The word divine means godly. Divinity is possessing the godly attributes for the best of humanity. The relationship between the self and the divine is that the self is the reflection of God’s divinity in people. The divine power of God is the love which desires, activates, creates and evolves in humanity. The spirit of the divine evolves in human beings as such they feel the power in them. The bible articulates who God is profoundly by showing the relationship that God has with the people. The relationships between humankind and the divine are vividly described in the bible. These relationships act as examples to people today as they try to emulate these relationships. People also seek the divinity as a way of self-fulfillment. Therefore, to find out more about the relationship between human beings and the divine, this essay with use the Hebrew Bible and John Donne's Holy Sonnets and Sir Gawain And The Green Knight.
The relationship between human beings and the divine is complex. The relationship between God and human begins in creation in the book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. Genesis portrays the how human being interact with god and how their relationship is formed. From the creation of Adam and Eve and the events that follow in the Bible, we can see the relationship between man and the divine in various angles ( Bible, 1974). At the beginning of the Genesis, God creates human beings and the rest of the earth. He blesses human beings and commands them to multiply the earth ( Bible, 1974) . Therefore, in this case, humans know that the divine is in control of their lives. Human has to depend on the divine for blessings, as it is in their nature. After the creation of Adam and Eve, they are put in the Garden of Eden where everything is provided. The provision of everything to human beings depicts the love that the divine has for human beings. God also shows that he has control of how people behave as he instructs Adam and Eve to not eat from the Tree of Knowledge ( Bible, 1974) . However, he curiosity and disobedience of human beings leads them to eat from the tree. The disobedience by Adam and Eve results in a change of the relationship between man and the divine, as they are chased from the garden of Eden and cursed to toil and sweat for a living, unlike when they were provided with everything at the garden.
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The change in the relationship between the human beings and the divine is well-explored in the John Donne’s Holy Sonnet 14, “Batter my Heart.” The Holy Sonnets by John Donne are Christian poems that involve a dialogue with God about the poet’s life (Acker, 2012).The sonnets are a meditation in which the poet thinks about God’s presence and what God tells the poet about himself. In the poems, the poet engages in an analytical self-examination about what he believes in and his spiritual experience (Acker, 2012). In the sonnet 14, the speaker asks God to strengthen his effort to restore the relationship between him and the speaker. The speaker feels that God is delaying to restore his soul and thus, he wants God to untie the knots that are that are holding him back and imprisoning him so that he can be set free (Acker, 2012). The speaker also wants God to take him by force so that he can purify him. The speaker begins the poem by telling God to increase his forte of divine force so that he can win over the poet’s soul and batter his heart so that he can obey him ( Henne, 2012) . He wants God to beat him up if need be so that he can follow the spiritual way of life. The poet takes from the spiritual belief that God knocks on every person’s heart, but he does not feel like God is knocking on his heart hard enough (Acker, 2012). This request by the poet can be described as a broken relationship with the divine. However, the poet wants the relationship with the divine to be mend even though it is badly damaged. The poet feels that his heart is badly damaged and that is why the relationship with God is not working (Acker, 2012). The poet feels that his life is marred by moral failure, and thus, he cannot wait to be delivered from the bondage of corruption. Romans 7:24, “O wretched man that I am!” “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” which is similar to what the poet wants, the poet knows that he is wretched and he desires to be saved from his sins ( Bible, 1974) .
The relationship between human beings and the divine is damaged due to the worldly desires. When looking at the Bible, we see that after Adam and Eve were chased out of the garden of Eden, the relationship between man and God was broken ( Bible, 1974) . Genesis further talks about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah after the desires of the world overtook the relationship between man and God ( Bible, 1974) . Similarly, in the Sonnet 14, the poet is frustrated that the worldly desires exceed his desire to have a relationship with God. The poet admits that he loves God but he is “betroth’d unto [God’s] enemy” (line 9). The poet feels that the wicked desires of his selfish heart are inhibiting his relationship with God ( Henne, 2012) . Nevertheless, he feels that he can only be free if his relationship with God is fixed. The poet also states for him to have a functional relationship with God, he must be chaste and pure. Evidently, a relationship with God needs the human beings to be revitalized and reconstructed. The poet believes that the relationship with God should be out of this world ( Henne, 2012) . Moreover, the speaker seems to put himself in the situation of a Christian church. The New Testament indicates that the church is the bride, which is metaphorically married to God. Therefore, the poet knows that he has to be pure if he has to have a strong relationship with God.
