Sunday, May 20, 2018

God daar bo in die hemel? Oor ons waanbeelde vir en van God

Wright skryf onlangs 'n stuk oor Jesus wat die volgende opmerkings insluit:


For seven years I was College Chaplain and Worcester College, Oxford.  Each year I used to see the first year undergraduates individually for a few minutes, to welcome them to the college and make a first acquaintance.  Most were happy to meet me; but many commented, often with slight embarrassment, “You won’t be seeing much of me; you see, I don’t believe in god.”
I developed stock response: “Oh, that’s interesting; which god is it you don’t believe in?” 

This used to surprise them; they mostly regarded the word “God” as a univocal, always meaning the same thing.  So they would stumble out a few phrases about the god they said they did not believe in: a being who lived up the in the sky, looking down disapprovingly at the world, occasionally “intervening” to do miracles, sending bad people to hell while allowing good people to share his heaven.  Again, I had a stock response for this very common statement of “spy-in-the-sky” theology: “Well, I’m not surprised you don’t believe in that god.  I don’t believe in that god either.”
At this point the undergraduate would look startled.  Then, perhaps, a faint look of recognition; it was sometimes rumored that half the college chaplains at Oxford were atheists.  “No,” I would say; “I believe in the god I see revealed in Jesus of Nazareth.”  What most people mean by “god” in late-modern western culture simply is not the mainstream Christian meaning.

Wright lig hiermee uit met watter disfunksionele, slegte Godsbeeld geloofsgemeensappe gevoed is.

Die res van sy stuk spel uitgebreid sy eie Godsbeeld uit: wie uiteindelik Jesus se lewe en werk bekyk, sal 'n God sien wat nie net vir die mensdom omgee nie, maar wat passievol, liefdevol en met oorgawe 'n verhouding met mense aanknoop.

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