1. “Perennial” Images of God/Ultimate Reality
a. Ultimate Reality, which may be called “God,”
is pure spirituality; in this sense, God is beyond the personal and is instead
“Wholly Other,” “Oneness,” “Being,”
“Non-Being,” “the Eternal,” “the Absolute,”
“the Infinite,” and “Sacred Transcendence.” This concept of
ultimate reality may be labeled Brahman (Hinduism), sometimes the Tao
(Chinese Religion; Taoism), sometimes the “God beyond God,”
sometimes “The One,” sometimes “The Divine Ground.” God is
“It” rather than “Someone.” God is “no-thingness”
and can only be “known” via profound mystical experiences of inner
silence.
b. All named Gods (whether Brahma, Krishna, Allah,
Yahweh, the Holy Trinity, etc.) are equivalent symbolic
“pointers” to “Pure Spirituality.”
c. Some named Gods (e.g., gods of nature, gods of
popular mythology) are less sophisticated, personalized “pointers,”
but pointers nonetheless.
d. The belief that any personalized God [such as in
“b” or “c” above] is ultimately real falls short of even
approaching an understanding of Ultimate Reality as It truly is. However,
paradoxically, Divinity is both beyond all and yet within all.
e. Within this “perennial” perspective there is
one “Sacredness,” and the various world religions are human
inventions that point to the same non-personal “Pure Spirituality.”
There is no revelation, because there is no “Revealer.” Instead,
individuals may become “enlightened.”
f. Buddhism is both non-theistic and not concerned with
formulations about Ultimate Reality.
2. Abrahamic Images of God (Judaism, Christianity, Islam)
a. God is "Someone" characterized by purposeful acts; God
is a caring intelligence whose actions include creating, self-disclosing, and
empowering. [theism]
b. Though personal, God is not confined to mortal
limitations.
c. God, whose names include Yahweh and Allah, is the only
God.
In
Exodus (3:1-15) God elusively answers Moses' query about the divine Name
("I am who I am"), for it was believed that the people, knowing the Name, could
hold God under magical control, that they could possess and govern God.
Inadequately translated "Jehovah," YHVH, YHWH or Yahweh
(appearing more than 6,000 times in the Old Testament and rendered "Lord" in
the final verse of the cited passage in the New Revised Standard Version) has a
number of possible translations: "I am who I am," "I will be who I will be," "I
will be what tomorrow demands," "I will be present," "I will be what I want to
be," "I will be with you," "I cause to be what I cause to be," and "It is He
who creates what comes into existence."
Implied
therein are these realities: God is what He is by virtue of His deeds; He is
capable of responding to human need; God cares for humanity, takes account of
human frailty while holding his creatures in high regard. God is the power of
life, the power of being, the power of newness; He is the God who will be
present. God is the origin of creation and Sovereign of history. As symbolized
by the burning bush, God is present everywhere, even in a lowly bush,
especially in this one that is revelatory, active and indestructible.
[information from The Torah: A Modern Commentary (Union of
American Hebrew Congregations, 1981), pp. 396-406; "Yahweh" in the Abingdon
Bible Dictionary (CD-Rom ed., 1997); Anderson, Understanding the Old
Testament (Abridged 4th ed., 1998), pp. 55-59.]
Within
a biblical (Semitic) perspective, one can make at least the following literal
statements about God (without exhausting the magnificence of any Divine
activity or attribute): God creates, loves, self-discloses, judges,
forgives the penitent, empowers, redeems, and suitably protects and provides;
as such, God is holy, glorious, awesome, majestic, personal, knowing, good,
flawless, independent, incomparable, inexhaustible, gracious, just, merciful,
purposeful, generous, invisible, everlasting, consistent, present, powerful,
and sovereign. "... it is essential to realize that according to the Bible the
knowledge of God is not reached by abstract speculation, as in Greek
philosophy, but in the actual everyday business of living, of social
relationships and of current historical events. God is not known by thinking
out ideas about him, but by seeking and doing his will as made known to us by
prophetic men and by our own consciousness of right and wrong." [from "God" in Richardson, A Theological Wordbook of the Bible
(1960), p. 89] Such - and more - is the living God of Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam!
The biblical God is also symbolized non-literally as a
Shepherd, Father, He, etc.
It is clear in the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer
that the God worshiped is more than a “figure of speech” or
“pointer” but the God of Abraham and Jesus, understood literally in
the above sense.
d. In the Bible and Qur'an, God is involved in history, yet
sovereign, as He chooses to be.
e. Historically, certain Greek-like philosophical
reflections on God add a “perennial” touch; none-theless, the
biblical image focuses upon God's personal self-disclosure (revelation), not
“Divine Beyondness.”
3. Do All World Religions Worship the Same God?
If it is
assumed that the God of the Abrahamic religions is a human creation and is just
one more of the many human symbols of “Pure Spirituality,” yes.
If it is
understood that Abraham, Jesus, and Mohammad regarded God as the Ultimate
Reality Yahweh, no. Yahweh is different from non-personal “Pure
Spirituality.”