Michelangelo and William Blake were right about God.
From a Biblical perspective the nature of God is seen as reflected in aspects of the created order. Yes, God to a certain degree does have the nature of space, wind, emptiness, mist, air, sky, force, energy, light, darkness so congenial to Buddhist/Hindu/New Age types. However humans as being made in the image of God, are the best representation of what God is like – especially a human at their highest development, a mature, wise, good, vital 50+ man or woman. I knew a dynamic, spiritual woman in her late sixties, another one in her eighties. They both reminded me of a female God the Father carrying personal authority.
To me saying God is NOT like a man – Our Father in Heaven - is dumbing God down, making God less than what he is, flattening the divine out, a less than human gas. In a true sense since humans are made in the divine image, humaness is intrinsic to God, God is even MORE human than we are, as our humanity is but an image of that which is being imaged. though divine humanity is an infinite multidimensional cube compared to our simple flat squares. God is even more perfectly human than us who are echoes, a flatter image of him.
There is much wisdom and truth in Michelangelo’s and William Blake’s depictions of God as a dynamic, active, wise older man. Far from being simplifications of God they point to his personal depth, his danger, his joy and love and perfect humanness and the familiarity and commonality we encounter when we meet him for he is like us for we are patterned after him. I realize and respect that in Orthodox Iconography depiction of the Father is frowned upon)
I had the blessing since earliest childhood of a deep immersion in the natural world including an agrarian upbringing in a beautiful part of the American Midwest and subsequently in beautiful parts of California. It has included what can be seen as animistic and esoteric experiences. The creation has been often deeply wonderful and life giving in a transient way but it didn’t give me something Jesus spoke of “but whoever drinks the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” A source of inner life available from God and not found in the creation.
In all this talk of a wild Christianity I see no talk of the wild spiritual life of Jesus had with God the Father. A wild life we can also have as being fellow sons of God filled with the Holy Spirit – John 1:12, Galatians 3:26, 4:6. A wild Christianity with the Father because it is empowered by the Holy Spirit doesn’t need nature immersion to happen, though having the privilege of nature immersion I suppose may be a useful adjunct for many. After all when Jesus gave prayer instructions in Matthew 6 he said to close the door to your room!, not to go forest bathing.
When you look at the actual spirituality espoused by Jesus and practiced by him in the Gospels it is utterly unfashionable by those who look to non-dual awareness, and “Christ Consciousness” "ground of being” as the ticket. No, nothing as ethereal as that! A Father in heaven, “pray to your Father who is there unseen”. Jesus was by no means ashamed of the old man and talked about and to him a whole lot. God speaking in an audible voice, expectation of specific even miraculous answers to prayer, lifting eyes in prayer, a robust intensely personal God the Father that isn’t you, but you can know, and directly know his love for you as an individual.
Jesus on the cross cried out “My God, my God why have you forsaken me” far from being a cry of abandonment it was act of teaching and prophetic proclamation – which was a part of his job at the time, it was a quote from the first line of Psalm 22 which contains prophecy of what was happening at the moment, and was a statement of deep faith and knowing.
I could go on and on with more examples from all over the Bible of this wonderful dualistic experience of the Living God. The Father made us as individual humans and intends to keep us that way. This is all very childlike as Jesus says we are to be. I know vigorous attempts have been made to squeeze this childlike knowing of the Father and the Biblical record into a new orthodoxy of a “wiser” quasi-Buddhism. The final state presented as the ultimate is us embodied as individual humans even as Jesus is now, in the presence of God, in a new physical creation of multiplicity, filled with the Holy Spirit, not generic vanilla pudding non-duality. Sounds like fun to me, which all children delight in.
By William Blake - we shall hear his voice.
Saying: come out from the grove my love & care,
And round my golden tent like lambs rejoice. . . . . . And round the tent of God like lambs we joy . . .
This is a very good and thoughtful post with a subtle theological understanding. Our ability to perceive the logoi of things, the spoken into beingness of the Cosmos, is a wonderful grace.
It's the same text. I was frustrated that it has been out of print for ages, so I found a PDF and began editing it on the basis of the Serbian original.
I gave away “Orthodox Spirituality” by Dimitru Staniloae only to discover that it is out of print. ✨ Hopefully we meet up in the beyond to compare our notes with the reality of the Δόξα!
Q: Are you referencing, "The Universe as Symbol and Sign" by Saint Nikolai? ( I gave my copy away several years ago and can't verify your quotes) 📝📚 Do you have a Bibliography or Footnotes?
Michelangelo and William Blake were right about God.
