Hi Amergin —
Well, they are manifold, in Christianity for example, we have the Litany of the Divine Name; Islam has the same thing.
There are, I would say, two orders of name. The first is the name man comes up with, by his own reasoning — 'Theos' being such a one. The second is the name that is 'revealed' in sacred texts.
Then, when we consider a more phenomenal and less rationalistic and 'enlightened' age such as our own, people understood the idea of 'resonance', a theory not accessible to empirical measurement, and in Sheldrake, for example, largely regarded as pseudoscience, but not without its supporters among 'serious' scientists.
In short, there is a belief that if one prays, or contemplates the universe, or whatever, then the object of our attention responds ...
People here, for example, tend to write G!d or whatever, on the same basis.
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In Christianity, besides the name Jesus Christ, we have 'Kurios' which simply means 'Lord'; a generic term, and yet when the word is uttered, it resounds with particular meaning. So the importance is not in the letter, but in the spirit.
In prehistoric Amorite theology, El ...
Again, it seems you look to what is written on the stones of history, I tend to look for the author's hand, what is written upon the heart.
My belief is that the story of Abraham signifies the move from polytheism to monotheism ... but the name of that God was a mystery to Abram, and he probably used the names he was familiar with, but 'saw' that name in a new light. In like fashion, when Noah offered sacrifice to God, Scripture claims it was the same God as spoke to Moses on the mountain, even thogh Noah's conception of that God was, literally, a world apart.
Personally, I like El Shaddai ... but I mean the same Trinitarian Godhead when I use it.
Then what is the proper name of the new Trinitarian God(s) of Athanasius and Constantine?
I'll ignore your agenda on this point, as neither sound scholarship nor the material evidence has done anything to shift it, it's unlikely I will.
The Christian community accepted the God of the Jews as the same God of whom Christ spoke when they rejected Marcion.
The 'highest' Divine Name offered in the Hebrew Scriptures is given in the response to Moses on the mountain, the "I am" of Exodus 3:13-15.
'I AM WHO I AM' is not a personal name in the common sense, but rather, and more importantly, a self-disclosure of the Divine, a self-designation by the Divine to mean (among many meanings) I am Being Itself (in which all created nature participates); I am Self as such (again, in which all created rational nature participates) I am (and only I am) self-subsisting; Only I am eternal, absolute, infinite, without beginning or end; only I am Uncreated, Undetermined, Unconditioned, and I am the Source and Sustainer of all creation.
Indeed, some exegetes regard the statement as a 'roasting' for Moses and the people ... how dare they ask!
The Hebrews referred to God by a series of such designations, but understood that when one uses a divine designation, especially one that is revealed by the Designated, then there is a particular unity between the Name and the Named, which is why they treated such names, even though not personal names as such, as sacred.
In Christ we use the name He gave us, even though only He, by right, can use it ... Abba, Father ... That's why our Creed begins, "We believe in One God, the Father Almighty ... " There is no higher name, there can be no more intimate and no more personal a designation that that of parent/child.
But names ... there are many: Logos, Word, Son, Sacred Heart, Lamb of God ...
God bless,
Thomas
