Comments on: God’s Self-Understanding

By: roger flyer

roger flyer — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:55:39 +0000

Who’s your mama?

By: kim fabricius

kim fabricius — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:39:57 +0000

No, no, no, Roger: in The Shack the divine pronoun would be feminine. ;)

By: roger flyer

roger flyer — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 19:22:32 +0000

“…Never be deluded into thinking that if you have contrition, if you are sorry for your sins, God will come and forgive you – that he will be touched by your appeal, change his mind about you and forgive you. Not a bit of it. God never changes his mind about you. He is simply in love with you. What he does again and again is change your mind about him…”

Hmmmm…sorry to bust another icon, Kim, but I hear echoes resounding from ‘The Shack’ ;)

By: kim fabricius

kim fabricius — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:16:03 +0000

I’m glad all you guys dig McCabe (and Alison). You should read him (in what I take was a sermon) on “Forgiveness” in Faith within Reason (2007). If I’d happened across McCabe before I ran into Barth, I may well have become a Catholic. “Forgiveness” begins:

“It is very odd that people should think that when we do good God will reward us and when we do evil he will punish us. I mean it is very odd that Christians should think this, that God deals out to us what we deserve. It is not, I suppose, really odd that other people should; I suppose it is the commonest way of thinking of God, for God tends to be just a great projection into the sky of our moral feelings, especially our guilt-feelings. But I don’t believe in God if that’s what he is, and it is very odd that any Christian should, since there is so much in the gospels to tell us differently. You could say that the main theme of the preaching of Jesus is that God isn’t like that at all.

“Take the famous parable of the prodigal son …” – which is just what McCabe then does. Here is the penultimate paragraph:

“Never be deluded into thinking that if you have contrition, if you are sorry for your sins, God will come and forgive you – that he will be touched by your appeal, change his mind about you and forgive you. Not a bit of it. God never changes his mind about you. He is simply in love with you. What he does again and again is change your mind about him. That is why you are sorry. That is what forgiveness is. You are not forgiven because you confess your sin… You don’t come to confession in order to have your sins forgiven. You come to celebrate that your sins are forgiven. You come to put on the best robe and the ring on your finger and the sandals on your feet, and to get drunk out of your mind, because your blindfold and your blindness have gone, and you can see the love God has for you.”

And McCabe concludes: “God is just infinite, unconditional, unalterable, eternal love – and his love is for me and for all sinful people. That is the single statement that we make in the creed.”

McCabe had nothing to learn from Protestants (who themselves often honour it more in the breach than the observance) about the sola gratia. Some Protestants, however, might have a thing or two to learn from McCabe about “get[ting] drunk out of your mind”!

By: Halden

Halden — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:39:39 +0000

Power and Wisdom…

By: roger flyer

roger flyer — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:36:42 +0000

Peace…

By: Halden

Halden — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:12:37 +0000

Grace? (2 Cor 13:13)

By: Halden

Halden — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:58:35 +0000

Yes, I don’t think this language should be set in opposition to the Spirit’s personhood. McCabe clearly believes in orthodox trinitarianism. I think he’s more picking up on the idea of the Holy Spirit as described in Scripture, often in the terms of the agent of joy (cf. Acts 13:52; Rom 14:17, 15:13; Gal 5:22; 1 Thess 1:6).

By: roger flyer

roger flyer — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:58:35 +0000

In this dance, then, Jesus might ‘be’ …?

By: Hill

Hill — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:50:19 +0000

I think if “God” can “be” “love” then it’s at least plausible that “the Holy Spirit” might “be” “joy.”

By: Charlie Collier

Charlie Collier — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:04:07 +0000

Daniel, I can’t even imagine what it’s like to experience something like this in person. Alison’s point about the perverse ecumenism and interfaith unity made possible by fear of gay men and women is astute and troubling. No wonder Girard is theologically attractive to him—the scapegoating mechanism is more than an interesting idea.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 05:13:36 +0000

Maybe it’s just my inexperience with theological writing, but the “limitless joy” business kind of sounds like McCabe is personifying joy rather than recognizing the Holy Spirit as a distinct person of the Trinity. Or is he just saying that the Holy Spirit brings us joy?

By: Daniel Imburgia

Daniel Imburgia — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 04:40:39 +0000

the link to James Alison and the whole quote is worth the time. I was in Israel at about the same time and can affirm his accounting, though it was more violent the year before with many wounded and one killed (an undercover cop it turns out). I would like to add something from further in the essay: “…in this sphere, as in all others, as a brake against our unwillingness to learn by suggesting that if we find ourselves gathering together in the name of God against some group of people, then the chances are we are being idolatrous…” obliged, daniel

By: roger flyer

roger flyer — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 03:57:44 +0000

Ha ha
“Hey, Yous guys. He’s a wise guy.”

By: Eddy

Eddy — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 03:49:26 +0000

“… be human if it kills yous—…” Is God from Scranton?