In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, there are various demonstrations of the relationships between man and God. Christianity was the initial religion in the kingdom of King Author of Camelot ( Cooper, 2008) . During his travels to find the Green Knight, Sir Gawain presents the Christian values and curses the things that he thinks will threaten his way to righteousness (Tracy, 2007).The curses are a depiction of how Jesus Christ curse the evil things and blesses good things. Humankind’s relationship with the divine is often seen with human beings turning to God to seek help. Even in the bible, when things went wrong for people such as David, they went back to God with a repentant heart to seek divine protection. For instance. Sir Gawain uses the pentangle on his armor as a representative of the Virgin Mary protective values (Tracy, 2007). Sir Gawain also prays to God for help whenever he is in trouble such as when he almost starves to death. These examples show that man cannot live without a relationship with God. The relationship with God draws man to divinity and its protective ways for a better life. For instance, in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the attempt to imitate the night is a symbolic representation of how humankind attempts to replicate the divine values in their daily life (Tracy, 2007). However, man fails in many cases to replicate the divine ways. For instance, bravery is a divine value that Sir Gawain tries to have the courage to keep going even as he understands that his death is imminent ( Cooper, 2008) .
The relationship of humankind and the divine is based on justice. Obedience to God is something that is based on the matters of justice (Murphy, 2002). The divine authority gives truth to human beings who must obey the divine. The absence of the appeal to justice is not an argument in itself about the divine authority but rather a way of emphasizing that God is the divine authority and thus the created people should obey in recognition of the Divine (Murphy, 2002). The divine teaches us what we should think about the fundamental nature of God. The people know about God just as the poet John Donne understands God and what he wants him to be. He understands that to have a relationship with God; he has to be pure and clean (Murphy, 2002). The divine connection reminds people of their importance internally, a person’s inward element gives him, or her value and thus the personality matters more than the outward appearance. As Jesus reminds the Pharisees in the Book of Luke, “But the Lord said to him, "Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the platter; but inside of you, you are full of robbery and wickedness” "You foolish ones, did not He who made the outside make the inside also?” "But give that which is within as charity, and then all things are clean for you” (Luke 11:39-41). The relationship with the divine is not a matter of how a person looks but rather how he acts. Therefore, for the relationship to flourish a person must be reconducted just as John Donne in the sonnet 14 “Batter my Heart” desires. However, even as the divine recognizes the inner element of a person, it emphasizes in the relationship between the inner and outer elements of a person which can be equated to the relationship between God and His creation.
In conclusion, the relationship between human beings and the divine is complex. The relationship between God and human begins in creation in the book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bibles. The provision of everything to human beings in the garden of Eden depicts the love that the divine has for human beings. The disobedience by Adam and Eve results in a change of the relationship between man and the divine. The change in the relationship between the human beings and the divine is well-explored in the John Donne’s Holy Sonnet 14, “Batter my Heart” where the speaker begins the poem by telling God to increase his forte of divine force so that he can triumph over the poet’s soul and batter his heart. The poet feels that the satanic desires of his selfish heart are inhibiting his relationship with God and the only way that can be remedied is through chastity and purity. Humankind’s relationship with the divine is often seen with human beings turning to God to seek help, which is portrayed in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Sir Gawain prays to God for help whenever he is in trouble such as when he almost starves to death. The relationship of humankind and the divine is based on justice. Obedience to God is something that is based on the matters of justice. Additionally, the divine connection reminds people of their importance internally, a person’s inward element give value and thus, the personality matters more than the outward appearance.
Refences
Acker, E. A. (2012). Knowing the Holy: Sanctification and Identity in Sixteenth-and Seventeenth-Century Literature.
Bible, H. (1974). The Holy Bible: King James Version . Christian Cassette Library.
Cooper, H. (Ed.). (2008). Sir Gawain and the Green Knight . Oxford Paperbacks.
Henne, V. (2012). Holy Sonnet 14–Batter my heart" by John Donne. An Interpretation.
Murphy, M. C. (2002). An essay on divine authority . Ithaca, N.Y: Cornell University Press.
Tracy, L. (2007). A Knight of God or the Goddess? Rethinking Religious Syncretism in" Sir Gawain and the Green Knight". Arthuriana , 31-55.
