What is your image of “God”? Has it changed from when you were a child? That’s the subject of the first chapter of this book. Reading it got me to reflecting on my own process of a changing image of God.
My image of God and spiritual things had been in process for a number of years, but the earth really began to tremble in 2003 or 2004, when my old childhood image of God cratered.
St. Thomas Aquinas said that a false picture of Creation would give us a false image of God. And I’ve experienced that truth. Maybe that’s what finally caused my wineskin to break, so to speak. When I finally began to allow the evolutionary understanding of the Cosmos to really and truly begin to seep into my knowing, when I began to ask questions concerning how this information affected my spirituality, my image of God HAD to change. And once that image began to morph, it was, as Michael Morwood wrote, a “domino effect”.
I remember going on a “What-the Bleep“ weekend retreat at the Cenacle, probably about 2005, and having dear Sr. Alice ask, “What’s your image of God?” I realized that day, that I had none. Nada, nothing, no-thing—no picture at all. And it rattled my cage. I talked to her for a while, and by the end of the weekend, I had, at the very least, a semi-acceptable thought process-type “name”, kind of … something like “the Ever-Pregnant Creative Void”, or something near enough to that.
New pictures of “God” really DO make seismic shifts in our spiritual understanding of God, Jesus, Scripture, etc., the whole kit-and-kaboodle of things.
I think one of the things that really discombobulated me was “church” was kind of like an ostrich with its head in the ground. Seems the priests and theologians had pondered these question of a changing image of God and it’s affects on Christianity for a long time. They learned about them in seminary, but few of them would bring the questions into the building so that the lay members could discuss it.
And even today, the Liturgy and teachings of the institutional church continues to defy the changes, which tends to keep the confusion amuck.
But I am hopeful. We have leaders out there who realize how important it is to adapt beliefs and Liturgy to our new understanding of the cosmos. I attended Christmas Eve services at a “progressive” Episcopal Church in Tucson. Their leaders had dared to adapt the Liturgy to a more current spiritual thought process, and, frankly, I loved it.
I am so thankful to those in my “circle of influence” (like Sr. Alice) who have not only allowed the changes to come in me, but who have helped midwife those changes. There are not nearly enough “midwives” among us, but their numbers are growing. And I’m extremely grateful for the Michael Dowd’s among us who gift us with helpers; i.e., authors, scientists, theologians, lay people, and reformers of all kind. The biggest shift in Christian thought is HERE, NOW, TODAY, and it is imperative that we respond with open hearts and attitudes. Otherwise, we will be absolutely useless in the world around us, today and tomorrow.
Christianity has awesome gifts for the world, IF we make the changes necessary to stay relevant. Regardless of how many think, that’s what the first councils were about—bringing the understanding of God, Jesus, Scripture, into the current science and cosmic understanding of the day. But what worked 2000 years ago doesn’t work today. We can’t expect our children to buy into an outdated understanding of religion.
So, I hope, pray, and do my little part by posting and sharing what I’m learning. And I continue to stay open to new thoughts and ideas. Life is about learning and growing, in every part of the journey. We either learn, grow, and adapt, or we die; that’s a proven, scientific fact.
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