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God's Revelation is the Physics of Spirituality
The title of this section shall be
the fundamental definition of God's Revelation as is being presented in this
text.
Just as mathematics act as
symbolisms for the processes of reality for the physicist, the Divine
Revelations are the symbols by which we can form the equations that help us understand
the meaning of life. While the equations of physics help us to understand the
physical reality all around us, the Inspiration of God helps us to understand
the abstract reality of living. Physics helps to make our physical lives better
through the application of the knowledge of its symbolism; and likewise,
revelation can help us to be better people if we learn to utilize its
symbolism. In God's Inspiration are the symbols which can help us bridge the
gaps between our differences; help us enhance the creation of which we are a
part; and help us move forward in a positive way, at both an individual and
collective level, to solve many of the problems which confront us.
In addressing the equations of
revelations, it is important for us to see that just as the physicist cannot
ignore the macrocosm to make the microcosm work, we cannot ignore the totality
of revelation and expect to get proper results. It seems like the wider we make
our search - the more clear the equations become. Too often, theology becomes
irresponsible when it refuses to examine the whole picture of God's
Revelations. We cannot exclude the inspiration to other peoples if we are going
to get the equations right. We cannot loose sight of the ideal that God has
spoken to all Her children, and that becomes the
totality of humankind. The late Joseph Campbell, responding to Bill Moyers' questioning about being alive; said,
Read myths. They teach you that you can turn inward, and you begin
to get the message of the symbols. READ OTHER PEOPLE'S MYTHS, NOT THOSE OF YOUR
OWN RELIGION, because you tend to interpret your own religion in terms of facts
- but IF YOU READ OTHER ONES, YOU BEGIN TO GET THE MESSAGE. MYTH HELPS YOU PUT
YOUR MIND IN TOUCH WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF BEING ALIVE,
IT TELLS YOU WHAT THE EXPERIENCE IS.
(Joseph
Campbell, THE POWER OF MYTH, Doubleday, 1988, p6)
Once we approach Revelation
through symbolism, we find the same messages expressed over and over in a wide variety
of ways. Today's world offers us the communication, the understanding and the
ability to examine the Inspiration of God as a whole, like never before. It is
time for theologians to look at this big perspective instead of trying to
harness an Image of a God who cannot be harnessed. We no longer live in tribes,
or are predominantly one religion; rather, today's world forces us to accept
our differences like never before. If we truly "seek", we will find
that God's Revelation is truly universal in the message it strives to deliver.
God does not play favorites with His children and, no one religious concept can
legitimately claim the truth of God. No one inspirational book (such as the
Bible) can claim to be God's only word! Such concepts only lead to a self-righteous
judgement of those who may differ from us. Such
concepts lead to a conclusion that God plays favorites with Her
children.
Now, before going on, we need to
clarify what God's Revelation means as we are applying it in this text. Simply
put, it is God's Inspiration among us. God's advice if you will. It
becomes a simple manual by which life takes on a fuller meaning and purpose;
which a responsible theology postulates, originates from the Creator of life.
Above all, the metaphors given in revelations have much more to do with living
than dying!
They [myths] are the world's dreams. They are archetypal dreams and
DEAL WITH GREAT HUMAN PROBLEMS. I know when I come to these thresholds now. The
myth tells me about it, how to respond to certain cries of disappointment or
delight or failure or success. THE MYTHS TELL ME WHERE I IN.
(ibid
p15)
In a Responsible Theology, the
Revelation of God cannot be an eternal and unchanging dogma. Inspiration
becomes the manual that helps us deal with the eternal change; therefore, it
can change as we change. It is approached differently as our understanding of
the realities around us change. Its wisdom deals with living and the birth of
the future, which we experience in our eternal now.
Revelation is not God's written
word, nor Her decrees; it is God's advice on how to
best utilize the gift of life that He has given. It is not free from error for
it is always filtered through human intelligence and bias, no more than the
physicist equations can claim infallibility. Science become
truth only when we see the results of its claims manifested in our reality;
otherwise, it is merely theory. Religious truth is the same.
We also need to recognize that
Revelation is also culturally and individually oriented; by that we mean, it is usually given in a manner that people can
understand and relate to their everyday surroundings.
Now, just as there are many
ways to say things in different languages, there are many ways by which God can
reveal Her inspiration to man. And language is not the only way man
expresses his ideas; we can also do it through music, art, dance and so on -
and if this be true for us, why not for God? The responsible theologian must
recognize that God's Inspiration can come in a wide variety of ways, and
express itself in a wide variety of symbols. People like Carl Jung, Joseph
Campbell and many others, recognized the universal messages contained in the Sacred texts of religions, the myths, and the literature of
mankind.
