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Craig L's Blog

Commonplace Holiness

Category: God

  • God as the Great AntiTyrant

    God as the Great AntiTyrant

    I recently posted on The Place of Human Beings in the Created Order. Now I want to look more closely at this and specifically at the concept of God implied by this perspective.

    First, I want to revisit a quote from Wolfhart Pannenberg that appeared toward the end of that blog post. It deserves a closer examination. And, I’d like to give it a little context.

    The idea that humans have a special place in the world because of their rationality has pre-Christian origin. He mentions Cicero’s statement of this idea. He goes on to say:

    Yet, Cicero did not link this dignity, as modern usage does, to the idea of the inviolability of human life in each individual. This thought arose only with the idea that we are under a supreme authority that releases us from obligation to other powers, and especially from being controlled by other people or by society. Rightly, then, the Christian tradition sought the basis of personal dignity in our creation in the image of God. Our destiny of fellowship with God forms the indispensable premise of the function of human dignity as the content of a supreme legal principle and a basis for individual human rights, e.g., in modern declarations of such rights.

    — Systematic Theology, Volume 2, Chapter 8, page 176, 177.

    Let’s stop and look at some of the details of this quote for a minute. The wording is important.

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  • What I Mean by “Faith”

    What I Mean by “Faith”

    People mean different things when they speak of “faith.” I’m not sure the differences in meaning are always noticed. So it’s helpful to clarify. Here is what I mean when I talk about faith or the life of faith.

    As I understand it, faith in God (theism) is the belief that behind the world we see there is a Power of righteousness, mercy and justice. There is a benevolent, kind and good Creator. God is the reason there is something rather than nothing.

    And, atheism would be the denial that any such being exists. The “why there is something rather than nothing” question remains unanswered. Further, in this view, we are here by (enormously unlikely) random chance and there really is no meaning or purpose to any of it. We create meanings where none exist. I’m not meaning to speak of such an atheistic viewpoint disparagingly — not at all. I can see how a person could come to such a view. It does have a certain simplicity to it. And, to be honest, I can even sympathize with some of the atheist concerns about the dangers and pitfalls of religion. I know them very well. (Though I really think the late Christopher Hitchens was being naive in a way — it is world-views — godless ones included — that threaten to poison everything.)

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