THE PRIMEVAL REVELATION AND ITS RELEVANCE TODAY
        Anthony Zimmerman, STD

The Primeval Revelation is of enormous importance to global society if it is a fact - which it is - that God revealed Himself to man at the dawn of human culture. Anthropologists have collected volumes of traditions about the Supreme Being which tell about creation, about mandatory behavior, and sanctions of heaven or hell. A Helsinki Universal Declaration of Human Rights would hardly have jelled had God not revealed transcendent truths from primeval times. Reverberations of the Primeval Revelation appear to draw people toward Assisi. As the Millennium advances, globalization of religion must keep a step ahead of globalization of commerce. September 11^th will hopefully shock us into a keener determination to undergird human survival, prosperity, and peace by standing together unabashedly before God with hats off. As the Ten Commandments were in the beginning, so now and forever.

In this writing I will 1) indicate the fact and importance of the Primeval Revelation, 2) provide examples of belief in the Supreme Being among hunter-gatherers, 3) show widespread belief in the Supreme Being in Traditional Religions as Cardinal Arinze pointed out, as well as in modern cultures, 4) discuss the supernatural origin of widespread belief in the Supreme Being, 5) point to Christ as the one and only operating religious bridge between God and man, 6) discuss whether widespread belief in the Supreme Being is somehow connected with the Primeval Revelation, and finally 7) argue for fuller use of the Primeval Revelation for modern evangelization.

1. The fact and importance of the Primeval Revelation

Two paragraphs, among the 2865 numbers in the CCC, teach that there was indeed a Primeval Revelation, and that it was not broken off by Original Sin

54 "God, who creates and conserves all things by his Word, provides men with constant evidence of himself in created realities. And furthermore, wishing to open up the way to heavenly salvation, he manifested himself to our first parents from the very beginning." He invited them to intimate communion with himself and clothed them with resplendent grace and justice.

55 This revelation was not broken off by our first parent's sin. "After the fall, (God) buoyed them up with the hope of salvation by promising redemption; and he has never ceased to show his solicitude for the human race. For he wishes to give eternal life to all those who seek salvation by patience in well-doing."

Because the Primeval Revelation is a heritage common to our race, it overarches Church and State and binds the human race to observe the "Ten Commandments of Eden." Before Christ revealed God to us in Jerusalem, before Jahweh spoke to Moses on Sinai, before God called Abraham out of Ur of Chaldea, many generations before Noah sacrificed to God after the Deluge, and before the human race scattered around the globe after the fiasco of Babel, when our race was young and blessed, God spoke to our Adam and Eve and invited them to walk in His ways and so gain eternal life in heaven.

The CCC clearly mentions the supernatural aspects of that revelation, namely the call to intimacy with God and to heavenly salvation. The recipients of this Revelation are therefore not only children of nature who know God through His works, but who know naught about an open gate to heaven. The God who invited Adam and Eve to heaven, did not cease to call them and their descendants to the same eternal life after Original Sin (see CCC 55 above). He continued this call first of all to Adam and Eve, as Irenaeus the second century theologian points out with passion and devotion

"Therefore, when the enemy was conquered in turn, Adam received life again. `For the last enemy to be destroyed is death' (1 Cor 1526). That could not be written truthfully unless the man who was first overcome by death would be freed from it. His salvation, then, is the emptying of death" (Adv. Haer. III 23,7). "But those who deny salvation to Adam gain nothing by this except that they make themselves to be heretics and apostates from the truth, and show that they are advocates of the serpent and of death" (III,23,8).

Scripture and Tradition bear ample witness to Adam's salvation. Genesis 3:20 suggests this by the fact that God made clothing for them and helped them into the clothes. Eve rejoices that God favored her with children (41; 424). Adam lived a long life, which is a biblical index of God's favor"Thus all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died" (Gen 55). Sirach crowns him as the greatest of humans"But beyond that of any living being was the splendor of Adam" (4916). Christ mentioned with evident approval the first marriage as model for the race (Mt 19, Mark 10). Our Office of Readings of Holy Saturday dramatizes Christ's descent into Limbo to save Adam and Eve. An 8th century painting in the lower church of San Clemente in Rome pictures Christ reaching out to Adam and Eve after His descent to Limbo. Many people invoke Adam and Eve as their patron saints and celebrate on December 24th.

Pope John Paul II does not hesitate today to call the original gift which God gave to Adam and Eve by the name of sanctifying grace

When the Council of Trent teaches that the first Adam lost the holiness and righteousness in which he had been established ... this means that before sin, man possessed sanctifying grace with all the supernatural gifts that make man "righteous" before God. We may sum all this up by saying that, at the beginning, man was in friendship with God (Catechesis, 3 September 1986).

Our first parents, then, lived in a monogamous marriage which is typically associated with a division of labor, lifetime fidelity, and love for each other and for the children. Scripture and Tradition point to love of God as well and faithfulness to His commandments after they had recovered from the Fall. It follows logically that they taught their children diligently about what they had heard from God concerning the duties of life and the hope of eternal life with Him in heaven.

Their lifestyle was likely hunting and gathering, the global style until many peoples turned to herding and agriculture. The hunter and gathering lifestyle typically authenticated monogamous marriage as well as respect for the Creator from whose hand they received their livelihood.

2. Belief in the Supreme Being among hunter-gatherers

The statement made by Roch Kereszty that hunter-gatherers invoked the heavenly father god "only in the most extreme need, when all sacrifices and petitions to ancestral spirits and lesser gods had failed" (Communio, Summer 1999, p. 259) is not verified by the testimony of anthropologists, including first of all Wilhelm Schmidt of the Society of the Divine Word. Indeed, the Supreme Being Himself was for many of them their first love and concern from morning until night. They looked forward keenly to re-union with Him after death, and remained ever aware of this during the daily events of life.

