Lecture #2 Who is God? Part II
St. Joan of Arc Lenten Series
Jane Leyden Cavanaugh and Laura D’Ambroiso
Lent is a great invitation to get closer to God and to dig
deeper into our understanding of God. Last week we explored the questions: Does
God exist? And what’s God like? We heard from many people from Theologians like
Hans Küng to philosophers like Nietchze and Albert Camus and from those
affected directly by the tragedy of 9/11. We learned that theologians look to
human beings or to the cosmos to prove God’s existence.
Who is God and how do we find God? We will explore
Models of God including the classical model “Trinity”;
feminist models , and the ideas from process theology. You’ll also be able to
investigate your own model and how your model of God affects your spirituality.
Classical Model “Trinity”
Where did this idea of
the Trinity come from?
The early followers of Jesus needed some way to describe how
their experience of Yahweh, Jesus of Nazareth, and being empowered by the Sprit
were related
First, the early Christians read about, studied and prayed
to Yahweh, the creator of the world, the God of Abraham, the God of the 10
commandments, the originator of the Jewish laws etc. Their whole life was directed toward knowing,
loving and following the ways of this God.
Second, how did this Jesus of Nazareth person relate to this
God? Jesus demonstrated divine power- healing of the sick, curing the blind and
lame, defying the power of death with his resurrection. Jesus called this God
“Father” sometimes “Daddy.” The gospel
of John has Jesus saying, “the Father and I are one.”
Thirdly, after Jesus’ resurrection, followers experienced a
power unknown to them before. A power so great that * Jesus promised believers
that after he would give them a helper. With the aid of this spirit they could
do as great things as he could. He would be with them to the end of time
through this spirit. Brazen and courageous, thousands of people died for their
loyalty.
How did these three things relate? This unseen Creator God,
this tangible miracle-working death defying man and, after he was gone, this
spirit that empowered believers to conquer their fears and preach and teach and
do miracles themselves?
Council of
1 nature, 3 Persons
The following ideas come from Karl Rahner, the great
theologian, from his book, The Trinity.
God the Father/Creator
·
the God who created the world,
ungenerated, no beginning, no end, invisible, wordless, indescribable,
incomprehensible, the “one who keeps to himself”
God the Word
·
God seeks out stuff to be
incarnated in
·
Desire to self-communicate
·
God comes to us through the Word
·
The way God exteriorizes Godself
·
The begotten, the generated, the
first “procession” of the Father The Father/Creator’s utterance, expression,
revelation The known and grasped Truth of God The eternal self-expression of
the Father/Creator
·
This 2nd person of the Trinity is
not necessarily Jesus until the incarnation “The Word became flesh and dwelt
among us” Gospel of John God’s own personal self-disclosure
·
Jesus Christ the highest and
fullest manifestation of God yet
·
How we “know” God is through the
Word or example of Jesus
God the Holy
Spirit/Sanctifier/Makes Holy
For Reflection
1. What is something you like about this model?
2. What is something you don’t like about this model?
Process Theology
Model
Process theology is grounded in the philosophy of Alfred
North Whitehead (1861
- 1947).
Process thought is not only Christian advanced by theologians like David
Griffin; some rabbis and Jewish scholars like Harold Kushner have adopted the
tenets of process philosophy as well.
Foundations
·
The
universe is in a state of constant change. Big-Bang
cosmology and other scientific advances such as quantum theory certainly
reinforce the process view that the world is in flux.
·
Reality
is relational. We are intricately connected with other creatures on this planet
and with the entire universe. Within this web of life all creations have
freedom to act within the laws of the universe.
·
Occasions.
Bundles of energy organized in various levels of complexity and evolving
towards greater and greater freedom and consciousness.
·
Like
a puff of existence existing in the present moment. Grouped into entities of
greater complexity called societies. Human beings for example are made of many
societies.
·
Back
to the puffs. Each occasion or puff has the ability to be creative but must
create out of what it was before.
·
The
past has an enormous impact on occasions and the smaller the occasion, the
larger the effect.
·
For
example, the chair you sit on is made of occasions just as you are but because
the chair is less complex, the weight of the past is strong. The chair has the
option to exercise freedom but it is difficult for less complex creations to
choose something other than what they were in the past. The chair will probably
always be a chair.
