Citizen God

[poliphilo]

This is prompted by something qos was saying.

Religious language is always conservative. We live in a age of democracies but we're still using monarchist language about God.

Why, when I don't want to be ruled by a King in real life, should I want to acknowledge one in my spiritual life?

I don't like Kings (or Queens or Princes.) If I got an invitation to Buckingham Palace I would (politely) decline. I'm a Republican in the European sense of the word. Ah ca ira, ca ira, ca ira and all that. I think Prince Charles is a national embarrassment.

But if I go to Church (which I don't, but if I did) it's all "crown him with many crowns, the lamb upon the throne."

No thanks.

Where are the rights of Man in all this? Why is Heaven still stuck in the feudal middle Ages?

"He hath put down the mighty from their seat". Does he exclude only himself from the levelling process?

The myth of the incarnation suggests otherwise. God becomes Jesus, becomes an ordinary Joe, becomes a citizen.

Citizen God- why not?

My God is immanent- a sister, a brother, a comrade- or I don't want to know.

Comments

[kaysho.livejournal.com]

Of course, this has been a problem for as long as there have been democracies. If your heavenly master and your earthly master are both monarchs, then there is no need for there to be conflict in the model of obedience ("dei gratia" and all that). But when the people can make their own laws, when we are our own earthly masters, who can resolve the conflict between man's law and God's law? How can a God-who-must-be-obeyed fit into a democratic model? I feel sorry for the scholars in Iran who have this unenviable government task.

But if you believe in a God who loves, rather than a God who must be obeyed, then it's much easier to reconcile this.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

A God who says- as Jesus did- "I am among you as one who serves."