Information on hunter-gatherer myths is massively available in the twelve tomes of anthropologist Father Wilhelm Schmidt, SVD (1868-1954) titled Der Ursprung der Gottes Idee, (Origin of the Idea of God), and in numerous sources which he indicates. Ernest Brandewie, Ph.D., professor of anthropology at Indiana University, translated considerable parts of it from German to English in Wilhelm Schmidt and the Origin of the Idea of God, University Press of America, 1983. I have also translated materials from the Schmidt publications, some of which is reproduced in my book The Primeval Revelation (TPR) published by the same University Press of America (1999).

In Volume VI of Ursprung we find this summary passage describing the longing of typical hunter-gatherers for a re-union with the Supreme Being in the afterlife

The time that the great Supreme Being spent on earth living intimately with man shortly after He, the Boundless Good, had filled His creation with goodness until it overflowed (cf. p. 404) was considered to be the best of all times on this earth, according to the beliefs common to this oldest era. People looked back to this time as to a lost island of bliss with painful longing, a longing they now believe will be satisfied when the souls of the good will live in heaven; life in heaven, not on this earth, will reestablish that golden age. We find glowing descriptions of this coming heavenly paradise among the Maidu, the Lenape-Delaware, the Salis, the Wiradyuri and the Kamilaroi...They give us an idea about the rapture under which the earliest men viewed the heavenly sojourn which the blessed deserve and spend with their Creator and Judge (Ursprung 472, trans. by Ernest Brandewie in Wilhelm Schmidt and the Origin of the Idea of God, p. 272).

We begin our sampling of hunter-gatherer beliefs with tribals of the land of Tierra del Fuego on the tip of South America. How they arrived there after having left the habitat of our first parents we know not - whether from Africa and Asia via the Bering Land Corridor during ice ages and then down, or whether by island hopping across the Pacific, or whether navigating by sea along the edges of ice sheets. At any rate, they had come from afar at some time in the past, and probably very long ago.

"Our Father" Known to the Indians of Tierra del Fuego

Father Martin Gusinde, S.V.D., made four expeditions to the Indians living on the southernmost tip of South America during 1919-1923. At that time he was director of the anthropological section of the State Museum of Santiago. I was privileged to hear experiences directly from him when he taught anthropology at the Catholic University of America while I studied theology during 1956-1960. He tells about the beliefs of the Ona Indians in Schmidt, Der Ursprung Der Gottes Idee, Vol. 2, 892-897. That is, they call themselves Selknam, whereas outsiders call them the Ona tribe. In what follows I draw on one of my earlier works now out of print The Religion of Adam and Eve. The translations from the German are mine. Translations are set off, summaries are not.

The older members of the Ona Indians, who had practically no relations with the Catholic mission and kept themselves distant from the white people, spoke with profound earnestness and absolute conviction about their Supreme Being. The younger members, however, who had much contact with the whites had lost a certain amount of interest, and the Supreme Being appears to have been pushed far into the background of their lives.

The belief of the older natives is described as follows. Supreme Being, called Temaukl, has always been alone, and has no wife nor children. He is a Spirit, a Kaspi, like human beings after they die. He neither eats nor drinks; no one can explain how He keeps Himself alive. He never feels tired, does not sleep. He lives above the firmament beyond the stars. He never comes down to earth, but He sees and knows all that goes on here. No one can hide from Him, because He sees everyone and everything. He hears exactly what everyone says, knows even what one thinks and intends.

It is Temaukl who made the still undifferentiated earth and the empty firmament at the beginning; further arrangements He then delegated to the first human K'enos. Temaukl then withdrew. Others say, however, that Temaukl Himself did some of the detailed work, and then delegated further work to K'enos, the first human. Temaukl rules from above with a power that nobody can oppose, and all have reverence for Him.

Temaukl is the originator of all the prescriptions and regulations by which the lives of individuals are arranged, and by which relations with others are prescribed. He made all these commandments known first of all to K'enos, who was commissioned, in turn, to instruct all the people. Temaukl then oversees the loyal fulfillment of all the commandments, down to this day. The older men, for example, warn the younger against consorting with the wife of another man by telling them "The One Above is always very near; He hears everything that you whisper like that to a woman. He will punish you if you play with the woman and allow yourself to be touched by her. Pain will strike you in the loins. So don't become involved with the wife of another. The One Above is very near and sees you." There is hardly a phrase as frequently heard as this" Temaukl punishes with sickness and with death."

At the time of death the soul of a person, the Kaspi, is called by Temaukl, and goes up to heaven where Temaukl lives. But the Ona Indians know nothing about conditions in heaven, whether they associate with Temaukl, or with each other. They know only that the souls do not return to this earth, so they have no fear of them. It is only the souls of sorcerers who do not go to heaven; these stay on earth to roam about until they enter another sorcerer.

To live peacefully with Temaukl it is necessary to observe all His commandments exactly. Then Temaukl protects the person, who can be very confident.

People offer the first piece of meat to Temaukl as a kind of first fruits sacrifice. "This piece is for you," they say before they eat, casting a piece of meat outside the door.

Prayers are short and to the point"Temaukl, preserve us from grave sickness." "Temaukl, be gracious; do not allow my child to die, who is still so young," They say that prayer is "speaking with the One who lives in Heaven." Temaukl is for them what God is for the Christians, explained Hotex, one of the elders, to Fr. Gusinde.

The Yamana Call Him Watauinewa

The Yamana Indians, another tribe in Tierra del Fuego, are also known as the "Canoe Indians" because they ply canoes skillfully through the many channels of their watery abode. Their beliefs have much in common with those of the Ona tribe, but they call the Supreme Being by the name of Watauinewa. Fr. Gusinde tells how he and Fr. W. Koppers, SVD, finally learned more about their beliefs in Watauinewa, although their informers were reluctant to speak about Him. The passage below is from Ursprung 2, 924 ff.

As many times before, we [Gusinde and Koppers] were together in the laundry room on Monday, January 23, 1923, where three or four elderly Yagan [Yamana] women often told us stories and myths of their tribe. All of a sudden the name Watauinewa tumbled out ...

