O Magnum Mysterium

I have read the critics on all sides. I bow to them. They are mostly likely, far better thinkers than I am and have made their points.

I have also kept up with the developing thinking in the area of physics, the head scratching, and the breakthroughs.

I love it all. I am ready for as many dimensions as reality can handle, whatever reality might be. God cannot be diminished by the expansion of one universe or multi-universes.

And hundreds of years of theological development have passed.

Still, Anselm says it in a way that resonates with me.

"God is that, than which nothing greater can be conceived.…"

That is where science, theology, and the biblical witness take me, to the brink of the magnum mysterium.

Anselm's argument actually developed into and beyond this paragraph:

"And [God] assuredly exists so truly, that it cannot be conceived not to exist. For, it is possible to conceive of a being which cannot be conceived not to exist; and this is greater than one which can be conceived not to exist. Hence, if that, than which nothing greater can be conceived, can be conceived not to exist, it is not that, than which nothing greater can be conceived. But this is an irreconcilable contradiction. There is, then, so truly a being than which nothing greater can be conceived to exist, that it cannot even be conceived not to exist; and this being thou art, O Lord, our God."

I cannot define much about God, but I affirm this as truth to my heart. It is enough settling amidst the unsettling to settle me.

Then, I affirm that Jesus is the human face of God and that all that I genuinely need to know of God, I can see in the face, the faith, and the act of following Jesus.

That is where I have found faith and stability in my faltering failures and fallacies.

This immunizes me from the lure of rigid systematization and highly structured outlines that fit neatly into boxes of group think.

Anything I can say about God is tentative and said with an open heart and hand and a willingness to be instructed by scripture in this life and by the very presence of God in the life to come.

Nothing would be more enjoyable than to discover why many of my misconceptions were misconceptions.

I stand amazed in the Presence!