Contents of this Post
What do we know about The Good God?
- This God is marvelously different from the Petty God.
- This God is tied up with – or embodies, or is the Source and Energy behind – the marvelously good, full, eternal, and universally ultimate agenda for all being – the goal of love and truth and joy.
The Petty God is
1. It really is very petty,
cheap, shallow, loveless, inattentive and unaware, obsessed with material things and agendas, busy, preoccupied with uselessness and pride, interminably critical and dissatisfied, obsessed with domination.
2. It is imaginary,
in millions of slightly varying iterations. It is our own minds generating a spirit to enslave us to sorrow, regret, and waste. It is a spirit or set of spirits that we generate, support, and surrender to.
The Good God
1. This God is Other
comes from Elsewhere, which amazingly includes from within us — but a within that is not self-generated like the Petty God. The Good God is purely Other, yet fully able to interact with, or be present to, or integrate / cooperate with us each one — and through that to generate inter-human cooperations and unities.
2. This God – Truth
never creates nor promotes nor enforces falsehoods, or wild speculations of theology, or of theories about social life or personal life, but deals always in truth.
3. A God of Joy
This is “the God of all joy” of St Paul
4. The Creative God – Creating for Love and Joy
is about Creating-for-love, Creating-for-joy. The petty god treats Creation or creative activities as objects for complaint, contempt, criticism, judgment, condemnation, hate, and many forms of abuse.
5. Jesus’ God – Weeping
radiates the spirit of the shepherd bringing back the found sheep — of the Christ weeping over Lazarus, or over Jerusalem. NOT the proud, vengeful spirit of contemporary Calvinism or neo-Reformed theology, and many other religious sub-groups, nor the hyper-critical style so prevalent in American politics today, nor the eager pronouncing of people to be hell-bound.
6. The God of Welcoming
meets new acquaintances with a spirit of genuine interest and deep welcome … starts with questions, not criticisms … makes room and provision for guests, at great cost … does not establish guards and I.D. checkers to catch unacceptable types or races … accepts those rejected by “good society.”
The Good God really is good.
[click_to_tweet tweet=”The Good God is the Source and Energy behind the marvelously Good, full, eternal, ultimate agenda for all being – the goal of love and truth and joy.” quote=”The Good God is the Source and Energy behind the marvelously Good, full, eternal, ultimate agenda for all being – the goal of love and truth and joy.”]Given a choice, and I am given a choice, I choose this one!
(David Bentley Hart’s “That All Shall Be Saved” reveals a very good God. But it’s a difficult read; sorry.)
See also:
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