"And who is this Watauinewa?" The question occasioned no little embarrassment for the women present. No one answered; all cast eyes down or off to the side, as though perplexed. When we insisted, saying that it would be highly interesting for us to hear more about Watauinewa, the elderly Mary finally pulled herself together and said"Watauinewa like God, like Christian God."

The ladies also shared with the researchers some prayer formulas by which they address their Supreme Being; in the course of time the two researchers collected more prayers and grouped them into prayers of complaint, of petition, of thanksgiving, and expressions of reverence. The prayers are vivacious and spontaneous, revealing lively concourse with Watauinewa. Here are a few samples, translated from Ursprung 2, 929 ff. Note that the prayers are a far cry from an appeal to a distant God, a Deus Otiosus withdrawn from daily life of the people. Their God is with them day and night.

Prayers of Remonstration

(After death of a child)"So there! He gave to me from above just to take away again. My Father!"

"I am annoyed with my Father! Talawaia!"

"I wish I could meet with Watauinewa in heaven. Where can I meet with Watauinewa of heaven? Talawaia!" (to demand an accounting).

"Oh, the One Above allowed the death of all my comrades of the Initiation." (His last colleague had died.)

"Talawaia! You who are above have snatched the father away from these orphans. Talawaia! Okay, so now you go ahead and feed them yourself from above, my hard Father. Talawaia!" (Distraught widow and mother.)

(This woman had fallen when walking barefooted on freshly fallen snow)"Please, my Father, graciously give us good weather! Why did you make me experience hardship, my Father? Why did you shut your eyes, my Father, from seeing the snow?"

Prayers of Thanksgiving

"Thanks. My Father was so kind! I am happy with my Father."

"Wonderful! Summer is here for us! Thanks. The winter is gone."

"Ah! He looked after me. He did not take me away today, Watauinewa of the Heavens" (after recovery from sickness).

"Wonderful! My Father was kind to us. Graciously He saved the boat for us. We are happy with My Father." (After danger at sea.)

Petitions

"My Father, if kind to me wonderful, I will return" (Before a dangerous journey).

"My Father, please, be good to me today!" (Before embarking on works and activities).

(Evening prayer)"Well, good then, all of us together; may My Father be kind every day!"

(Before dangerous journeys)"Yes, good-bye forever, if it pleases Watauinewa to take one of us."

Father Koppers explains that some of the words and phrases of the prayers are archaic, suggesting their great age. However, they also extemporize a prayerful expression of their feelings and needs at any time

The lively inner relationship of the Yamana to their Supreme Being expresses itself in these warm and frequent prayers; we see that they bring all of the experiences of their lives, the joyful and the sorrowful, into an interior communication with Him, or of cult towards Him (Ursprung 2, 931).

We askwhence did the Yamana's and the Ona hunter-gatherers of Tierra del Fuego learn to live in such intimate faith with the Supreme Being? Did God reveal Himself to them anew, or did they remember Him from the Primeval Revelation? We will return to these points later.

The Lenape IndiansCommunal Worship of God

The Lenape tribes who inhabited far-flung areas of the Delaware River Basin made a pact with William Penn, Governor of Pennsylvania in 1682. Their famous creation song called Walam Olum recalls a fleeting image of an idyllic paradise which was invaded to their sorrow by an enemy snake. The writer copied the words from archives in the Ethnology section of the library of the Smithsonian Museum.

Canto I begins with an account of the original formation of the cosmos by the Great Manito, whose name is Kitanitowit. All is peaceful and idyllic as the Great Manito does His initial work, much as in Genesis 1

1. At first, in that place, at all times, above the earth,

2. On the earth, [was] an extended fog, and there the great

Manito was (Kitanitowit-essop).

3. At first, forever, lost in space, everywhere, the great

Manito was (Kitanitowit-essop).

4. He made the extended land and the sky.

5. He made the sun, the moon, the stars.

6. He made them all to move evenly.

7. Then the wind blew violently, and it cleared,

and the water flowed off far and strong.

8. The groups of islands grew newly, and there remained.

9. Anew spoke the great Manito (Kitanitowit), a manito to manitos.

10. To beings, mortals, souls and all.

11. And ever he was a manito to men, and their grandfather.

12. He gave the first mother, the mother of beings.

13. He gave the fish, he gave the turtles, he gave the beasts, he gave the birds.

The verse "At first...the great Manito was (Kitanitowit-essop)" reminds one of the revelation made by God to Moses that God is Jahweh, He who is. Note that Kitanitowit was alone at the beginning, that He formed the heaven and the earth, that He is supreme among all the manitos. Departing from a central point of Genesis, however, the Walam Olum says nothing about a sin of the first man, but speaks only about an evil invader. This suggests dualism.

14. But an evil Manito made evil beings only, monsters,

15. He made the flies, he made the gnats.

16. All things were then friendly.

17. Truly the manitos were active and kindly.

18. To those very first men, and to those first mothers; fetched them wives.

19. Fetched them food, when first they desired it.

20. All had cheerful knowledge, all had leisure, all thought in goodness.

21. But very secretly an evil being, a mighty magician, came on earth.

22. And with him brought badness, quarreling, unhappiness,

23. Brought bad weather, brought sickness, brought death.

24. All this took place of old on the earth, beyond the great

tide-water, at the first. [End of Canto I]

Note the aspect of dualismThe Great Manito makes (sohalawak) only good things, but an evil Manito makes (sohalawak) only evil things. Both "make" things which turn out to be products that reflect the good nature of the One, the evil nature of the other. (See more about the epic in my book The Primeval Revelation, University Press of America, Chapter 4.)

The Lenape celebration of twelve days of thanksgiving to God in autumn is well documented, for example in M.R. Harrington's Indian Notes and Monographs. A sample of the community prayer to the Creator is this passage as recited by Chief Elkhaar

Man has a spirit, and the body seems to be a coat for that spirit. That is why people should take care of their spirits, so as to reach Heaven and be admitted to the Creator's dwelling. We are given some length of time to live on earth, and then our spirits must go. When anyone's time comes to leave this earth, he should go to "Gicelemu'kaong feeling good on the way. We ought to pray to Him, to prepare ourselves for days to come so that we can be with Him after leaving the earth...

