This was initially posted on November 11, 2013
“The thriller of God in feminist theological discourse” is the subtitle of Elizabeth Johnson’s extensively learn She Who Is. The notion that God is “a thriller” isn’t questioned in feminist theologies. However perhaps it ought to be.
Though it’s true that the finite can not embody the infinite, and that every one information is rooted particularly standpoints, I don’t agree that the primary and very last thing to be mentioned in regards to the divine energy is that it’s “a thriller.” Certainly as I’ll argue right here, talking about God as “a thriller” obscures greater than it “reveals.”
The notion that Goddess or God is “a thriller” is rooted in notions of “a God on the market” that the majority non secular feminists reject. Goddess or God “in” the world is, I counsel, not unknown, however recognized, not hidden, however revealed–in the fantastic thing about the world and in bizarre acts of affection and generosity.
The notion that God is “a thriller” is a well-worn trope in Roman Catholic theology. Protestants make comparable claims after they converse of the hiddenness of God and assert that every one language about God should be symbolic or metaphoric. Feminist theologians might attraction to notions of the thriller or hiddenness of God after we assert that pictures of God as a dominating male different are traditionally conditioned by patriarchy and may be modified as feminists develop into liturgical and theological actors. To this point so good? Do we have to look any additional? I feel we do.
One supply of the notion that God’s important nature is a thriller or hidden is discovered within the Platonic custom that asserted that God is completely transcendent of the world. On this custom, “God” exists alone, aside from relationships which represent finite existence, and subsequently, it’s mentioned, “God” can’t be “affected” by something or anybody. If this philosophical premise is accepted, then it’s “logical” to conclude that the concept that God is expounded to the world in any trend in any respect is “a thriller” that can’t be defined. The additional notions that God is concerned the histories of specific peoples, was incarnate in Jesus Christ, or suffered on the Cross develop into “nice mysteries” or “paradoxes.”
One other supply of the concept that God’s important nature is unknown is rooted in theological notions of divine judgment. Right here the transcendence of God is expressed by way of God’s ineffable or unknowable will. In Christian theologies particularly, it’s asserted that if God’s calls for (no matter they’re) aren’t met by human beings, then God has “the correct” to sentence human beings to the eternal torments of hell. As soon as this premise is accepted, it turns into “logical” to talk of the “love” or “mercy” of a God who redeems anybody in any respect as “an ideal thriller.”
A 3rd supply of the concept that the character of God is a thriller stems from the theological doctrine of divine omnipotence. If God is answerable for every little thing, then the existence of evil and struggling on the earth turns into troublesome to elucidate. One response to “the issue of evil” is to say that the relation of God to evil is “a thriller.”
However don’t feminist theologians reject the God of the philosophers who is completely transcendent of the world? And don’t feminist theologians reject the God who stands exterior the world and judges it? And shouldn’t we reject notions of divine energy as omnipotence derived from notions of God as a dominating different? Aren’t all three of those ideas legacies of the “God on the market” feminists reject? Most non secular feminists—Goddess, Christian, and Jewish—assert that God shouldn’t be “exterior the world” however (in a technique or one other) “on the earth.” I’ve referred to as this the “immanental flip” of feminist theologies. But many people proceed to attraction to notions of the thriller or hiddenness of God rooted in notions of God’s transcendence of the world in an effort to justify feminist re-imaginings. Can we actually have it each methods?
I counsel that feminist theologians have to query notions of God’s “thriller” and “hiddenness” which have their roots in philosophical notions of divine transcendence of the world. Equally we have to query notions of God’s “thriller” and “hiddenness” which might be rooted in notions of God’s transcendent judgment outlined as the correct to sentence human beings to hell. And at last we have to reject the doctrine of divine omnipotence that denies any efficient energy to human beings and different beings within the net of life.
But when Goddess or God shouldn’t be “a thriller” and never “hidden,” who then is She? I might argue that Goddess is “revealed” in the fantastic thing about the world and “recognized” within the love, care, and compassion we really feel for one another and by extension for all beings on the earth.
From a matriarchal viewpoint—from a viewpoint that begins with gratitude for the reward of life—the love of moms and others who nurture life, and the love of God the Mom isn’t any thriller. Fairly the other. With out the reward of life given by the Supply of Life, and with out the items of life given to us by others and by the earth itself each second of day-after-day, we’d not be right here. The Greeks have a phrase, “Faneromeni,” “She Seems,” that they use in talking of locations the place the Panagia, She Who Is All Holy, has revealed herself. This too isn’t any thriller. She is all over the place.
*Stuffed vine leaves, eggplants, tomatoes, and zucchini ready with love by Christina in Skoteino, Crete
