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What a wonderful image of God to share with a young child, that God isn't out there, somewhere, up in the clouds, impersonal and beyond us, out of our reach. Rather, God is right here with us, all around us, within us, part of us. I wish someone had shared that kind of image of God with me as a child, and told me that in my own reflection resided an image and dwelling place for God. I heard very little about God as an all-encompassing Spirit, part of everything. Instead, I was taught about a supernatural 'God out there' who was separate and apart from me, distant and available only if I was righteous and good enough. What that grandfather was teaching his granddaughter was, in it's simplest form, 'Panentheism,' a term devised by Karl C. F. Krause over 150 years ago referring to the concept of God as being present in everything, and everything being present in God. For me Panentheism is like thinking of God as an ocean, and everything else in creation as fish. We all swim in the ocean of God, and the saline which makes up the ocean is also within our own bodies, just as our bodies swim within the ocean of God. It is important to distinguish between Panentheism and the more familiar concept of Pantheism. The two are quite different, and it is the middle syllable 'en' in the former that is the vital distinction. Pantheism refers to the belief that God IS everything and everything IS God. Pantheism asserts that God and the forces and matter of the universe are equal, and that God and the sum total of the universe are one and the same. Alternatively, Panentheism does not maintain that God and the universe are identical, but that God and creation are intimately related - present with one another. Panentheism asserts that God isn't a supernatural being who is separate from creation. Rather God is a Spirit who is all around us and within us (which also differs in an important way from the traditional belief in 'Supernatural Theism,' which views God as being completely distinct and removed from creation). The concept of Panentheism is not a sort of heresy that exists outside the Christian tradition. In fact it has a basis in church history and Scripture itself. For instance, it may have been what Paul was trying to express when he talked about the God in which we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). And it is beautifully articulated in Psalm 139 where it says: 'Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend up into heaven, you are there: if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall your hand lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.' Of course there are countless examples of Panentheism outside Scripture as well. A poignant illustration appears in a scene from the movie 'Patch Adams,' which tells the true-life story of a doctor who was both passionate and unconventional in his approach to medicine and caring for patients. While in medical school, Patch befriended and fell in love with another student. As their relationship grew over the years, so did her trust in him. She eventually confided in Patch that she had been sexually abused as a child. She shared that as a young girl she would look out the window at butterflies in their cocoons and wish she could become one, metamorphizing into a new creature to fly away from her pain. Shortly after she shared her story with Patch she was murdered, and Patch was devastated. In his grief he considered quitting medical school, and in one scene he stood over a beautiful cliff in the mountains raging at God about what had happened, considering a jump into the abyss beneath him. His final words to the God 'out there' concluded that if he did jump, 'God' (as Patch conceived of 'him') wouldn't even care. With this conclusion, he changed his mind about suicide and turned away from the cliff, dismissing his supernatural theistic conception of God and saying in disgust, 'Forget it! You aren't worth it.' He then turned around, and there on his medical bag sitting on a nearby stump perched a butterfly. As he approached it, the butterfly flew around him and landed on his chest and then on his finger, and he laughed with pure joy of it before it flew away. What a powerful illustration of converting one's view of God from a supernatural theistic conceptualization to one which experiences God as present and intimate. As Patch surmised when he turned away from the cliff, the God 'out there' really wasn't worth it, wasn't worth his faith or belief. But in that moment with the butterfly, he experienced a relationship with the Spirit of a living, personal God, who was right there with him and had been all along. It has become increasingly difficult for me to believe in and have a relationship with a supernatural theistic, singularly transcendent God which I was taught to perceive as being 'out there' and separate from me. In its place has evolved the belief that a living, breathing, growing faith experience must reject the notion of God as 'another being' who is somehow separate and apart from me.
Thus I have ultimately traded my traditional belief in the God 'out there' for a relationship with the Spirit of God who dwells in us and among us and all around us; the God 'in whom we live and move and have our being.' Or, in the words of Marcus Borg, rather than merely believing in God, I now seek relationship with God, in whose image I am lovingly created, who lives within me, and within whom I dwell. And that relationship is best served for me by embracing Panentheism as part of my spiritual journey. |
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