The prayer paints a beautiful picture of the Happy Hunting Ground and urges the people to live a worthy life in preparation for the eternal reward. We are probably not wrong if we attribute some of the contents to a Christian influence. Even if that is the case, the authenticity of the more ancient belief shines through

When we reach that place, we shall not have to do anything or worry about anything, only live a happy life. We know there are many of our fathers who have left this earth and are now in this happy place in the Land of the Spirits. When we arrive we shall see our fathers, mothers, children, and sisters there, and when we have prepared ourselves so that we can go to where our parents and children are, we feel happy.

Everything looks more beautiful there than here; everything looks new, and the waters and fruits and everything are lovely.

No sun shines there, but a light much brighter than the sun; the Creator makes it brighter by His power. All people who die here, young and old, will be of the same age there; and those who are injured, crippled, or made blind will look as good as the rest of them. It is nothing but the flesh that is injured; the spirit is as good as ever. That is the reason people are told to help always the cripples or the blind. Whatever you do for them will surely bring us reward. Whatever you do for anybody will bring you credit hereafter. Whenever we think the thoughts that Gicelemu'kaong has given us it will do us good.

That is all I can think of to say along this line. Now we will pass the Turtle around, and all that feel like worshiping may take it and perform their ceremonies ( Harrington, Indian Notes, 87-93).

The prayer is recited with variations during the twelve nights. Note that they frequently address the Creator as "Our Father." This Father has care for them and provides everything they need from the cosmos which is totally at His command.

He is also omniscient and just, noting the good deeds which become a "white path" after death by which the departed find their way to the Creator. This "Path of Accounting" leads eventually to a parting of the ways; while still at a great distance from their final destination, bad people are halted from going on and cannot approach nearer to the abode of the Great Spirit (cf. Frank G. Speck, A Study of the Delaware Indians, 174; see also Schmidt, Ursprung 5, p. 518). We can therefore understand why Witapanoxwe, who provided information to Professor Speck about the Lenape religion, could affirm with confidence and understandable family pride that "the prayer-creeds of the red people ... and all other prayer-creeds of the world" issue from the Creator who leans on the staff of the Big House (Speck, 87). No sign of dualism is present in the Thanksgiving prayers, but there indications of intermediary gods. More information about the Lenape and about the beliefs of many other hunter-gatherer tribes can be found in my book The Primeval Revelation from which the above is excerpted.

The two samples of belief in the Supreme Being by hunter-gatherers must suffice here for want of space, as we pass to the third point

3. Widespread Belief in The Supreme Being

To an outsider it may appear that the Japanese culture knows naught about the Supreme Being, but to us who have lived here for a long time it is apparent that basic recognition of God supports the culture.

At the annual commemorations of the atom bombs which cremated inhabitants of Nagasaki and Hiroshima who lived within the radius of the epicenter, people gather solemnly to pray for the repose of the souls of those who died, and offer flowers and incense. At a funeral of a beloved teacher at Nanzan high school girls fell on the casket weeping"Don't forget me! I want to see you there! Wait for me!" Just before a ceremony began for a marriage of a Buddhist to a Catholic, the Buddhist party's mother stormed into the sacristy to call a halt. They cannot marry, she said breathlessly, because the Buddhist heaven and the Christian heaven are different, and they cannot live together and with us in the next world. The priest assured her that heaven is not compartmentalized, and with that she allowed the ceremony to proceed.

When a member of the opposition party grilled the Prime Minister why he had not made better provision for guarding against a natural disaster, he shot back "I'm not God. I can't know everything." The scene was featured on NHK national news for the enjoyment of the nation.

Doctors reveal that a sense of awe comes over them especially on two occasions at the birth of a child, and at the death of one of their patients.

When I suggested to the doctor to reduce intravenous nutrition from four liters to two for our suffering 86 year old priest, he responded that the entire staff wants him to live as long as possible, and that nurses look into his eyes and say he is a god, that is, one close to the Creator. Only recently has organ transplantation become legal under strict provisions about tests for brain death. A doctors' team to transplant organs from a supposedly brain dead patient aborted their operation when they could not carry out one of the tests to ascertain brain death. They could not pour water into the ears of the victim because they were lacerated by the accident. The doctors then desisted from proceeding.

The media do not belittle or ridicule religion or religious practices. Never would they dare to do so. Fear of and respect for what is considered sacred pervades the culture. Never, never, in present day Japan, would a museum exhibit a Madonna smeared over with elephant dung, or a picture of Christ in dishonor. Fear of tembatsu - punishment from heaven - is all pervasive.

Twice a month elderly citizens of my neighborhood in Nagoya flock to Koshoji temple to pray for a quick and easy death. With apt gesture and word they pray for a passage to the next life as short and quick as you can clap your hands and say "pokkuri."

Awareness of the Supreme Being, however, is buried under layers of practical concerns. It does not dominate morals and daily decisions. It comes to the surface only vaguely and on special occasions. A connection between moral behavior during everyday life, to be sanctioned by reward or punishment in the next life, is not well established in the culture.

When we recall that all people of the globe today have ancestors who lived as hunter-gatherers in primeval times, we should expect some continuity of beliefs and customs of former times.

Vatican document on Traditional Religions

The Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue issued a seminal document on Traditional Religions on November 21, 1993, which highlights the widespread recognition of the Supreme Being. Some excerpts from my commentary on the document follow here, taken from the book The Primeval Revelation pages 86-90.

Cardinal Francis Arinze, President of the Council, is a native of Nigeria, and Bishop Michael Fitzgerald, M. Afr., the Council's Secretary, signed the document. Their knowledge of the subject includes first hand experience.

By Traditional Religions the document refers not to those world religions which have spread into many countries and cultures, such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Muslimism, but folk religions which have survived in their original socio-cultural environment. Traditional in this sense means preserved in the localized cultural matrix. These Traditional Religions embody "a clear belief in One God, in a Supreme Being who goes by such names as Great Spirit, Creator, the Great One, the Mighty Spirit, the Divine, the Transcendent, the One who lives above, Heaven, etc." (No. 3). Besides belief in the Supreme Being, there is also a belief in other beings which may be called spirits. Departed adult ancestors are also objects of belief.

