The Kind of Monotheism that is Needed
Sun Oct 30, 2005 at 03:23:49 PM PDT
This is meant to be taken as a short reflection on what kind of monotheism might do the sort of work required in our age. Some features of such monotheism would:
- Relativize us. That is, monotheism should confront us with our finitude and the limits of our judgments, perspectives. If God is simply taken as an absolutizer of our beliefs, God becomes redundant, since for all practical purposes we've counted ourselves or at least our views as divine.
- Humanize us. Monotheism in this account is not a concept concerning the existence of some being as much as it is a recognition that there is something not us which works for the good, by which we can be saved, transformed, moved to the better in life if we co-operate with such a reality.
The first might be seen as salvation by grace apart from works of the law where our works are as dirty rags. And the second could be the call for perfection, a call to participate in the building of the kingdom of God. Neither contradicts each other though my hunch is that for those of us involved in politics the second is more readily accepted than the first.
But a problem emerges if either claim is forgotten. If we believe that the salvation of the world is only up to us, than when we lack power (such as the left today) we are tempted to despair. And if we have power (such as the right today) we are tempted with arrogance. If we simply go with the first idea we get acquiescence.
Both claims are needed in that while we recognize our responsibility to the better at the same time it is not solely up to us to make this happen but we work with a reality larger than any of us. But with the limits of our work we trust/hope that it adds to the movement whereby this reality seeks to find expression in this world and in the world to come.
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