As January has arrived, so has January Intensives at the Meadville Lombard Theological 
School. As such, much of my attention and writing will be focused on the insantiy of Master’s level courses conducted in just one week (not including preparation and post-class writing assignments). I began my time at Meadville taking January intensives, and so it is a fun, exciting, and challenging time… but I may be a little absent from Celestial Lands.
I will, however, share a few of the writings from time to time that relate to my intensive classes. The following is a part of the pre-writing for a course entitled “Congregation as Learning Community” taught by Dr. Mark Hicks. The assignment was to define how your theological/philosphical framework affects your worldview, in a paragraph. Below is my attempt:
How my Theological Framework affects my Worldview
I understand God as totality consisting of eternity inclusive of time conceived as a realm of meaning. God is manifested though the interconnections and interdependent reality in which we are a part. Therefore, God is ever-learning and ever-changing, as we are ever-learning and ever-changing. Humanity is that suminat generic imitrex imigran tablets part of the totality that is God that has the ability to be aware of the interconnections between all and to conceive of the whole. We experience God through transcending wonder, love, and awe for the whole and its parts. There is no duality in God, and all discreteness is based in human perception, not divine reality. The deeper one realizes that discreteness is human perception, the deeper one connects with all that exists. This connection is communion with the divine. As such, my worldview is of a deeply interconnected world in which much of what exists cannot be immediately perceived; in which truth is forever deepening; and in which one’s own understanding can never be more than a humble shadow of the reality which is all and which is God. My universe is one of never ending wonder and mystery.
Yours in Faith,
David
David,
I read your theology framework and had some questions. I placed the questions within the text in all caps to make my questions clearer.
I understand God as totality consisting of eternity inclusive of time conceived as a realm of meaning.
ARE YOU SAYING GOD IS A CONCEPT AND NOT SEPARATE FROM THE UNIVERSE?
God is manifested though the interconnections and interdependent reality in which we are a part. Therefore, God is ever-learning and ever-changing, as we are ever-learning and ever-changing. Humanity is that part of the totality that is God that has the ability to be aware of the interconnections between all and to conceive of the whole.
ARE YOU SAYING WE ARE GOD’S MIND?
We experience God through transcending wonder, love, and awe for the whole and its parts. There is no duality in God, and all discreteness is based in human perception, not divine reality. The deeper one realizes that discreteness is human perception, the deeper one connects with all that exists. This connection is communion with the divine.
ARE YOU SAYING GOD IS EVERYTHING?
As such, my worldview is of a deeply interconnected world in which much of what exists cannot be immediately perceived; in which truth is forever deepening; and in which one’s own understanding can never be more than a humble shadow of the reality which is all and which is God. My universe is one of never ending wonder and mystery.
ARE YOU SAYING WE CAN’T KNOW TRUTH IN ITS FULLNESS?
DO YOU BELIEVE ABSOLUTE TRUTH EXISTS? ABSOLUTE TRUTH IS DEFINED AS A REALITY, WHICH IS UNCHANGED BY PERSPECTIVE.
Regards,
John Bruce
John,
Thank you for your questions… and I knew that someone would ask some questions, because the project of putting one’s theological framework and worldview into a paragraph means it is impossible to be overly clear. So, let me attempt to add some things by way of answering your questions.
Also, let me say that this is my theological framework, as of now. It is subject to shifting and I do not expect anyone else to view God and the universe as I do.
First, let me pick apart the first sentence I used. One way to understand God is to ask the question “what gives meaning to life?” I believe that when someone asks this question, what they are really trying to identify is what they view God to be. Classical religion (such as ancient Greek religion and others) viewed the source of meaning as resting in transcendent forms that exist separate from the worldly reality in which we live. Many understand modern secularism to be attempts to find meaning resting solely in the world or in human history.
I believe meaning is found both in that which is transcendent and that which is found within this world and in human history, so accepting in part the view of both classical philosophers and modern secularists. God for me then is that totality (or all that is) which consists of what is in this world and that which is beyond it, such as ideals of liberty, love, and justice. Understand that at its outset, my understanding of God is not as a being as many have anthropomorphized it into being, but much, much larger than that. I have in the past half jokingly called myself a “Unitarian of the Holy Spirit”. God is all and is in all… and so whether we are breathing the air, or walking in a park, or pondering the meaning of justice… we are communing with God.
I would never say that we are God’s mind… because I think this misses the point and continues to view God as a being. God is not a being, but a divine reality. What I will say is that humanity is a part of the whole that is God that is capable of some pretty unique things… and with that comes a responsibility to serve the whole. We have the ability to see a larger perspective than much of the rest of the universe… and because of that we have a larger responsibility to protect the environment, to serve other species, to care for each other, and to be a positive giving force in the universe, not a self-centered taking force. It is a responsibility I feel we are failing miserably at.
I want to add something, quite heretical to many, and which you did not ask, but I think is on point. We humans have been trained to think dualistically. Therefor we think in terms of us vs. them, good vs. evil, present vs. past. God is beyond such concepts. They are very important for us humans as we seek with our limited senses and understandings to grapel with a limitless God, but they are just that… limited human understandings. The bible has a word for when we humans try to make God fit into our limited human understandings… Idolatry.
We humans are hardwired to want to know absolutes. I grew up in a world of absolutes. I took a worldview of absolutes with me into military service. My absolute truths where shattered upon the rock that was Bosnia-y-Herzegovina.
I believe that there is no such thing as an unchanging reality. To quote an overused phrase, “The only Universal Constant is change”. Truth is always subject to the next moment. Truth is always subject to the reality that a limited human mind can never fully understand an unlimited God. We can touch God, we can experience and commune with limitlessness, but we can never fully and deeply understand, and it is illusion when we think we do. Even if we could, we could never express it to others in words, because the limited nature of human language could never express the limitless nature of a God that is all and is in all.
But some of us can experience that limitlessness in deep and abiding ways, and some vanishingly few of us become so filled by that communion with God that others mistake them for God itself. Jesus of Nazareth was, for me, one such person whose deep communion with the totality which is God was confused for being God itself. The first person who met the Buddha after his awakening to enlightenment (of the totality of all things) asked him if he was God. Such people have always shaken the world… and they inspire billions still. But it is delusion to believe they are totality… Only God is God.
All human knowledge is defined by perspective… which is why I believe Jesus was often so frustrated with his disciples. But in a changing universe, what absolute truth might exist could only exist for a moment, before it changes.
Thank you for your questions… and I hope I have not confused you further… Oh, and yes, for many who read this, I know I am a heretic and that 500 years ago I would have been burned at the stake… ain’t progress grand?
Yours in faith,
David
Gee, you sound like a Panendeist. 😉
Gee Aaron… Imagine that….
Here and everyone in the Deist community has thought I’ve gone all wonky…
🙂
No not everyone. 🙂
That’s a great experience, soak it up! I wish I was I could go to theology school. It’s been my dream…