Cult or worship is directed generally to the spirits and the ancestors and sometimes to God. "The moral code is regarded as that which has been handed down by past generations and sanctioned by the spirits and the ancestors, and occasionally by God" (No.3). The riches of the content of these religions is found not in books or articulated statements so much as in cultural celebrations, stories and proverbs, and are conveyed through attitudes. Only rarely do they trace their origin to a founder. Some of the major values are as follows

4. In many traditional societies there is a strong sense of the sacred. Religion permeates life to such an extent that it is often difficult to distinguish between strictly religious elements and local custom. Authority is not seen as something secular but is regarded as a sacred trust. People of Traditional Religions show great attention to the earth. They respect life and celebrate its important stagesbirth, entrance into adulthood, marriage, death. There is a strong sense of the family, which includes love of children, respect for the elders, a community link with the ancestors. Symbolism is important for interpreting the invisible world and the human being's relationship with it. There is an obvious love of ritual.

The document points out certain "shadows" of these religions, such as inadequate ideas about God, superstition, fear of the spirits, objectionable moral practices, the rejection of twins in some places, even occasional human sacrifice...

The Vatican document notes that, despite the adjustments which followers of Traditional Religions make due to contacts with Christianity, with other religions, with Western culture, with modern technological developments, with urbanization and migration, the influence of the inherited Traditional Religions remains strong, especially in moments of crisis. The herald of the Gospel, continues the document, should give attention to the Traditional Religions and the cultures, which enshrine them. "Christianity should aim at influencing the whole of life and producing integrated persons, rather than have people live parallel lives, at different levels" (No. 8).

Vatican II, in The Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation teaches what is now found in the CCC

3. God, who creates and conserves all things by his Word (cf. Jn. 13), provides men with constant evidence of himself in created realities (cf. Rom. 119-20). And furthermore, wishing to open up the way to heavenly salvation, he manifested himself to our first parents from the very beginning. After the fall, be buoyed them up with the hope of salvation, by promising redemption (cf. Gen. 315); and he has never ceased to take care of the human race. For he wishes to give eternal life to all those who seek salvation by patience in well-doing (cf. Rom. 26-7). In his own time God called Abraham, and made him into a great nation (cf. Gen. 122). After the era of the patriarchs, he taught this nation, by Moses and the prophets, to recognize him as the only living and true God, as a provident Father and just judge. He taught them, too, to look for the promised Saviour. And so, throughout the ages, he prepared the way for the Gospel.

During the new millennium we may see an expanded vision on part of more and more peoples that God indeed prepares people of all ages for the reception of the Gospel. We notice in the passage which follows, from Vatican II, a basic recognition of God's work among peoples not within the Catholic fold, a recognition which has developed more fully since the document was composed in 1965

2. Throughout history even to the present day, there is found among different peoples a certain awareness of a hidden power, which lies behind the course of nature and the events of human life. At times there is present even a recognition of a supreme being, or still more of a Father. This awareness and recognition results in a way of life that is imbued with a deep religious sense. The religions which are found in more advanced civilizations endeavor by way of well-defined concepts and exact language to answer these questions. Thus, in Hinduism men explore the divine mystery and express it both in the limitless riches of myth and the accurately defined insights of philosophy. They seek release from the trials of the present life by ascetical practices, profound meditation and recourse to God in confidence and love. Buddhism in its various forms testifies to the essential inadequacy of this changing world. It proposes a way of life by which men can, with confidence and trust, attain a state of perfect liberation and reach supreme illumination either through their own efforts or by the aid of divine help. So, too, other religions which are found throughout the world attempt in their own ways to calm the hearts of men by outlining a program of life covering doctrine, moral precepts and sacred rites.

The Catholic Church rejects nothing of what is true and holy in these religions. She has a high regard for the manner of life and conduct, the precepts and doctrines which, although differing in many ways from her own teaching, nevertheless often reflect a ray of that truth which enlightens all men. Yet she proclaims and is in duty bound to proclaim without fail, Christ who is the way, the truth and the life (Jn. 16). In him, in whom God reconciled all things to himself (2 Cor. 518-19), men find the fulness of their religious life.

The Church, therefore, urges her sons to enter with prudence and charity into discussion and collaboration with members of other religions. Let Christians, while witnessing to their own faith and way of life, acknowledge, preserve and encourage the spiritual and moral truths found among non-Christians, also their social life and culture (Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions).

Viewed from the vantage point of the Primeval Revelation, we may view the indicated world religions as essentially rooted in the ancient revelation with accretions of varying values made by subsequent human founders.

The widespread existence in society of these traits of Traditional Religions suggests derivation from a common origin in the remote past. I believe it can be no other than the Primeval Revelation which God gave to the founders of our human race. We recognize that various foreign and unauthentic accretions have encrusted the originally pure belief. Yet, deep down, many followers of Traditional Religions possess a ready sense of belief in an absolute Supreme Being, who anchors for them absolute truth and absolute moral values which are unchanging. This awareness of the Supreme Being continues to nourish goodness in the human family as a whole. It is open to further development and perfection through acceptance of the Gospel.

4) Worship of the Supreme Being Has A Supernatural Origin

Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth (Fides et Ratio, 14 September, 1998).

As I indicated in the book The Primeval Revelation pages 7ff., St. Thomas Aquinas asks why we need revelation at all if we can already know God by reason. He then answers his own question. Few people, he writes, would acquire adequate knowledge about God by mere exercise of the intellect. Some people lack talent to think with acumen; others are too busy with necessities imposed on them by their daily lives and would not "give much time to the leisure of contemplative inquiry as to reach the highest peak at which human investigation can arrive, namely the knowledge of God." Finally, some, being indolent, do not make the needed effort to learn about God properly

In order to know the things that the reason can investigate concerning God, a knowledge of many things must already be possessed. For almost all of philosophy is directed towards the knowledge of God, and that is why metaphysics, which deals with divine things, is the last part of philosophy to be learned. This means that we are able to arrive at the inquiry concerning the aforementioned truth only on the basis of a great deal of labor spent in study. Now, those who wish to undergo such labor for the mere love of knowledge are few, even though God has inserted into the minds of men a natural appetite for knowledge (Summa Contra Gentiles 1,4; trans. Anton C. Pegis).

