The 2009 series Theology 101 offered two distinct views, one on Christian theology, the other on world religions. We follow this with a series presenting a variety of major theological topics, written by different authors throughout the year. The general theme is Where In The World Is God? – our sense of God’s presence, seeing Christian faith as a response to the traces of the divine in our world.
Most of us realize that speaking of God is most peculiar, since we’re talking about something invisible and inaudible. When we say “Word of God” we mean the words in a book or from the pulpit – human language about God. And when we claim that these human words become also God’s own Word, we’re still left with questions about how this happens, whether all the words are God’s, etc.
The most pressing question of our time is not whether the universe will survive much longer, but whether this life is all there is. Is there a hidden dimension to human being, a “Beyond in the midst of our life” as Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it? Is there life after death? Then there is the most difficult challenge for Christians, the so-called “problem of evil.” Why is there such inhumanity and violence if this is God’s good creation? In turn this makes us re-think God’s very nature, especially “omnipotence.” Our forebears thought of God as able to do anything, although theologians never made such a claim. This popular fallacy continues, a naive supernaturalism, turning God into a kind of celestial Tyrant or Engineer, and therefore easy to blame God for calamities, including illness. Most “atheists” stop believing because they have never progressed beyond this childish idea of God, which is easy to reject.
A famous passage in Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov has the intellectual Ivan arguing with his pious brother Alyosha. Ivan cites cruelty to children as evidence that God must be either weak or heartless. Therefore, Ivan concludes, “I give him back my entrance ticket” to this world.
Such are some of the tough issues which theology today must explore. It’s not a case of “Presbyterian distinctives,” such as the doctrine of Predestination is supposed to be. In fact this strange idea has a history back to Paul and Augustine, and is part of Roman Catholic and Lutheran theology too. But Scottish theology in the 17th century gave it a dark twist which turned God into an arbitrary Overlord and caused much harm. Maybe there’s something in the Scottish character (or climate!) – for instance, the hard doctrine of the great 9th century theologian John the Scot (Johannes Scotus Erigena, i.e. from Ireland) was dubbed pultes Scotorum, “Scots porridge!” So this is one doctrine worth recalling.
The crucial concern is how we discover God’s presence in our everyday life. It’s easy to restrict this presence to Sundays and church events – and even there it’s not so easy to say exactly what “presence” means! Certainly we know we live in a “secular” age, when Christianity is no longer privileged by the state. But does not the Bible itself teach us that only God is holy, and therefore his Word will be heard in and through that which is not holy? Of course there are signs and symbols of this presence – scripture, preaching and sacraments are foremost here. But elsewhere too, in human deeds of love and mercy, in peacemaking and protest again violence and discrimination, in those whose lives are dedicated to the “fruits of the Spirit” such as the virtues of faith, love and hope.
One column will discuss “God in the neighbour,” what used to be called seeing God’s image in every human being, including our enemies, even unbelievers – this was an important point for Calvin. Other articles will treat God in creation, in scripture, in prayer and so on. Some pressing contemporary issues must be examined – God in world religions needs further study in our age of religious pluralism. What about God’s presence in the workplace, so terribly secular in its bottom-line values? Or the arts, those media – music and film, television and related technologies both trivial and serious – – so influential today, especially for our youth?
Again, why call ourselves “Presbyterian?” This describes our way of church government, our “polity.” But isn’t this a strange way of talking about oneself? The European term “Reformed” is surely better – it describes our theology (which includes polity). Perhaps governance is less important than we think – all those courts and committees and meetings and bureaucracy. Of course bureaucrats are always an easy target, and we mustn’t blame them for the current state of the church. What if it’s more the blame of clergy and laity together, who have taken theology too lightly, have failed to appreciate its seriousness (our beliefs drive our actions), and so have not applied themselves to the “school of Christ?”
This series is an invitation to enter that school, to study the essential beliefs that make us Christian. It’s not a case of rehearsing church history – our motto is “always reforming” (“reformed and always to be reformed”). This means we need to explore traditional beliefs in light of modern knowledge and needs. If we have outgrown that twisted form of predestination, for example, what does the proper doctrine of God’s will and power have to teach us today? And if the problem of evil denies that God is Tyrant, how are we to understand a good creation in which inhumanity and suffering seem to predominate? What if the ruling idea of God as absolutely omnipotent is just wrong, displacing the Gospel image of a God of suffering love? The temptation is to think we can identify God easily, name God and own God. But the cross is a broken symbol, a “dangerous memory” (Moltmann) that defies definition. The crucified God stretches ordinary language to the breaking point, resists systematic theology, casts us into doxology and prayer. So good theology should be an invitation to “the practice of the presence of God” in the everyday world as well as in church “service.”
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We hope this series will stimulate not just thinking but dialogue. Opportunity for response and debate will be offered through our website. Next month’s opening article will be on the topic “The God who is there,” written by John Vissers.
ONLINE STUDY GUIDE FOR JANUARY
1. Review the columns for 2009, listing questions they raise which you’d like answered.
2. What do you understand by “God’s presence?” Have you ever had a “religious experience?” Is this necessary to believe in God? Are there other kinds of deep events (called “peak experiences”) in your life? What about an aesthetic experience such as Wordsworth’s famous “I have felt a presence that disturbs … ?”
3. As a summary of our faith, you can read Living Faith or A Catechism for Today (PCC 2006).
4. For general introduction to theology, here are some suggestions:
Daniel Migliore, Faith Seeking Understanding (Eerdmans).
William Placher (ed.) Essentials of Christian Theology (WJK).
Colin Gunton, The Christian Faith (Blackwell).
Douglas Hall, The Cross in our Context (Augsburg/Fortress).
Alister McGrath, Christian Theology: An Introduction (Blackwell).
5. Two books on Christian living from J.C. McLelland:
Living for Christ (Presbyterian Men Conference: John Knox Press 1963).
The Clown & the Crocodile (John Knox Press 1970).
