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A vocational test for atheist clergy.

DOUGLAS TODD [Vancouver Sun] — The trouble is [atheist-Unitarian “minister” Gretta] Vosper and supporters somehow think the “interventionist” God is the only God there is. If you reject their over-simplified understanding of this theology, they argue you have to be an atheist.

Nothing could be further from the way it is. There are many alternative understandings of God, and one umbrella term for them is panentheism.

Panentheism treads a middle path between pantheism (in which nature and God are seen as one) and “interventionist” forms of theism. Panentheism teaches God is both within nature and transcends nature.

plotinusSome great minds have supported panentheism and its variations, such as process theology. They include Friedrich Schelling, Heraclitus, Emily Dickinson, Charles Hartshorne, Ramanuja, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Meister Eckhart, Henri Bergson, Alfred North Whitehead, Jurgen Moltmann, Sallie McFague, John Cobb, Michael Lerner, Marjorie Suchocki [Plotinus, Clement of Alexandria, Gregory Palamas, Bishop Kallistos Ware] and countless others. Many Bible scholars argue Jesus and the apostle Paul were panentheists (that debate is not going to be solved here).

If you are a clergyperson having doubts about the “interventionist” God and don’t know panentheism is an option, you’re not looking very hard.

If you can’t embrace either the so-called interventionist God, or some version of a panentheistic entity, you owe it to yourself and your church (of any denomination) to find a new line of work.


Continued on “Atheist clergy should remove masks” at Vancouver Sun  | More Chronicle & Notices.

 

 

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