Thomas goes on to state that it would take a great deal of time to arrive at a proper understanding of God if we use only the powers of reason, because the truth about God is so profound that we can acquire it only after a long training. Secondly, young people are still so much swayed by the feelings and passions that they are not in a condition to acquire enough knowledge about so lofty a truth. "One becomes wise and knowing in repose," he observes, quoting Aristotle. Therefore "if the only way open to us for the knowledge of God were solely that of the reason, the human race would remain in the blackest shadows of ignorance. For then the knowledge of God, which especially renders men perfect and good, would come to be possessed only by a few, and these few would require a great deal of time in order to reach it" (loc. cit.).

Moreover, continues Thomas, we frequently err in our judgments due to the weakness of our intellect, and for that reason many are deterred by an admixture of errors from even seeing the truth of things that have been duly proven. We even believe that some falsehood is demonstrated and foolproof when it is not. "That is why it was necessary that the unshakeable certitude and pure truth concerning divine things should be presented to men by way of faith" (loc. cit.). Thomas ends the discourse with thanks to God that He has made it easier for us to know Him by providing us with revelation

Beneficially, therefore, did the divine Mercy provide that it should instruct us to hold by faith even those truths that the human reason is able to investigate. In this way, all men would easily be able to have a share in the knowledge of God, and this without uncertainty and error.

Therefore it is written "Henceforward you walk not as also the Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, having their understanding darkened" (Eph. 417-18). And again"All thy children shall be taught of the Lord" (Isa 5413).

The Greek Philosopher Plato wrote"Finding the creator and father of this universe is toilsome and, after he has been found, it is not possible for everyone to speak of him" (Timaeus, 28,c; see Albert Vanhoye, S.J. "The discourse at the Areopagus and the universality of truth" in Oss. Rom. 24 Feb. 1999).

All the more, continues Thomas, divine revelation is absolutely necessary to learn about truths which surpass the powers of reason [such as belief in heaven by hunter-gatherers]. Vatican I, in 1870, articulated as a doctrine of the faith the teaching that divine revelation is absolutely necessary for humans in order to gain access to supernatural truths; heaven and divine adoption are truths that lie beyond the natural sphere, and can be known only through revelation

It is, however, not for this reason that revelation is to be called absolutely necessary; but because God in His infinite goodness has ordained man to a supernatural end, viz., to share in the good things of God which utterly exceed the intelligence of the human mind; for "no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has the heart of man conceived, what God prepared for those who love him" (1 Cor 29) (DS, 3005; Dupuis, 114).

The widespread knowledge about the Supreme Being among ordinary hunter-gatherers, and their intimate trust in Him as "Our Father," points unmistakably, I believe, to divine revelation at one time or other, in one manner or other, as the source of that belief. We cannot account for the firm belief of so many hunter-gatherers, I believe, without concluding that they are in touch with divine revelation. Similarly, the pervasive belief in the Supreme Being throughout the world today is best explained, I believe, as founded upon revelation.

We ask, then, whether peoples around the globe received separate revelations about the Supreme Being; or might they all have kept, to a certain extent, belief in the original revelation which was made to our first ancestors, the people we call our Adam and Eve?

5) Connection with the Primeval Revelation

As indicated in the author's book The Primeval Revelation, Chapter One, the fact that the original revelation is associated with supernatural grace and contains truths which the human mind cannot learn unless God teaches them must be kept in mind.

The couple whom the Bible designates as Adam and Eve were most likely hunter-gatherers, living the pattern of life common to humans before animal husbandry and agriculture began some 10,000 years ago. If there is a nexus of continuity between the primeval revelation by which God made Himself known to our first ancestors, and the inspired writing of Genesis, the connection must be one of faith rather than of letters. We cannot know whether some of the hunter-gatherers preserved the original revealed message uninterruptedly in some form or other, or whether God renewed it for them again and again.

There are compelling reasons why peoples of all times and places would be inclined to build their cultures around the Primeval Revelation first given to our first parents. The hunter-gatherer lifestyle is also eminently suitable to guard the trust because the people depend entirely upon the gifts of God in nature for food and living. Moreover, their lifestyle is conducive to monogamy and close knit family life and to tribal celebrations in which the Revelation can be passed on from generation to generation.

The Primeval Revelation that God gave to our first ancestors filled a great need in the lives of man ever since. For man passionately seeks to know what purpose his life has, how he began, and what will happen to him after death. And he desires enduringly to act in accordance with his deepest yearnings and insights. Schmidt observes plausibly that knowledge about the Supreme Being, once grasped by humans, has an in-built tendency to perpetuate itself; for man continuously searches for those very items of truth which revelation teaches with certainty, with lucidity, and with convincing finality

Man needs to find a rational cause; this is satisfied by the concept of a Supreme Being who created the world and those that dwell therein.

Man has social needs; these find their support in belief in a Supreme Being who is also the Father of mankind, who founded the family and to whom, therefore, man and wife, parents and children, brothers and sisters and kinsfolk owe allegiance.

Man has moral needs; and these too find their stay and support in a Supreme Being who is lawgiver, overseer, and judge of the good and bad, and is himself free from all moral taint.

Man has emotional needs; he can anchor his need to trust, to love and to be thankful in the Supreme Being who is a Father, who is all good, and from whom all good things come to him.

Man feels the need of a protector to whom he can entrust himself with confidence; he finds this protector in the Supreme Being who is matchless [in power and goodness] who stands above all other beings and rules over them.

This exalted figure of the Supreme Being with all the attributes which man seeks, furnished primitive man with the rationale and strength to live meaningfully and to love sincerely, to trust and to work, to engage in the quest of becoming master of the world and not its slave, and to aspire to strive toward still higher goals beyond this earth.

