I’ve been trying to formulate some additional aspects of my ‘Theology of Existence Divine’, but have difficulty making progress. So, I will start over and attempt to formulate the five categories here and now. The word ‘for’ is indicative of 'purpose' or 'intent', while ‘of’ indicates ‘possession’ or ‘belonging’.
Universal among human traditions is the idea of the creator god who brings about all that humans discern in their particular existence. The question of who created the creator never arises and we may therefore say that it stands for existence as such, that which exists beyond question. It - the unquestioned creator - is a symbol for the abstract notion of an existence that has always been and is divine in nature, which leads us to the concept of ‘Existence Divine’ that includes all there is, a Mystery but knowable.
The question of who created the creator never arises and we may therefore say that it stands for existence as such…
The second category is the existence of humanity and its place in the created world. About this stage every human tradition has a narrative, mythology or story, which explains the human situation with its vicissitudes. This explanation is the knowable of the Mystery revealing itself to the human tradition in question in the ongoing and interactive process that revelation is.
Existence Divine in which the human comes to the limit of its knowing and then open to the interactively revealed way forward. This new insight then becomes the next step in the narrative that structures the world of experience and is passed on in the teachings of the narrative. Each one such narrative being unique to the time, place, people and circumstance of that boundary situation of the people concerned.
The third category is concerned with the individual, the community and the relating rules of conduct, behaviour, justice and identity.
The third category is concerned with the individual, the community and the relating rules of conduct, behaviour, justice and identity. Fundamental to this is the way that the particular human community interacts with the knowable Mystery that is Existence Divine as revealed in the particular symbolism and teaching of the human community at hand. It defines the framework that orders the world of experience unique to that particular community.
The forth category concerns ‘the teaching of future things’. The theological word for this is ‘eschatology’, where ‘ology’ means ‘knowledge of’ and ‘eschatos’ means ‘last, or ‘farthest’ from Greek. ‘Expectations about the future’ is a simple equivalent.
In the realm of human beliefs we are dealing with two human concerns, the first asks after what will happen after a person dies and the second asks after the purpose of my human community in the overall scheme of existence? Each and every human tradition holds different teachings on this category, where some are locally focussed, others feel called to teach to others, their own community teachings.
Existence Divine allows for each teaching or tradition to honour its own unique approach,…
Existence Divine allows for each teaching or tradition to honour its own unique approach, bounded by mutual respect and validation, each tradition as an equally valid expression of the revealed knowing that is Existence Divine in its wholeness of diversity.
<10:32am~
