Lately I've spent a fair amount of time contemplating the ways in which religion serves as a sort of meta-narrative for the universe, a framework for interpretation that gives the world an overall meaning and context. But a potential problem with a perspective like that is that it is possible to give short shrift to the small and everyday things that seemingly pale in significance to the Big Picture. My personal struggles may not amount to much in the overall, sweeping, 14 billion year history of the Cosmos.
One of the things I like about process theology is that it provides a Big Picture without dismissing the mundane. On the contrary, it is a premise of process thought that God actively participates creatively in each and every little event, because the outcome of each such event matters to God. Further, process thought imbues God with a perfect empathy with every subjective experience, such that even the petty issues of my everyday existence, in all their sorrows and joys, are shared by God.
The grand sweep of cosmic history would not matter all that much if our individual experiences were not important. Part of what makes religion important to me is that it rejects the notion of a cold, indifferent universe, in favor of a cosmos that has meaning and purpose.
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5 comments:
Just passing by, but wanted to say that isn't it great to know that God is in every minute thought and instance of our lives. It does, give comfort to come to realized how very important we are in the realm of the unknown.
Enjoyed your post.
I agree. I'm shocked by the evening news saying that 61% of Americans believe in creationism--in a literal way, I would assume. Why can't we have the faith to believe that God is with us at each moment and so was in evolution, too?? It's a mystery and "who knows the mind of God?"
Jan, I agree with you completely.
** My personal struggles may not amount to much in the overall, sweeping, 14 billion year history of the Cosmos.**
There are always two ways of looking at a thought like this: either become really depressed at how "puny" one is, or be very awed/humbled that one is allowed to take part in a cosmos that has already lasted for 14 billion years.
I'm glad you're taking part in the latter.
Further, process thought imbues God with a perfect empathy with every subjective experience, such that even the petty issues of my everyday existence, in all their sorrows and joys, are shared by God.
I make sense of this by adopting panentheism. (The view that God is everything and then some.)
When I think about big thoughts like these I also comfort myself by realizing how primitive we are. A few hundred years ago we started understanding our physical world in a very different way, and that's cool, but surely we haven't mastered it yet.
So, that makes me feel okay about my little half-formed intuitions that we are a part of a greater whole and that notions of before and after are human constructs and God--which is to say everything, including us--is way bigger than we could possibly understand.
In otherwords, we're all guessing about how things really are, so using my gut is okay.
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