Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Welcome to "The Gallery of God." Yes, that is very pretentious. I don't think of theology as an organized set of propositions, or a catechetical series of questions and answers. I'm not saying either of these approaches are wrong, but they are not exclusive. The Christian Bible itself isn't set up systematically. Even the most theological book in the Bible, the Epistle to the Romans, isn't.

Whether you are a believer or skeptic, it seems to me, one of the things that is missing in Christian theology is the beautiful images themselves. Language is the communication of images, not merely concepts. The concepts come through the image. No, we won't get into language theory here. For those who aren't wired to the left brain, the statement of a theological proposition is met with a blank stare, "OK.... So, uh, what does that mean?" Then, an illustration or metaphor is provided, and the response changes, "OH... Now, I get it." Why do we begin with the proposition? Why don't we begin with the image or metaphor?