The anthropomorphization of God

Last updated on: March 31, 2012 at 12:20 pm by Leah Libresco

The anthropomorphization of God 2012-03-31T12:20:27-04:00 Leah Libresco

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.

Everyone in the DC area should be booking tickets asap to see New Jerusalem at Theatre J (major hat tip to Eve Tushnet). David Ives has done a magnificant job dramatizing Baruch de Spinoza’s trial for heresy in his own synagogue. I’ll be writing more about it soon, but don’t wait on me to get your tickets now. (I recommend buying seats in the bench section, which puts you onstage for the trial).

In the play Spinoza questions assumptions about the nature of God, and accuses the members of his synagogue of being too quick to anthropomorphize God. At one point during the production, I was strongly reminded of a book I’d recently finished: Martin Gardner’s The Flight of Peter Fromm. Near the end of the book, Peter has gone through many crises of faith, but he has emerged as a kind of Christian deist, who is no longer so troubled by the longstanding mystery of theodicy. He tells his old teacher:

Moral evil is the price we pay for freedom. Natural evil is the price we pay for a world of natural law. Gravity keeps us on the earth. If someone falls off a cliff, gravity murders him. You can’t expect God to cancel a law ever time its about to kill someone….

I don’t think it’s an evasion. It’s just an honest confession of ignorance. Thinking about anything finally has to end in mystery. And why not? After all, we didn’t make this world any more than the jellyfish did. Why should the human race be easier to understand than time and space and matter and energy? Faith in God doesn’t explain an electron. Why should it explain evil?

In our highly Judeo-Christian culture, we don’t often conceive of a God without conceiving of him as a kind of superpowered human. Someone who loves us as a Father. And is omnipotent. And has a big beard. There’s not much mainstream discussion of why we expect those things of God. Discussions of theodicy and limits on miracles are standard components of the atheist arsenal but both sides rarely engage with the fact that there have been many religions, mythologies, and even some forms of Christianity that saw no contradiction between God’s existence and the presence of evil and misfortune.

Are most theists misunderstanding God, as Spinoza claimed?

What expectations for God and extrapolations from our experience are reasonable and how are we to judge?

—

I’d like to crowdsource a cry for help: I now have a powerful yen to read Spinoza. Where should I start?

Apologetics

Reviews/Recommendations

boring gods

problem(s) of evil

spinoza

Previous Post

July 3, 2010

Riposte to Justin Matyr: Closing up the Gaps

Next Post

July 5, 2010 Happy 5th of July

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 7 Quick Takes Apologetics Atheism Book Conversion Debate Tactics Debates Epistemology/Philosophy Housekeeping Ideological Turing Test Marriage Morality in Practice Parsing Catholicism Possibly Heretical Radio Reviews/Recommendations Sequence Index Spiritual Practice Uncategorized

Select a Month April 2017 March 2017 January 2017 December 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 June 2010

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who wrote the Book of Acts?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Luke Mark Paul Peter