·
Human
beings by contrast are more complex and self-conscious, giving us a greater
ability to choose a different path than our past. We can change.
Where
does God come into the equation?
·
Every
moment of our existence is unique.
·
In
each moment we are faced with a potential future that we are free to accept or
reject
·
These
potential futures are called initial aims that are given to us by God.
·
Each
moment we live is not lost but is continually absorbed by God and adds to God’s
experience. So God constantly learns more about us and God is present in every
moment.
·
God
knows all possible scenarios and presents them to us in each moment, luring us
to move towards our greatest potential.
·
God
never forces us to accept any particular future. In fact, God is actually
limited by the freedom any creation has to reject God's lure. We are
co-creators with God not servants to the will of God.
Different from classical view
Let’s compare this view of God to Trinity God we just
explored:
·
The
process God NEEDS the world (unlike the classical Trinity God who does NOT need
the world)
·
The
process God is NOT all-powerful (the trinity God is). In fact God is metaphysically prohibited from
exercising coercive power.
·
The
process God needs the world to be God. God needs us to co-create (the trinity
God does not need the world to be God.)
·
The
process God is not static never-changing being like the Trinity God but an
ever-lasting coming to be, a process whose aim for all creation is harmony and
love and who grows with creation.
·
The
process Jesus is NOT God. Instead Jesus actualizes a high divine aim. (The
trinity Jesus is God the second person incarnate.) In the process view there
only an everlasting process verses the more classical view of a definite ending with the Second Coming
of Christ, Last Judgment and so on.
But what about evil and suffering?
Evil
·
The
process view puts the burden of evil in human hands, not God’s. Gd can lure and
persuade but not coerce or intervene. We are free to respond or not.
·
Whatever
we choose, God continually lures us to the choices that will lead us to harmony
and love. If we choose otherwise, the choice is ours, God will just present us
with a lure based on the choice we just made.
·
For
example, if I am about to fire a gun at someone, God will offer me the choice
not to shoot. If I ignore that lure and fire a bullet, God will then present me
with the best possible lure to love based on my choice to fire that bullet.
·
Evil
results from a creature pursuing something far from God’s initial aim. Think
about the suicide bombers on 9/11 from this perspective.
Suffering
·
Because
God experiences with us, God feels everything we do, suffers our sorrows and
embraces our joys as we exercise our freedom. We can connect to God in prayer
and meditation and pray for the strength, vision, and clarity to choose God’s
aim, but God will not break off the effect of the past, deny our freedom nor
will God cause evil.
·
For
those of you who saw the movie last week, remember the Italian photographer who
said “God is not there pushing us with a little finger off cliffs and pushing
cars against other cars to make us die….The world.. is our game.” Process theology would agree and say that
9/11 was not caused by God nor could be stopped by God. And remember the man
wondering if his firefighter son was okay who asked God in the beginning…”If
you could you give me this one, I’d appreciate it.” Process theology says God
can’t.
For
Reflection
Feminist Model
From the book She Who Is by Elizabeth Johnson
Christian feminist
theology
Feminist Theology has
problems with a classical theology that speaks of God in purely masculine terms
There are lots of names in Scripture that are female. Let’s
use them just as much.
AND let’s use of non-gender terms
Remember, God is mystery, beyond human grasp, let’s not lock
into any term, that we might take too literally.
Feminist Theology has
problems with a classical theology that is not sufficiently relational
In the classical mode:
Feminist Theology
believes the role of Holy Spirit is underemphasized
Feminist Theology
questions God’s part in suffering
Feminist Theology
questions God’s Omnipotence
For Reflection
1. What is something you like about this model?
2. What is something you don’t like about this model?
3. Which of these models most closely fits your current understanding of
God?
4. group agrees upon. (ex. God is the alpha and the omega, God’s love is
eternal, God suffers with us, etc.)
In Closing
Keep in mind
Thomas Aquinas: “The supreme knowledge which we have of God
is that we do not know God.”
The questions and feelings , our discussion and the very
topic we grapple with tonight are not easy ones to wrestle with. Thank you for
the interesting and varied discussion and for your courage to explore your own
ideas and images of God.
As we said last week, If something was triggered in you
tonight, we suggest that you bring it up to God in your prayer life this Lent.
Use this Lent to grow in your understanding of God Be open to new insights