Transforming Church

Theology of Creativity. When we begin to frame a theology of creativity, we are therefore in a tenuous place. Is God a God of creativity who never stops the joyful work of making all things new? Or is God a God of unyielding certainty, who creates and then defends each part of the what he has created, the same yesterday, today and tomorrow? Is God intimately and loving involved with God’s creation, Spirit of power and might, and sustaining this moment filled with potential, asking us to follow in faith, not knowing what surprise is next? Is God all about rules and regulations, religion personified, calling us to submission and obedience, calling us back to Eden, if only we were obedient enough to get there?

Gordon Kaufmann, one of the few modern Christian minds turned to the ultimate images of God while he was at Harvard, has some of the most helpful images of how we might think of God. His life’s work is highlighted by a struggle with how, in our own limited and human way, we might envision a universe that is a reflection of a dynamic and creative One who is both beyond and beneath everything.

Images of God. To understand creativity, Kaufmann asserts, we must not use the science of previous generations, who framed their understanding of God based on the “science” of their times. (One could argue that, in any age, the scientific view of each time is the current consensus of the evidence collected by those people that explained how the world they experienced might work. For example, those who created the various biblical creation stories, were not creating fantastical stories, but rather using the best human knowledge of their time to move from the "how" of creation as they understood it, to the "Who". In a sense, the most brilliant minds of our time, in physics and the sister sciences, are still taking that which is nearly beyond human comprehension and using parables and analogies that allow us to wrap our heads around the fascinating universe that is unfolding under their intense scrutiny. Read any thing by Brian Greene, and you will be stunned by the images and stores he tells. Try The Elegant Universe to begin your journey.

So, what if we live in a universe that has nine, ten, or more dimensions, rather than four? What if our world is just as a grain of sand compared to the stars and worlds in just our galaxy, and beyond that, our galaxy is as a grain of sand compared to the universe spreading out there? What if the universe is much more like Alice in Wonderland, than the predictable world of Newton, where everything falls down according to set principles based on repeated human observation? What if the world we know is the world that only exists when we know it, but there are worlds out there far beyond our experiencing, yet every bit as real as what we experience?

And, does any of this matter?

Kaufmann, and anyone who believes that every generation must understand God in ways that are congruent with what we now know about the mysteries of creation, knows that images of God must be alive and vital in each generation. If not, the idea of God soon gets relegated to the dustbins of time. The urgency for reframing our image of God is real, for we live in a darkening time when the old religious views are leading to violence and apathy.

So, Kaufmann, posits, God is not a creative God. Rather, God is Creativity! God is not a "been there, done that" kind of God, but one who is even at this Now, making everything new.

See: Creativity-Part 1
Next: Creative God, Creative People

Questions or continuing dialog: Email me at rlee8310@yahoo.com