When we talk of myth here, we
are not talking of an untruth, but of a tale that symbolically expresses a
truth which can be manifested. John Romer says its nicely:
Clearly we have traveled a long way from modern history, and we
have arrived at quite another world [Book of Genesis] and one with its own
logic and its own wisdom; it is a world of MYTH, and there is much of this in
the Book of Genesis. MYTH, that is, in the proper sense of the word, NOT, as in
the common modern misusage of falsehood. BUT A SACRED
TALE. A TALE WHOSE PURPOSES ARE PASSED
WITH THE STORY'S TELLING AS PRECISELY AND AS UNCONSCIOUSLY AS BABIES LEARN THE
GRAMMAR OF THEIR MOTHER TONGUE. Myths differ from history, that mere
continuum of events, IN THAT THEY ARE CAREFULLY DESIGNED: and it is these
designs that bold the myth's real meaning. And these are seldom simple moral
stories, but deal with the deepest issues of the day.
(John Romer, TESTAMENT, Henry Holt & co., 1988, p33)
So when we talk of the
inspiration of God, we are talking of it in terms of myth no matter what form
it may take. The reality is: men could not understand God if She communicated
with us directly. For example, God could not have spoken to the people of the
Old Testament of the realities of creation, they
simply could not have understood the science we just begin to understand today.
Instead, She let them know He created, as She did the
Native Americans, the Hindus, many of the pagans, and so on. What the creation
equations really tell us, is, that there is something greater than us to which
we owe our existence; that there is purpose to such existence; and that at some
level the Creative Something feels that we are very special.
If our theological approach to
Revelation is to be responsible, we need to recognize that the Revelations of
God come through our unconscious mind in the form of inspirations which are
expressed in symbols to which our conscious can relate. But in order for this
to help us, we need to recognize the deeper message behind the inspiration;
thinking about it and searching it for the treasure it holds. Ann and Barry Ulanov express this concept nicely in their work
"Religion and the Unconscious":
Scripture positively trembles with its understanding of this side
of man [a sixth sense] and the depths and the heights to which he can reach if
he heeds it, but its LANGUAGE IS DIRECTED TO A HEARING AND A SEEING THAT HAD
ALREADY MOVED INWARDS AND TO A CIVILIZATION THAT EXPECTED ITS TRUTHS TO COME BY
SYMBOL AND METAPHOR AND COULD AND WOULD INSPECT EVERY SURFACE FOR ITS
SACRAMENTAL SHADOWS TO FIND THE REVELATION OF SUBSTANCE HIDDEN IN THEN.
(pp 215, 216)
Jung recognized the psychological existence of
what we are claiming to be the Inspiration of God:
The fact is that certain ideas exist almost everywhere and at all
times, and THEY CAN SPONTANEOUSLY CREATE THEMSELVES quite apart from the
migration and tradition. They are not made by the individual, but THEY RATHER
HAPPEN. THEY EVEN FORCE THEMSELVES UPON THE INDIVIDUAL'S CONSCIOUSNESS. This is
not a platonic philosophy but empirical psychology.
(C.G.Jung,
PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION, Yale University Press, 1938, p4)
In fact, any symbolic approach
to scripture or myth will reveal profound psychological Concepts in times that
never heard of psychology, yet alone, understood it. In reality, the
psychologist can learn as much from the myths of revelations as the theologian
or clergyman can. The intent of God's Inspiration is to help us improve. If we
are to move on, we must accept that any human being is capable of receiving
God's Inspiration, as all of the creation is in fact united with the Creator.
We need to accept the participation of God in the creation which She ordained.
Another area responsible
theology needs to rethink has to do with the concept that God's Inspiration to
man has ended, or, that we somehow have all the information needed to be the
best we can be. Such conclusions have no basis in logic, nor, can they be
applied to inspirations already received.
If we consider the Bible as
Inspiration, there is simply no logical rationalization to accept the premise
that this Biblical process has ended. The fact is: the writing of the Bible
took place over many centuries, so the more logical conclusion is that its
refinement could still taking place. It cannot be argued that this book was
completed with Jesus, for there are many books written after his death, and it
was several centuries before the book, as we have come to know it, was
compiled. It would make no sense, nor, would it be fair, that God would talk to
generation after generation for thousands of years and then suddenly remain
silent to this generation.
