Join us for honest CHAT as we explore: Prayer BEYOND Theism. As many of us have moved beyond the faith grew up with, praying has changed for us. Join us as we explore progressive theology’s insights on prayer.
We gather on Tuesday mornings at 10am over Zoom (just follow the link below)
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Here is the CHAT Starter for September 21 at 10am:
God: Supernatural Theism or Panentheism?
Whenever we try to articulate what the MYSTERY we call “God” IS, language fails us. For the most part, the institutional church has defined DIVINITY with words and expected that members of the institution will confess loyalty to those words. Many of the words, with which the institution has traditionally described God, craft an image of God as a supernatural being up there or out there who is responsible for Creation and from time to time interferes in the workings of creation. As we continue to learn more and more about the magnitude of Creation, both in time and space, our traditional words about the DIVINE seem ever more puny. While some respond to our ever-expanding knowledge about Creation by attempting to make our notions of the DIVINE fit into the tight little containers that were crafted by our ancestors, some are seeking new ways to speak of the CREATOR OF ALL THAT IS, WAS OR EVER SHALL BE. Often our attempts are as clumsy and as limited as the attempts of our ancestors. But sometimes, sometimes the likes of Tillich breathes new life into the notions of our ancestors and Paul’s description of our God as “the one in whom we live and move and have our being” becomes for us, as Tillich imagines, “the Ground of our Being”.
So, with a spirit of discovery and wonder, I encourage you to listen to Marcus Borg’s attempt to describe DIVINITY. Borg’s efforts take us beyond the Ground of our Being toward a panentheistic understanding of DIVINITY in all things and all things in the DIVINE. Please note: panentheism is not pantheism – pantheism means God is in everything – so God can be worshipped by worshipping nature because God is in nature. Panentheism means everything is in God and God is in everything – so – God breathes in, with, through, and beyond us, and we intern are in God – everything is in God but God is more than the sum of everything. A panentheistic view of DIVINITY does not preclude thinking of God as personal – but it does understand that God is more than personal.
While I don’t agree with everything Borg says in this video, it is a wonderful place to begin to think about expanding our way of speaking of the DIVINE. As long as we remember that our language will always fail to capture the wonders of DIVINITY.