As I listen to the question, I recognize the lens I have
been wearing is that God is unchanging. How
could God be a process and be unchanging? God as
one Power and One Presence has been my mantra for a number of years. Now I can use my creative thinking to listen
and question this embedded theology.
If God is creator, we cannot assume that all is already
created. So this appears to be a
process. If God is omnipotent, why would
God need to learn and grow? Here is the
opportunity to distinguish between the adjective, omnipotent, and the noun,
omnipotence. The adjective is describing
an object, God, and the noun omnipotence is the quality. In our feeble efforts to describe the
vastness and the indescribable, we can slip into adjectives. God as a presence is clear in the statement
that God is everywhere. This is the
OP2. In Acts 17:28 Paul says, “We live
and move and have our being I God.” So
God is in us and all around us. As we
grow, so must God. However not in the
adjective perspective, but in the essence of who we are. I reconcile this with the distinction of
becoming to being. In being God changes,
but not in becoming, because God already is.
The essence of God does not change ie the omnipresence, omnipotence, and
omniscience. Our Divine nature does not
change as we learn and grow. We are
whole in our Divine Nature. Where we
learn and grow is in the world.
I used to think that the God in the Hebrew Scriptures who was not necessarily a “good” guy, was just the author’s level of consciousness. As I have read the Bible, I viewed it as the evolution of the soul, and we could see the “better” God as we grew. Abstract essence does not change when we include ourselves as growing, we cannot see God sitting up somewhere, as a deist would believe, watching with no involvement. It is like there is no God. So if we believe that there is One Power and One Presence, we must be a part of it. If we are changing and growing, why wouldn’t everything be changing and growing?
I used to think that the God in the Hebrew Scriptures who was not necessarily a “good” guy, was just the author’s level of consciousness. As I have read the Bible, I viewed it as the evolution of the soul, and we could see the “better” God as we grew. Abstract essence does not change when we include ourselves as growing, we cannot see God sitting up somewhere, as a deist would believe, watching with no involvement. It is like there is no God. So if we believe that there is One Power and One Presence, we must be a part of it. If we are changing and growing, why wouldn’t everything be changing and growing?
God creates the Divine Idea of us humans. Our essence is the same image and likeness as
God. Therefore, neither of our essences
change. God as Principle is changeless.
That is the essence that does not change. Rather than just thinking that it is our
understanding evolving, with this Process Theology even God is evolving. Still sounds a bit too much like God is a
person. And we, do not believe God is a
person. Right?
Charles Fillmore in “Revealing Word” says
God, Spirit, is the only presence in the Universe, and is
the only power. He is in, though, and around all creation as its life and s sustaining
power.
Helpful for me to remember it is God as Principle that is changeless. Process Theology does present us with the idea as we change and evolve our consciousness, our expression of the God within us will evolve not the Principle of God. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteJudy, it is nice to see you processing this concept. I remember our conversation after class. I think you came to a good distinction between the out-picturing process of God and the indwelling Principle of God.
ReplyDeleteYou wrote: "I reconcile this with the distinction of becoming to being. In being God changes, but not in becoming, because God already is."
ReplyDeleteLet's play with that a little. One could also argue the exact opposite, that God as Omnipotent Mind (adjective required) is not eternal being (static), but eternal becoming (dynamic). Why would changeless Being exist, when the option for eternally change (Becoming) is manifest in this endlessly creative, dynamic cosmos? If one sees the qualities of God as changeless, but the expression of those qualities as magnificent change, we have a Unity theology that incorporates Mind, Idea, Expression in the dance of eternity. Hindus recognize Shiva as one aspect of the Divine, the destroyer-God, whose dance is endless, without which the Universe cannot abide. When change ends, so does everything.