THE CASE FOR GOD

This is our study book by Karen Armstrong.

This week the chapter is on silence.

There have been many voices that contributed to our understanding of Go, of Jesus, the logos and of scripture.  There were Arius who believed that the Word and Wisdom of God, the Father, was the first and most priviledged of creatures.  He believed that Jesus had been promoted to divine status and would become the perfected word through divine obedience.

  Alexander, the Bishop of Alexanria, and his brillant young assistant disagressed.  Arthanasius wanted to safeguard the liturgical practice of the church which regularly referred to Jesus as divine  There are many other voices like Anselm of Canterbury, the group who made up the Nicene council under the orders of Constantine. 

Words built on words.The desert monks would learn to still the mind so they could cultivate an attentive listening silence.  Maybe the Quakers have it right after all.  What I believe is that although God is a mystery He wants to communicate with us.  There is a level within us that I think is the soul which is beyond the subconscious and deeper than our emotions.

Jesus took time to spend forty days in lonely silence to process the religious experience of his baptism and what the call of God would mean on his choice of paths.
It can be in times of quiet meditation, or experiencing the beauty of creation, it can be when some one shares from their heart and goosebumps; that does not sound very spiritual, but there is a stirring within me that knows there is a presence like a breath of wind that comes out of nowhere and gentle blows.

This will be continued but comment if you have some thoughts.

Gregory of Nyssa [331-95] became involved in the political turmoil of the Arian disputes.  "Theology depended on practice, and its truth could be assessed only by people who allowed doctrines to change them.

He saw that Moses, who had first experienced a vision of God in the burning bush would later climb a mountain into the darkness of the clouds to understand the way that God would now have him lead his people. These ideas where being expressed elsewhere.  The importance was in the leaving of the world of words and actions and controversy and conflict to be alone with "the invisible and incomprehensible."  He was engaging in a disciplined contemplation that would allow all that he knew and had experienced to find "in the silence of otherness that reached beyond the reach of words and concepts." 

He saw clearly that idols must not be made of any God; but our human nature wants to make God an image we can define and understand.

Although we have the spirit within us we still walk in a fog of unknowing.
The world is so silent early in the morning in the fog and one can feel so alone,