How Do We Do This?

 

I loved this week in class.  Chapter 14 was a discussion of how God works in the world, or rather how to talk about how God works in the world, how it really happens is still up for discussion.  Chapter 15 was an introduction to theological ethics and that quagmire, following on the heels of how God works in the world was, for me, a fabulous juxtaposition of concepts.

 

Theological ethics or Christian social ethics is tied in deeply with how we believe God works in the world on a very concrete, practical level.   The crux of the difficulty with theological ethics is that there are so very many theologies out there and when it comes to answering individual moral questions each person involved holds a stance that may or may not result in a consensus regarding the issue.  Another component of this is the nature of our world today. 

 

Take the issue of end of life decisions.  Not so very long ago most people just died usually at home in their beds with their family around them and it was accepted as part of life, in some small parts of the world it is still that way.  There’s no discussion of shutting off the ventilator or discontinuing a feeding tube.  There aren’t any.  The body either lives or dies.  The medicine man may be called in, but that’s about all the options available.  If the patient dies, there’s no one to sue, no reputation of the mega medical complex to consider, no discussion of the cost of keeping this person alive, no media to contend with, no possibility of laying the blame onto a product or instrument malfunction, no concern about precedent and slippery slopes. 

 

The issues listed above should not affect end of life issues, but they do, every day.  It would be wonderful to be able consider “simply” the theological issues that concern a given ethical situation but life today just isn’t that easy.  I truly believe that our technological life far outweighs our human ability to intelligently and ethically deal with it.  But deal we must. So what to do?

 

It comes to me (and perhaps this has been said in class) that our deepest understandings of God have not kept pace with man’s ability to express the ideas that we as metaphysicians believe are inspired by God.  In other words, we’re good at expressing (producing “stuff”), building on older ideas and concepts, but it seems that we have left behind the very idea of the allness of God in our lives. (Of course that’s only one theology.) Sure, the great theological scholars have brought forth ideas in an effort to concretize God.  But that is the problem.  Culturally, we have frozen the concept of God in time while we have built an amazing world on all of the theories and understandings of other great minds that weren’t dealing with the issue of God directly, (Although we all know Einstein and many others had their theories about God.) We cling desperately to the past regarding the very thing that has brought us to this very modern moment.  I guess I’m a process theologist. 

 

Chapter 14 has a lovely discussion of Grace, most religions have a concept of that in some form and I think in the process of trying to do the “right” or “correct” thing as humans we forget about that.  Praying won’t always “fix” the problem but a trust in our innate connection to a higher power and a willingness to consciously tap into that when the going gets tough may provide us with insights that could facilitate more compassionate, intelligent answers to some of life’s most difficult questions.  And yes, as Christians and participants in the community of mankind we should get involved AND we need to update our God.  (Thank-you Pope Francis)