It would seem more likely, that
God continues to communicate through the human heart in the same manner that She has done for thousands of years. His inspiration would
remain in all the forms that it has already occurred. The difference is not in
God's communication, it is in our willingness to look for and accept such
communications. Until we accept that men can misconstrued what God has
inspired, we will remain more attuned to the voices of men interpreting than
the true Inspiration of God.
The responsible theology of the
next century needs to learn to recognize the symbolism and avoid the literalism
of revelations if we are to manifest the truth of its content. if we stop and think about it: God could communicate with us
in no other way than through symbolism. If God talked with us directly, we
probably could not understand what She was saying to
us because His Intellect would be to far beyond us. Just as we tell our
children stories to convey moral points of view, because of their limited
ability to understand, why should we envision God to do anything less?
Let us use an example to
illustrate our point. Assuming that our perceptions of the creation of the
universe are somewhat correct, how would God have explained that process to the
author of Genesis? Would that individual have understood the concept of the Big
Bang, or the expansion of the galaxies, or the evolutionary processes of
genetic engineering? In order for God to explain creation as it happened, She would have had to give very in depth details about
phenomena that the author of Genesis would have had no idea existed. What would
such have accomplished?
Instead, if we look at Genesis
as a metaphor or symbol that gives us some basic information about reality at a
level which could be understood by the author; we can then form an equation of
sorts which tells us something about our reality. At one level Genesis tells us
that God is the Creator of all things and that such is not a chance happening.
It tells us that egotism and selfishness (eating the fruit to be Godlike) will
lead us away from the paradise we were placed in. It tells us that God walks in
Her garden, making Him an active participant in
creation. It tells us that we are accountable for what we do to one another.
And as the book continues a whole hosts of other universal messages can become
apparent.
As the foolish argue over the
scientific realities of Genesis, the wise will look to it for its message of
living. They will compare it to other creation myths and will quickly see, that
not only man, but all of the life in this world is of the same substance - a
point that science would not dispute. In such myth, which John Romer defines as sacred stories rather than untruths, God
provided answers to satisfy the curiosity of the people of another age with
inspiration they could use to guide them in their everyday lives. Above all,
the inspiration always served to make God a intricate
part of the everyday reality of the people it served; something literalism
thwarts.
And for any human being to
think that God's power is somehow limited because God may have chosen to create
all we see in a manner such as the Big Bang, is pure
foolishness. The existence of something from nothing is a miracle that only
happened once that we know of. It offers God the same majesty no matter how He
might have chosen to bring it about. Seven days, or seven billion years - it
makes no difference. The power of the Creator is just as awesome either way. If
we encourage, or we need to believe in the literal interpretation of Genesis
for our faith in God to survive, our faith in God is indeed weak.
If we take the surface of every
great religion of the world, we will find in most of them a core of universal
values that are consistent. These would include: the universal brotherhood of
mankind, treating others as we wish to be treated, and the necessity of balance
and harmony if we are to survive with nature and one another. There are also
themes of personal responsibility as well as individual worth and guidance as
to ways in which we might improve ourselves. Such things are presented in a
diverse manner so that they might be individualized and help all God's children
no matter what their background. Responsible Theology must help us to see truth
as individuals in the manner God intended; instead of declaring God's truth in
their words.
Moses, Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad,
gave us the inspiration to live God's truth. They encouraged us to make the
truth in the reality of what we live. They encouraged us to seek out what God
may be saying to us. They never intended to be worshipped or
have their words used to declare truths that cannot be declared. The Ultimate
Truth becomes what we live, having little to do with what we say.
As we talked about when we
discussed truth, revelations are not truths as understood in a literal sense.
They become truth only in the utilization of the inspiration to help us improve
our state of being. Just as in math there may be two ways to arrive at the
answer to the same problem, there may be more than one way to arrive at the
truth of the message contained in inspiration. The answer is what becomes true
or false. If the religion breeds hatred, than its theology is
false. If a theology tends to remove the Creator from the creation it
defies its own ability to bring truth to reality in the world. If theology sets
itself up to speak for Almighty God they repeat the sin of Adam, for the truth
of God is not consumed from without; it is born from within us. Revelation is
not truth to be declared, but the catalyst from which truth might be born.
The Inspiration of God
is the Creator advising the creation. It is up to us to use such advice wisely.
Ralph Emerson said it nicely in his "Journals":
MY OWN MIND IS THE DIRECT REVELATION WHICH I HAVE FROM GOD AND FAR
LEAST LIABLE TO MISTAKE IN TELLING HIS WILL OF ANY REVELATION.
NEXT CHAPTER-4-The realms of Revelation
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