Seems Like God…

What image comes to mind when you think about “God”?

I started this topic several months back and, after one article, never did get back to it. A recent reader, commenting on that post, which is also under revision (I’ll add a link or you can look for the Images of God topic), questioned how someone with a progressive faith could write an article supporting the “white bearded guy in the sky” image. Since I didn’t think that was what I’d done, and certainly not intentionally, she made me realize I’d dropped the ball on this and that I needed to get back to it. Perhaps I can do better the second time around. David

Traditional western Christian images of God tend to lean toward Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel scene:

This holds for both those who see God as more or less human, since they take “God made man in his image” as a physical rather and spiritual concept; and for those who think we should set God aside altogether, since our religions are such imperfect human institutions.

This image, painted on the Sistine Chapel ceiling between 1508 and 1512, has permeated the western Christian perception of “God” for centuries. At the time the fresco was created, we were also pretty sure that the Earth was the center of the universe. Our understanding of “God” was little different than that of the ancient Greeks’ perception of Zeus.

However, although Zeus-god might have been the predominant image, it was never the only one. Indeed, the word in the New Testament translated as “God”, Theos, is more accurately rendered as Divinity than it is as any human role; be that parent, or ruler, or judge.

Those who believe that we “water down” Christianity by thinking of God in other ways seem to think that these images come from other faith traditions. They are mistaken. In John, for example, the writer has Jesus describe God as “Spirit”. Metaphors like “breath” and “wind” are also part of our faith heritage.

A broad and growing list of theologians that includes Karen Armstrong and John Spong speak eloquently of the images of God that were at the heart of the beliefs of the founders of our faith. Images that empowered our forebears while recognizing that God, Theos, is indescribable.

Panentheism (not to be confused with “pantheism”) is a view of Theos that understandings God as both intimately connected to every particle of Creation, and yet conscious in a way that is beyond Creation and human comprehension – both “immanent” and “transcendent”; both uniquely personal to each of us, and yet uniquely encompassing the universe.

There are those in the progressive sphere of Christian faith who suggest that we need to let go of the image of “God” altogether. To simply say, once and for all, that “God”, whatever “God” may be, is so incomprehensible that to even try to create an image is not just doomed to failure, but will actually lead us away from an understanding of faith that will empower our lives.

While there may be some validity to that concern, I don’t think that it’s possible for us, as human beings, to set aside the effort. We have an innate need to understand the universe, to understand Creation. Theos, intimately part of Creation, has to be part of that understanding as well.

The image of God as “love” is as deeply embedded in our faith as the Zeus-image is. It’s the foundation of the message of the Christ. However, the word we translate as “love”, agapé, means much more than the warm fuzzy feeling we usually associate with it.  Agapé calls us to recognize our interconnectedness, our oneness, with each other, with all of Creation, and indeed with God. Our inseverable relationship with all things.

Rather than a single picture painted on a ceiling far out of reach overhead, agapé’s image of God is a montage; a collection of pictures hung on our living room wall for all to see and touch; a reminder that we are all, no matter how close or distant we may be, one family, everchanging, ever-growing. Separate but never separated.

Like our relationship with God.

I once again hope to expand on the Images of God topic, adding articles that speak more directly to each of the images touched on here. I hope that you’ll drop back from time to time and take a look.

I also hope that you’ll feel free to leave a comment, either about the article, or about your own image of God. It’s by sharing our individual and unique experiences of the Divine that we learn from and about each other. And of course, if you find anything of value in these few words, I hope that you’ll share them with others.