Sorry, I forgot to move us forward last week- always feel free to email me and remind me....
Let's go with chapters 6 and 7 this week.
There will be plenty to discuss, we don't have to have a 'topic'- read and write- I will put my comments later today.
(And Rob, I am still debating the idea of perfect communication from God....I will respond to that one later)
It's That Time Again...
10 years ago
2 comments:
A few things out of these chapters really stood out to me....
The idea of God as a woman is a huge issue. This has been a huge problem for many people in regards to this book. It's odd because Scripture never gives a gender to God- we have gotten used to He because of Jesus' language with God as Father. But Jesus never set out to give God a gender by using Father. In fact, lots of Old Testament passages give God mothering qualities. I am not comfortable in my prayer life to call God 'mother' I try to stick with gender neutral God. I am honestly suprised by the reaction most have to this part. I love God as a woman- it takes us far enough out of our comfort zone to let go of our boxed in view of God we hold. Many of us hold images of God that are conditioned and way too small. One of my favorite theologians says if you can understand God, then your God is too small.
I love the imagery of Jesus as a bird- a bit restrained by human nature. I personally believe for years we have neglected the humanity of Christ to focus on his divinity (mainly because if he is human- then we can be like him- if divine- we are off the hook). Jesus was human in the same ways I am human. I think his knowlege and such was limited out of love- not that he could not, but he choose not to in order to have the human experience. For me, this section matched well with my theology.
Last question- can God know something and not be the cause of it? If he knows, then he could have prevented it- if God does not prevent something, is he cause?
Yeah...all from chapter 6...I will get to 7 later.
I think it's about time for us to get back to this discussion! (How's that for the pot calling the kettle black?)
God as a woman has never been much of an issue for me. I have always been comfortable with the idea the God is not like me; I'm like God in some ways, but not the reverse. So God is woman as much as man. One of the linguistic difficulties we face is the lack of a gender-neutral personal pronoun. The best we have is "it," which isn't personal. God is he/she, him/her, or something. I do agree that our image of God is too small, and perhaps can't be anything but too small given who we are and who God it. Oh, well.
Can God know something and not be the cause of it? Absolutely. This is like the question from a recent Bible study lesson, "Is there anything God can't do?" Answer, "Yes. God can't make me love him." I've wrestled some with this over the years and I don't know if I'm done yet. God can't do things that are inconsistent with his nature because then he wouldn't be God. That might be one of those circular-reasoning kinds of statements, but it seems to help me understand why God might know some evil thing is going to happen and yet not act to prevent it. God might know someone was going to hate him and yet not force the person to love him. To do so would render the love meaningless and be inconsistent with God's nature. Yet God's failure to force the person to love him does not mean that God caused the person to hate him.
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