In the first part, we saw why men invented the spirits and the functions they assigned to them. In the second part, we discovered the process of sedentarization around the norms and values inherited from nomadism. We further described the profound but delayed influence animal domestication has had on the world of spirits, announcing the end of shamanism. In the third part, we saw how the egalitarian values of the preceding period gave way to a hierarchized world in which men and divinities dominate nature. We also assisted at the birth of religious institutions that mirrored the transformations taking place in civil society.
In the fourth and last part, we discover the influence of the Axial Age, an ideological tidal wave that gives shape to a new vision of the world. We see the difficulties that the prophets encounter when trying to impose their divinity on the Israelites. As we plunge in the traditions of this people, we understand why Genesis recounts two versions of the creation, why Yahweh chooses Abel and not Cain, and why Eve is born from Adam's rib. Furthermore, the relationship between this people and the new divinity explains how the profane and religious intolerance were born. And while the masculine as creative principle occupies the firmament, nature and the feminine disappear from the sacred world.
Most references used in this part come from the Old Testament. The first, second and third books of Genesis can be consulted as appendices [Appendices Genesis ‘E’ and ‘J’].
This part is divided in two chapters and a conclusion:
I. The Age of Renewal refers to the Axial Age, a period that promotes individualism and abstract thought, the divine being now revealed
II. The God of the Prophets exposes the relationship between the Israelites, the prophets and their god
Function: God takes us down the path that led from feminine fertility to masculine creativity man, and gathers some of the consequences the advent of Levantine monotheism entails.