Grieving over God

 July 26, 2019

I’ve never experienced God directly. My faith is intellectual. Of course there is an existential element. That is, I live by it. It upholds me. But basically I believe in God through my intellect. That’s my temperament. Belief in God is rational to me. God is the basis of reason. God is “original Reason.” The infinite Mind. Christ as “logos” is the universal Reason; the ultimate Meaning. The Spirit is the Breath of Life.

 

Is the Bible one big parable? The whole notion of “sin” doesn’t speak to many modern people. But the concept of “brokenness” does. Salvation as “healing” or “wholeness” communicates.

 

I have been in grief for most of my adult life because I have lost a personal God. And I’m still trying to figure out how to deal with it. And how to talk about God—what language to use. I want to keep God “personal,” but I may be doing some intellectual cheating. How do we pray to a non-personal God? Do we just “commune”? I can sit alone and think about the fact of my existence and “feel” the wonder of it. It that ontological meditation? Is that ontological dialogue with Being-Itself?

 

Has the Church invented a whole philosophical/theological system of meaning by turning Jesus into a metaphor for ultimate meaning?

 

The metaphysics of Christianity is the troubling part. The ethics—yes. The psychology—yes. The philosophy—yes. Moral framework—yes.

 

What Jesus brought into history that was unique is the love of enemies. Everything else was already there in Judaism and Stoicism, etc. Of course Jesus affirmed what the Jewish faith already had given. God as creator; God as covenant partner; God as mercy; God as unnameable; as transcendent; as ineffable; the prophetic critique; the wisdom tradition; God as liberator. Jesus certainly used “personal” metaphors for God: Father. King, Lord, shepherd. The “kingdom of God” was his main metaphor. The “kingdom” is about relationships and sovereign love/grace.

 

The Incarnation was such a major part of my theological development that it leaves a big hole in my current thinking.

 

 

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