meta-theo-philo-sopho

Now I done had all them philosophy courses and I remember what my first philosophy professor said to us little neophytes eagerly opening our freshly scrubbed minds to some glimmering of Truth. He said if you are called to the witness stand in a court of law and you are asked if you believe in God, the right answer would be "what do you mean by God?"

That might be alright for a philosophical answer but I think this man was a Yankee transplant because if that was your reply in a southern courtroom at that particular time (1961) and location (Atlanta), the jury or whoever would hear "No, I don't" and would think you were one of them a.c.l.u. smartass atheists.

So I been through all that philosophy stuff and metaphysical stuff and theology stuff and must admit I still enjoy rummaging around through all that like a hamster in shredded newspaper and even get all happy with some of the stuff I read like Balthasar's Theodrama, Eriugenia's Homily on the Prologue to the Gospel of St. John, and Henry Corbin's Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn 'Arabi, all three of which I am steadily moving through, allowing their cross-pollination of ideas, imagery, and thought.

But ... It gets down to one thing, two things really. Either a person believes or disbelieves that God incarnates, becomes consciously embodied. Either a person believes or disbelieves that happened only once and in the form of Jesus.

Saying that pushes buttons and squeezes triggers. Folk get all hanky and cranky and skanky. I know I do -- I think primarily because I was bitten by a church when I was young. And I don't want to have anything to do with ANY of that church stuff.

But still, I sit here looking at those two statements which can be stated as one -- the Source's, the Wellspring's, the Mystery's taking physical form as Jesus. You know, I really like it! Something in me gets pretty doggone happy.

And still there is a part of me that says run like hell from God, my friend. Run like hell. That is the part that knows it is all beyond my comprehension, the part that does not and will not make a God of God, that echoes with Meister Eckhart: God save us from God! and the part that resonates with Kazantzakis' Cry of God to save Him.
I run like hell, away and toward and with.