tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29128991.post6646699256135280872..comments2023-10-10T09:50:34.565-07:00Comments on Find and Ye Shall Seek: Panentheism and God's relationship to natureMystical Seekerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828225180668865911noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29128991.post-41626163544916154902007-09-25T17:59:00.000-07:002007-09-25T17:59:00.000-07:00**My professor wrote back something to the effect ...**My professor wrote back something to the effect that if we can find Christ in the natural world, why do we need the church? **<BR/><BR/>My first response to this is "We don't." However, it's a hostile response, and I think it's due to the ideas behind this -- that God can only be revealed through these set steps only, and nowhere else. Only we have the correct revelation. Because I do think people need a church in the sense of the community it plays: you can find people on the same journey as you. <BR/><BR/>Heather,<BR/><BR/>** or is God already as revealed as she is going to get, being in everything already--meaning that acts of revelation are impossible?**<BR/><BR/>I think there can be a revelation of God in panentheism. It goes along with what Mike said -- the revelation occurs as our perspective changes. I might look at along the lines of learning calculus. Calculus is always there. It exists whether I'm aware of it or not. However, the more I learn math, the more that calculus is revealed. But it also only happens when I'm ready for it. <BR/><BR/>The difference, though, is that God would be an entity, and calculus isn't really "aware." But it's like an "ah-ha!" moment.OneSmallStephttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08189124855157679020noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29128991.post-42840339317264639652007-09-25T13:20:00.000-07:002007-09-25T13:20:00.000-07:00Interesting question, Heather. I wonder if differ...Interesting question, Heather. I wonder if different varieties of panentheism would answer it differently. I think that process theology, which is panentheistic, views creation as a continuous process rather than a one time event, and so all of creation is always in communication with God at each moment of process. <BR/><BR/>I like what Mike L. said--"what changes is our perspective and our ability to recognize God in 'things'". I think that we, as finite creatures, have only a limited ability to perceive divine revelation at any moment. And if the world is constantly changing, what God calls out to us is perhaps contingent on the state of the world at a given moment.Mystical Seekerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10828225180668865911noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29128991.post-30386939343681963552007-09-25T10:53:00.000-07:002007-09-25T10:53:00.000-07:00Heather,Wouldn't the better question be... "What i...Heather,<BR/><BR/>Wouldn't the better question be... "What is NOT revelation"?.<BR/><BR/>If everything is in God then everything is a revelation of God. What changes is our perspective and our ability to recognize God in "things".<BR/><BR/>It is a human concept to try and imagine that only ideas put in human form, emotions, and language can be a "revelation". Instead of thinking that God is occassionaly sending in signals to us, how about considering that the signals are constant and all consuming and we must learn to recognize (see) God in what we are already experiencing. <BR/><BR/>The traditional view of revelation requires a view of God as something external that must envade our reality. What if God is the actual structure of our reality rather than something outside of it.<BR/><BR/>my 2 cents.Mike L.https://www.blogger.com/profile/15978997781556741350noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29128991.post-84972794110473881142007-09-24T23:59:00.000-07:002007-09-24T23:59:00.000-07:00gorgeous.one question about panentheism:If God is ...gorgeous.<BR/><BR/>one question about panentheism:<BR/>If God is in everything, and already accessible in everything, what's revelation? that is, can God take action to reveal God's self to us? do these acts make God more accessible to us than she was before? or is God already as revealed as she is going to get, being in everything already--meaning that acts of revelation are impossible?<BR/><BR/>or is revelation (as act of God) just a concept that's incompatible with panentheism?Heather W. Reichgotthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04678926165429957396noreply@blogger.com