Is God just laughing at our expense?
Question: Why doesn’t God make things more evident, such as important life and death decisions, or directions to take in life or in ministry. I’m not saying that God would do so with miraculous signs or anything, but why not at some point in the process of trying to figure out the next best step, at least tip his hand a little. Does God enjoy sitting back and watching us screw things up?
Naturally, I’ll start to answer this question with….psychology!
Donald Winnicott (1896-1971) was a British psychoanalyst who researched differing parental styles and their effects on children. To sketch out the points relevant to this cool question, at one end of the parenting spectrum is authoritarian parenting; at the other, attachment parenting.
Children raised in a household with authoritarian parents have little, if any, opportunity to develop their own selves. Instead, they are forced to craft their being according to the parental demands and expectations. The primary parental goal is obedience; when the child is perceived as being disobedient, they are punished. The parent determines everything, e.g., when and on what basis the baby gets fed, gets affection, and gets affirmation. The relationship created is based on fear and/or obligation; less on love and respect. The child conforms into what the parent wants, and develops into what Winnicott named “a false self.”
On the contrary, children raised in a household with parents who invest themselves in attachment parenting are not only allowed, but encouraged, to develop their own identities. They are expected to make mistakes, and are loved in spite of them and through them. The primary parental goal is love, and the relationship created is based on trust and engenders respect and investment in each other’s lives.
Enter Walter Brueggemann, Old Testament theologian, who likes Winnicott. In a fantastic book called Israel’s Praise: Doxology against Idolatry and Ideology, Brueggemann wrote, “I propose that if God is experienced in doxology as always unqualifiedly good, fixed, sovereign, in charge, never acting, never impinged upon, it leads worshippers who are docile, passive, and who finally act in bad faith to please God, whatever they may in fact feel.”
So the upshot is that Bruggemann sees that just as some children learn to appease the parent preemptively, so too do some people of God. That is, out of fear of being damned or punished even in the here and now, people do what they think God wants. Even praise can become “false” because it is based on doing what God demands as opposed to welling up out of thankfulness and trust. Lament is not an option, anger, questioning, dispute unthinkable.
Yet in that process, the children/people of God have little if any ownership of the task at hand, let alone in their relationship to God. They become automatons, puppets, of their parental figure.
Yuck.
Now, I imagine that it is possible that God could have chosen to script our lives for us, or to give us absolute direction.
But would that not have created something like a world of chess, with one player moving “us” inanimate, wooden pieces around?
Or, even if one assumes that the “pieces” can lift up their heads and receive a hint of a nod from the divine player, would the chess piece have real ownership in the move, or take pride in the win?
And in point of fact, one doesn’t know what the best move is until one sees what the next player does…which is impossible until the second player sees how the first moves….or unless we’ve got a player who can see into the future, who knows a plan.
In short, I think that are troubles with hoping for a God-of-the-billboards (and who hasn’t wanted that on occasion….):
1) We could easily become passive participants in life–and even the word “participant” would be called into question, as we would lose ownership in our own choices, waiting for the “dictate” to come from on high;
2) The implications of a God who would give us clues, if not out-right directives, would include a God who then also knew the future…which would imply a God who already had life all laid out…which would also imply that we have no choice, either in small things (do we cross the street at this corner or the one up the block?) or in big things (do I take this job/marry this person/have children).
Of course, this raises the interesting question, ready for another blog….does God know all things? Does God know the future? Or is God on the edge of God’s divine seat too?
3) We would lose out on the dynamism of a living relationship, developing into Winnicott’s and Brueggemann’s “false self.” We don’t know our uniqueness, our own quirks, our own complexity, because we are so busy trying to appease God’s threatening anger and judgment.
4) Sometimes, life is messy. There might not be clear-cut, black and white answers in a given situation. Sometimes no choice is purely good…or purely bad. Sometimes we have to do as Dietrich Bonhoeffer did (German theologian who has been elevated to saint-like status in the Lutheran church–for participating in an assassination attempt against Hitler) and do what we think is best in a messy, messy world, trusting humbly in God’s grace.
What do you think?
I like this. Thanks for this. Just a few more questions that it raises, though.
So if God can’t see the future and is on the edge of God’s chair, then how can that God promise “a new heaven and a new earth” How can this kind of God assure followers of life, wholeness, healing and hope? How can the death and resurrection of the son take into it all things in all times if this God is not also in some way over time and space? Or, even if God isn’t sure how things are going to turn out exactly, isn’t it safe to assume he’s got a better idea tan I do what MIGHT come about? Couldn’t he function like a kindly coach, more experienced, much wiser, and therefore able to help us out with the next best step?
At the end of CS Lewis’ book, “The Great Divorce” is that horrifying scene, which even Lewis agrees is horrifying but which he insists must somehow reflect how God is, the protagonist catches a glimpse of the universe where everything is all figured out in advance. I don’t like it, but then how can we speak of God as Luther does “One who keeps promises” if there are a few things out there, that are really beyond his control. Does he really just promise to do the best he can?
O.K.
Good come back.
I’m going to frame the response mostly in Christian terms, but the Christian terms are steeped in the Jewish tradition, so it will be a response tapping into the Judeo-Christian tradition.
When he wrote about the difference between the ancient Israelite faith and the ancient cultic traditions surrounding it, Jürgen Moltmann observed that there is a difference “between the God of the promise and the gods of the epiphanies.” (Theology of Hope, 43).
