Trinity and Revelation: 2 by Veli-Matti Karkkainen
Author:Veli-Matti Karkkainen [Karkkainen, Veli-Matti]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company
Published: 2014-04-19T00:00:00+00:00
Contemporary Resources for a Reconceived Doctrine of God
The Dynamic Narrative of God
The book title A Pilgrim God for a Pilgrim People93 illustrates the dynamic way the Bible presents the narrative of God. The Bible does provide us with a narrative, a story of God that consists of testimonies, parables, metaphors, disputes, and so forth, which are diverse, which sometimes stand in dynamic continuity with us, and which are authentically human. Systematic theologians should be mindful of the warnings of OT theologians not to oversystematize the dynamic biblical narrative.94 The American Walter Brueggemann describes the “doctrine” of God through the lens of “Israel’s core testimony” in terms of testimonies of God’s mighty deeds, in metaphors of what God is like, and in names of God; the British American John Goldingay lays out the main movements of the story of Yahweh in the OT from “God began” to “God promised” to “God delivered” to “God preserved.”95 Rather than attempting an abstract, formal presentation of God, the biblical narrative pushes constructive theology to envision God in personal, dynamic, elusive, and emerging terms. Hence, the God of the Bible comes to be known “economically,” in the context of his dealings with the world and life experiences of humanity. Even when seemingly more tightly formulated descriptions appear, these are set in the context of the economy of salvation and personal dealings with God: “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation” (Exod. 34:6-7). Similarly to the OT, the way men and women get to know the Father,96 through and in Jesus’ ministry, is related to the very experiences and concerns of everyday life:
God shows himself to be Father by caring for his creatures (Matt. 6:26; cf. Luke 12:30). He causes his sun to shine and his rain to fall on the bad as well as the good (Matt. 5:45). He is a model of the love for enemies which Jesus taught (5:44-45). He is ready to forgive those who turn to him (Luke 15:7, 10, 11ff.), ask for his forgiveness (11:4), and forgive others (Matt. 11:25; cf. 6:14-15; 18:23-35). He lets himself be invoked as Father, and like earthly fathers, and even more than they, he grants good things to his children when they ask (Matt. 7:11).97
In sum, the biblical narrative of God — dynamic, experience-based, open-ended, developing, contextual — is a theology “from below,” economic, rather than one “from above,” based on abstract speculations and formulae. It is relational and communal as the God of the Bible is an inviting God. The narrative and responsive theology of God in Scripture thus supports the project of classical panentheism.
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