Letters to My Aunt

Letter Three - 'Further Thoughts on the Nature of God and Faith'

Dear Aunty,

      Many thanks for your last letter,

      I’ve taken a look at I John 1:5. It’s interesting that John uses this noun in reference to God, and I agree with your comments about inferences, though it seems to me that John is speaking metaphorically here. To suppose that he means his readers to think of God as light, daylight, or even the source of our world’s light, the sun, would be a little out of place. But to see this as a reference to the ‘light of love’ would, to my mind, put it in a better context. You see we are told in the Scriptures that ‘perfect love casts out all fear’. Fear is to do with what is unknown, not understood, that which is dark to us. We are afraid of what we do not understand. Perfect love removes such darkness, allowing the light of truth to enlighten our hearts and minds. In this way light is synonymous with love. I think it is fair to say that this uses Scripture to explain Scripture and takes a wider and, therefore, more balanced understanding of John’s meaning. I must re-read John’s writings, but I believe that ‘love’ and ‘light’, as used by him when speaking of God, are interchangeable. (One may also think of ‘truth’ in this context). John’s overriding obsession is with the notion of the Divine being Love.

      Another way to consider this would be to reflect on Jesus as ‘the light of the world’. As such, Jesus is the personification of God. God come down to man. Jesus’ whole revelation was that of a God of love. ‘God so loved that he gave…’ ‘God is love.’ Jesus can, therefore, be seen as Love incarnate. Again Light and Love become the same.

      I’ve just had a look in Peake’s Commentary on I John 1:5 and he reports:

      ‘God is Light’ means that God is knowable although invisible and he reveals himself as love...’

      After your point about God and light, you move on to question from where love comes and answer this by finding its unique source to be in the Divine. We are of one accord on this, but I am not too sure how this supports your earlier claim as I feel your comments to be a vindication of my position. (Perhaps you are of my persuasion but don’t yet realise it???).

      Thank you for your encouragement to continue to read the Bible. Do you know this has been one of the very hardest things for me to do. It is taking quite some time to be able to read the Scriptures with any independence of thought, so steeped has my mind been in fundamentalism over many years. Even now, when refreshing myself of the content of John, I feel pulled by the methods of interpretation and insistence of dogma instilled into me in my formative years.

      It’s interesting, but, when I went to ***** *****'s funeral last year, I found myself literally transported back in time. There in the congregation at the crematorium were many of the old faces from my old church whom I had not seen for over a decades. Pastor ***** lead the service and suddenly it felt as though I was back in church with them all. Pastor. ******** prayed (at length) and others took part. All the old phrases, clichés and modes of expression were flowing around and I began to feel threatened, trapped, as if sinister hands were drawing me back into an unwanted former existence. Situations like this are quite intimidating for me and I became somewhat distressed. However, in the quiet confidence of my new faith I found the strength to dispel these challenges and to rest secure in what I believe to be true. From that point in the service I seemed to rise above the threats and feel an inner peace accompanied by a sharp awareness of the shallowness and redundancy of the formulaic terminology that was going on around me.

I mention this in relation to the above comments about reading Scripture, as it encouraged me that things were shifting in my deeper mind and that I am gaining ground over former indoctrinations.

      You refer to the Bible as being 'a trusted guide book'. Hmm, I wonder what you really mean? Is it the guide book or one’s interpretation of it that is ‘trusted’? There is a subtle difference here but a very important one. What really concerns me is what you say after, that we cannot rely on our own thoughts to provide the truth. (Ouch!) To me this implies that we must suspend our own judgement and unconditionally believe exactly what it says in the Bible. (Doesn’t this beg the question as to who thought to choose the Bible in which to place this sort of faith?) Of course, this brings us right back to the fundamentalist's creed, which I have disputed with you in previous letters.

      My thoughts on this, I suppose, could be summed up by saying that the Bible, in itself, is not the word of God, but perhaps contains the word of God. That is, that perhaps it can be said to hold within its pages the truth through which God becomes known to us. This truth, indeed, is our trusted guide, but a growing appreciation of it requires our open hearts and minds. To deny ourselves any intelligent understanding of this guide is to reduce us to automata and to insult the greatest faculty with which our creator has endowed us. The truth is all the more relished and adhered to when its beauty captivates our minds and in so doing enlivens our spirit. In this way its reality becomes ever present to us and its reach grows clearer. To rely on some supposed ‘quickening’ of the Holy Spirit without the rigours of intelligence is to be open to any emotional prompt and in this way lies misunderstanding and ignorance: blind faith. (Blind faith, being blind, implies darkness, which brings us back to our thoughts on light).

      Intelligence is our only way to ascertain the veracity of claims of faith. Only when based on the foundations of reason can faith be substantiated. Reason is the spring board upon which faith has its basis. Love is the arms into which it leaps.

      I do very much appreciate the opportunity we have to correspond like this. I trust that my thoughts do not impose upon you and that you are happy to keep in touch. I hope that you will feel the confidence to take on board something of what I have outlined and allow it, by God’s grace, to show you something of the secrets of the Divine. At the end of the day the truth is the truth and we should never be afraid to test the veracity of anything. Only by accepting that we know nothing do we have the potential to discover everything.

      God bless.