From a Biblical perspective the nature of God is seen as reflected in aspects of the created order. Yes, God to a certain degree does have the nature of space, wind, emptiness, mist, air, sky, force, energy, light, darkness so congenial to Buddhist/Hindu/New Age types. However humans as being made in the image of God, are the best representation of what God is like – especially a human at their highest development, a mature, wise, good, vital 50+ man or woman. I knew a dynamic, spiritual woman in her late sixties, another one in her eighties. They both reminded me of a female God the Father carrying personal authority.
To me saying God is NOT like a man – Our Father in Heaven - is dumbing God down, making God less than what he is, flattening the divine out, a less than human gas. In a true sense since humans are made in the divine image, humaness is intrinsic to God, God is even MORE human than we are, as our humanity is but an image of that which is being imaged. though divine humanity is an infinite multidimensional cube compared to our simple flat squares. God is even more perfectly human than us who are echoes, a flatter image of him.
There is much wisdom and truth in Michelangelo’s and William Blake’s depictions of God as a dynamic, active, wise older man. Far from being simplifications of God they point to his personal depth, his danger, his joy and love and perfect humanness and the familiarity and commonality we encounter when we meet him for he is like us for we are patterned after him. I realize and respect that in Orthodox Iconography depiction of the Father is frowned upon)
I had the blessing since earliest childhood of a deep immersion in the natural world including an agrarian upbringing in a beautiful part of the American Midwest and subsequently in beautiful parts of California. It has included what can be seen as animistic and esoteric experiences. The creation has been often deeply wonderful and life giving in a transient way but it didn’t give me something Jesus spoke of “but whoever drinks the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” A source of inner life available from God and not found in the creation.
In all this talk of a wild Christianity I see no talk of the wild spiritual life of Jesus had with God the Father. A wild life we can also have as being fellow sons of God filled with the Holy Spirit – John 1:12, Galatians 3:26, 4:6. A wild Christianity with the Father because it is empowered by the Holy Spirit doesn’t need nature immersion to happen, though having the privilege of nature immersion I suppose may be a useful adjunct for many. After all when Jesus gave prayer instructions in Matthew 6 he said to close the door to your room!, not to go forest bathing.
When you look at the actual spirituality espoused by Jesus and practiced by him in the Gospels it is utterly unfashionable by those who look to non-dual awareness, and “Christ Consciousness” "ground of being” as the ticket. No, nothing as ethereal as that! A Father in heaven, “pray to your Father who is there unseen”. Jesus was by no means ashamed of the old man and talked about and to him a whole lot. God speaking in an audible voice, expectation of specific even miraculous answers to prayer, lifting eyes in prayer, a robust intensely personal God the Father that isn’t you, but you can know, and directly know his love for you as an individual.
Jesus on the cross cried out “My God, my God why have you forsaken me” far from being a cry of abandonment it was act of teaching and prophetic proclamation – which was a part of his job at the time, it was a quote from the first line of Psalm 22 which contains prophecy of what was happening at the moment, and was a statement of deep faith and knowing.
I could go on and on with more examples from all over the Bible of this wonderful dualistic experience of the Living God. The Father made us as individual humans and intends to keep us that way. This is all very childlike as Jesus says we are to be. I know vigorous attempts have been made to squeeze this childlike knowing of the Father and the Biblical record into a new orthodoxy of a “wiser” quasi-Buddhism. The final state presented as the ultimate is us embodied as individual humans even as Jesus is now, in the presence of God, in a new physical creation of multiplicity, filled with the Holy Spirit, not generic vanilla pudding non-duality. Sounds like fun to me, which all children delight in.
By William Blake - we shall hear his voice.
Saying: come out from the grove my love & care,
And round my golden tent like lambs rejoice. . . . . . And round the tent of God like lambs we joy . . .
To lean in joy upon our Father’s knee.
......so yer say’n there's a chance!
Saint Nikolai Velimirovic of Ohrid and Zica, pray for us!
This is a very good and thoughtful post with a subtle theological understanding. Our ability to perceive the logoi of things, the spoken into beingness of the Cosmos, is a wonderful grace.
Are you familiar with this essay?
https://photos.app.goo.gl/jxrcDpPv5UM2cXnk7
It's the same text. I was frustrated that it has been out of print for ages, so I found a PDF and began editing it on the basis of the Serbian original.
Outstanding
Thank you.
I gave away “Orthodox Spirituality” by Dimitru Staniloae only to discover that it is out of print. ✨ Hopefully we meet up in the beyond to compare our notes with the reality of the Δόξα!
Grace and peace to you Amigo!
C.S. Lewis says the only books we’ll have in heaven are the ones we lent out and never got back!
Q: Are you referencing, "The Universe as Symbol and Sign" by Saint Nikolai? ( I gave my copy away several years ago and can't verify your quotes) 📝📚 Do you have a Bibliography or Footnotes?