OldSoul.blog

I’ve read books by Spong, Borg, Crossan, Rollins and others, but it never occurred to me that they might be labelled as ‘Christian atheists’, which is what Wikipedia does in its article under that heading.^[i]  In fact, I wasn’t even aware that Christian atheism was a thing until I came across the term in an article by Jim Palmer (Center for Non-Religious Spirituality) titled Jesus and Buddha Walk Into a Bar (if that sounds like the opening line of a joke, it is – read on for the punchline!).  Palmer’s article, was, at least in part, about the commonalities in the teachings of Jesus and the Buddha, including their debunking of the religious falsehood of separation from God.  In that context, he asserts that it is possible, perhaps even preferable, to follow the teachings of Jesus without belief in an external, all-powerful deity.  Hence, Christian atheism.  While my mind said ‘Yes’ my heart said ‘But …’, so I decided to explore the concept further.

Classically, atheism is defined as ‘the belief that no god or gods exist.’  So, the Christian atheist is apparently one who affirms the teaching of Jesus but denies the existence of any god or gods.  That’s an interesting proposition.  My reading of Spong, Borg, Crossan, Rollins, et al does not leave me thinking they deny the reality of God, rather that they invite us into a new or different understanding of God.  In general, I think what the vast majority of those who identify as atheist are rejecting is the concept of God as an external being or force that ‘intervenes’ in the processes of life and creation.  That this image of God persists in our culture is exemplified in the continued labelling of natural disasters as ‘acts of God’.  But surely most people of faith have long shed the concept of a physical supreme male sky-god.  And many of us have also let go of the notion that God is an external power or force that acts on creation?  Shedding those traditional understandings, however, ought not imply that we have abandoned belief in the possibility or reality of any god.  Surely there a space short of atheism for new understandings and perceptions of that which we may continue to call God. 

I’ll explore what I think that might look like in a moment, but I promised you the joke, so here it is:

Jesus and Buddha walk into a bar. The bartender says, “What will it be fellas?”  Jesus says, “Give us two Whiskey Highballs.”  “Coming up,” says the bartender.  He brings the drinks and says, “That will be $20.85.”  The Buddha pulls out a $20 note and hands it to him.  The bartender says, “What about the change?”  Jesus and Buddha look at each other and say, “Change comes from within.”

Well, I think that’s clever!  It also points to a possible resolution of our ‘image of God’ conundrum.  Instead of hanging on to the antiquated and scientifically unreasonable image of a God who is beyond us, who is external to us, who ‘resides’ somewhere out there, we might listen to Jesus when he proclaims the wonderful mystery that, all this time, God has been within us, part of our make-up, of our essence.  Is this not what Jesus was pointing to when he said, ‘I and the Father are one’ and ‘where I am there you will be also’?  As Palmer asserts, one of the primary intentions of the teaching of Jesus was to debunk the religious falsehood of separation from God.

That, I believe, is the essence of the teaching of Jesus: not that God is ‘somewhere out there’, or that God is so holy that God couldn’t possibly tolerate or relate to us sinners, or that God is a mystery that we will never comprehend;  but rather that ‘God-with-us’ really does mean ‘God-within-us’ and that ‘nothing can separate us from the love of God’ really does mean that we and God are one, that God is an essential part of who we are.  That God, in some deeply spiritual and mystical way, is within us, part of us; that ‘God’ (or however we choose to name it) is quintessentially the best, purest, most creative and constructive elements of our essential human nature.  On this basis, the goodness, the generosity of spirit, the moral compass, the grace, the kindness that you sense and ‘know’ within yourself – that’s the essence of God, the Creator Spirit, within you!

So the ultimate reality that the word ‘God’ points to is no less than the deep core of my being!  Or as Palmer puts is, My essential Self is a manifestation of that one, infinite, timeless, limitless, pure, whole, complete, undisturbed, untroubled, equanimous, and radiant ultimate reality at the heart of all existence.  The innate qualities of my true nature empower me to skilfully and meaningfully participate in the lived human experience with wisdom, compassion, strength, courage, and love.^[ii]

A point of clarification: that doesn’t mean that I equate myself with God, or so personalise God that I can claim to have all wisdom and don’t need to listen to anyone else.  Quite the opposite in fact: it implies that ‘God’ is as much a part of everyone else as God is of me, and thus the discernment of what we have typically labelled ‘God’s will’ becomes a communal exercise – we will discern the promptings of God’s Spirit together as we attend to, and critique, each one’s ‘gut feelings’ or intuitive awarenesses.  Similarly, as God is intimately embedded in all creation, we ignore the voice of nature – lands, oceans, plants, animals, stars, planets and beyond – at our peril.

Nor can we deny the reality of the shadow side, the dark side, the struggle between that which I ‘will’ to do and that which I actually do (as the apostle Paul put it).  So the quest to ‘know God’ becomes a journey of ‘listening’ to the ‘God spot’ within us and beyond us, so that we learn to live more and more consistently out of that space.

Significantly, I discern this understanding of ‘unity with God’ at the heart of the teaching and yearning of virtually every faith group – the teaching of the Buddha on enlightenment, the wisdom of the Quaran (in particular as interpreted by the Sufi stream of Islam), the quest for fulfilment in the Hindu system, the Sikh teaching that God is revealed through an ‘active, creative and practical life’, the ‘inner light’ of the Ekankar faith, etc, etc. 

A practical application of this hypothesis?  I recently got out for a motorbike ride in the South Gippsland hills – an opportunity that is almost always a spiritual experience.  The sheer delight of creation, the thrill of being ‘one’ with the bike, the sense of gliding through a world that is so much bigger and more complex than my mind can conceive: that is ‘God’ within and without!  Or take the way my soul is impacted by the stories of devastation and trauma amidst the wars in Gaza or Ukraine or Israel or Russia or wherever.  Those ‘feelings’, that yearning that things could somehow be better, are the promptings of God’s Spirit – not heard as some external judgemental or condemnatory voice but sensed as a deep awareness within me!  It’s the ‘God-place’ deep within my being stirring my soul, moving my heart, impacting my decision-making and compelling my action.

Am I a Christian atheist?  No way!  For while my concept of God may differ from the historically traditional Christian understanding, I do believe in the reality of God as the best, purest, most creative and constructive elements of my (our) essential human nature, and as the irrepressible, eternally creative, life-giving force at the core of all creation.

David Brooker

13^th September 2024

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^[i] Wikipedia, Christian Atheism

^[ii] Jim Palmer, Deconstructionology