Hardening of the Heart

Abstract In this chapter, strong religious determinism is in focus. Obduracy or “stubbornness of the heart” seems to bring religious determinism to its extreme. Obduracy means that either a god or the human being itself hardens the human being’s heart in such a way that the human being becomes unable to hear and obey God’s voice, tradition’s precepts, or the appeals of the social other—up to a point when all open-minded “listening orientation” is totally silenced. The idea of obduracy seems to undermine the idea of free choice in its totality, but it emerges mostly in history writing only. The notion of freedom is limited in ancient history writing when scribes try to give meaning to history by ascribing full agency to the gods.