nature of the divine
what is [God] like?
nature of the divine
I would suggest that the position with the most theological coherence and historical validity would be best encapsulated this way: God is, and always has been, at work in every culture planting the seeds of Christ even though it may not be communicated in the exact grammar of the traditional Christian lexicon. With Christ as the hermeneutic key,
... See morePaul Anleitner • Finding Christ Outside of Christianity?
When he thinks of the divine, it is not as some grand logician but as the poet of the world. God does not make the world but makes something of the world, allowing us to find or create meaning in the creative onrush of reality despite the wreckage of history. God leaves open the possibility of reconciliation even if it in fact never fully arrives.... See more
Matthew David Segall • Reflections on my dialogue with Peter Rollins
Human concepts can only approximate the holy transcendence that cradles existence itself. Even our most correct perceptual and existential paradigm is going to be inadequate. Concepts are maps, models. And all models are wrong, as the saying goes, but some are useful. The inadequacy of the map may be vexing in its inherent omissions, but
... See moreSonya Mann • What is God?
God is the source of reality. It is indeed that simple: whatever the source of reality is, that's God. The Big Bang, entropy, quantum fields — these are how , not why . Implementation details. Rather than whence , merely what . Means instead of self-justifying end.
Sonya Mann • What is God?
There has been criticism of the very use of the word “God” because it comes with so much baggage. I do not believe in the God Richard Dawkins rejects, and I understand the desire to avoid the term altogether. Yet I remain hesitant to simply throw it out, because to do so might be to break with a lineage of philosophical and spiritual reflection... See more
Matthew David Segall • Reflections on my dialogue with Peter Rollins
On Whitehead’s reading, God conditions Creativity—which by itself lacks a definite vector and can be akin to nothingness or chaos—and gives it both aim and memory, so that process can take on a historical trajectory. God instills a sense of purpose but we are never going to arrive at a final, finished state. Whitehead’s theology attempts to provide... See more
Matthew David Segall • Reflections on my dialogue with Peter Rollins
The word “God” is like a stick of dynamite. It remains valuable precisely because its utterance sets off such potent cultural and conceptual reverberations. Whitehead, in his own way, used it to name something at once tender and cosmic, intangible yet inescapable, the poet of the world who does not create the world from nothing but helps us make... See more