You may have noticed a change around here.
I’ve renamed and rebranded. It’s probably about time. The book theme, and my name, have led this blog for the better part of three years now. I’m proud of that look, one I built myself. But, it was time for a change.
As I’ve gotten further into my seminary career, I’ve embraced process theology as my primary field of work. That’s been reflected in my writing here. I plan to write more about process theology in the near future, for those unfamiliar, and to work out my own ideas. Of course, politics and culture will still be the primary emphasis here; some of the work I plan to do academically is at the intersection of process and political theologies.
The name change of the blog reflects my shift in emphasis. Honest to God is the title of one of the most influential books I’ve read, by John A. T. Robinson. While not a process theologian, Robinson was my entry point into Open and Relational Theism, the category under which we find process thought. The name mirrors the journey that has led me to process, a field of thought on the edges of Christian theology: I am trying to be honest about the God I experience and attempt to understand. I am trying to be honest about my journey. I am looking for God, and this is where I’ve come to: a God who is nearby, who is no omnipotent, not omniscient, not arbitrary and tyrannical and unfeeling.
This honesty means casting off the old theistic notions of God. It can be a painful process, but also a liberating one. As Robinson writes,
“I also have a great deal of sympathy also with those who call themselves atheists. For the God they are tilting against, the God they honestly feel they cannot believe in, is so often an image of God instead of God, a way of conceiving him which has become an idol. Paul had the perception to see that behind the idols of the Athenians there was an unknown, an unacknowledged God, whom dimly they sensed and felt after. And to help men through to the conviction about ultimate Reality that along finally matter we may have to discard every image of God – whether of the ‘one above’, the one ‘out there’, or any other. And this conviction, according to the Christian gospel, is that
‘there is nothing in death or life, …in the world as it is or the world as it shall be, in the forces of the universe, in heights or depths – nothing in all creation that can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lords.’ (Rom 8:38, NEB)
That I believe with all my being, and that is what at heart it means to be a Christian. As for the rest, as for the images of God, whether metal or mental, I am prepared to be an agnostic with the agnostic, even an atheist with the atheists.” (Robinson, 126-127)
Amen to that. Enjoy the new look.
Grace and peace,
Justin
#Honest2God
Advertisements Share this:- More
