pmd@cbscc.UUCP (Paul Dubuc) (08/16/84)
} }>from Paul Dubuc: }>Even words like }>"parent" and "person" tend to depersonalize God. I think it bends our }>concept of God more toward pantheism for the sake of our own unwillingness }>to accept the fact that the words "man" and "he" can be used in the }>generic sense, in no way giving more actual significance to male humans. }> }>..... }> }>On the other hand, if we call God "it" or "parent" or "person", how }>do we then keep our view of God from degenerating into an impersonal, }>pantheistic, nobody? } }[from Sophie Quigley:] }Even though you've explained this twice, I really don't understand why the }choice of the words "parent" or "person" would depersonalise God. Unlike }"father" which has very loaded connotations, the word "parent" is very }liberating in that one can think about an idealised parental relationship }between the individuals concerned (in this case God and me) without relating }it to the actual father-child relationship as we know it. "parent" encompasses }both the "mother-child" and "father-child" relationships in one word, and is }a fusion of the two separate "father" and "mother" entity which I would hope }God as a parent would be. I find it very nice. I guess I think those terms are more impersonal for the same reason that that I don't call my mother "parent" or my wife "person". Those labels fit, but they also generalize. My mother is a specific person. I don't speak of her as my parent when I want to convey the individual qualities of that person. In another article, it seemed to be Rich Rosen's contention that the image of God as father is just an idealized copy of existing father-child relationships. I think a lot of people who have not known God assume this. But it is only an assumption. As an anology, suppose you lived in a cave all your life and never saw the sun. If I come to visit you we might get to talking about the supposed existance of this "sun" and what it is like. I couldn't just show you the sun (especially if you had no desire to leave the cave) but I could tell you it is like the lamp that I hold in my hand. If you choose to disbelieve my testamony you could always claim that the sun does not exist at all, that the lamp is the reality and the sun only my imagined copy of it (in idealized form). Without any independant criteria there is no way to judge. I give this example only to illustrate that for those who know God there is no real problem with loaded connotations in the term "father". I know the "idealized" relationship and consider my relationship with my human father to be a limited copy of it. Not that my relationship with my father is any less real or important, it's just that I don't view that relationship as the standard by which to judge my relationship with God. Therefore I don't need to escape any connotations in the term "father" by changing it to something else. The parental relationship is one ordained by God in his creation as a model of the God-human relationship. Having said all this, I guess I really don't see any problem with people thinking of God as "parent" if it helps them. I just think that is dealing with the problem from the wrong end. The term seems to open up a void that needs to be filled (with our own idealized concept of God?). Also the idea of calling God "parent" gets carried out in ways that run into more problems than it solves. The attempt to neuter the RSV translation of the Bible is a case in point. The idea can't be applied consistently where our language is concerned. My other article was a suggestion for dealing with the problem in another way (in thought rather than language). }... }But maybe the point is not to find it very nice, at least one gets that }impression listening to fundamental christians sometimes......... That's certainly not my point. But then I don't think I'm a "fundamental" Christian either. I prefer to define my own theological position rather than have others label it for me. -- Paul Dubuc {cbosgd,ihnp4}!cbscc!pmd The true light that enlightens every one was coming into the world... (John 1:9)