Revelation through Placher

Reflecting on Chapter 1 of The Triune God by William C. Placher

I loved this piece. I felt that Placher started in a place I found myself not long ago, as I began attempting a pursuit of the knowledge of God. And as the chapter went on it spoke of various theologians of midiavil and modern thinking--Anselm Eckhart Aquinas Kierkegaard--addressing different questions I happened upon in my journey, and truths that have shed light on them. Basically, this was an articulate, intellectual, illuminating bibliographical guide to my last few years of thought. :) Who knew? I didn’t! I found that very helpful.

I identified with so many questions being asked and answers being given...but at the end of each page, just as at the end of each day, I still had the lingering question of the ANSWER. Where is it? Is anyone ever going to actually get there and talk about it? Or are we going to continue talking about what God isn’t... and how hard it is to know God... and how big God is...?

This is where Placher’s long awaited conclusion comes in. The last section of the chapter is titled “Between Idolatry and Secularity.” The quote in this section that I believe sums up the meaning and question most clearly is found in the 2nd paragraph: “Answering the questions in clear language would give us idols; abandoning them would leave us with flat secularity.” Reaching this sentence I thought I should maybe let that sit for a while. This is where I have come, after all. I have felt uneasy about making any steps forward.

thoughts I’ve had...

1. I believe God has called me to be in relationship with Godself.
2. John 16:12 remarks about the Spirit guiding us into truth. I believe that God can and does guide humans into a real and objective truth.
3. I think that part of discovering this truth and part of figuring out how to line oneself up with truth is by looking at Jesus.
4. Pray. pray. pray. ask for grace. pray. ask for mercy. pray. pray.

I loved Placher’s final remarks and I feel encouraged to read the rest of his book. Most of all, it meant a lot to hear the reality of God and a relationship between God and humankind from an intellectual.

favorite quotes from end of chapter:

“ The only way we can be connected with the utterly transcendent is if it/he/she reaches out to us in love, overcoming all the intervening levels in one act of condescension. That is what happens in Jesus Christ, and explaining the logic of how that can be led Christian theologians to the Trinity.”-p 40

“Great religious texts from many traditions keep the questions alive ...never comes to closure. Like Jacob at the Jabbok, we see God only in nights of wrestling with unknown strangers.... Nothing captured by the clear light of day. No marching forward. No answer, really, to the puzzling question of why we thought the stranger was God and felt compelled to worship. ...

Biblical texts tell us more.”-p 41

“It is different when God comes among us as an ordinary human being, in the form of a servant. Nothing tempts us to say that we now understand God, yet God has been present among us.”

-p 42