Catholic Medical Quarterly Volume 75(2) May 2025
Book review
The Science of Ezekiel's Chariot Of YHWH Vision
by Patrick Pullicino,
Publ: Tiger Of The Stripe, May 2023
ISBN-13 : 978-1904799740
This
important work is a reminder that the writers of Sacred Scripture were
fully aware of an insight from modern psychology: we need both the heart
and the mind to make the right decisions in life. As the psalmist put it:
"Create in me a clean heart, O God; And renew a right spirit within me."
When our emotions, our hearts, are unclean, we make bad choices,
I read somewhere that when the Jews encountered Zoroastrianism, they became even more fervently monotheistic. So it is not surprising to read that the great prophet of the Babylonian exile, Ezekiel, was influenced by the scientific revolution that was happening there. His book is filled with measurements, the hallmark of the scientific method.
The author, who is both a priest and a scientist, looks more specifically at the Chariot Vision found in the Book of Ezekiel. While I am yet to be convinced that science can be a method of Divine revelation, I have no doubt about the author's claim that Christ is key to Ezekiel's vision. The Chariot may be divided in three tiers: an upper, a middle, and a lower tier. The upper tier represents the Glory of the Lord, incomprehensible Divine transcendence. The middle tier is where the human and the divine meet. For the Jews, this Incarnation theology was somewhat dangerous. The lower tier is represented by the wheels, things that can be measured and are at the foundation of the scientific method.
I have read this book a few times. I do not find it an easy read but I do find it very helpful as a means of further reflection. I think of Ezekiel as a liturgical work. Ezekiel is telling the people in exile not to despair. That is why in the liturgy, we begin by addressing the God of Hope who gives "joy to my youth." God will keep his covenant promises and take his people back to the promised land. He will purify them and give them a new heart and a new life. For Christians, all this is fulfilled in Christ. The pure worship is liturgical and it needs to be both rational and transcendent. That is why we pray that the sacrifice which is offered is reasonable (rationabilem) and at the same time we "most humbly beseech Thee (to) command these offerings to be borne... to Thine altar on high, in the sight of Thy divine majesty." The liturgy is both earthly and transcendent. For this reviewer the liturgy is replete with the Chariot Vision. That is why the banalising of the Catholic liturgy which took place in the late sixties was such a disaster.
We need both reason and spirit, without which the Chariot will not move forward.
As I have already said, I do not fully understand everything in this delightful book. But I am beginning to understand why Ezekiel is Bishop Erik Varden's favourite book of the Bible!
YHWH- a note to readers. Yahweh, the Hebrew name for the God of the Israelites, is represented by the biblical pronunciation of “YHWH,” The name Yahweh was revealed to Moses in Exodus. YHWH is made up from the consonants in Yahweh (Yod, Heh, Waw, and Heh) and is known as the tetragrammaton.