My theology is incomplete. It is not based upon revelation. It is still emerging. It starts with:

My God is inconceivable; My God is what I don’t know.

There are consequences and responsibilities to words like inconceivable. There is a lot I don’t know.

Anything beyond this carries with it the recognition or the hubris that it can only be an attempt to place (my own) conception upon My God. If I strongly believe or hold too strongly to my conceptions of My God, there is a greater risk of becoming self-serving or self-justifying. This could confirm my biases or inclinations rather than “reveal truth.”

Theology has been a long exercise in confirmation bias. Let’s change this.

If My God inspires me to do some good or serve in the fulfillment of some other, then value is achieved beyond myself and my conceptions might be benign. But I cannot necessarily use My God as the reference of values or the measurement for authority. That could be just simply appealing to my biases or inclinations. Instead, it is the act of service given to the other — the individual, group or place — that achieves any value.

The religious or spiritual pursuit cannot be about being right or holding authority. And it cannot be about putting conceptions on something that is not conceivable, or by its supposed nature unknowable. It is about acting in service to the self, the other, or the universe, and how those actions play out.

Any thoughts on this would be appreciated and any suggestions will be welcomed as long as they are in good faith and come with openly stated assumptions.

Here are some links to posts related to my theology.

What do you mean by ‘God‘? – An ongoing series of posts that examines modern incarnations of God and how these new ideas of God fit with authoritative institutions and texts. There is a loose theme of “How are we keeping God in place to serve us?” and “Why don’t we set God free?”

What do you mean by ‘belief’? – Twin posts that explore and play with what is meant by “I believe in God” and “I don’t believe in God.” (oops, haven’t posted these yet)

Belief in Community vs Belief in God – a post that asks which is more important, and how they might relate.

Creation Stories – A brief look at creation stories and their consequences.

Decoding Religious Language – Three stories about the difference between saying what you say and doing what you mean.

Effectiveness of Prayer? - a lighthearted look at what the hell we think we’re doing when we try to influence the ineffable and infinite…

My Identity - A list of explanations for the url godwillbegod.

The Irony of God – a short series of posts I’ve been reluctant to publish.
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 . . .

Myths and Dragons – The role of story in our lives. Stories are maps for behaviour or action that we adopt and then adapt. How we navigate experiences between the known world and the unknown, and our attitudes towards new information, can determine whether we survive and thrive or despair and fall apart.

Another look at God – a definition for gods that I actually like (and the ‘centre-point’ for the series Myths and Dragons). But the vocabulary makes it practically unusable. Please help me and dumb it down so it could be used in every day terms.

God: From Magic to Motivation – If the word ‘God’ is to hold any meaning, to be useful at all, it must work for the time it is used in. It is time to let go of the last idols of God. This means removing any sense of agency or authority from the word. What is revealed when these idols are sacrificed is a long tradition of seeking to come to understanding our motivations for behaviour. What compels you to do something? What makes you act? That is your god. Let’s start with our motivations, remove magic, and come to terms with what has implications for our behaviour.