Abraham’s Dissonance
27th June 2010
Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” And He said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”
Genesis 22:1-2
One of the most harrowing and confusing episodes in the Old Testament occurs in Genesis with Abraham giving his son, Isaac, as a burnt offering to the Lord. The Lord directs Abraham to do this and Abraham faithfully complies. Isaac apparently shows no resistance even while his father ties him to the altar.
Some people can read this as the Terrible God demanding cruel obedience, nervously testing His subjects to see if they will indeed comply. Yet, this interpretation is obviously illogical because God being God knew the end of the story even before He ordered Abraham to make the sacrifice. God clearly did not do this to see what would happen – He knew. So, why?
Consider persuasion theory. Performing actions strengthens beliefs and attitudes. Thus, if you want your children to form a positive attitude about cleanliness and conscientiousness, have them engage in behaviors like brushing their teeth or picking up their room. Merely by performance of behavior, children can develop the desired beliefs and attitudes. You thus create the attitude through action, not through Central Route Arguments.
Even more compelling here is Dissonance Theory. A classic method of internal change with Dissonance is through the Counter-Attitudinal Behavior. You set up some situation that provokes people into doing something they do not like and after they do the action, their attitude will move to support the behavior. And, if a father standing over his beloved son with a fatal knife in his hands is not an example of a Counter Attitudinal Behavior, we need to rewrite a lot of journals and books.
Now, this is human nature. All people respond this way. They tend to develop, strengthen, or change attitudes and beliefs from the behaviors they enact, creating, if you will, change from the outside in. Apply this to our problem with Abraham’s attempted sacrifice.
Think about the persuasion source and the persuasion receiver in this story. Abraham is the Other Guy, the receiver, and God is the persuasion agent, the source. God wants to strengthen Abraham’s faith (belief and attitude) and has Abraham perform behaviors that serve this purpose. God orders the sacrifice not because God needs the reassurance, but because God wants to prove Abraham’s faith to Abraham – and so too with Isaac.
A persuasion perspective on this event provides a very different understanding. Instead of the Terrible God, we have God doing persuasion on his beloved Abraham. And, God uses persuasion not because God is limited, but because humans are limited with their human nature. Along with signs and miracles, God uses plain old persuasion.