“our society is in the throes of a monumental transition, moving from modernity to post modernity.
“The transition from the modern era to the postmodern era poses a grave challenge to the church in its mission to its own next generation.
“Imbued with the vision of God’s program for the world, we must claim the new postmodern context for Christ by embodying the Christian faith in ways that the new generation can understand”
[All quotations by author ]
Many of my recent writings have focused on God and Religion in a 21st century context. I was pleased when a friend, Dr. Byrd, a long-time tenured faculty member at San Jose State University recently presented me with a book entitled: A Primer On Postmodernism. The author’s name is Stanley J. Grenz.
I scanned the book from end to end while in her presence, and I am currently in the process of reading it through in detail. I was stunned to learn that there was a whole group of us post-moderners out there, individuals that are viewing religion and God in a post-modern context (or simply put in the here and now). Dr. Grenz’s book was written in 1996, and he clearly did his homework.
I believe that we must have a unquestionable Twenty-first Century direct experience with what we call God, just as I pointed out in my prior writings (instead of there being an over reliance on the 2000 year old experiences and writings of our predecessors).
Is it that I don’t believe that what our ancestors reported is completely accurate? Or is the problem that all of the scholarship up to now that purports to explain what took place in the common era is faulty? My answer is that is none of the above.
I believe as I do because we are in the here and now, and I believe that God is in the here and now, therefore what is wrong with finding and dealing with God in the here and now as opposed to trying to understand God based on ancient texts and recantations.
In other words, why shouldn't we simply cut to the chase and go and talk to the source ourselves? Our predecessors claimed to have had several meetings with God, why wouldn't God want to meet with and converse with us in the present?
We need to rid ourselves of all of the mystery and mysticism surrounding God I believe. In other words we should demystify our understanding of God, then once all of the barriers between man and God have been eliminated, we should be able to converse with and deal directly with God on a one to one basis as we create our own experiences with God!
I suspect that God would be pleased to discuss with more enlightened beings ideas, thoughts and dreams that are closer to his, and whose thinking parallels ITS own thinking!
And what are some of the things that we might want to do with or learn from God? I suspect that a meeting with God would reduce everything else to its least common denominator.
Even Nietzche, if he were still alive today could not deny this: God is real to those who believe!
Peace & Grace
Rev. C. Solomon
No comments:
Post a Comment