The existence of evil has been a problem for Christians since the early church. Many scientists have rejected the Christian view of creation and divine providence because of the supposed evidence for evolutionary naturalism. Philosophers have often abandoned an orthodox understanding of God (or have radically redefined the concept "God") due to alleged inner-contradictions within the traditional understanding of God (e.g., how can God be an eternal being and yet be simultaneously involved in a time-bound world?).
In the last 50 (or so years) a new weapon has been aimed at God and theological discourse in particular. Various philosophers (usually operating within the framework of hard postmodernism) have posed the following dilemma:
(i) God is infinite
(ii) Human language is necessarily finite
(iii)Therefore, any "God-talk" will either obliterate God's otherness or be de facto unintelligible
How can nouns, verbs, and adjectives (etc) possibly describe a being that is infinite? The moment one"captures" God within the net of a theological statement- he ceases to be God. Stripped of his transcendence, he becomes another finite "idea" or "thought" that can be described and analyzed.
If these allegations are true, they pose a major threat for Christian theology. How as Christians do we avoid nor speaking about God?
Paradoxically,we avoid not speaking about God by looking at the heart of our theology: the incarnation. In the incarnation we discover a particular logic at work. In the person of Jesus, the eternal, infinite God is pleased to dwell and embody himself in human form. Jesus is not half God and half man, he is fully God and fully human. The logic embodied in the incarnation is that infinity can take on the finite (and vice versa) without collapsing into meaninglessness.
The application to theological discourse should be obvious. Although God can never be "captured" by theological concepts, within the logic of the incarnation, finite words are able to communicate meaningful and true things about God. Finite language, while never escaping its finiteness- just like Jesus' humanity never escaped its humanness- can never the less be an adequate vehicle to describe an infinite God.
Philosopher James K.A. Smith writes:
"It is in this way that language functions like the Incarnation of the God-man: when the "Word became flesh" (John 1:14), the transcendent God descended into the realm of immanence (finitude), but without thereby denying or giving up his transcendence... God's transcendence is inaccessible to us, but the way in which this is remedied is precisely by God's humiliation and descent to the order of the (fallen) creature. It is God who moves toward finitude, rather than lifting up ...the finite.
(Speech and Theology: Language and the Logic of the Incarnation, page 25).
It was God's powerful initiative love that led him to humble himself and take the form of a servant. As Christians (although always being careful of not being overly dogmatic) this should encourage us that God has not only made it possible for us to communicate about him and his gospel- he desires that we do so.
2 comments:
Yeah, I knew the author's name, I just didn't know he was a PCUSA pastor.
That particular verse was in the My Bible Lesson, which is a weekly publication made for young Christian Scientists. They like The Message alot too, although they rely primarily on the KJV for their weekly lessons and church services.
Magdiel
This was tremendously helpful. The Incarnation continues to surprise me with its inexhaustible capacity to address mankind’s deepest longings and most troubling questions.
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