Omnipotence Paradox: What’s the Real Question?

In Divinity School, it became clear early on that I’m much more a pastor than a theologian.  Yes, in part, it’s because of the dim, flickering bulb of my brain.  But it’s also that I was drawn to ponder the questions under the questions.

When someone asks about the efficacy of prayer, maybe it’s to develop a theoretical framework linking concept to practice.  But maybe it’s that a grandmother is in the hospital, or a marriage has started to unravel.

An ancient theological question goes, “Can God make a stone that God cannot lift?”  It’s the “omnipotence paradox.”  There are ways to engage this question theologically–and I think it’s a worthy endeavor.  At the same time, underneath the theological question just might be a yearning heart that’s been bruised.

Want to hear me ramble a little about it?  Here’s a video!

Jake Morrill is minister of the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church.  He is a student in the Post-Graduate Program at the Bowen Center for the Study of the Family.  Twice a year, in East Tennessee, he hosts a training to help clergy apply systems thinking to their ministries.