Perspective: Inside-Out Theology

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Inside-Out Theology

Where could I go to get away from your spirit?

Where could I go to escape your presence?

If I went up to heaven, you would be there.

If I went down to the grave, you would be there too!

If I could fly on the wings of dawn,

stopping to rest only on the far side of the ocean -

even there your hand would guide me;

even there your strong hand would hold me tight!

Psalm 139:7-10 (CEB)

I can feel You all around me

Thickening the air I'm breathing

Holding on to what I'm feeling

Savoring this heart that's healing

From "All Around Me" by Flyleaf

St. Paul, perhaps the greatest missionary of the early Church, once found himself in the Greek city of Athens.  He saw, throughout the city, many idols, altars, and other objects of worship, and, given his background as a devout Jew who believed that there is only one true God, the sight was a shock to his system.  Somewhere in the city, he noticed an altar dedicated "to an unknown god."  The Athenians, who loved to hear novel teachings, took Paul to a site called Mars Hill, and there he sought to make known to them the God they did not previously know, the God revealed to humanity in Jesus Christ.¹

According to Paul, God is the creator of all things and is sovereign over the entire universe.  This Lord and Creator is not confined to any human-built shrine or temple.  Unlike idols, God is not dependent on humans; instead, it is humans who are dependent on God.  All the peoples of the world have searched for God and have reached for God, but God is not far from anyone.²

Paul described God to the Athenians, saying, "For 'In him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we too are his offspring.'"³

Paul came from a staunchly Jewish background, but he had come believe in a God who transcends culture and even religion.  When he told the Athenians about the God he worshiped, he did not speak solely from his own frame of reference.  Paul saw no need to try to convert people to his own religion.  He did not begin with the basics of the Jewish faith and then move on to various prophecies that point to a Messiah, as we might expect.  Instead, Paul spoke to the Greeks on their own terms, even drawing from their own insights about God.

In Paul's religion, one of the Ten Commandments forbids the creation of any images or representations of God.  Another forbids the misuse of God's name.⁴  The name of God was believed to be so holy that it was rarely spoken, and, to this day, people can only theorize about how the name is properly pronounced.  The very fact that there was in Athens a altar dedicated "to an unknown god" proves that the people there already had inklings of a God who could not be represented with an idol, who could not be named, and who is ultimately beyond their comprehension.

Interestingly, Paul used the words of pagan Greek thinkers to describe God.  The idea that in God "we live and move and have our being" was taken from the poem Cretica by the philosopher Epimenides.⁵  The idea that we humans are the offspring of God was taken from the work Phenomena by the poet Aratus.⁶  These Greek thinkers attributed these concepts of the divine to the Greek deity Zeus.  Though Paul did not believe in a god like Zeus, he could see that the Greeks understood something about the divine.  They understood that the divine is omnipresent and that, as human beings, we are children of the divine.

Note that Paul used these quotations descriptively and not prescriptively.  In other words, he was speaking about what is and not what should be.  Paul did not tell his audience that they ought to live, move, and exist in God, but that they already live, move, and exist in God, even though they might not realize it.  He did not tell them that they should aspire to become like children of God but that they already were children of God.

I think that what St. Paul said about God can be surprising if we are truly take it in.  We have a tendency to locate God: we talk about God as if God is to be found in some places but not in others.  We often look for God in certain things like sacred spaces, holy books, religious institutions, and spiritual leaders.  Some say that God is in all things.  If what Paul said to the Athenians is true, then all such God talk is actually backwards - or maybe a better word would be inside-out.  Perhaps God is not one who can be confined or located.  Perhaps God is not in anything or anyone.  Perhaps, in some way, everyone and everything exists, as Paul says, in God.⁷

So often we think that missionaries like Paul "bring" God to people who do not know God, but Paul knew better than that.  He knew that his purpose in life was not to "bring" God to people but rather to reveal to people the God who was already in their midst - the God in whom they already lived, moved, and existed.

Doug Pagitt writes in his book Flipped,
Most religious structures have a lot to gain by seeing God as being distinct from all of creation.  By characterizing God as the divine entity on the far side of a chasm, the religion can then offer a way to bridge the gap.⁸
Religion does not permit or regulate our access to God, for we are all swimming like fish in a sea of God.  Religion, at its best, brings us to an awareness of this truth and teaches us how best to live in light of this truth.

One thousand years before the time of Paul, the Jewish king and poet David wondered if there was anywhere he could possibly go to get away from God.  He concluded that, no matter where he went, he would always be in the presence of God and would always be in a state of dependence on God.  God is like the air we breathe.  We are always surrounded by it, and our very existence depends on it, but very rarely are we actually aware of it.  May we open our eyes to see that, in the words of Rob Bell, "We live... in a world drenched in God."⁹  May we realize that God is not bound by our understanding of God, for God is greater than anything we could possibly conceive.


Notes:

1. Acts 17:16-23
2. Acts 17:24-27
3. Acts 17:28
4. Exodus 20:4-7
5. Wikipedia: Epimenides
6. Wikipedia: Aratus
7. Doug Pagitt writes at great length about this idea in his book Flipped: The Provocative Truth That Changes Everything We Know About God.  2015, Convergent Books.
8. Pagitt, pp. 37-38
9. Rob Bell.  NOOMA Trees | 003.  2002, Zondervan/Flannel.

The painting of St. Paul preaching in Athens was painted by Raphael in 1515.  The photograph of the altar was taken by Wikimedia user Shii and has been released to the public domain.  The photographer is in no way affiliated with this blog.