tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post7075151849378179092..comments2024-01-06T10:36:04.084-05:00Comments on A Commonplace Blog: The gods cannot be provedD. G. Myershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10659136455045567825noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-75665604723499647872009-04-17T06:57:00.000-04:002009-04-17T06:57:00.000-04:00An Orthodox Jew’s reflections on “I am who I am” i...An Orthodox Jew’s reflections on “I am who I am” is <A HREF="http://dgmyers.blogspot.com/2009/03/reply-to-my-critics.html" REL="nofollow">here</A>.<br /><br />To say that the Holy One, blessed be he, “interacts with human history” is not the same as to say that Sinai or Calvary were historical events. History is the effort to specify the meaning that an event had in the past; religion seeks a permanent meaning in the present.<br /><br />And so I should like the names, please, of Mainstream Protestant and Catholic theologians who defend (in Oakeshott’s phrase) the importance of the historical element in Christianity.D. G. Myershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10659136455045567825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-71046503502679265562009-04-15T13:17:00.000-04:002009-04-15T13:17:00.000-04:00Please note that your theology is at odds with wha...Please note that your theology is at odds with what is pretty consistent Christian theology. I don’t say that to quarrel, merely to bring another perspective.<br />Mainstream Protestant and Catholic theology would have it that the God of the Bible is very much a historical God, that is, One who interacts with human history (or human “reality.”) <br />And the mystics show that religious experience, however it is failed to be described, can be experienced outside of the Bible.<br />Man’s failure to describe that experience is a different matter. <br />So simply because the descriptive failure exists, I don’t think that “God must leave for man to enter. He can only be sought in his absence.” <br />He Is above and beyond -- “I Am Who Am.” (We can’t even translate that correctly (e.g., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_am_that_I_am.) Christians hold that "No one has ever seen God; it is the only Son, who is nearest to the Father's heart, who has made him known" (John 1:18) <br />But Christ has made Him known to us here. And since Christ is part of the Godhead, then it is with Christ we can know God. <br />So you can see that is a little different than saying that the absence of God is where He is found. Rather, a very real Person, Christ, and a very real Thing, the Holy Spirit, ensures God’s appearance to us -- which is the only appearance we can stand now.<br />God is too much for us to experience. He would blow our circuits. But he has put in “tunnels” from Himself to us that we can experience -- Christ and the Spirit. Going one step further, Christian theology would also have it that we have to experience those real and tangible aspects of God -- the only ones we can connect with, in fact, given our limitations (we can only see through a glass, darkly) -- to find God.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-77422316444987937992009-04-13T19:44:00.000-04:002009-04-13T19:44:00.000-04:00Gosh, that's a good response! - i'm very pleased t...Gosh, that's a good response! - i'm very pleased to have triggered it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com