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Creation and the Persistence of Evil by Jon D. Levenson

I think I can say that I am building the game. I have been doing it for at least 10 years, and I am not sure if “building” is the correct term. It's more like thinking about it. Anyway, this winter I did a lot of actual building and hit a major milestone where I need an economy. I quickly realized that there is no economy without history. And there is no history without religion.

I have zero knowledge about religion. I read the New Testament a long while ago, and I do not think I ever read the Old Testament or any other religious document. To fix that, I spent spring and summer consuming random things connected to religion. From Famadihama to Avesta Prayer and everything in between. While doing that, I realized that what I actually want is an answer to the question "How religions work”.

Since I know nothing about the topic, I chose the book by its name. And while reading it, I realized that most of my assumptions about Christianity and its history, starting from the creation of the world, are wrong. In my mind, the Bible teaches that God created our world out of nothing, which turned out to be a debated topic to this day.

Another thing, in my mind, there was nothing before the Old Testament. Not in the sense that the Old Testament was created at the same time as the world, but in the sense that it was a genuinely new idea. Which turned out to be false as well. Even back then, people struggled to find new ideas and recycled old ones.

Which leads to a very important “discovery” related to my game. Religion is not a single static thing, and I need to stop thinking about it like one. What I need is a set of traditions that would evolve under the pressure of history. Which means my “There is no history without religion” statement is backward. It should be “There is no religion without history”, at least for my task.

Levenson in Creation and the Persistence of Evil does not answer my "How religions work” question, which is maybe obvious from the name, but it helped me realize how complex religion actually is. And I changed my mind on multiple topics directly related to my goal, which is the best outcome I could hope for.

Original Title: Creation and the Persistence of Evil: The Jewish Drama of Divine Omnipotence

ISBN: 0691029504 (ISBN13: 9780691029504)

GoodReads: 4.17 / 5

P.S. If you know a book that answers “How religions work”, please send a recommendation.