God As Projectile

Peter Rollins continues to be a great source of life and energy for my theological reflection and thinking and I am thankful for his life and ministry. Recently I heard him speak on a podcast about how some think that God is merely a projection of our fears, desires and beings into the heavens. And to bring the point even closer to home for Christians, he makes the point that denominations are often failing because denominations are many times just projecting what they think God is compared to other denominations.

Rollins reminds us that God is less projection and more projectile that shatters our projections of God. The Taoist tradition has this line in their sacred writings:

The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao; The name that can be named is not the eternal name.

Within the tradition I practice we say of God in Christ is:

"The name which is above all names'

The point being that when we give God a name we are only casting a projection. I agree that some projections are clearer than others, but a projection non the less. The True God is less a projection and more projectile that shatters our projections. The moment we try to name God, put God in some theological framework (AKA: a box) or project God we are missing the power of what/who is God.

Finally, Rollins makes note that the beauty of denominations is that the word "denomination" means to "de-name" something. Denominations, when at their best, are doing the work of de-naming God so that God is no longer a projection. The act of de-naming God is scary and even dangerous to some, however in only be de-naming God do we come to an even deeper and fuller trust in that which cannot be named because our projections of God becomes smashed.

Forget my name. That is okay. But don't forget that I am...

Within the bible is a story about Moses encountering God. It is a more iconic story you may have heard of it. In this story Moses asks God what God's name is. Specifically Moses wants to tell others that he was sent by a powerful God named _____! God responds with the phrase loosely translated as "I am what I am." 

The idea that God claims the name of "I am" is important in a number of ways in the bible, but perhaps one of the unappreciated ways is that "I am" is how humans introduce themselves to one another. "Hello, I am Jason. It is nice to meet you." 

In our culture we place a lot of emphasis on learning people's names. It is important. However, when we place the emphasis on the individual name of the person, we miss that when we introduce ourselves we are invoking the "I am" phrase. To put it another way, when we introduce ourselves we are reminding others that while I have a unique name, I also carry the name of God (I am) with me. And so do you. 

I am Jason. I have within me a mark, reside, spark of the divine. And so do you. While we may have different names, we all share the same "I am".

You can forget my name. That is okay. But don't forget that "I am" is in all of us and that we ought to treat each other as such.