Spirituality and the Search for Meaning: Previewing Abrahamic Religions

The Code of Hammurabi (c. 1754 BC) was one of the first written records of spirituality in the Western World.  The Western World implies any body of land west of present day Iran and Iraq and east of the west coasts of North and South America.

Unique changes occur in Western religion, starting at the decline of Hammurabi's first Babylonian Empire around 1531 BC and culminating with the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire in 1453 AD, defined by the three Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

All three religions link their history to the lineage of the ancient figures of Abraham and Moses and the first of ten commandments shared by Moses:

And God spoke all these words, saying,
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me." (Exodus 20:1-3, ESV)

The first commandment provides the answer to my question in my last discussion: If man is part of a finite story, what is his role in the infinite story?

For the first time in recorded Western history, polytheistic beliefs of lower case gods involved in the creation of the world is declared to be not only wrong, but an act against one capital case God.  God is the creator of the universe, The Lord,  who is responsible for the deliverance of Moses and his descendants from a life of slavery, and has a relationship with humanity.

The one God, whose name is the Lord, brings mortal men, specifically slaves, to be in His infinite story.  Keep this in mind as I continue to reflect on the influence Abrahamic Religions have had on spirituality.