Genesis and the Nature of Reality
As I post this week about things relating to Evolution Sunday, I offer this quotation from Marcus Borg's Reading the Bible Again for the First Time. (Harper SanFrancisco, 2001, p. 75).
Again, may we say: Amen!
Central to Genesis 1 is the refrain repeated after each day of creation: "And God saw that it was good." The pronouncement covers everything that exists. To use a Latin phrase from medieval theology, Esse qua esse bonum est, or "Being as being is good." This does not mean that everything that happens is good. But whatever exists is good.
The creation story is thus strikingly world-affirming. Indeed, the Jewish tradition as a whole has consistently been world-affirming, in spite of the horrendous sufferings that Jews have experienced. The affirmation is also central to Christian theology, although popular Christianity, with its emphasis on the afterlife, has sometimes seen the world (especially "the flesh") as highly problematic, something to keep at a distance, a place to get through on the way to one's heavenly home. But against all world-denying theologies and philosophies, Genesis affirms the world as the good creation of the good God. All that is is good.
Again, may we say: Amen!
Comments
Even if you take them literally, I think creation stories and the stories of afterlife are so powerful if we read the "more than literal" meaning.
Bob, if you are hanginf onto that belief does it in anyway cause you to look past your call to bring justice right now? I think it causes many to expect the kingdom of God to be something that God does for us rather than something Jesus calls us to take responsibility for right now. For me it kept me in the mode of "let God do it, he will do what he wants, when he wants".
As for whether such belief effects my view of justice, no I don't think it does. I do believe that we are called as God's people to act justly and that we're not supposed to just leave it to God to sort out in the next life. I do think that there are theologies that go in that direction, with dispensationalist theologies being especially connected to it. As a Christian I'm part of the body of Christ and therefore one of the arms or legs, feet or hands, that God uses to transform the world! Boy did I get long winded here. Time for another post.
I also believe that God does, indeed, act in history, and may intervene in the natural order; the problem usually arises when human beings believe that they can summon God, or persuade God to do something that God hadn't otherwise planned to do. That smacks of good old-fashioned magic, in which people believed that by using the right rituals they could compel the gods to act in a certain way. We believe that we have free will; would it be beyond the pale to believe that God also has free will?
For the most part, I believe that God works in human hearts without coercion; not everything attributed to God is really God's behavior, but at the same time, God may act in our lives without our immediate awareness of it.
I like what you posted, as I think it's where I'm at. I do agree that whatever we find in scripture or in theology about the afterlife is speculative. It's there, but it's not the focus.
I'm more and more convinced that God works within us by persuasion -- God acts in ways we can't explain -- but there is always freedom to choose. Thanks for posting and please return and comment!