Monday, February 27, 2023

The Inimitable, Limitless God

My Christian Fellowship group at church has just started reading Karen Armstrong's A CASE FOR GOD.  In her introduction, she states her intent to show through history that humans have always wanted to know more about the transcendent, no matter what it is called or how it is defined. 
To prepare for reading more, I listened to a radio interview Ms. Armstrong gave to NPR in September 2009. This is the final exchange between Terry Gross of "Fresh Air" and Ms. Armstrong:
GROSS: Now, you know, your view of religion isn't that there's a personal God who has some kind of physical manifestation and who can appear to you and speak to you. But some people have - say that they've experienced that manifestation of God. They've had some kind of direct contact or message from God. How do you - how do you process that?
Ms. ARMSTRONG: Far be it for me to decry anybody's religious beliefs or religious experience. And if religion - your experience of God speaking to you or whatever, compels you to live a more compassionate life, then it's doing its job. And if it's filling you with respect and awe for the natural world and for all God's creatures, it's doing its job. What we call God comes to us in many ways. I couldn't make the personal God work for me. But that's not to say it won't work for other people. We all experience the inimitable, limitless God in as many different ways as there are human beings.
Along with the other observations and information Ms. Armstrong shares throughout the interview, this last statement struck deep. After years of exploration, discussion, and prayer, the author describes something of my own perception of Transcendence in our world. What about you?
Listen to the complete interview on the NPR website.

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