Notes for Lecture FIVE
God in evolution-theology - Cupitt (The Way to happiness) sees religion as 'cosmic emotion' - And his thought about 'eternal happiness': 'We can know 'eternal happiness' in the sense of 'joy in affliction', and, - believe me, - that is not a little thing to experience . In fact, I think it's better than 'Heaven' ever was.' (Cupitt personally knew of affliction) - O'Murchu about evolution-theology - Instead of being part of the evolution, we have tried to manipulate it to our advantage - Evolution-theology sees the future as 'fresh excitement' and a desire to 'weave new pathways' - It's always 'beyond us' and bigger than our plans - It's a life force and creative energy 'that blows where it wills' (Jn 3:8) - God is not just a reward in life-hereafter - God's fullness of life is an open-ended future - If we can 'appreciate' and 'appropriate' something of the divine co-creativity that can be found in the evolution story, and 'integrate' it into our daily lives, it will help us to come to terms with what 'the divine'/God is all about - The Creative process happens in radical freedom, though it may look like 'random' and 'chaotic' to us - Evolution theology is a 'letting be' of each 'being', which gives a sense of direction.
Is God a Being above the Earth? - a question Küng asked and answered with a Yes and NO - Basic is: God is in the universe and the universe is in God, but God is greater than all, embraces space and can not be localized.
Mysticism - in general is the experience of the divine - ZUKAV's experience of mysticism in some great scholars - "I came to realize, that what motivated these men was not Earthly prizes or the respect of colleagues, but that they put their souls and minds on something, and reached the extraordinary place where the mind could no longer produce data of the type that they wanted, and they were in the territory of inspiration where 'their intuitions accelerated', and they knew that there was something more than the realm of time and space and matter, something more than physical life. They knew it. They could not necessarily articulate this clearly because they were not equipped to talk about such things, but they felt it, and their writings reflected it" - Mysticism can be seen as 'a great vision that comes from beyond the personality' - But more than a 'vision', it is an 'emerging force' that human beings 'long to touch' - MERTON's thoughts - 'by spiritual disciplines a person can radically change his/her life and attain to a deeper meaning, a more perfect integration, a more complete fulfillment, a more total liberty of spirit' - The place of renunciation of 'self' (like the Ancients). KABALLAH - some historical data - K. was an interpretative method of studying scripture that led to a deepening level of the texts and the 'inner life of God' - The presence of the 'divine spark' (Gnostic) - The Zohar their main text - 'By descending into the text and into ‘the self’, layer by layer, he found that he was at the same time ascending to the ‘source of all being' - God left hints behind about his inner life - Essence of God was seen as "En Sof" = IT - 'It revealed itself to humanity at the same time as it had created the world. En Sof had emerged from its impenetrable concealment like a massive tree sprouting a trunk, branches and leaves. The divine life spread 'in ever wider spheres', until it filled everything that exists, while En Sof itself remained hidden'.
Christian Mysticism - As a system it derived from Neo Platonism by way of Dionysius - Dons Scotus - In the Middle Ages mysticism associated with monasteries - Some great monastic mystics: Bernard of Clairvaux, Francis of Assisi, John of the Cross, Theresa of Avila - St.Victor monastery (Paris) and Bonaventure - Dutch mystics: Jan van Ruysbroeck and Gerhard Groote - Johannes Eckhart (Meister Eckhart) foremost mystic in Germany - Many women mystics: Julian of Norwich, Hildegard von Bingen, Chatherine of Siena - Quietism a mystic movement - Catholic church suspicious of mystics and mysticism - could not control it - Protestant forms of mysticism: Anabaptists and Quakers - Jonathan Edwards (New England) and the revivals.
Modern revised god-concepts -
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Notes for Lecture FOUR
EUROPE - Celtic Spirituality - is 'creation centered' - communion with God in nature - Pelagius: there is a 'shaft of divine light' that penetrates the thin veil dividing heaven and earth - versus Augustine's view on original sin - Sufism - religious experience is the only way to verify the reality that lay beyond the reach of the human intellect.
God in traditional theology - Heshel: 'What's going on between God and man is for the duration of life, not just for prayer time' - A Question - God is understood in many different ways - Therefore not every one who reject God is necessarily an atheist - Perhaps it is better to keep quiet about God (M.E.) - Buber talks about God - Küng's conclusion: 'We should learn to talk about God in a new and guarded way' - 'In any case no one should be put off by church leaders who discourage new ways of talking about God, afraid as they are, that the 'child-like faith of their people might grow up'. - Theology has made images of God most often in the images of man. - Robinson about God as 'ultimate reality' - Tillich: 'the ground of our being'.
