12 June 2008
Rationalizing Hellmouth
The God described in Bart D. Ehrman’s book, “God’s Problem,” reviewed in the June 9 & 16, 2008, New Yorker by James Wood, is the one in whom faith is nothing more than a show of humility. We display shame before those of us who cannot imagine other answers to the mystery of “theodicy”—God’s allowing evil to exist. It is expected of us to suspend our confidence in the refutability of human logic. So what if the idea of God makes no sense? Order in a world dependent on the cooperation of philosophically unquestioning masses is threatened by insisting on thinking through the problem of God.
The Hellmouth referred to by Mr. Wood reminds me of the “Deus Ex Machina” I modeled as a schoolboy to capture the drama of medieval pageantry. What is the point of abject submission before this specter of arbitrary horror? It colludes in domination by power-hungry sages. It may be explained as rationalization by most of us of our subjugation by those sages, or as elevation of their power-hunger to be a divine attribute.
The God described in Bart D. Ehrman’s book, “God’s Problem,” reviewed in the June 9 & 16, 2008, New Yorker by James Wood, is the one in whom faith is nothing more than a show of humility. We display shame before those of us who cannot imagine other answers to the mystery of “theodicy”—God’s allowing evil to exist. It is expected of us to suspend our confidence in the refutability of human logic. So what if the idea of God makes no sense? Order in a world dependent on the cooperation of philosophically unquestioning masses is threatened by insisting on thinking through the problem of God.
The Hellmouth referred to by Mr. Wood reminds me of the “Deus Ex Machina” I modeled as a schoolboy to capture the drama of medieval pageantry. What is the point of abject submission before this specter of arbitrary horror? It colludes in domination by power-hungry sages. It may be explained as rationalization by most of us of our subjugation by those sages, or as elevation of their power-hunger to be a divine attribute.
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