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31/07/2009
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Talking about God - Introduction
[Thinking about God -
index] [1.A How little can we say?]
[Spirituality]
| In a traditional sermon one person, usually the minister,
talks to everyone else. Occasionally someone will comment. But
normally, however good (or otherwise) the sermon, is it is a monologue
delivered to a more or less passive audience. |
 |
After Easter 2003 these sermons have been replaced with discussion
sermons. To begin with these have been question-and-answer sessions
between the minister and members of the congregation. In time it is hoped
that the discussion will broaden out. However tentatively, and some people
would prefer otherwise, dialogue has begun to replace monologue.
Through the summer we will continue with these discussions on a structured
pattern looking at what we can say about God - and more particularly how we can
talk about our relationship with God.
Certain concepts guide this discussion. Amongst them:
| Epistemology first |
The limitations of the human mind and the
transcendence of God mean that we begin a discussion about God with how we
know anything.
What we can say about God is inevitably limited by human cognitive
processes - not only how much we can know, but critically the way in which
we know anything.
In practice people (literally) make sense of what we perceive. We
create a narrative (for example) out of what we perceive irrespective of
whether - from some absolute theoretical perspective - any such narrative
exists without us. We construct our world in ways which enable us to understand
and manipulate the world in which we live.
I suggest that this is how we relate to God: we make sense of the
evidence available to us. God who is there can only be known by
being shrunk into the ways our minds work.
|
| Dialogue |
Dialogue is much more important than merely the manner of
our sermons. I suggest that dialogue is the way in which we make sense of our
world. It is the manner in which we engage with God; with other
people; and with our past. It is a key part of the
spiritual life.
Dialogue is not the same as an impartial enquiry into a world outside
us. It is the engagement of the self with the social and physical
world we inhabit. It is through dialogue that we create, sustain and
change our sense of identity.
If I am right and dialogue is the way people relate to others and to
the world around us, then it is the way we relate to God.
It is also the way that God engages with us.
Conversation with God is not, of course, simply a copy of a
conversation with another person.
|
| A relationship of
contrast |
In considering our relationship with God the dominant motif
is not what people have in common with God, but rather our differences.
God is the all-powerful creator and the redeemer. People are
created, limited, and in need of redemption. God is Judge.
People are judged. God is Father. People are mothered.
God is holiness and truth. People are grubby and deceitful.
In almost every dimension of theological understanding humanity is to
be contrasted with divinity.
|
| but also ... |
But, critically, there are certain dimensions which
humans participate affirmatively in the qualities of God.
Specifically these are:
And there may be other dimensions as well - one person suggested
loneliness. |
So this is the method of talking about God we have adopted: a dialogue in the
first place between minister and congregation about the nature of God and our
relationship with God. In the course of discussion we can bring different
understandings and perceptions of God into dialogue with one another.
Differing emphases drawn from different sources of our knowledge of God can be
compared and contrasted.
And together we can both further our individual spiritual journeys, and
develop and share a faithful identity as Christian pilgrims in a foreign land.
Paul Bagshaw, May 2003
[Spirituality]
[Thinking about God -
index] [1.A How little can we say?]
|
