AN IGWEBUIKE PERSPECTIVE OF THE EXILE IN EZEKIEL'S THEOLOGY OF DIVINE PRESENCE AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR THE ABRAHAMIC RELIGIONS

Abstract

While the community in Judah considered those in exile as "other" because they had no temple and were not within the geographical location called "Judah" (cf. Ezek 11:15), this study leans on the critical spatial theories of Edward W. Soja and Wesley A. Kort to show that location does not guarantee the experience of the divine. What counts is not location, but praxis, that is, our orientation towards the Holy One. YHWH's expression (cf. Ezek 11:16), in reaction to the tension that existed between the exilic community and the remnant community in Judah, challenges the religious tension and religious exclusivism that characterize our world today. It shows that despite the existential peculiarities of each community of faith, there exists a theological minimum that can form the basis of our experience of the divine. Sometimes, we may think we possess the fullness of truth, as symbolized in the temple with its sacred adornments or as contained in the Torah, the Holy Bible or the Koran, but the reality of the experience of the divine does not necessarily lie in the one who possesses the truth. It is not the possession of the truth that matters, but how prepared we are to walk in the light of the truth that we possess, irrespective of our religious affiliations.