Only through this image of God does the dynamic progress of humanity at its origin become intelligible; even today the replete energies of humans to work, to be responsible, to strive for better things, and to aspire toward human togetherness, have their roots in the ancient culture. It is therefore a significant and well structured and functionally efficient religion which we meet here among a whole series of tribes of the ancient cultures [the hunter-gatherers] (Schmidt, Handbuch Der Vergleichende Religions-geschichte, 282-283; trans. by author).

This describes well the powerful and enduring dynamism which belief in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, lends to humans. This belief is the source of spiritual, psychic, and cultural power that enduringly supplies humans with the energy to find life worth living, to pursue a meaningful life individually and to develop and maintain orderly social structures through all times and ages.

David Rooney finds it plausible that the monotheism we discover among so many scattered and diverse peoples may be an echo of the revelation of God Himself to the first human creatures; and for an echo to survive the countless opportunities for tergiversation during the long span of millennia, there must have been a tremendous and memorable event to begin it all. He quotes Wilhelm Schmidt's characterization of that primeval revelation

Something tremendous must have presented itself to them, an experience which gripped and shook their whole being to its inmost depths, and which in its overwhelming power immediately caused that unity and solidarity in their religion.

This something cannot have been a merely subjective process within man himself; for it would have produced neither the power and the coherent solidarity of that religion as a whole, nor the clarity and stability of its beliefs and forms of worship. Neither can it have been a purely impersonal, uncommon experience; else it would be even more inexplicable how from these purely impersonal entities such effects of power, stability, and clarity could have been exerted upon the personalities of these people.

No; it must have been a tremendous, mighty personality which presented itself to them capable of captivating their intellect with luminous truths, of binding their will by high and noble moral commands, and of winning their hearts through ravishing beauty and goodness (W. Schmidt, Primitive Religion, tr. Joseph Baierl, Herder, 1939, pp.182-183; quoted in Rooney, p. 217).

Although our Homo Sapiens race launched itself in the one single geographic locality in which God granted them the primeval revelation, subsequent generations fanned out eventually into all the continents, even to the edges of the habitable world. It is a fact to be marveled at that in the five continents in which hunter-gatherers eventually settled (we have no record of them in Europe) they give testimony to a belief in the Supreme Being.

It is regrettable that theological manuals and biblical studies generally ignore the data about the belief of hunter-gatherers in the Supreme being and in the after life. All peoples on earth today, and all scholars, are descendants of hunter-gatherers, the key culture of all primeval humanity. Our descent from hunter-gatherer believers who observed the primeval revelation supplies a plausible explanation why monotheism, worship of the Supreme Being, monogamous marriage, Ten Commandments to order social life - all these and more are a common heritage of most ordinary people of all the world, no matter to which religion they may formally adhere. For all have descended from original hunter-gatherer societies in which monotheism prevailed everywhere around the globe.

6) Christ, Savior of all descendants of Adam and Eve

Pope Saint Leo the Great proclaimed that the saving power of Christ extended not only to the sons of Abraham, but also beyond his time to the even more ancient peoples who lived before the Deluge all the way up to the very beginning of human generations (Christmas Sermon X7).

Christ's role as recapitulation of the human race through His Incarnation and Redemption forms the core of Irenanian theology, as noted in my book Evolution and the Sin in Eden pp. 150 ff. The Saint of Lyons identifies the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity as the one who deals with mankind in the Old Testament even before His Incarnation. Indeed it is the Son of God who creatively designed the universe, who tailored it to be a fitting environment for His future habitation. The thought is in accord with Hebrews, where the Father addresses this profoundly significant witness to Christ as Founder of the cosmos "Thou, Lord, didst found the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of thy hands"(Heb 110). St. Irenaeus follows through with the insight that Christ is not only Creator of the universe, but is also its raison d'etre, the reason for its creation in the first place. All lines of the cosmos therefore focus on Christ. Christ is not an afterthought conceived in God's mind as a response to the sin of Adam; on the contrary, Christ is the Alpha and Omega of the cosmos in the first place; Adam is fitted into the cosmic plans as the strategic gateway through which Christ will enter it

He recapitulates in Himself all the nations dispersed since Adam, and all the languages and generations of men, including Adam himself. That is why St. Paul calls Adam the "type of the One who was to come" (cf. Rom 514), because the Word, the maker of all things, did a preliminary sketch in Adam of what, in God's plan, was to come to the human race through the Son of God. God arranged it so that the first man was animal in nature and saved by the spiritual Man. Since the Savior existed already, the one to be saved had to be brought into existence, so that the Saviour should not be in vain (Adv. Haer. III,22,3; trans. by John Saward, 64).

Note this singular and exceedingly meaningful final sentence. It makes Adam into a "front man" to pave the way for the main event, the arrival of Christ. Irenaeus presents Christ as the towering and dominant figure who is central to divine planning. Christ, Pantokrator, is the focal point in God's design of the cosmos to be created, the central figure for whom God measures the layout of the universe. The saint of Lyons looks to Christ as the keystone of the cosmos, whereas Adam enters it secondarily in the train of logic following Christ, "so that the Saviour should not be in vain." Adam is created to provide Christ with a worthy cause to activate His great love. In Latin this extraordinary sentence reads Cum enim praeexisteret salvans, opportebat et quod salvaretur fieri, uti non vacuum sit salvans. Adam is ushered in to become the beneficiary of Christ's work of love.

The root and trunk of the Primeval Revelation is kept alive and ever fresh in the hearts of many, I believe, by Christ and His Spirit. Surely, many people cherish a profound sense of the Supreme Being deep down in their hearts, even though externally they profess to be Buddhists, Shintoists, Muslims, Hindus, Taoists, Confucianists, Animists - any name religion. We Christians, too, are nurtured by our belief in the message of Genesis as well as in the message of the Gospel, the latter being built upon the former. As Christ stated"Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill" (Mt 517).

