God as Myth

January 22, 2018


Our talk about God is/has been mythical. i.e., a God ‘up there,’ etc. 
The anthropomorphic language is actually mythical language.

What we need to do is talk/write about God no longer in mythic language,
but in mystical language.
Mystical is more paradoxical and stresses the incomprehensible and ineffable.

Along with mystical, we should aim for a humanistic God.
If we can substitute another word besides “God,” that would be helpful.

I don’t believe in ‘God’ anymore. I believe in that which is bigger than God.
The reality which is beyond ‘God,’ – that which holds all things;
holds the universe; that which is before and outside of the universe;
and pervades the universe as well.

The God beyond God. (Tillich)
Being-Itself.

O God, rid me of God. (Eckhart)

_____

 
I believe in Meaning…Hope…Justice.
But these values must have a transcendent foundation to be real.
I see no other Story that gives a foundation to these values
than the Christian Story.

It’s a story that makes sense in one way or another.
Perhaps we can accept alternative ways of interpreting it.
Literal incarnation and literal resurrection?
Or—metaphorical incarnation and resurrection?
Will the metaphorical hold up?
Is it a real foundation?
Does it point to something beyond words and beyond history?
Jesus as spokesman for transcendence.
Jesus’ death as symbol of something real?
Reports of Jesus’ resurrection as a ‘spirit’ of hope
that moves people to action?

Jesus was real.
He was executed.
Then something happened.
Was it a literal transformation of the body?
Was it the disciples’ sense of his “presence”?
(I don’t think the disciples were deceiving anyone; they believed in what
they were reporting in some sense. They experienced something, and
spoke about it—later writing it.)

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