The title of this post might not win me many friends, but that\u2019s OK since I don\u2019t actually have any actual friends. Plus, I\u2019m right.<\/p>\n
Christians talk about how God is\u2014unlike us\u2014constant and doesn\u2019t change. And I think this is a wonderful thought that I don\u2019t have any serious quibbles about (though some theologians do, which is fine, but that\u2019s another topic).<\/p>\n
But although God may not change, how people think about God does. And how people think about God has a lot to do with when and where they were born, their gender, ethnicity, social location, their experiences, etc.<\/p>\n
If I may say, I think that last point is self-evident.<\/p>\n
To anticipate a response: \u201cOK, Enns, fine. But THIS IS WHY WE HAVE THE BIBLE! To keep us focused on what God is really like! To rein in all these different views and stay on track.\u201d<\/p>\n
Which works, until you begin paying close attention to the kinds of things the Bible<\/a> says about God.<\/p>\n Not all biblical writers were on the same page when it came to describing what God is like and what it means to believe in this God.<\/p>\n And the reason why we see these differences is because\u2014just like every other human\u2014biblical writers lived in different times and places, under different circumstances, asking different questions and seeking different answers.<\/p>\n To put it another way, their life experiences led them to think of God and faith differently. That\u2019s why the Bible gives us such varying\u2014even conflicting<\/a>\u2014portraits of God.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why Genesis 1 presents the Creator as something like a distant, up-there, sovereign button pusher who effortlessly made all things \u201cvery good,\u201d but then beginning in chapter 2\u2014as if to keep us on our toes\u2014God seems a lot more human-like.<\/p>\n This God has a Garden he takes walks in. He also created a woman for the man (Adam) but only after seeing that none of the animals would do. A few chapters later in the story of Noah, God is beside himself at how badly things have turned out that he is \u201csorry\u201d and \u201cregrets\u201d ever having created humans. So he drowns them all, except for a salvageable few.<\/p>\n The prototype was flawed. Let\u2019s give it another go.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t a contest. We don\u2019t have to choose. We just need to accept that God is sometimes presented as a transcendent deity and other times as more intimate.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t think that\u2019s a big obstacle to climb over. We actually experience God, too, somewhere on this continuum: distant, absent, up-there, on one end, and with us, in us, by us, at the other.<\/p>\n We can apply that thought to any other of the diverse portraits of God we find in the Old Testament.<\/p>\n How does God feel about the dreaded Assyrians? Depends.<\/p>\n In the book of Nahum, God\u2019s avenging wrath falls upon them and they are wiped out\u2014thus recalling the fall of the capital Nineveh in 612 BCE. \u00a0But flip back two books to Jonah and you see a God who actually cares for the Ninevites, so much so that he sends a very reluctant Jonah to get them to repent.<\/p>\n And\u2014spoiler alert\u2014they do (much to Jonah\u2019s disappointment)!<\/p>\n The Assyrian friendly view of God in Jonah reflects a later time, after the return from Babylonian Exile, where the Judahites learned something about their God\u2014maybe the God of Israel cares for more than just the people of Israel.<\/p>\nI think we already know that diverse portraits of God aren\u2019t really a problem: it matches our experience.<\/h2>\n
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