[asa] Theological extrapolations 1: on revelation

     Four years ago I argued here that Christianity needs a new paradigm,
one that views God in light of his sexuality and role as husband (see
http://www.asa3.org/archive/asa/200302/0090.html<http://www.asa3.org/archive/asa/200302/0090.html> ). Within such
paradigm the concept of an almighty God who is at the same time a
responsive person fits much better with what we now know about the world
than under the current paradigm where God is predominantly father. At that
time I provided a few of the theological underpinnings. I give more details
here in a more systematic way.
     I present these ideas to ASA scientists for the following reasons: 1) The
theological concepts are compatible in a natural way with discoveries of
scholarship and science. 2) Jesus revealed God to be an accessible,
responsive, loving person; this theology retains and expands that revelation.
3) Key ideas are compatible with Scripture after reinterpretation. 4) These
ideas, among people who can accept them, will mean more to those who
are scientifically sophisticated than to others. 5) Scientists as a rule are more
open than the general public to unconventional models of the world. 6) Just
as children like to think of their parents as asexual, so God's children like to
think God is asexual. But the reality is otherwise. I expand on this reality.
Then suddenly the ways of God become more comprehensible.
     Specifically, this theological scheme explains why an almighty, personal
God might choose to create the world in a long, drawn-out manner where
the particulars often appear aimless or haphazard. Further, it explains why
God throughout, unlike a loving father, has largely stayed behind the scenes
and does not allow an objective determination of his presence. As a bonus
this theology defies our culture by taking sex out of the realm of the physical
and putting it in its proper spiritual place.

     [Outline items (below) are in parentheses when they are not logically
subordinate to the lead idea. They are included to clarify context.]

                              Thoughts on a sexual God:
             Extrapolations from my thimbleful of revelation

Based on 50 years' worth of interpreting extraordinary spiritual experiences
 
        My lover thrust his hand through the latch opening; my heart
           began to pound for him. I arose to open for my lover....
                                Song of Songs 5:4-5

 
                    ...The wedding of the Lamb has come,
                    and his Woman has prepared herself.
                                    Revelation 19:7

 
God is sexual? Indeed. Why would God go to the trouble of creating a
world where father-child was the only relationship available to him? Such
relationship is less fulfilling than sexual relationship. Why should the kinds of
relationship available to God be inferior to those available to his creatures?
 
                                             Basics
 
God is a person (or three) who interacts as a person with humans.
 
                                       On revelation
 
     1. Theological deliberations (including these) extrapolate oceans from a
          thimbleful of water.
          a. The water is the Word of God, the thimble is the vessel who has
               received that Word, the oceans are arrays of supposed
               implications.
          b. The particular Word of God is some manifestation of God's
               power that has affected the vessel's conscious relationship with
               God.
          c. A Word commonly emerges from a relationship with God.
               i. Such Word merges human input with the divine: it is neither
                   purely human nor purely divine, but some combination, in the
                   way that a child combines features of his two parents.
              ii. This outline is such a Word, as are also many biblical writings
                  (e.g., Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, gospels, apostolic letters,
                  etc.) and multitudes of other Christian testimonies and writings.
             iii. Such Words can take on authority for various individuals and
                   for them become the actual Word of God (as in 1b, above).
     2. The vessel regularly misinterprets his Word of God, often in ways that
          exaggerate its significance.
     3. The Word of God despite misinterpretation works to enhance the
          vessel's relationship with God.
          a. Relationship is the thing: While the Word of God may from time
               to time convey facts, its overriding purpose is to create or enhance
               relationship.
          b. "True doctrines" are subordinate to relationship but have value
               because they can help to maintain relationship.
          c. (No one has true doctrines, but some are truer than others.)
          d. It is unreasonable to expect any Word of God to provide facts
               about the world beyond ones needed to enhance relationship with
               God.
  

 [Continued as Theological extrapolations 2: on sex.]
 
 
 
 

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Received on Tue Feb 27 02:03:15 2007