God-Talk Then and Now
The Obligation—and Impossibility—of God-Talk
Augustine of Hippo, the great theologian and philosopher of the Christian church from the fifth century, set the tone for any inquiry into the mystery of God. In his celebrated De Trinitate (On the Trinity), the bishop penned:
Further let me ask of my reader, wherever, alike with myself, he is certain, there to go on with me; wherever, alike with myself, he hesitates, there to join with me in inquiring; wherever he recognizes himself to be in error, there to return to me; wherever he recognizes me to be so, there to call me back: so that we may enter together upon the path of charity, and advance towards Him of whom it is said, “Seek His face evermore.” And I would make this pious and safe agreement, in the presence of our Lord God, with all who read my writings . . . because in no other subject is error more dangerous, or inquiry more laborious, or the discovery of truth more profitable.1
As theologians, we are bound to talk about God, not only because theology as talk/speaking (logos) about God (theos) inevitably deals with God, but also primarily because “essential to every religious system is the belief that reality is more than what is perceived, that sensory experience communicates only a superficial appearance of what is really real.” Thus “beneath, underneath or above what we see and hear is a transcendent yet present reality that is suprasensory, supranatural, spiritual, divine, or all of these.”2
We are confronted, therefore, with the obligation to speak of God while at the same time acknowledging the impossibility of that kind of discourse. No one expressed this dilemma more powerfully than Karl Barth, the church father of the twentieth century: “As ministers we ought to speak of God. We are human, however, and so cannot speak of God. We ought therefore to recognize both our obligation and our inability and by that very recognition give God the glory. This is our perplexity.”3
We could, of course, try to avoid this challenge simply by pulling together biblical materials relating to God. Theology, however, by its nature goes beyond the Bible and addresses questions that the Bible does not address (even though the practice of theology involves looking at the biblical materials and assessing to what extent biblical guidelines were honored in the theological discourse). Donald G. Bloesch, the premier late North American evangelical theologian, put the matter in a proper perspective:
In the awesome attempt to define God, theology must do more than simply repeat the mainly figurative language of the biblical narrative. It must also draw upon the conceptual language of philosophy in order to illuminate the mystery of the God who revealed himself in biblical history and most of all in Jesus Christ. The Bible is not a treatise on metaphysics, but its affirmations have ineradicable metaphysical implications. It does not present us with a full-blown ontology, but its depictions of God have an unmistakable ontological cast.4
Thus theology is left with the virtually impossible task of speaking about God. How do we do this at the beginning of the third millennium?
New Horizons for God-Talk
Living as we do at the beginning of a new millennium, we are faced by a most creative paradox. On the one hand, there is no denying the seemingly insurmountable problems associated with talk about God following the Enlightenment and especially the advent of postmodernism. Although belief and faith have not disappeared in the beginning of the third millennium, traditional confidence in the reliability—often even in the meaningfulness—of Christian talk about God is seriously shaken.5 If any discourse is highly suspect, it is certainly talk about God. Add to that the profound challenge coming from religious plurality and interfaith issues: to many it seems impossible to even begin to talk about the one and only God, the true God. On the other hand, ironic as it may sound, there is no denying the fact that toward the end of the second millennium the doctrine of God, in both philosophical theology and systematic theology, has taken on new relevance. Numerous exciting developments are taking place, many of which are highlighted in this book.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Scottish theologian James Orr, in his celebrated Progress of Dogma,6 made the claim that various doctrines were at the forefront of discussion in different times and contexts. Students of the history of theology know that christological and trinitarian debates, coupled with a growing interest in aspects of the doctrine of salvation, took the upper hand during the first centuries. In medieval times, the doctrine of atonement was in vogue. The doctrine of the church lay dormant until the Reformation. Toward the end of the second millennium, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit took on a new significance, so much so that we can even speak of a pneumatological renaissance.7 Along with the interest in the Holy Spirit, desire to know deeper the mystery of the Trinity emerged,8 and—related to that inquiry—a robust search for new insights into the doctrine of God, especially the relationship between God and the world, was initiated.
New proposals for understanding the God-world dynamic were suggested, such as those coming from American process theology and forms of panentheism.9 The boundaries of God-talk began to be challenged by new interpretations ranging from secular to death-of-God to political to—most recently—ecological or green theology. Women joined the discourse about God with the emergence of feminist and other female theologians’ movements. They challenged the sexist, as they saw it, talk about God as “Father.” A growing body of literature from non-Western contexts came into focus beginning in the early 1970s. Latin American liberation theology talked about God in relation to social, political, and economic issues; African theologies rooted God-talk in the culture of ancestors, spirits, and communalism; and Asian interpretations of God took their departure in the mystical, aesthetic, and pluralistic context of Asia. Most recently, a rich and variegated investigation of the relation of the Christian God to deities of other faiths has taken center place. In sum: the doctrine of God is alive and well at the beginning of this millennium!
