Rethinking Faith: A Constructive Practical Theology

1: The Forming God

11 I believe in God. I believe that the love and power of God, as revealed by Scripture, tradition, and religious experience, are best described as relational, ambiguous, and resilient. God is radically relational with the world. I understand relationality between God and the world as a process of interaction characterized by asymmetrical mutuality. God and the world are bound together in a web of mutuality that gives identity to each. God, the first person of the Trinity, constantly forms the world in its struggle for existence, meaning, and power. The world, in its responses to God, creates value that both enhances and diminishes the love and power of God. While this interchange is not symmetrical—that is, God’s power and love are the foundation for the love and power of the world—God and humans depend on one another for responses that create identity and value. Who is God and what are God’s intentions for the world? This is the฀question฀of฀the฀fi ฀rst฀person฀of฀ the Trinity. If we understand God as responsible for the direction of the empirical reality of everyday life in partnership with God’s creatures who are free, what can we say about the character of God based on Scripture, theology, and contemporary religious experience? SCRIPTuRE Within Scripture, God is sometimes called Father,1 by which the texts often mean Creator, the one who made the world. In both creation stories that appear in Genesis, God created the world into water, land, ONE The Forming god Who is God and what are God’s intentions for the world? 12 Rethinking Faith plants, animals, persons, and social systems, and God said that it was good.2 As an ancient text, the creation story of Genesis 1 is more compatible ฀with฀modern฀scientific฀explanations฀because฀it฀suggests฀an฀evolutionary and progressive creation of structures from the simple to the more complex. Light and darkness are followed by water, then seas,฀rocks,฀simple฀living฀organisms,฀plants,฀fish,฀animals,฀and฀finally฀ humans. In Genesis 1, God is like an engineer who organizes the world according to principles of science. Genesis 2 offers a more relational and poetic account of creation. God shapes human beings from clay, breathes life into them, and then creates animals and other persons as companions. In this story, God is like a midwife or artist who lovingly creates a world based on interpersonal relationships. In both stories, there is an asymmetrical mutuality between God and the world—God creates a world that operates by certain principles as an expression of God’s basic identity; God is a God who creates; the world is the world because of its covenant with God. Divine and human destinies are tied together. God is angry and disappointed when the world does not฀fulfill฀its฀purpose;฀human฀beings฀are฀angry฀and฀disappointed฀when฀ God is absent and withholds the love and power necessary for humans to thrive. The book of Psalms can be read as a record of conversations between God฀and฀humans฀about฀their฀relationship.฀They฀are฀filled฀with฀love,฀ admiration, praise, gratefulness, affection, and honor as well as hurt, guilt, shame, rage, and destructive thoughts—the full range of human thoughts and emotions. The psalms are often organized into categories such as praise, lament, and petition, although all three functions can be found in many psalms. For example, Psalm 100 is often taught to children because it contains strong praise images without any negative human feelings: “Enter his gates with thanksgiving, . . . for the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.” Walter Brueggemann calls these “psalms of orientation”3 —praise for the goodness of God during times when particular human communities are stable and secure. Many Christian parents want their children to love God unreservedly and give God praise for the goodness of our lives together. It is a premise of Christian education that the church should establish a positive image of God early in life so that children and new Christians have a foundation to return to when they face challenges in life. The Forming god 13 Psalms of lament express the pain of the human community in times of tragedy and oppression. Sometimes lament takes the form of rage at enemies and calls for God’s revenge on them. One of the harshest is Psalm 137:8: “Doomed Babylon, be cursed! Good for those...