[billmc]

One of the things that progressive Chrisian writers such as Borg, Crossan, Spong, and Tillech focus on is the need for Christianity, in this 21st century, to get beyond talking about God in narrow, theistic terms. The topic of this thread is, how do we do that? In what other terms might we talk about God?

The problem, as I see it, with the theistic God is the narrow, limiting paradigm that accompanies the theistic view. This view, stated simply, is that God is a supernatural being "out there". Of course, this view is found in the bible itself. The ancient Jews saw Yahweh as a supreme being "out there" who created the world and the universe as something entirely separate from himself. Sure, he came to walk with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden in the cool of the day, but he didn't "live here". Despite creating the universe as something good, it wasn't really part of him. And despite the notion that God placed his very breath in Adam, Adam still saw God as someone external to himself, not someone inside himself.

When "the fall" (trying finding that word in your bible, except for the notes) happened, this theistic God became even further removed from his creation by "sin". It is conjectured that the very breath of God that at first animated Adam departed him, leaving him without God, truly alone in the universe. God interacted from a distance, but there was no longer the "he walks with me, and he talks with me" that Adam was thought to enjoy in the Garden.

Atonement theology is thought to remedy this problem by trying to remove the sin issue so that God could once again dwell inside his creatures. It was thought, according to some bible passages, that God could not be where sin was, so Jesus' death is seen as a way for God to remove sin so that his spirit can, once again, dwell with man. Jesus himself and the apostle Paul make this quite clear when they say that humans are now the temple of God. Again, this is a theistic notion, albeit a radical one.

Despite Jesus' sacrifice for sins, many Christians still claim that God cannot be where sin is. If this is literally true, the God's spirit would depart each and every one of us every time we sinned. Does that happen? And it does little good to say that Jesus' death took away ALL those sins because the vast majority of Christians continue to pray for the forgiveness of their sins each and every week, if not each and every day.

So despite everything that Christianity claims to know about God, Jesus, and the atonement, we are still left with a theistic religion in which God is "out there", he is not here. If he is here, it is only on those occasions when "two or three are gathered in my name" and after which he subsequently departs. Elvis has left the building!

What are we to make of all this? If there a way to get beyond the theistic notions of God?

Please see my next post for some thoughts on this and, please, join in.

[billmc]

Does the Bible present any views of God that are NOT theistic?

I think it does. And I think they are worth exploring. Here are just a few:

God is love.

God is someone(?) in whom we live, and move, and have our being.

God is like the wind.

God is spirit.

God is breath.

God is life.

How might we interpret these passages to be non-theistic?

What other definitions/metaphors do you think might work?