I wonder if that is a helpful insight to the conversation here. That is, the initial question had to do with why God doesn’t let us know, even vaguely, about what what we are to do for a given decision.
Moltmann says that both promise and epiphanies (clear made-knowings) are forms of revelation. But promise speaks of the future, and epiphany speaks of the present, immediate moment.
What he’s getting at–from a Christian perspective–is that God grounded God’s promised future in a past event, the effects of which affect our present. That is, the cross and resurrection revealed that God has as God’s ultimate agenda reconciliation, peace, grace, and life that can be stewarded and trusted even now. That claim is announced even where there is fracture, animosity, judgment, and death. So the hope for the future can be stewarded, made manifest, even in the here and now, even when the here and now are rotten. That’s a present epiphany based on a promise.
From a Christian faith perspective, it’s in this way that God promises the vision of “a new heaven and a new earth.” The empty tomb reveals that God’s agenda is not death.
Here, then, is the difference between God’s vision and God’s plan.
God’s vision is about justice and mercy.
God having a plan is a bit iffier, because then we are unsure what falls under the plan (Auschwitz? Cancer? Whether I cross the street at this intersection or the next? Whether I have Bran Buds or Oatmeal? Whether I take this job offer or hold out?).
In short, the notion of God as guide and coach are actually somewhat scriptural, in so far as there we have a fairly clear idea of what God’s vision is…even if we don’t always like it (it’s awfully socially radical, leaving the rich poor, the poor powerful, and all of us obligated to serve and care for each other). We might not know exactly what God desires of us in a certain moment, but we know that God generally summons us to peace and charity and mercy. And when we can’t exactly make out what that looks like in that certain moment, we can “do a Bonhoeffer,” namely do the best we can do, and trust in God’s grace to absolve us when we are wrong.
Karl Rahner, Roman Catholic theologian, speaks of the mysterious God, and that there is no way–even in heaven–that all will be made clear. “Vision means grasping and being grasped by the mystery.” That is, the clearer notion we have of God, the more we appreciate the mystery that is God.
Elizabeth Johnson says that an emphasis on mystery actually suits many modern (or, rather, post-modern) questioners, and she even names it as a relief! “It liberates [seekers] from cramped, confined notions of theism and places their spirit into a relationship where they can soar.” (Quest for the Living God, 38).
Many feminist theologians are all over it too. Johnson takes a look at Latina theologians, and writes that “Rather than a sovereign God who takes care of every problem, like a father or a big brother caring for a helpless little girl who in turn pleases him most by being quiet and dutiful, women emphasized the all-embracing love that liberates them into their own freedom. In this relationship they began to trust their own personal power as a function of womanliness in all its fullness. As Astird Lobo, a scientist and active lay leader in the Catholic Church in India, remarked, ‘no longer do I see God as a rescuer. I see her more as a power and strength within me,’ who calls upon us to use our own resources. God is the creative force…”
There is ambiguity there, one the one hand, but on the other hand there is a clear sense of the center out of which all actions and all thoughts radiate.
Your last question is haunting, however. “Does God really just promise to do the best God can?”
I think we all struggle with why pain, grief, loneliness, suffering, hate, and grief still claim such a hold on our lives.
Jews hold out for the Messiah to come, and Christians hold out for the Messiah to come back. We are both trusting the promise that God holds the future, a future which is promised to be different than the present.
In the meantime, it appears as if God suffers with us (com-passion, to suffer with).
And I heard a great comment some time ago from Lucy Ling at a local conference here. God has done something about pain, and sadness, and suffering.
God has given the world you.
Meanwhile, I’ll send you a dial-a-prayer number. Maybe God will pick up after all.
Just an additional word because I can’t help butting in: might it not be possible that a God who serves the world’s creativity, rather than controlling everything from above and sending us flashing lights to keep us going according to “His” plan, is more powerful and thus better able to keep promises and create a new heaven and earth? Bruce Epperly points out that Jesus said “The one who believes in me will do the works that I do and in fact will do greater works than these.” (John 14:12.) Why would God prefer a zero-sum understanding of reality– God has to have more power and freedom, therefore we must have less? It seems to me that God’s creativity doesn’t have those kinds of limits, and therefore, God is able to use our freedom and creative power to serve God’s continually expanding, infinite creative purposes. There probably isn’t one predetermined “path” for each of us, but a wide variety of possible paths that become unique and singular for each of us as we decide how to embody God’s presence and purpose– but whatever choices we make that shape that path, we remain children of God and co-creators with God. I work with college students and sometimes they are so determined that God’s plan calls them to one thing and nothing else, and they must do what God has predetermined as right– when talents, opportunities, and relationships give them a wealth of possibilities for the future. The ambiguity of having so many possibilities is genuinely a burden, and at times I think we wish God would take the responsibility off our shoulders. But God’s promises, it seems to me, are like the promises of marriage– we don’t know what will happen, but we know we will be a more fruitful and creative pair of people when we make promises freely to each other and create new lives together in love. We know it will be better than if we were not together and not living according to our promises. Yeah, there are wrong choices by intent or by ignorance or even by accident. Yeah, there has to be plenty of forgiveness available for it to work, which is why forgiveness makes keeping promises and the creative life of the world possible.