Re: Don’t Make God Small, December
On reading Mr. Harris’s I began a search of the Theology 101 series in an attempt to discern what dimensions and particulars we ascribe to God. Early on it was apparent that the search would be limited because Dr. Joseph McLelland’s opening article declares that “every enquiry begins from the data of human experience,” which immediately precludes any consideration of non-human matters. That said, it has been a good series, culminating in Dr. McCarroll’s collection last December of profound and intense perceptions of the Divine by responders around the church.
Mr. Harris urges us to grow our perception of God by expanding our compassion for others, not only for other people, but also for their religions. No problem, although Dr. McLelland tried it in his March 2009 Theology 101 column by contemplating a faith universe comprising a central God surrounded by the world’s major religions revolving in equal orbits, and what howls of heresy that set up!
I wonder if in enlarging our God we might simultaneously acknowledge that the God of Calvary’s endless love is also the God of deadly earthquake and tsunami, and that the God who sees the little sparrow fall also watches the sparrow fall, and indeed causes the sparrow to fall. These are not evil things— that is another topic altogether—but they demand a perception of God and especially of His love that reaches far beyond our present smug comfort zones.
Michael Moorhouse
Calgary
