The God Connection

I’ve frequently described the relationship with God as being connected. It makes perfect sense to me but it’s gradually dawning upon me that such terminology is not orthodox and therefore probably sounds foreign to traditional ears. For as many theological discussions as Dad and I have had over the years, I was surprised to learn that he considers himself a pantheist. Alfred North Whitehead, the “father” of process thought, considered himself a panentheist. This spurred me to learn the difference between the two upon which I came to the conclusion that all process thinkers are panentheists. That’s what surprised me about Dad’s decision to define the Whole as the sum of all the parts (pantheism) while I find myself in agreement that the Whole is greater than the sum (panentheism). The pantheistic paradigm is more in keeping with the deistic view that allows for an impersonal Creator that cannot, at least literally, be in relationship because it is, as Ernest Holmes said, the Thing Itself. Panentheism, however, allows for some sort of relationship with that transcendent quality that is more than the mere sum of all the parts. I can understand the sentiment of great thinkers like Albert Einstein who felt that anthropomorphism is the greatest disservice imaginable to the concept God, but I have also come to understand that to be in relationship with God does not necessarily require the personification paradigm inherent to so much religious thought. All this is to say that I am not ready to concede the personal relationship I have with God just because the attribution of human qualities to the Divine may be in error. This brings me back to the old existential drawing board from which I hope to better describe the connection I experience.