Sunday, June 28, 2009

Caring Father or Wrathful King?

A few years ago I wrote -- in an unpublished volume -- of distancing ourselves and eliminating from our religions the notion of a wrathful deity. Is it possible to eliminate the wrathful king from our theologies? Is this being necessary to our religious mind and our religions in general? Is it possible to separate the caring father from the wrathful God of the OT and other texts? What would it mean to not have this concept or being in our faiths?

1 comment:

  1. Deep question(s)! I don't think it is possible to separate the two from the classic texts. I think it is important to understand that we, as humans, can be avenged by God. I also think we need to understand that while God loves all of us (God being whoever he is for each individual) he can get angry with us for our misdeeds. It goes along with seeking salvation for our sins, in a way, because if we couldn't make God angry, then there wouldn't be a need for his son (Jesus) - or Mohammad, Abraham, etc. - and we would be perfect and without sin. I believe it is in God's caring nature to be wrathful at times.

    Another thought - without a wrathful God, there would be no Hell because Lucifer would not have been a fallen angel. I hope that made sense.

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