I recently picked up this book on the ‘for sale’ table in our local library. Apparently this book, for whatever reason, is being taken out of circulation. Yet, the title caught my attention. I flipped to the opening pages and found the following quotes on pg 2:
When it comes to God, we are all over the place.
God appears to be more and more a reflection of whoever it is that happens to be talking bout God at the moment.
We have a problem with God.
[There’s] the increasing likelihood that two people discussing God are in fact talking about two extraordinarily different realities while using the exact same word.
I have long struggled with the dichotomous teachings of various doctrines by various Christian entities. It just seems that the faith of many typically falls neatly into whether one is, say, Orthodox, Reformed, Catholic, Pentecostal, etc. And, of course, there are lots of Protestant denominations in which there is much variance of belief. And Bell further goes on to state on pg 4, “We are waking up in new ways to the God who’s been here the whole time.” Perhaps so. Maybe in the 21st century there is a greater understanding as to aspects and an understanding of God. Bell in his delineating of various questions pertaining to 1) Faith or intellect?, 2) Belief or reason?, 3) Miracles or logic?, 4) God or science? (pg 22) asks, “Can a person believe in things that violate all the laws of reason and logic and then claim to be reasonable and logical?”
At this point, I pull a $1, plunk it into the box and take this book home for what I think will be a good read and perhaps even a sense of enlightenment and understanding which at present seems lacking as to how I view God and his interactions with his creation.
Sadly, the remainder of the book was disappointing. Bell goes into detail as to the ‘bigness’ of the universe referencing and providing examples as to the massiveness of the galactic universe, black holes, dark matter and dark energy. Then he talks about the smallness of the universe referencing atoms, gluons and quarks and how light is made up of both particles and waves.
But I find it disappointing when Bell somehow squeaks in the statement (pg 44) that, “What we’re learning from science is that [there’s] a distinction [which] isn’t so clear after all. In other words, the line between matter and spirit may not be a line at all.” Later, Bell writes, “An image of God doesn’t contain God, in the same way a word about God or a doctrine or a dogma about God isn’t God; it only points to God.” Bell goes on to write how faith and doubt aren’t opposites as doubt is often a sign that one’s faith has a pulse meaning that that faith is alive and well and searching. Bell writes, (pg92) “Faith and doubt aren’t opposites [but instead] are excellent dance partners.” I gather that Bell isn’t worried as to different people holding different perspectives of the same thing. Unfortunately, I am. I’ve previously referenced “The Views” books in which various Christian doctrines are evaluated by people of different perspectives which I find problematic. And, of course, there’s my favorite regarding the Calvinist vs non-Calvinist divide. At about this point, I lost interest in the book and briefly skimmed the remaining 100+ pages and read through the epilogue in which Bell, I believe, summarizes his book (pg 210), “The same creative bang that formed the universe is unleashed in us through our trust in what God is doing in the world through Jesus. His insistence is that this extraordinary energy in all its diverse and expansive forms is deeply personal and readily available and on our side.”
What’s not clear to me, is for whom did Bell write this book? I sense that those strong in their faith will simply go ‘yeah, yeah, yeah’ to Bell’s outline. And to those questioning their faith, I don’t perceive anything other than broad brush strokes to say, ‘Hey, it’s a big and tiny world and God is in all of it.’ And this, to me, fails to underscore what I think would be the most important elements within Christian faith and doctrines. Wouldn’t this allow adherents to simply engage at their personal comfortableness level? This, I submit, can only lead to a lackadaisical and overly personal approach – a kind of ‘take it leave it’ manner to one’s Christian faith.
In conclusion, I appreciate Bell’s conversational writing style. I sense that this is a book for those strong in their faith and trying to better understand how God is of the cosmos and within the finite. Bell doesn’t delve deeply into doctrinal matters – and perhaps that’s by design. I thought I would garner more information and understanding as to how God works his ways within his creation. But I’m left with same foundational and structural issues to my understanding of Christian faith … or lack thereof. Does God personally involve himself into people here on earth or not? And how can one ascertain whether anything happening at any time to any one is something of God or not?
Martin's Mercurial Musings 