7) Incorporating the Primeval Revelation into Evangelization today

The Vatican, some years ago, changed the name of the "Pontifical Council for Non-Christian Religions" to its present title "Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue." The Vatican does not make such changes without a reason. The newer title reflects awareness, we assume, that Christ is entirely in charge of the human race. Therefore no real religion which is a bridge between God and man exists in the entire world which is non-Christian in nature. Christ is not "one of the ways to God" but is THE way, the one and only bridge between people and God. He is the WAY to the Father. All who are saved, are saved through Christ, whether they are explicitly aware of it here on earth, or whether they are not yet aware of it. The change of names made by the Vatican brings us one step closer to those of our brothers and sisters in Christ who are not yet aware of their Christian benefits.

We must become more and more accustomed to cherish the fact that Christ makes all true believers in the Supreme Being to be brothers and sisters in faith, in hope, and in charity. Indeed, we are blood brothers and sisters because Christ perpetuates the shedding of His blood for us at the daily Sacrifice of the Mass.

Though separated from other believers in body, Christ lives in the souls of all true believers. More and more during the new millennium we should exercise a heart in charity that is global, that is co-extensive with the work of Christ in all true religious believers. Many believers, by reason of culture and history, are ignorant of Christ and oft-times hostile for political reasons, but Christ is patient, is kind, is charitable and continues to work in individuals with His Spirit for their eternal salvation. Our evangelization can take into account the realistic nature of distance from Christ expressed externally in various religions and cultures, without forgetting that Christ works in them internally. For the time being, then, we evangelize among them with the Gospel of the Primeval Revelation with its belief in the Supreme Being, its code of global ethics, and its prayer of the Our Father.

The prayer of the Our Father is the kind of prayer that the people of Tierra del Fuego can pray with us, which the Lenape have been praying in their own manner for countless generations, which all believers in the Primeval Revelation can pray together with Christians. Until now during the Assisi - Rome events the religious adherents retire to separate quarters to engage in multi-religious prayers. Might it be feasible in future to also schedule a common prayer meeting, for example to sing the Pater Noster together in Latin chant, and to chant lessons from Genesis likewise in Latin, in those magnificent tones we once heard at Holy Saturday Vigils.

For He is the Lord, the Mighty God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, of all things seen and unseen.

Blessed are you, Lord, in the firmament of heaven.

Praiseworthy and glorious and exalted above all forever.

Aquinas, Saint Thomas, The Summa Theologica, trans. by Fathers of

the English Province, Benziger Bros., New York, 1948.

---Summa Contra Gentiles, trans. by Pegis, Doubleday, New York,

1955.

Arinze, Cardinal Francis, President, Pontifical Council for Interreligious

Dialogue, Vatican, "Traditional Religions," 21 November 1993.

---"Interview," Inside the Vatican, April, 1994.

Bible, Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition, Ignatius Press, San

Francisco (1965 and 1966). Unless noted otherwise, quotations are

from this translation.

Brandewie, Ernest, Wilhelm Schmidt and the Origin of the Idea of God,

University Press of America, Lanham-New York-London, 1983.

Brinton, Daniel G., The Lenape and Their Legends, Philadelphia, 1885;

Washington, Smithsonian Institute.

CCC Catechism of the Catholic Church, Vatican. Eng. trans.1994.

Christian Family, The, monthly now discontinued, Society of the

Divine Word, Techny, Ill. USA.

De Smet, Fr. J., Missiones, Paris, 1948.

Dupuis, Jaques, S.J., The Christian Faith, Alba House, New York, 1996.

Harrington, M.R., Religion and Ceremonies of the Lenape, in Indian

Notes and Monographs, New York, Heye Foundation, 1921.

Irenaeus, Saint, Adversus Haereses, 5 books, PG 7.

Minns, Denis, O.P., Irenaeus, Georgetown University Press,

Washington, DC, 20007, 1994.

Mitchell, Robert Cameron, Ph.D., African Primal Religions, edited by

Donald K. Swearer, Major World Religion Series, Niles, Illinois,

Argus Communications, 1977.

Pope Saint Leo the Great, Sermo 15, De Passione Domini in Liturgy of

the Hours, ISEL, Thursday, Fourth Week of Lent.

Pope John Paul II, Fides et Ratio, Encyclical, 14 September 1998.

---Ecclesia in America, Apostolic Exhortation, 22 January 1999.

Rooney, David, "The First Religion of Mankind," in Faith & Reason,

Fall 1993, pp. 193-219.

Saward, John, trans. of Hans Ur Von Balthasar, The Scandal of the

Incarnation, passages from Irenaeus Against The Heresies;

Ignatius Press, San Francisco,1990.

Schmidt, Wilhelm, Der Ursprung der Gottes Idee, 12 Volumes,

Fribourg, Switzerland, Anthropos Institute 1926-1955.

---Handbuch der Vergleichenden Religionsgeschichte, Muenster in

Westphalen, 1930, trans. J.J. Rose, London, Methuen & Co.

---Primitive Religions, trans. Joseph Baierl, Herder, 1939.

Speck, Frank Gouldsmith, A Study of the Delaware Indian Big House

Ceremony, University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Historical

Commission, Harrisburg, 1931.

Vatican II Documents, Austin Flannery, O.P., New Revised Edition, 1992,

Costello Publishing Co., William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

Zimmerman, Anthony, Original SinWhere Doctrine Meets Science,

Vantage Press, New York, 1990. Copies available from author.

---The Religion of Adam and Eve, Vantage Press, New York, 1991.

Copies available from author.

---Evolution and the Sin in Eden, University Press of America, 4720

Boston Way, Lanham, Maryland 20706; 1998.

--The Primeval Revelation, in Myths and in Genesis. UPA, 1999.

*****************

Fr. Anthony Zimmerman STD is retired Professor of Moral Theology, Nanzan University, Nagoya, Japan. His latest books, used liberally in the above with permission are

Evolution and the Sin in Eden, 1998

The Primeval Revelation in Myths and in Genesis, 1999

Both are published by the University Press of America