DO people begin with a worldview and find a place for God within
it (or not, as the case may be?) Or do they begin with a view of God and mould
their worldview around that (or not, as the case may be)?
A lot will depend on what they mean by “God”, and that is
infinitely variable, both between religions and within them. Priests, rabbis
and mullahs naturally seek to pass on the received orthodox view: their concept
of God then becomes the starting-point for the worldview they teach.
There is a danger inherent in that, however. A God that can
be made “official” in this way may become an instrument of power and repression
in the hands of those who define him. The history of all religions sadly shows
that.
In the freer modern air of the West, it may help to begin
with the worldview rather than with any preordained understanding of God.
The worldview is the lens through which people make sense of
their experience, the way they come to terms with everything around them. It
develops out of all their learnings and experiences, first as children and then
as adults, usually without their even being aware of it.
People whose minds are open and curious are constantly
absorbing new information and experiences, and modify their worldview
accordingly. Those with closed minds do not. Either way, a person’s worldview
is central in helping him or her to see things in relation to each other. It
provides a framework in the search for meaning and wholeness.
Language and culture have a huge bearing on the worldview
that people form. That is apparent, for example, in divergent Maori and Pakeha
attitudes to land, Waitangi Treaty issues and the foreshore, or in Israeli and
Arab perceptions of Palestine. On top of that, everyone brings to it something
uniquely personal, and each person’s worldview is his or her own.
Since earliest times, religions have provided a unifying,
stabilising focus for society, helping to shape the worldview of people loyal
to them. One obvious example is the Jews’ conviction that they are God’s chosen
people, blessed with a divine destiny despite all the setbacks and suffering
they have endured over the centuries. All Jews can say: “I was born into a
story.”
So, too, can Christians and Muslims, though those faiths seek to transcend the racial identity which is a hallmark of Judaism.
American theologian Gordon Kaufman was in no doubt about the
primacy of a person’s worldview in making sense of life, and of the importance
of the God-symbol in this regard.
For 3000 years the monotheistic faiths have understood God
as a supernatural being existing apart from the world and human beings, though
impacting directly upon them. That understanding is still widely affirmed in
western societies, but as they become more secular it is losing its pulling
power. That need not be the end of God, however, for as a human creation the
God-symbol can and does evolve.
So Kaufman suggests that in the modern world “God” is to be
understood not as a distinct object or being, but as “an important constituent
of an over-arching worldview”. The function of the God-symbol is then to bring meaning
and fulfilment to human life, because “it sums up, unifies and represents in a
personification what are taken to be the highest and most indispensable human
ideals and values”.
For Kaufman, the God-symbol in the Christian tradition
conjures up essentially humane images, as seen supremely in Jesus.
He speaks of a “cosmic movement” toward the fuller
realisation of human possibilities, regardless of race, sex, nationality,
culture or anything else. The purpose of religious institutions is to tune in
to this humanising drive, and when true to their founding vision, they do so by
creating communities of openness, love and freedom.
Obviously, cultivating a worldview with such a God-symbol at
the centre will influence profoundly the way a person perceives the world and
behaves in it. That is because it removes the central focus of life from
oneself and one’s own race, culture and destiny: when the God-symbol is the
focal point of a person’s worldview, everything else becomes relative to it.
A cameo in Lloyd Jones’ The
Book of Fame illustrates the same dynamic in more traditional form. The 1905 All Blacks are standing in the glow of a fire in their Welsh hotel
for a Christmas service, and Bob Deans prays: “God be in our thoughts, and in
our words . . .”
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