Wednesday, July 13, 2022

Thor: Love and Thunder - A scathing and accurate dismissal of Paganism's anthropomorphic gods

 

* This is a spoiler free commentary *

The villain of the newest Marvel movie, Thor: Love and Thunder is Gorr the God Butcher, a mortal played by Christian Bale.  Through events that the movie makes crystal clear, Gorr has grievances with one particular god that he then is intent upon generalizing as he begins the process that earns him his nickname.

The indictment of Gorr against his particular god, and then all such similar gods, is thoroughly believable and just.  It is, in fact, the exact complaint that could have been levied in the Ancient World against any of the gods of Paganism whether they be Greek, Egyptian, Babylonian, or any other besides that of the Jews.  Why?  For a very simple and very powerful reason: All such gods with the exception of Yahweh who revealed himself to Abraham, were anthropomorphic.

An anthropomorphic god is made in the image of humanity, that's a problem.

The gods of Ancient Paganism were immortal and powerful, but beyond these qualities they were just like you and me.  They experienced greed, lust, rage, petty jealousy, pride, and a the whole range of human sinfulness.  They were just like us, but bigger (often with bigger, more spectacular, sins too).  They could be grossly evil when it suited them.

Which leads to a problem we can see from a mile away: Immortal powerful beings like us are NOT worthy of worship or devotion.  In fact, such a being would be a menace to be feared, not a Father to be loved.  Imagine the harm that any human being would do with immortality and god-like power.

The actions taken by Gorr in response are their own moral question, but his anger and disappointment are not only justified, but inevitable because his god is just like he is.

The God of Abraham made us in his image, not the other way around

In contrast, the God that you meet when reading the Bible deviates significantly and consistently from human nature.  We change, he does not.  We are tempted toward selfishness, he is not.  We would make use of evil if we thought it would benefit us (or our causes), he would not.  As the Scriptures unfold, the God who will reveal himself as Father and eventually send his Son to save the world and his Spirit to guide his people, persists in love, compassion, mercy, and justice.

God calls us to be like him, to discard our fallen human nature with its vices, and by faith embrace his nature and actually be transformed to be more like him (aiming at ultimate full Christ-likeness).

Does God answer every prayer, are his people always happy with him and his decisions?  No, and the Bible doesn't shy away from these hard truths, offering us the book of Job to contemplate and Ecclesiastes to ponder, but the nature of God: pure and holy, right and just, loving and merciful is what endures through the ages.  

The Jews had a God unlike any of their neighbors.  When the Apostle Paul and his generation of Jesus' disciples brought that God to peoples who had only known petty and cruel gods, their enthusiastic willingness to abandon their gods made in their image, and embrace the God who made us in his, makes a whole lot of sense. 

No comments:

Post a Comment