Show notes
Christopher J.H. Wright completely revolutionized the way I looked at the Old Testament with his seminal Old Testament Ethics for the People of God. It directly led to a closer study of the Law, which indirectly led to a closer study of the Prophets, which led to a year-long immersion into the book of Amos that profoundly affected my public-facing ministry and my views on political and social justice reform. When I learned of Here Are Your Gods, a critique showing how our modern-day idols in politics and culture are no different than the idols of old, I knew I had to have him on the podcast program to talk more about it. I absolutely loved this conversation and hope you will too.
The Conversation | Christopher JH Wright
This excerpt has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity. You can listen to the full interview by clicking the play button above or subscribing at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Josh Olds: Now just to start, can you give the listeners a sort of summary of what this book is about?
Christopher JH Wright: Well, it’s basically a book about trying to identify—first of all—what the Bible has to say about idolatry and gods because many people aren’t aware of how much is there and why it matters. And secondly, it’s about how we can discern and identify the fact that we still live with false gods and idols all around us, not just in, as it were, people of other faiths in other parts of the world, but very much even within Western culture, and indeed, within Western Christianity. So it’s an attempt to bring together biblical teaching about what idols are and how that relates to the only true living God and how idols impact and affect our culture.
Josh Olds: When we look at the Hebrew Scriptures, it records, Yahweh as saying, you know, “You shall have no other gods before me.” And the skeptic looks at that and says, “Aha, so there’s an admission here that there are other gods.” How did the ancient Hebrew view Yahweh?
Christopher JH Wright: Well, I think it depends a little bit whether you ask the average Israelite at any particular time in Israel’s story, as the Old Testament shows us, or whether we’re talking about the canonical faith of Israel, as revealed by God and then embodied within the scriptures. I mean, the Old Testament doesn’t hold back at all in saying that the average Israelite, for many centuries, continued to mix the worship of Yahweh, the God of Israel, with going after other gods, the gods of the people around them, particularly the gods of Canaan.
But when, in my view, when we look at the very earliest documents within the Old Testament, we can see that what God was seeking to teach them was that there really is only one true God, and that is Yahweh. It’s not just that there’s only one God as if it was a kind of philosophical axiom, but rather, that “Yahweh alone is God in heaven above the earth” beneath quoting directly from Deuteronomy [4.29], “And there is no other.”
The point that some of those old testament scholars want to make, and I think, in some ways, they are not only mistaken, but somewhat patronizing, is that even to talk about other gods—as in the verse you quoted, you know, “you should have no other gods” or even referring to other gods assumes that they exist in the same way that Yahweh exists. But of course, even in our modern way of speaking, that would be nonsense. It would mean that, for example, I would not be able to even talk about the gods that are worshipped in India, and discuss or talk about the gods of Hinduism, without somebody telling you “Oh, you’re talking about those gods or even giving them names, you know, Rama and Krishna and Ganesh and so on, you must believe that they exist.”
Well, no, I’m talking about the phenomenon—the empirical fact that people do claim to worship these gods.
The Conversation | Christopher JH Wright
This excerpt has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity. You can listen to the full interview by clicking the play button above or subscribing at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Josh Olds: Now just to start, can you give the listeners a sort of summary of what this book is about?
Christopher JH Wright: Well, it’s basically a book about trying to identify—first of all—what the Bible has to say about idolatry and gods because many people aren’t aware of how much is there and why it matters. And secondly, it’s about how we can discern and identify the fact that we still live with false gods and idols all around us, not just in, as it were, people of other faiths in other parts of the world, but very much even within Western culture, and indeed, within Western Christianity. So it’s an attempt to bring together biblical teaching about what idols are and how that relates to the only true living God and how idols impact and affect our culture.
Josh Olds: When we look at the Hebrew Scriptures, it records, Yahweh as saying, you know, “You shall have no other gods before me.” And the skeptic looks at that and says, “Aha, so there’s an admission here that there are other gods.” How did the ancient Hebrew view Yahweh?
Christopher JH Wright: Well, I think it depends a little bit whether you ask the average Israelite at any particular time in Israel’s story, as the Old Testament shows us, or whether we’re talking about the canonical faith of Israel, as revealed by God and then embodied within the scriptures. I mean, the Old Testament doesn’t hold back at all in saying that the average Israelite, for many centuries, continued to mix the worship of Yahweh, the God of Israel, with going after other gods, the gods of the people around them, particularly the gods of Canaan.
But when, in my view, when we look at the very earliest documents within the Old Testament, we can see that what God was seeking to teach them was that there really is only one true God, and that is Yahweh. It’s not just that there’s only one God as if it was a kind of philosophical axiom, but rather, that “Yahweh alone is God in heaven above the earth” beneath quoting directly from Deuteronomy [4.29], “And there is no other.”
The point that some of those old testament scholars want to make, and I think, in some ways, they are not only mistaken, but somewhat patronizing, is that even to talk about other gods—as in the verse you quoted, you know, “you should have no other gods” or even referring to other gods assumes that they exist in the same way that Yahweh exists. But of course, even in our modern way of speaking, that would be nonsense. It would mean that, for example, I would not be able to even talk about the gods that are worshipped in India, and discuss or talk about the gods of Hinduism, without somebody telling you “Oh, you’re talking about those gods or even giving them names, you know, Rama and Krishna and Ganesh and so on, you must believe that they exist.”
Well, no, I’m talking about the phenomenon—the empirical fact that people do claim to worship these gods.