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A great letter starts out: “I'm screaming to you from deepest chaos, God.
Hear me calling to you God?” I venture a preliminary response as follows: |
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Since you report thinking about the immanence of God, and other deep thoughts
while in a Manhattan bar, I presume the problem is serious. |
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First, I note that you are “reading Borg’s God book.” That's good. My recommendation
is that you finish the book to see whether anything gets clarified. |
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Second, I admire your desire to see evidence of God there with your fellow
patrons. It is not a small thing to “accept his presence with me,” even
though you can't quite see how God could be equally present to the others.
You mention 100’s you passed during your walk to Greenwich Village as well
as some 4 billion others, more or less, who cohabit the planet. Am I supposed
to be surprised at news of a human having difficulty with God's immanence? |
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Third, your humility in deciding we may have to “be prepared to consider
a God who exists beyond our somewhat feeble comprehension” is a leap in
the right direction. Yes, it is astounding to hear the biblical poets,
mystics and seekers proclaiming humans as created in the image of God and
only a little lower than the angels. Think a moment, and you have to figure
that the angels aren't very high up the sky ladder either. You also have
to let your mind be boggled by what it means to be in the “image of God.” |
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Having danced with your questions, let me urge you to ask them of Marcus
Borg by way of the book you are reading, “The God We Never Knew.” I believe
you are suffering a hangover of old belief structures. The folks who thought
“image of God” means a God like us, completely misread the realities. There
is a radical difference between God as “a person” and God as “personal.” |
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Borg talks about Panentheism. God in everything—everything in God. That
takes care of the 4 billion problem. What it may not take care of is the
"relationship” question. I believe Borg talks more of “companionship.”
God is experienced in the silences, not the conversations. |
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Even before Borg, from the time when I was 10 more or less (I've always
been a precocious, though not atrocious, theologian) I have figured God
was much larger than people were telling me. One sleepy good night glance
at the stars told me that. I had it figured out that those dust flecks
you sometimes see when the sun shines just right, could be galaxies of
their own. The cells and corpuscles in my blood stream could house (and
do) intelligent life of their own. And our universe could be a speck in
a greater universe. Little thoughts like that came to my mind. I thought
to myself, “I'm really pretty puny.” (One of my original thoughts!) |
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My questions, not unlike yours, included wondering how I mattered, or whether
anything mattered, or what kind of Operating System this place had. I decided
that my little life was miraculously involved, at least for a millisecond,
in something pretty grand. I would try to be grateful and fit in the best
I could. So I try to “connect” with nature and creatures and other beings.
I try to be in “companionship” with this sacred venture. Whether that is
anywhere close to Borg, I don't know. |
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The big need is for a greatly enlarged vision of the idea of God. I think
Borg’s push to get us to stop thinking of God as “Other” is a big step. |
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You wonder whether “this religion stuff” is for normal people. I don't
know about “religion,” but I believe that the human quest to figure out
how this place works is something we can all share in. In my opinion, Borg’s
attempt to make biblical and theological scholarship understandable to
non-theologians, is good. He is widely received, especially by thinking
people who had pretty much figured out for themselves that a whole lot
of stuff they were hearing from the pulpits was a crock. At any rate, let's
keep talking.
— Art
Morgan, Dec. 1999 |