More on Prayer and a Noninterventionst God

DaNutz! called me out in the comments section about a non-interventionist God. You know, I don't have a handle on this. I'm not sure I go as far as Borg and Crossan, but I've been moving away from an interventionist perspective, in large part because of the evidence.

I do pray that God will intercede. I pray for healing and for wholeness and I believe that God hears and answers those prayers. I rejoice when things go as I'd like, but .... Then there are the prayers of those whose prayers never get answered, or seem not to be answered. Is God deaf? Or should I look elsewhere for answers.

Despite my growing discomfort, I do believe that God is active in our lives. But you know part of our problem is that we think we're ahead of God. Maybe prayer is listening for God's gracious beckon to follow him and be a co-creator of reality.

Jurgen Moltmann speaks of prayer opening us up to the reality of God s o that we can break out of the "hall of mirrors of our own wishes and illusions in which we are imprisoned. This means we wake up out of the petrifications and numbness of our feelings." Instead of being an opium it is the "beginning of a cure for the numbing addictions of the secular world. " Indeed, he says that "the person who prays, lives more attentively." (Jurgen Moltmann, Elisabeth Moltmann-Wendel, Passion for God, Fortress, 2003, p. 62).

Yes, I need to do more thinking about prayer!

Comments

Mike L. said…
I was reading something by a buddhist this morning that spoke about how they still sometimes pray even though they don't believe in an interventionalist God. His answer as to why sounded sort of like yours - a little uncertainty mixed with some desire for possibility. I suspect that is why the Buddha declined to ever answer any question related to those types of things. He said it was foolish to contemplate about such things. It makes me wonder if he was right.

Oh well, I'm curious, and probably a fool. I do fear that Christian obsession with having prayers answered by God creates an unhealthy reluctance to act on our own. I've seen people completely unable to act because they were "waiting for God to show them the way". They usually get stuck or finally figure out how to see a sign in their scrambled eggs then get on with whatever it was they wanted in the first place. But that is just my opinion.

I usually use prayer to line up my priorities the best I can with what I think is God's then I figure whatever happens next probably happened because I made it happen that way. That probably explains all the self-help new-age stuff that seems to help people too.

Thanks for the follow-up post!
Mystical Seeker said…
I realized a long time ago that I could not accept a theology of an interventionist God. That was one of the things that attracted me to process theology, which I see as a comprehensive philosophical system that makes it possible to believe in a God who does not intervene. I see God as a presence, rather than a Divine Father-King.

I liked the way Rabbi Kushner put it in one of his books about good things happening to bad people--prayer is simply being in God's presence. It isn't asking for "him" to change reality to our benefit.
Robert Cornwall said…
Though I long resisted process theology, I've been more drawn to it in recent years. My earlier concerns were that it seemed more philosophical than theological and it seemed to let go of a sense of transcendence that I wanted to keep. I still want to keep that sense of transcendence, and that maybe one reason why I like Moltmann. He has that sense of God from within, but also maintains that transcendence I still need.
Mystical Seeker said…
I understand the need for transcendence. The thing about process theology is that it is essentially panentheistic, and so it does view God as being more than the universe (while encompassing it), which does mean that it has a transcendent element to its understanding of God. It sees God's role as not to intervene, but to call out to us at every instant and offer us the best possibilities.

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