Spiritual Conversations: Understanding the Cultural Language

by Ron Martoia

The last passage quoted seems very tough to swallow, as does the 2 Peter 1 passage. If there are passages that really point out this first person understanding of God these are two very tough ones to get around. And what is most disquieting about the John 10 passage above, isn’t just that the word “god” was used of humans, but that those being spoken to in the passage are the Pharisees, not Christfollowing, “filled with the Spirit” disciples. While the other passages are presumably aimed at Christians, the most flagrant first person passage isn’t. Looking at the background for Jesus’ Old Testament quotation from Psalm 82 is also interesting. In this Psalm God is distraught because the Jews were not defending the cause of the weak and the fatherless. He calls them ‘gods’ because, having been given the Torah, they should know what is right and act accordingly in their culture, shaping it by principles of justice and righteousness.

LITTLE GODS

And just so this jars you a bit more I want to give you a couple quotes from one of the most often quoted defenders of the Christian faith of the last generation. I want you to hear what he says about this John 10 passage.

Morality is indispensable: but the Divine Life, which gives itself to us and which calls us to be gods, intends for us something in which morality will be swallowed up. We are to be remade. ... we shall find underneath it all a thing we have never yet imagined: a real man, an ageless god, a son of God, strong, radiant, wise, beautiful, and drenched in joy.¹

(God) said that we were ‘gods’ and He is going to make good His words. If we let Him--for we can prevent Him if we choose—He will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or goddess, dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly (though, of course, on a smaller scale) His own boundless power and delight and goodness. The process will be long and in parts very painful; but that is what we are in for.²

Shocked at C.S. Lewis? Many people are quite shocked to realize he has a very developed first person perspective. In our Protestant tradition we have a variety of words or terms we would use to describe this idea Lewis is getting at. We would call this becoming more like Christ, or using the Pauline term of “being conformed to the image of His Son,” or “more of Him, less of me”. The idea of “union with Christ” is in focus. In a wide variety of our Christian traditions including the theology of John Calvin and the Wesley brothers, one of two words often crop up in describing this idea of union, the words are theosis or divinization.³ I quote Lewis here, to help us all see this first person understanding of God isn’t relegated to some far off monks in an Eastern Orthodox Monestary in Siberia. This is a topic that finds lots of outlet and expression in much of our Christian history both ancient and modern.

I think we are reticent to engage a concept like this, and maybe even fearful, because it is risky language. But when we recognize that God wants us to be little gods, then we begin to come to know God in new and fresh ways. In other words a question arises: are we letting our current cultural conditions and fear influence how we read passages of scripture that those in other time periods seemed to see so clearly?

I think the best way for us to safeguard ourselves from the charge of this being too New Agey is to recognize that while we are called to be gods, our god-ness is always derivative and therefore diminutive. This is a critical distinction that prevents putting humanity on the same level as the Triune God but at the same time acknowledges and engages what appears to be the full intent of the biblical material. Whatever it means that we are made imago dei and have the breath of God within us, it is certainly does not mean we are in every way shape and form identical to the Triune God the Creator of the Universe. There is a distinction between Creator and the Created. There is a qualitative and unique difference between the Maker and the Made. As the Created and Made ones, whatever similarities, likenesses, and whatever imago dei fullness we have, is derived from the God who made us. As a result of being derived it means we are less than the Creator. This is the safeguard and clarification of how we can have the first person conversation while allowing the Triune God to remain God and yet at the same time we can be imago dei, little gods, as Jesus says.

Lots of issues could be raised here and lots of material commented on and debated, but here is my hope. Is it possible the imago dei, as the common thread of all human beings, is the best starting point for spiritual conversations because it is something intuitively present? All of the current cultural conversations on spirituality have deep first person god tonality and it seems most people instantly gravitate toward and understand them. Most people ‘get’ they are somehow god, or have God within, or have a seed of the divine.

I am not saying these first person understandings people have about being god or having God within them are entirely accurate understandings. But we are crazy not to wonder what theological basis there might be for this universal sense. And while we may not think people have this first person god thing right, I think we have already demonstrated that many Christians, who are long standing Christ Followers, have very inaccurate views of God being primarily a Judge and have a hard time seeing God as love (I John 4.8 and 4.16). In other words inaccurate first person understandings don’t make more traditional second person understandings automatically more accurate. I think we need to radically rethink and reconsider all possible arenas of inquiry into how we think a journey toward God must proceed. These sorts of “reading the Bible again with a different perspective” exercises require significant humility and a willingness to realize we may not have it all figured out.

GOD IN CREATION

So let’s review. We in the church are more than willing to have the second person, God as Other conversation with people. Our culture isn’t so interested in that, and is quite convinced the church is a pretty judgmental and negative place. So while many remain spiritually interested, the church probably won’t be the primary laboratory for their exploration. Further, culture is having all sorts of conversations about the god within, a sort of first person understanding of God. Those conversations are happening on the national best seller list, day time TV and chat boards across the Net. But the church? Well, we are uncomfortable with that conversation because it is New Age mumbo jumbo and it isn’t the second person God as Other conversation, which is the only one we are familiar with.

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