God in Quantum theology - meaning of 'quantum', and of 'cosmology' - Quantum theology sees life as 'fundamental one' ... 'the divine energy operates as an open-ended, creative vibration, full of surprises, probabilities, and unpredictabilities' (Cupitt Life, Life) - Quantum theology recaptures the mystery of God by not binding the 'divine power' to just 'religious categories' - More names for God: creative energy, ultimate life force, source of being - O'Murchu's 'relational matrix' explained - matrix from mater=mother, womb-like source, ground substance - The relational/originating matrix is the source of all living reality - Quantum theology challenges traditional theology - Revelation is a broader concept in quantum theology - it is ongoing as creation is ongoing.
God in evolution-theology - Cupitt (The Way to happiness) sees religion as 'cosmic emotion' - And his thought about 'eternal happiness': 'We can know 'eternal happiness' in the sense of 'joy in affliction', and, - believe me, - that is not a little thing to experience . In fact, I think it's better than 'Heaven' ever was.' (Cupitt personally knew of affliction) - O'Murchu about evolution-theology - Instead of being part of the evolution, we have tried to manipulate it to our advantage - Evolution-theology sees the future as 'fresh excitement' and a desire to 'weave new pathways' - It's always 'beyond us' and bigger than our plans - It's a life force and creative energy 'that blows where it wills' (Jn 3:8) - God is not just a reward in life-hereafter - God's fullness of life is an open-ended future - If we can 'appreciate' and 'appropriate' something of the divine co-creativity that can be found in the evolution story, and 'integrate' it into our daily lives, it will help us to come to terms with what 'the divine'/God is all about - The Creative process happens in radical freedom, though it may look like 'random' and 'chaotic' to us - Evolution theology is a 'letting be' of each 'being', which gives a sense of direction.
Is God a Being above the Earth? - a question Küng asked and answered -
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Ancient expressions of divine awareness -
CHINA - The 'Doa' (the 'Way' - 500 bce) - focused on becoming aware of the deeper mystery needed the 'let go' of the "I want" - Confucius (late 6th c bce) - brought the religion of China down to earth - He also saw the 'ego-principle' as the source of all evil - 'Deal with others as equals' was for him the power of the Way -
INDIA - The Upanishads - making ready to receive the knowledge of God - Atman, the Self, in each of us is Brahman in all of us - Learning to know the Self is experiencing the Brahman - That Thou Art - Shakespeare: 'To thine self be true' - The Bhagavad Gita - sees the divine radiance as contained in the entire cosmos - Gandhi - 'God is not some person outside ourselves or away from the universe. He pervades everything as the all-pervading, all-powerful spirit... a living power that holds all together, that creates, dissolves, and re-creates ... the unseen power residing within us ... he is here, within you, within me' - Buddha - 'enlightened', 'awakened' to the truth inscribed in the deepest structure of existence - Emphasis on personal experience - His teaching included 'renunciation', the 'letting go' that kills the 'egotism'.
ISRAEL - Judaism - King Josiah's short-lived renewal - During the Exile (586 bce) a new spirituality was developed inspired by the living without the Temple - After the destruction of the Temple (70 ce) Judaism became restructured - based on the Exile-experience - into modern Judaism - Kabbalah focused on answering man's eternal questions about the nature of God abd the universe, and the ultimate destination of mankind - It teaches that theological insights often come from spiritual experiences - The Zohar contains mystical discussions on the nature of God.
EUROPE - Celtic Spirituality - is 'creation centered' - communion with God in nature - Pelagius: there is a 'shaft of divine light' that penetrates the thin veil dividing heaven and earth - versus Augustine's view on original sin - Sufism - religious experience is the only way to verify the reality that lay beyond the reach of the human intellect.
God in traditional theology - Heshel: 'What's going on between God and man is for the duration of life, not just for prayer time' - A Question - God is understood in many different ways - Therefore not every one who reject God is necessarily an atheist - Perhaps it is better to keep quiet about God (M.E.) - Buber talks about God - Küng's conclusion: 'We should learn to talk about God in a new and guarded way' - 'In any case no one should be put off by church leaders who discourage new ways of talking about God, afraid as they are, that the 'child-like faith of their people might grow up'. - Theology has made images of God most often in the images of man. - Robinson about God as 'ultimate reality' - Tillich: 'the ground of our being'.
