Articolo
Abstract

The thesis supported by the paper is that the difference is the basis of the Abrahamic religions, considered to be the religions of “dis”. Both Abraham and the God of Abraham, and also the name of the God of Abraham, contain within them a constant reminder of dis-persion and separation, exemplified by the prefix “dis”. Abraham, for example, is essentially a dis-sident of monotheism, a wandering Aramean, whose story begins with a dis-location – “away from this land” – whose goal is the achievement of a new land: a land that reveals itself, more than a utopia, a dys-topia. The condition of the Jewish people is essentially of dis-similation and dis-persion. The condition of the biblical God is itinerant and transitive, as witnessed by the many passages of the Old Testament. Even the name of God, JHWH, hides within it a call to an intrinsic difference from Himself. This places God in a perspective of relationship and openness to the future, rather than of substance, which makes the God of Exodus also the God of Genesis, the God of philosophers also the God of Abraham.

Keywords: Religions of the “dis”; Difference; Abrahamic Difference; Abraham; Jan Assman; God of the philosophers; Dissimilation.

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