So here we are in the midst of a most exciting, challenging, perhaps even disturbing renewal of the discourse about God. This book offers a survey—or takes stock—of most of the important developments regarding the doctrine of God. But how do current developments relate to what has come before? In other words, what is the relationship between Christian tradition and current interpretations of God? This question is crucial for the following survey and also guided the selection of materials.
Classical Theism under Attack
In systematic theology, it has become customary to use “classical theism” as a generic term designating traditional approaches to the discourse about God. The meaning of this widely debated term will become evident later in the discussion; for now, a tentative description suffices. Classical theism denotes postbiblical developments of early Christian theology as it sought to express faith in the biblical God with the help of Greco-Roman philosophical categories. These developments reached a peak in the highly philosophical, speculative systems of medieval Scholasticism and were further refined particularly by post-Reformation Protestant orthodoxy.
The picture of God that emerged from that philosophical and speculative gristmill, while suited for the purposes of early apologetic and later speculative philosophical theologies, has, since the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century, come under criticism by a number of theological movements. Complaints have been many: the God of classical theism as an “Unmoved Mover,” while enjoying his own perfect fullness of being, is distanced from the world, unaffected by the happenings of history, unrelated to Christian life (let alone social and political struggles), and so on. Furthermore, say critics from a wide variety of traditions, that kind of God is also far removed from the dynamic, narrative, life-related discourse of the Bible, especially in the Old Testament. Bloesch summarized succinctly the implications to current theology (without necessarily endorsing all of them himself):
Much of the reinterpretation of the doctrine of God can be traced to a rising reaction against classical theism—the legacy of Hellenism that has left an indelible imprint on Christian theology. Here God is depicted as immutable, self-contained, all-sufficient, impassible, supremely detached from the world of pain and suffering. How can this kind of God be reconciled with the biblical God who earnestly cares for his people—even to the extent of taking their pain and guilt upon himself in the incarnation and atoning death of his Son?10
Consequently, the present book has two main purposes: first, to survey interpretations of God throughout Christian history, including the biblical testimonies, and second, to let the classical theistic tradition and its challengers converse with one another. There is a plurality of testimonies concerning God and God’s relationship with humans, beginning from the biblical testimonies; rather than suppressing that plurality, we need to listen carefully to the rich symphony of voices. This survey, therefore, attempts to be comprehensive by including all major interpretations, whether biblical, historical, or contemporary (both mainline and contextual, such as the voices of women and other minorities). It follows the exciting and winding developments of the doctrine of God in Christian theology by highlighting the sometimes radically contrasting views.
A Brief Description of the Book
The plan of the book is as follows. Part 1, “The Texture of Historical Developments,” begins by delving into biblical testimonies concerning God in light of recent scholarship. A lengthier historical survey of diverse interpretations of God linked with classical theism follows. That survey alone should caution the reader not to be fixated on too simplistic a view of the ways that Christian tradition understood God in various times. Whatever classical theism may mean, it never was uniform.
Part 2, “God in Contemporary Theological Interpretations,” discusses contemporary interpretations of God, the primary focus of this book, and is divided into three main sections: European theologies of God, interpretations of God from diverse North American contexts, including the “contextual” ones, and views of God in the Global South (Africa, Asia, and Latin America). During the time when most Christians live outside Europe and North America, it is scandalous that African, Asian, and Latin American theologies are hardly mentioned in textbooks, let alone given a fair treatment. This book considers them not only as interesting additional spices on top of the meat, as it were, but also as key ingredients in the menu of contemporary Christian theologies.
Part 3, “The Christian God among Religions,” concludes the book by opening windows into the world of other religions. It places the Christian doctrine of God in the context of religious plurality and focuses on perceptions and interpretations of the Divine among three living faith traditions: Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. It also attempts some important comparisons in relation to the Christian doctrine of God.
1. Augustine, On the Holy Trinity 1.3.5 (NPNF1 3:19).
2. Ted Peters, God—the World’s Future: Systematic Theology for a Postmodern Era (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1992), 83.
3. Karl Barth, The Word of God and the Word of Man, trans. Douglas Horton (1928; repr., New York: Harper & Brothers, 1957), 186.
4. Donald G. Bloesch, God the Almighty: Power, Wisdom, Holiness, Love (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1995), 31.
5. See Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, Trinity and Revelation, vol. 2 of A Constructive Christian Theology for the Pluralistic World (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2014), chap. 9.
6. James Orr, The Progress of Dogma (1901; repr., Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1952).
7. See Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, Holy Spirit: A Guide to Christian Theology (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2012); Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, ed., Holy Spirit and Salvation: The Sources of Christian Theology (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2010).
8. See Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, The Trinity: Global Perspectives (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2007).
9. Different from pantheism, which virtually equates God with the world, the neologism “pan-en-theism” implies pulling God and the world close together yet maintaining the distinction (to a lesser or greater extent).
10. Bloesch, God the Almighty, 21.