Hi Joel! I so appreciate the way you use your own journey of discovery in your writings - thank you!
There is part of what you have written that I’m struggling to understand. I’m not sure if my wrestling is simply a language thing, or actually a conceptual difference.
Would you be willing to put more words to your assertion that God is not in control of humanity? I don’t understand if you are saying “God doesn’t have the ability to control humanity” (in which case I have SO many questions 😅) or if you are saying “God chooses to honor the choice he has given us and so we shouldn’t read divine intention into xyz.”
This feels like a big question, and I understand if it is better left to be answered in a future post or office hour rather than in the comments here!
Hi, thank you for the question. That is an interesting theological quandary. It is more of a semantic issue, I would say. However, the result is the same. Whether God has the power or not becomes irrelevant. The main idea is to recognize that, for whatever reason, God is not in control of humanity. Now, why or how is God not in control? I don't know. If my faith needs to give power to God to choose to not be in control, I see no problem with it. Part of the issue is that our difficulties to express religious language and talk of God end up in words that sound more like explanation rather than invitations to a mystery. As a theologian, that is one of my biggest struggles. And what I wrote today, does read like explanation at times, which is the beautiful limitation of our language and understanding of the divine. So, let's engage in the mystery of not knowing God, even though some times we think we know. And, let's keep trying to articulate our faith and the way we reflect about it. I hope this response is helpful.
Amen
Hi Joel! I so appreciate the way you use your own journey of discovery in your writings - thank you!
There is part of what you have written that I’m struggling to understand. I’m not sure if my wrestling is simply a language thing, or actually a conceptual difference.
Would you be willing to put more words to your assertion that God is not in control of humanity? I don’t understand if you are saying “God doesn’t have the ability to control humanity” (in which case I have SO many questions 😅) or if you are saying “God chooses to honor the choice he has given us and so we shouldn’t read divine intention into xyz.”
This feels like a big question, and I understand if it is better left to be answered in a future post or office hour rather than in the comments here!
Hi, thank you for the question. That is an interesting theological quandary. It is more of a semantic issue, I would say. However, the result is the same. Whether God has the power or not becomes irrelevant. The main idea is to recognize that, for whatever reason, God is not in control of humanity. Now, why or how is God not in control? I don't know. If my faith needs to give power to God to choose to not be in control, I see no problem with it. Part of the issue is that our difficulties to express religious language and talk of God end up in words that sound more like explanation rather than invitations to a mystery. As a theologian, that is one of my biggest struggles. And what I wrote today, does read like explanation at times, which is the beautiful limitation of our language and understanding of the divine. So, let's engage in the mystery of not knowing God, even though some times we think we know. And, let's keep trying to articulate our faith and the way we reflect about it. I hope this response is helpful.
This is very helpful - thank you! A lot to think about here.