Essay on "Christian Theology"

Essay 4 pages (1398 words) Sources: 3

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Christian Theology

We cannot adequately represent the fullness of God within the confines of human language and discourse. The author is correct to assert that it is a difficult activity to address the concept of God. God is beyond the realm of human contemplation, yet, at the same time, our experiences allow us to frame God in terms of our own understanding and beliefs about the nature of things. This leads to inadvertent misrepresentations of the divine. Changes in human experience modify the misrepresentations of God; modifications improve the picture of God but can never complete capture the reality.

The languages employed by religions to speak of God are severely limited in their ability to hold and transfer the content that is necessary to represent God. This is a necessary weakness of religious discourse, since religious discourse draws its symbolic content for expression from the experiences of the humans creating that discourse. When we speak about God, we are immediately aware that any statements made are woefully inadequate as representations of deity. Language is both the vehicle that opens us up to the things of God, and simultaneously hides the complete truth about God from inspection due to its limitations.

We may even go further, Taylor asserts that for much of theology, God is the logos, and when we speak, we are relating to an aspect of God (596). The logos or word is an expression of God and contains aspects of God. The immediate conundrum may be the process by which humans are able to excise the truth of the "Logos" from the ordinary and common language that is employed to capture and express infinite concepts.

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>Theology, which is the study of God, is therefore delving into a mystery using tools forged by individuals who have never seen the mystery. Accurate knowledge of this mystery is unattainable via the mechanisms that are available at present. The mystery that is God must therefore provide the understanding of the mystery and this understanding requires that eternal truths and immortal concepts be transferred to mortal and frail creatures. To accomplish this transfer requires that the content of the message be altered or downgraded so that those who lack the capacity to apprehend it in its original form can comprehend it. While we may apply thought to understand what is revealed, care must be taken not to digress into the path of natural theology giving supremacy to reason at the expense of revelation (Matthews 101)

This downgrading of the content of the mystery does not influence the mystery itself. We may term the downgrading process revelation. The designed and initiation of the revelatory process is accomplished by God. In the revelatory process, some of the depth and indescribable elements of the divine are lost. They cannot be translated into human language, thought or experiences. The gulf between the human thought and the immortal God is a gaping chasm. This chasm is never quite bridged by language.

The process of making the mystery accessible to human beings does not diminish the importance or revealed truth. Some readers of the text come to a richer understanding of the deep things while others concede that it is beyond them. Origen pointed to this challenge when he suggested that the bible had three levels of meaning (Origen of Alexandria). The number of levels is not essential, what is essential is that the meaning is deeper than a superficial reading unearths.

The theologian is divided between two options drawn from a singular focus. He is unaware of the complete essence of God because it is hidden from him. In his quest to discover, the mystery of the divine he often obfuscates what is revealed. Yet he must have confidence in that which he knows least about to proclaim it with gusto and passion.

Works Cited

Matthews, Gareth B. "Theology and Natural Theology." The Journal of Philosophy, 61.3

(1964):

99-108.

"Origen of Alexandria (c.185 - c.254)." The Early Church. 2008. Web. 28 Sept. 2010.

Taylor, Mark C. "Denegating God" Critical Inquiry, 20.4 (1994): 592-610.

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Quoted Instructions for "Christian Theology" Assignment:

“

answer the folowing two question- 2 pages each

1. *****We can only speak of [God], whom we reason about but have not seen, in the terms of our experience. When we reflect on Him and put into words our thoughts about Him, we are forced to transfer to a new meaning ready made words, which primarily belong to objects of time and space. We are aware, while we do so, that they are inadequate, but we have the alternative of doing so, or doing nothing at all. We can only remedy their insufficiency by confessing it. We can do no more than put ourselves on the guard as to our own proceeding, and protest against it, while we do it. We can only set right one error of expression by another. By this method of antagonism we steady our minds, not so as to reach their object, but to point them in the right direction; as in an algebraical process we might add and subtract in series, approximating little by little, by saying and unsaying, to a positive result.*****

- John Henry Newman, *****On Certainty, Intuition and the Conceivable,***** The Theological Papers of John Henry Newman on Faith and Certainty, ed. by HugoM. de Achaval, S.J. and J. Derek Holmes (Oxford: Clarendon Press 1976), p. 102

Comment on this passage in light of the course lectures. (summary of lectures are attached+possible books is Origen, On first Principle, Preface and Book V, 1-3) -

2. *****This seems a good point at which to pick up a suggestion that I made in passing in the previous chapter: the suggestion that there are at least some contexts in which it might make more sense to regard the word *****˜God***** as a verb rather than a noun. *****¦ In the present context, then, my suggestion is that to speak of God as *****˜***** is not to say that God is one of the kinds of things that *****˜spirits***** are (whatever that may be), because God is not a thing of any kind. It is, rather, to confess God as inexhaustible generosity, limitless donation*****¦.*****

- Nicholas Lash, Holiness, Speech and Silence: Reflections on the Question of God (London: Ashgate, 2004), p. 36f.

*****Inexhaustrible generosity***** and *****limitless donation***** are alternative ways of speaking of *****pure self-gift***** and so could be taken as paraphrases of agape. Briefly explain and explore the significance of the fundamental Christian claim that *****God is agape***** (1 John 4:8 and 16).

*****

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