Gnostic Hart? Final Reflections on “You Are Gods: On Nature and Supernature”

Last updated on: September 16, 2022 at 8:38 am by Roger E. Olson

Gnostic Hart? Final Reflections on “You Are Gods: On Nature and Supernature” 2022-09-16T08:38:09-05:00 Roger E. Olson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

*Note: If you choose to post a comment here, make sure it is relatively brief (no longer than 100 words), on topic, addressed to me, civil and respectful (not hostile or argumentative), and devoid of links or photos.*

I am not labeling David Bentley Hart a gnostic. I am asking whether what he has written in “You Are Gods,” especially the final chapter entitled “The Chiasmus: The Created Supernatural and the Natural Divine,” leans too far toward Gnosticism for my comfort.

I will begin by saying this is the most significant chapter in the book and I fear that many readers will not have gotten this far. Hart’s writing is challenging, even for scholars. If you have not read this chapter and disagree with what I say about it, please do not express that disagreement here. Read the chapter first and then disagree (or agree).

It’s a long chapter with many points. It’s the culminating chapter of this book which finally brings much of what Hart said in earlier chapters to a pinnacle and sheds light backwards on things that were before enigmatic. And, I will say, to a certain extent, the whole book, with one or two excepted chapters, is enigmatic. It is a book of metaphysical speculation by which I don’t mean to damn it. I just think it has to be read as that. I’m sure Hart would disagree.

At the very end of the chapter, and therefore the book, Hart reveals that one of his intellectual heroes (which is not to say he agrees with him about everything) is the late Russian Orthodox theologian Sergei Bulgakov (120). That caught my attention for a tangential reason. Years ago, when I first began my study of modern theology, I read a book about modern theologians by Scottish theologian H. R. Mackintosh. I do not remember the title right now; I lost the book years ago. (Over the years I have loaned many of my books to students and others and never received many of them back.)

I remember reading that chapter on Bulgakov and being intrigued and wondering why he would be included in a book on “modern theology.” He didn’t seem modern to me. But I was impressed by his thoughts about God and us and creation and eventual deification, etc. He is usually considered a Russian Orthodox mystic and speculative theologian. He was part of a group of Russian Orthodox exiles living in (as I recall) Paris.

Back to Hart and this chapter. I respect Hart as a high intellectual thinker who dares to push boundaries and at least attempts to be creative. I admit to finding much of what he has written here, in this book and especially in this chapter, perplexing (to say the least). I am worried that he contradicts himself. But I admit that my own theological tendencies drive me more away from thinking of God as infinite, something that Hart seems to assume as necessary, and more toward thinking of God as a being rather than Being Itself. I have said that here before.

Some years ago I discovered the so-called “Boston School of Personalism” and especially the writings of Bordon Parker Bowne, a philosopher of religion and theologian. He is about the farthest thing from Hart in terms of thinking about God that I can imagine. They are at two ends of a spectrum. I worry that Hart’s theology or philosophy of religion tends to de-personalize God and tends to make God and creation inseparable in a way that elevates creation into God.

Well, back to the point, to my question about Hart and Gnosticism. On pages 117 to 118 Hart writes that “The vocation of rational freedom is…to gather up the sparks of the ‘Shekinah’ that were lost in the breaking of the vessels, or to aid in the rescue of the lost Sophia; spirit (‘neshamah’) is always called to a homeland that belonged to it before it ever ‘entered’ this world (this being the indubitable truth preserved in ‘gnosticism’.”

On page 122 Hart says that “No spiritual creature could possibly exist except as ‘saved,’ as a god in God.” Then, on page 123 he SEEMS to identify the human spirit with God’s Spirit. “Bulgakov is surely right…when he speaks of the human spirit as that which is uncreated in humanity, and that which proceeds from God as an outpouring from his essence; and Bulgakov is right also in saying that, in creation, God calls his own breath to hypostatic existence—calls his own Spirit to indwell his creatures as their spirits—and thereby gives hypostatic life to the rays of his own glory.”

I have read similar claims in Rosicrucian literature! (No, I am not accusing Hart of being Rosicrucian; I am only suggesting that a Rosicrucian might take comfort in what Hart writes about the identity of the human spirit with God’s spirit.)

My criticism is that some of Hart’s speculative claims (which, of course, he does not think are speculative!) are at best unguarded. They can easily be construed or misconstrued as affirmations of one of the fundamentals of Gnosticism.

Having said that, I want to make clear that I have enjoyed reading this book, as I have enjoyed everything I have read by Hart and also all of his interviews and lectures on Youtube. I admire Hart for daring to resurrect metaphysics in a Western culture that has mostly abandoned metaphysics as “the sick man of philosophy.”

Uncategorized

Previous Post

September 14, 2022

Who Is a “Heretic?”

Next Post

September 18, 2022 Changing Subjects: The Alleged Matt Chandler “Scandal”

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Against Liberal Theology Uncategorized

Select a Month November 2026 October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was the first person raised from the dead by Jesus?

Select your answer to see how you score.

The Centurion's servant Lazarus Jairus' daughter Widow's son