclusive in an indirect way. On the other hand pluralists consider different religions as equal and relative constituting together the absolute truth. I would like to draw your attention to reflect on the read passage towards accepting the religious pluralism and seeks to know how the language of dominant religiosity becomes a threat to the common identity of human beings as God’s creation irrespective of religious faiths.
Tower of Babel as a Hegemonic Structure Created by Delusions of Unity and Splendour
The conventional way of interpreting the passage Genesis chap.11:1-9, views the dispersion at the Tower of Babel as a punishment of God over the human pride. But we need to understand that the dispersion has already started right after the flood, when the sons of Noah filled the earth, and it was seen as the gist of the blessing. Both in Genesis chapters 9 and 10 this dispersion is positively acknowledged. The linguistic division of peoples has already appeared in chap 10:5, 20 & 31 as has the spreading abroad or the scattering of the nations. Moreover Babel has already been named in Chap 10:10. The V. 14 explains that people are afraid of being scattered. The fear of being scattered should not only be understood geographically but also ideologically. We must not make the mistake of thinking that all are equally afraid of being scattered. But we have to assume that the people, who were having economical and political control, are the ones who are afraid of being scattered.
Within the religious realm also those who wanted to rule are trying to keep all unite. Mega projects could be understood as the means to manipulate and hold people together. The building of the tower of Babel was not the necessity of the common people. It was the project and ambition of the dominant. The phrase ‘name for ourselves’ in the same verse is also problematic. It implies the integration of the diverse identity of the humankind into ‘one name’, most probably to the dominant ‘name and identity’ existed at that time.
It may signal an autonomous attempt to secure their own future. The building projects constitute a bid to secure their own future as a unified community, isolated from the rest of the world. Both in psychology and political life, we know the presumption that “need to have a name, as well as the drive for megalomania, are responses to the human fear of losing control and domination.” Through the building of the tower, the ambitious among the human beings were trying to integrate all the cultures and faiths into theirs. Thus tower of Babel was going to be the graveyard of diverse cultures, religions and languages. In this context God is going back with the people of Babel to the created order of differences.
The Confusing of Languages as God’s revisit to Affirm Differences
Vv. 7 & 8 says “Come let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth and they left off building the city”. Here the plural “Let us” indicates that, Godself visits the humanity in the varied and multiple attributes, in the disclosures and ways in which God appeared to the people in various time and space. That visit itself ignites the people to rethink about their distinct cultures, languages, religions and identity. So when we look into the episode of confusing of the language, it must be seen as the emergence of varied opinions that stopped the building of the tower, and not just the confusion. It shows the peoples retroversion to their distinct faith systems. God desired the multiplication and spread of people over the earth, but people wanted to stay in their safe mode of Homogeneity.
The languages are part of deliverance and blessing from God. The Austrian-born English philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein in his book Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus purports that "What can be expressed can only be expressed by means of a language, and so that which is necessary for the understanding of all cannot be expressed through language." The limits of language correspond to the limits of thought; hence there are certain things that cannot be thought. The proposers of the Babel through their unity of language and might, tries to express their language of pride through the tower of Babel. Here God gives the diversity of languages as a protection against domination. Diversity in language and thus culture is given in order that people may be free and develop themselves according to their own dreams. Babel stands for an imposed unity, without freedom of culture, language or religion.
Languages are always developed for the God- Talk. Languages got forms as they were started to be used to express the faiths. It is difficult to set apart languages without the relation of religions, faiths and philosophy. Hebrew, Sanskrit, Pali etc are examples of the languages that emerged along with the religion. So the people speaking different languages imply the re-emergence of different religions, faiths and philosophy, which were there in the pre- Babel civilization. And it is obvious that God was the one, who took initiative in promoting the heterogeneity of faith and culture.
Towards a Faith Articulation Affirming Horizontal Relationships
Finally the building of a city with a tower may not be an issue in itself. But the motivation and attitude towards the building project has to be scrutinized. The building of a city with a tower reflects the knowledge of Mesopotamian construction methods. Two kinds of towers are common in Babylonian culture. ‘Fortified city tower’ and ‘temple tower’ the latter one is also known as Ziggurat, a stepped mountain shaped structure. In Babylonian culture, the Ziggurat provided for communication between earthly and heavenly realms through priestly intermediaries. “The base of the tower was on the earth and its top in the heavens”- it is the popular description of Ziggurat. V. 4 which say, “Come let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens,” makes clear that the tower of Babel was a Ziggurat. The Ziggurat represents an indirect relationship between heaven and earth. But the verse 8 says they left off building the city.
The God who intervened in the human attempt to grow vertically, through integrating everything into the dominant side, commissioned them to grow horizontally, enjoying the diversity of faith, culture, religion and language. Today it is a strong reminder against all fundamentalist religious claims, as it pronounce the message, what humanity needs is not towers of churches and temples but a world where one can express oneself, truly without the suppressions of the dominating culture and religion.
The famous Malayalam novelist P. C Kuttikrishnan, popularly known by his pen name “Uroob” writes a story in his famous novel, “Sundarikalum Sundaranmarum.” Raman Nair, one of the characters of the novel saw an orphaned old women lying by the road side unattended and weary. He asked her to come home and only after they started to home he realized that the woman belongs to another religion and caste, and what a trouble he is inviting on himself. “Uroob” calls this action as the act of humanity that defies rationality. Indeed the God-given humanity must defy rationality that breeds selfishness.
This rationality of making compromises at the face of making just decisions is the call of the hour when there are many who wish to make “name for themselves.” They call for the annihilation of divergent views about life, love, God, and much more, to make a one single name. The revisit of God through the confusing of language in this realm of annihilation seeking unity and splendour is the expression of God’s affirmation on diversity. Languages reaffirm the divergent views on God-talk and seek our dedicated engagement with other faiths to redeem our misconceptions in stereotyped God-talks. Our faith affirmations should be a call to mind the horizontal relationships with the members of the creation, rather than being mindful in preparing highways leading to one single faith affirmation. As Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, and others we can co-operate for bringing about justice and peace in this world. Each religious community can mobilize its resources for this corporate effort. In our contexts of plurality we may still differ in our perceptions of the ultimate goals of life, yet we can work with proximate goals and strive to achieve them. May the God who revisits our life locales, call us to mind for a committed relationship with people of other faiths and be alert against call for unities of hegemony. Amen.
[Alex Das, the preacher of this Sermon is a final year student of Gurukul Lutheran Theological College and Research Institute, Chennai, India.]