God in Quantum theology -
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Notes for Lecture TWO
An exercise -
Notes and Remarks - about the God-concept (handed out in class)
Ancient expressions of divine awareness -
CHINA - The 'Doa' (the 'Way' - 500 bce) - focused on becoming aware of the deeper mystery needed the 'let go' of the "I want" - Confucius (late 6th c bce) - brought the religion of China down to earth - He also saw the 'ego-principle' as the source of all evil - 'Deal with others as equals' was for him the power of the Way -
INDIA - The Upanishads - making ready to receive the knowledge of God - Atman, the Self, in each of us is Brahman in all of us - Learning to know the Self is experiencing the Brahman - That Thou Art - Shakespeare: 'To thine self be true' - The Bhagavad Gita - sees the divine radiance as contained in the entire cosmos - Gandhi - 'God is not some person outside ourselves or away from the universe. He pervades everything as the all-pervading, all-powerful spirit... a living power that holds all together, that creates, dissolves, and re-creates ... the unseen power residing within us ... he is here, within you, within me' - Buddha - 'enlightened', 'awakened' to the truth inscribed in the deepest structure of existence - Emphasis on personal experience - His teaching included 'renunciation', the 'letting go' that kills the 'egotism'.
ISRAEL - Judaism - King Josiah's short-lived renewal - During the Exile (586 bce) a new spirituality was developed inspired by the living without the Temple - After the destruction of the Temple (70 ce) Judaism became restructured - based on the Exile-experience - into modern Judaism - Kabbalah focused on answering man's eternal questions about the nature of God abd the universe, and the ultimate destination of mankind - It teaches that theological insights often come from spiritual experiences - The Zohar contains mystical discussions on the nature of God.
EUROPE - Celtic Spirituality - is 'creation centered' - communion with God in nature - Pelagius: there is a 'shaft of divine light' that penetrates the thin veil dividing heaven and earth - versus Augustine's view on original sin - Sufism - religious experience is the only way to verify the reality that lay beyond the reach of the human intellect.
God in traditional theology -
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Notes for Lecture ONE
Introduction - The need of making a distinction between religion and spirituality - the focus on teaching and dogma vs the awareness of the universe that connects us to the 'divine' - Those who can make that distinction will broaden their 'horizons' - The challenge of the new cosmology has had a profound impact on the understanding of the God-concept leading to different 'namings' of God, as Life Force/Giver and Being-for- relatedness - How it can be found in Jesus' Kingdom of God message, that invites to change from 'fear of judgement' to an 'attitude of trust'.
Purpose of the spirituality course - Not tho teach 'how to be spiritual' as if for some reason 'you are not' - It is to enhance the meaning of spirituality leading perhaps to the deepening of the spirituality you possess.
God question/concept - There is a difference in 'knowing about God' and 'knowing God' - We need to update our thinking (concept) about 'the God of the stories' by learning how to 'read' the stories - Insights of Karen Armstrong - 'The religion of the ancients was simple and peaceful. They experienced an 'invisible force within themselves' and 'in everything that they saw, heard, and touched'. - They felt affinity with them - Later comes the appearance of the 'gods' - Their names and purpose - There was a 'sacred order' for the ancients - It was not expressed in images, but rather in 'listening' - The power of the 'spoken word' - The meaning of their sacrifices - Their profound respect for the 'spirit', the life-principle or being - For the ancients sacrifice was always seen as creative - Armstrong points out that the ideas of the ancients was taken over by later generations who diluted the 'vision' of the ancients because they found them too radical - "The sages from of old had an important message for our time, but their insights will be surprising - even shocking - to many who consider themselves religious today. It is frequently assumed, for example, that faith is a matter of believing certain items of the creed. Indeed, it is common to call religious people 'believers', as though assenting to the articles of faith were their chief activity" - The ancients had no interest in 'doctrine' - Some said that was 'distracting' or 'damaging' - Their emphasis was on 'human consciousness', awareness of the core of their being - sometimes called: the 'ultimate reality' - Personal 'experience' was more important to them than 'believing in religious teaching' - What matters was not what you 'believed', but 'how you behaved' - 'respect for the sacred rights of all beings', not 'orthodox belief' - was religion.
Does God have a future? - Armstrong: "Many are unmoved, she says, by the prospect of a life without God - others on the contrary find his absence a positive relief‛ - for them 'it‛s liberating to be rid of the God who terrorized our childhood." - Testimony of the Jew Rubenstein, and of Tillich who called God 'the ground of all being'
An exercise -
