{"id":657170,"date":"2018-05-04T14:49:30","date_gmt":"2018-05-04T19:49:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/andygill\/?p=657170"},"modified":"2018-05-04T14:55:38","modified_gmt":"2018-05-04T19:55:38","slug":"what-we-think-about-when-we-think-about-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andygill\/what-we-think-about-when-we-think-about-god\/","title":{"rendered":"What We Think About When We Think About God…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/p>\n

Written By Jonah Venegas<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cUnderstanding these ways in which we use metaphors and descriptors to think about God is necessary, because our own inner constructs of who God is affects everything else about the way we do faith, the way we live our lives, and the way we relate to other people, other people who are all also made in the image of God, the imago Dei<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n

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There are quite a few different metaphors we use to conceptualize God these days. Some of them come directly from the Bible. Some we learn growing up in school or in church. And some we learn to create ourselves based on our own experiences of God. These metaphors are important, because if you believe the Christian God is as big and expansive and infinite as many would claim that God is, then it would seem impossible to be able to identify God with a single descriptor in human language and expect that to fully encapsulate who God is. It would be like trying to look at a 360-degree panoramic landscape, choosing the one fraction of it you can see in that moment, and saying that piece of the picture defines its entirety. But so often, this is how we relate to God.<\/p>\n

We choose one facet of God\u2019s character to emphasize and erase the rest of God\u2019s infinity in the process\u2026<\/b><\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

We choose one facet of God\u2019s character to emphasize and erase the rest of God\u2019s infinity in the process\u2026<\/b><\/h2>\n

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Then in our eyes, God becomes only wrath, only a judge, only a conqueror, and all the other aspects of God that make God who God is are lost, because we don\u2019t have any more room in our field of vision to see the rest of who God is. These condensations of God\u2019s character into just one or two things ultimately reduce God to a lesser form of who God really is, at least in our minds, and I might even daresay that it\u2019s idolatrous.<\/p>\n

If you think about it, that\u2019s how all the mythological gods of ancient Rome and Greece were regularly portrayed, as being simplistic and one dimensional, wholly different from the Christian God many claim is infinite and bigger than any of the pagan gods, where Hermes was the trickster, Artemis was the warrior, and Athena was the wise.<\/p>\n

Perhaps this was because, similarly with today, it was difficult to conceptualize a single being that could be all things, as we as Christians claim to believe.<\/p>\n

Perhaps this was the reason for the Greek pantheon of gods, because it was easier to understand the existence of discrete, individual gods who only had their one temperament or one role to play.<\/p>\n

And perhaps, to a certain degree, this is the reason that a common rebuttal among Christians who don\u2019t agree with one another is that they believe in \u201ca different God,\u201d simply because they happen to see God in a different light.<\/p>\n

Perhaps that phrase means that the other doesn\u2019t see God as being loving enough or disciplinarian enough or angry enough, but one of the quickest critiques is the assumption the other person doesn\u2019t believe in the same God due to their disagreement.<\/p>\n

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But perhaps they aren\u2019t looking at different Gods, but rather different facets of the same God they\u2019ve chosen to emphasize, because again, it would be foolish to think our human minds can perfectly comprehend the wholeness of God all at once.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

So, by necessity, we as humans need to emphasize one part of the character of God at a time in order to have some semblance of a grasp of who God is. And the part we emphasize or the metaphors we use to understand the different aspects of God will requisitely influence everything forthcoming from the lens and angle through which we view God.<\/p>\n

This is why the vantage point from which we view God is so powerful\u2026<\/b><\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

God as a Judge or God as a Caregiver?<\/b><\/h2>\n

\"how-jesus-became-god-andy-gill-patheos1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Naturally then, if you view God as being primarily loving and primarily caring, that vantage point will inherently impact the way you relate to the rest of the world.<\/b><\/p>\n

You will see God as a parental figure in relation to yourself and the world, which will change the behavior and actions you expect from God. The same will be true if you view God as being primarily a judge of character and deeds. From that perspective, you will tend to understand and relate to God in a more legalistic way that is defined by harder and faster boundaries and stricter rules, because parents and judges intrinsically perform different roles. That\u2019s not to say that judges cannot be parents and vice versa, but it does mean that people will conduct themselves differently and hold different expectations depending on the role that person is performing in relation to them, and perhaps it also means that there are certain ways of relating to God that are more helpful to us as humans than others.<\/p>\n

This is why the vantage point from which we view God is so powerful. <\/b><\/p>\n

Not only do inappropriate ways of relating to God toxify our own relationship with the Divine, but if God really is the multifaceted, complex, infinite being that we as Christians claim God is, then I have to believe that our insistence on relating to God in a cold, formal manner from a distance causes God grief as well.<\/p>\n

A common clich\u00e9 within the church is the saying that \u201cChristianity should be a relationship [with God], not a religion,\u201d but that doesn\u2019t work unless we allow ourselves to relate to God in a manner that\u2019s more consistent with a relationship than a religion, and that all starts with how we conceptualize who God is.<\/p>\n

Understanding these ways in which we use metaphors and descriptors to think about God is necessary, because our own inner constructs of who God is affects everything else about the way we do faith, the way we live our lives, and the way we relate to other people, other people who are all also made in the image of God, the imago Dei<\/i>. According to the sociological theory of symbolic-interactionism, which has heavily influenced the entirety of the subfield of sociolinguistics, language is the source of all meaning. We have no meaning without language, because we talk about things with language, we relate to each other with language, and we even think and conceptualize the smallest of things with language. The naturality and fluency with which all humans acquire and use language is arguably one of the starkest differences between us and the rest of Creation, and God is even described as The Word, otherwise known as language. This is why the words we use matter. This is why the meanings and roles we ascribe to God matter. Because they all carry nuance and connotations that influence the way we perceive them immediately, without even realizing it, and because God created just by speaking.<\/p>\n

And I believe we can continue to create an ever expanding, more holistic relationship with God and an ever widening, more inclusive faith if we\u2019re able to stretch ourselves and push ourselves to see bigger glimpses of who God really is, because of all the metaphors and all the descriptors used throughout the ages and throughout the pages of the Bible, there are few instances in which it is actually stated that God is<\/i> something, and two of those include stating that God is love and that Jesus is not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses.<\/p>\n

\n

Written by Jonah Venegas\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Jonah is a queer Asian Christian, poet, blogger, and seminarian with a background in linguistics, currently working on an M.A. in Clinical Marriage and Family Therapy. He hopes to work with LGBTQ+ individuals and their families in the future, and he likes to write about the intersections of spirituality, sexuality, mental health, how to change the world, and whatever anime happens to be occupying his head space at the moment. He loves a good cup of green jasmine tea, androgynous outfits, and dry humor. Jonah currently blogs over at\u00a0www.jonah-ven.com<\/a>. You could find him on Twitter<\/a>, Facebook<\/a> or Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

[Until next time, hit me up on\u00a0Facebook<\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0to follow along with future content of mine]<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

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Written By Jonah Venegas \u201cUnderstanding these ways in which we use metaphors and descriptors to think about God is necessary, because our own inner constructs of who God is affects everything else about the way we do faith, the way we live our lives, and the way we relate to other people, other people who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2493,"featured_media":657185,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,19,16,11,39],"tags":[38,830,836,839,833],"class_list":["post-657170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christian","category-church","category-culture","category-guest-post","category-theology","tag-god","tag-jonah-venegas","tag-what-we-think-about-when-we-think-about-god","tag-who-is-god","tag-who-we-think-god-is-impacts-how-we-do-faith"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat We Think About When We Think About God...<\/title>\n<meta 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