Tuesday, August 18, 2009

BOXING GOD IN

I have learned that we can't box God in. But we keep trying to put boundaries around our Lord. We insist that God follow ways that we approve of. No wonder, then, that when we come across places in the biblical story that don't appeal to us, we discard them with a philosophical wave of the hand. "God isn't like that," we say -- as if we are the ones chosen to determine the nature of God. Scholars often complain about anthropomorphism in religion; that is, that we create gods in our own image. Ironically, scholars themselves are often guilty of doing so, as they decide how much of the biblical portrayal they will choose to endorse. Unhappy with the divine image they find in the Scriptures, they opt for a divinity more in their own perceived image. But we're all like that in some measure.

-- J. Ellsworth Kalas in New Testament Stories from the Back Side


#2357

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