Continuing with a discussion started in my last (and first ever!) blog on the values of my Christian faith tradition, I know there are values in my tradition that are at the core of who I am. “Values” may not be the best word, but principles or ideals that give my life meaning, that shape who I am and how I live in this world as a Christian. It is these values or principles or ideals which I want to uncover. They are the bedrock of the Christian faith and my faith. From this bedrock flows my ministry and path of serving God in the world.
So what are these values? They are those concepts that are central to the Christian faith: the notion of a divine presence, God, who dwells in our midst; Jesus, as son of God, came to live among us manifesting the divine in human form; the Holy Spirit comes to us as grace; and lastly, faith occurs on an individual and community basis. These are the values or principles I will unpack in future blogs. (Are you supposed to allude to future blogs in a present blog? So many questions permeate the blog world for me.) What do I believe about God, Jesus, grace, and Christian unity? And how do my beliefs affect who I am on a daily basis and how I want to minister in the world? In essence, what is my theology?
In one of my graduate school classes at Loyola, we studied David Tracy’s definition of theology. He maintains that the principle sources for theology are 1) common human experience, or fundamental theology; 2) the texts, symbols, stories, rituals, doctrines and belief statements of the religious tradition, or systematic theology; and 3) the revelation of God in the contemporary “acts of the faithful,” or pastoral theology. A particular theology will take into account one’s interpretation of each of these areas, and then set these interpretations in mutual critical correlation. What is your theology?
Who is God?
The first key faith value central to my faith involves exploring an understanding of God. However, attempting to define God is not only ambitious, but impossible. That said, we can turn to several sources to help us get some clues as to who God is. First, scripture helps us know how the people in Ancient Israel and in the early church viewed God. In Ancient Israel, God was not a supreme being or an arbitrary presence out there in the universe somewhere. Rather, God was in relationship with the people of Israel. God was present when Sarah was experiencing barrenness and when the Hebrew people were in slavery or in the desert hungry. In all of these situations, God was directly embedded in the lives of the people. The God of the Old Testament is essentially discovered in lived existence. God is not some static, uninvolved presence, but dynamically involved in people’s lives. God speaks and listens to the Hebrew people. In the next blog entry, I’ll explore this further. (Am I supposed to write that in a blog?!?) Who is God to you? How would you define God?