The love paradox

Love;
You can be an awesome and impregnable fortress,
Yet you are as delicate and easy to crush as the smallest flower.

Panentheism and Christianity

Nearly all major religions have a number of adherents who interpret their spirituality from a panentheistic point of view, and Christianity is no exception. I have a background in Christian evangelicalism, and while I have moved away from evangelicalism, I still see myself as some sort of Christian, albeit a heretical one in the view of many!

The Bible cannot be said to be a panentheist’s handbook but it does provide some elements of panentheistic spirituality. One of my favourite examples of this is Psalm 139, which provides a song of praise to the God who hems us in - whose presence fills every corner of existence. It highlights a crucial difference between panentheism and pantheism – that being the potential for some sort of individual experience with God and that God has a self and has exert able power. Not all panentheists see God in this way; but the philosophy allows the possibility; and it is one that rings true for me.

What is God?

One of my favourite books is ‘Barddas’ – a collection of old Welsh documents which contain something of the spirit and theology of the ancient Celtic people and their druid priests. The druids are often portrayed as worshiping multiple gods – in fact this is probably a misunderstanding. It seems that the druids had a much more subtle grasp of spirituality and embraced panentheism; understanding that ‘God’ is in all things. Different names were given to ‘God’ and something of his or her characteristics were thought to be displayed in the Celtic pantheon. However underlying this multiplicity of gods and goddesses was the understanding that these were in fact multiple faces of the unnameable and unknowable One.

In one passage in Barddas, those being initiated into Bardism or Druidism are asked a series of questions; one of which is as follows:

Q: What is God?
A: The life of all lives.

How inspiring a thought. God is nothing without the lives that make up his being; and we are nothing without the life of God which animates us.

In whom I live and breathe and have my being...

Like the purest and most subtle perfume;
Your presence fills my consciousness.

Ineffable, indescribable;
You are as close as my own soul,
Yet as different and alien as the stars themselves.

In your holy embrace I live and breathe and have my being.
I call out to you and you answer in the echo of my words.

You are Incomprehensible Mystery;
Yet my soul dances with knowledge of you.

You are the one who transcends;
Incarnate in all that is;
Beholden to none.

You cannot be held by our words;
Or by the limits of the human mind.

You are within, beyond, between.
An all embracing reality, without shape or substance.
Haunting presence.
Soul of the Cosmos.