Chapter One - Severity and God
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2013
Summary
The Lord your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God.
(Deut. 4:24, NRSV; cf. Heb. 12:29)When we have seen God as Christ saw Him, as One who is infinitely austere in His demands on Himself for our sakes, One in whose heart is the final self-surrender which we see in the Cross, then to give all, if necessary, for Him will not merely seem a reasonable demand … but a joy and an opportunity which we would not miss.
(Farmer 1939, p. 54)Talk of “divine severity” calls, of course, for a conception of the divine, or of God. It also would be helpful to have some sense of God’s purposes, if God exists, in relating to humans and the severity in their lives. This chapter offers some illumination on these fronts, in order to suggest how divine severity can fit with the perfect goodness of a God worthy of worship.
God and Grace
Worthiness of worship
Setting the bar high, indeed as high as possible, we will approach the term “God” as a supreme title of personal perfection rather than a proper name. (We can always lower the bar if our overall evidence calls for this.) Likewise, some variants of monotheism suggest that the term “God” is a normative title requiring worthiness of worship. Given such a title, no mere potentate who dominates over all others will qualify as God. Something beyond domination is needed, because worthiness of worship is needed. Such worthiness is normative, not merely descriptive, and therefore does not support the false claim that “might makes right.” According to this view, “God” is not God’s name, because the term “God” is a normative title. A title can be meaningful but lack a titleholder. In talking about God, then, we can give a fair hearing to proponents of atheism and agnosticism without begging questions against them or otherwise dismissing them.
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- The Severity of GodReligion and Philosophy Reconceived, pp. 11 - 53Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2013