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LINK to share: https://hanglberger-manfred.de/en-god-and-nature.htm
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God and
Nature Nature: beautiful and cruel Whether we
consider the effects of
the Covid 19 pandemic or watch a video about the animals in an African national park: It is always frightening
how cruel nature can show
itself to us. On the one
hand, we experience
nature beautifully and fascinatingly,
and also a mental balance
and strengthening during
a walk through a
beautiful landscape. On the other
hand, the forces of nature show their
life-destroying effect,
e.g. in floods, earthquakes and volcanic
eruptions. The forces
of nature: tools in God's hand? For thousands
of years, people in the various
religions believed that all natural
events were controlled by
God (or gods). Suffering from natural forces was always
considered by these
people as if God was punishing
or testing them. Thus,
the forces of nature were
understood as tools in
the hand of God to punish
or educate mankind. Even in our
time, many people still think this way when they ask,
in the face of a painful blow
of fate, why God did this to them. "Dark" image of God When nature was experienced as cruel, God
appeared to be cruel. Since the forces of nature in their destructive effect do not differentiate between people
and inanimate material, between
children and adults, between violent and helpful people, one spoke of
the unpredictability of God.
The spiritual blindness of the forces
of nature, which were regarded as divine action, shaped an image of God that appeared "dark,"
"incomprehensible," and "arbitrary". The “authority of God” was the model for
authority among men If God
appeared insensitive and cruel
being the ruler of
nature, but at the same time was understood as the supreme
authority, then it was logical that
people who had a role of authority in the family or in church
or society were convinced
that they have the right, even the obligation as believers to be cruel in their educational
actions, in their punitive behavior
and their other decisions in order to enforce “law and order”. Violent educational
practices were therefore religiously founded and customary in the area of the church.
This was reinforced by some Bible statements ("He who
loves his son, chastises him." Cf. Sir 30:1; Sir 30:13; Heb
12:6; ...) and by the religious idea that in the defiant phase of a child traces of the original sin are shown and that this must be cast out by beatings. A healing
and liberating theology has not prevailed Already about
750 years ago, the great theologian Thomas Aquinas, through his study of the Bible and the writings of the Greek philosopher Aristotle, recognized that nature is set in a certain autonomy
by the laws of nature. In relation to nature, the
Church took up Thomas Aquinas’
insight in the 13th century when
she spoke of the "proper autonomy of earthly realities" in the Second Vatican Council (In Gaudium et Spes, ch 36). The created
things and also the
societies have their own laws and values, which the human being has to recognize, use and shape step
by step. Through their
creation, all individual realities have their own fixed
status,
A necessary
doctrine of faith is still missing Each era would have the task of relating the respective
knowledge of nature to faith in a
contemporary manner, that is, to formulate a meaningful understanding of God's activity in nature. In the relationship
between faith on the one
hand and politics, society and economy on the other hand, this has been done
for more than a hundred years by the "Catholic
Social Doctrine", which
is constantly evolving due to social changes. Equally necessary
would be a doctrine of faith formulated in dialogue with the findings of
the natural sciences and developed
further in line with their
progress in knowledge. The fact
that such a doctrine of faith is not formulated
and thus no contemporary understanding of God's activity
in nature is offered to
the faithful is one of
the greatest deficiencies
of the Church, for which the Church’s
leadership bears responsibility. Instead, the misleading prayers of the "almighty God" are imposed on the faithful. “Secularization”
as liberation from religiously based violent authorities When prayers,
preaching and doctrine of
the faith contradict the scientific knowledge of believers,
the faith of many is destroyed. A meaningful
life needs the polarity
of rationality and healthy
spirituality Even if
"secularization" means
liberation and progress for many
people, as a purely rational view of the world and
people, it leads in the long term
to more and more egoism and meaninglessness
for many people. For most
of them it does not lead to a rationality of the common welfare, which
would possibly also require renunciation and consideration,
but only to the "rationality" of their own short-term interests. Therefore, a meaningful life needs the polarity between personal and
community responsibility, the polarity
between a rational view of the world and people as
well as a spiritual
connection with the world and people. But for such
a spirituality an adequate
understanding of God's
work in the world is required,
an adequate understanding
of the inherent dynamics of nature, which is not
misused by God as a tool for chastising and educating man. For such a spirituality, however, there is also
a need for prayers that express an appropriate understanding
of God's work in the world and in human beings. Hanglberger Manfred (www.hanglberger-manfred.de ) Translated
by: Ingeborg Schmutte LINK to share: https://hanglberger-manfred.de/en-god-and-nature.htm
Other texts in English >>> Index of the texts about Eucharist >>> A contemporary Christian culture of prayer >>> (In German) Understand and solve the problem of “secularization”: >>> |
