John A T Robinson "Honest to God" (SCM Press: 1963)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Traditional Christian theology has been based upon the proofs for the existence of God. ... the proposition behind it is that there is an entity or being 'out there' whose existence is problematic and has to be demonstrated. Now such an entity, even if it could be proved beyond dispute, would not be God: it would merely be a further piece of existence, that might conceivably not have been there - or a demonstration would not have been required. Rather, we must start the other way round. God is, by definition, ultimate reality. One cannot argue whether ultimate reality exists. One can only ask what ultimate reality is like ... the fundamental theological question consists not in establishing the 'existence' of God as a separate entity but in pressing through in ultimate concern to what Tillich calls 'the ground of our being'. p. 29

The existence of God as a separate entity can, he says, be dismissed as superfluous; for the world may be explained just as adequately without positing such a Being. p. 31

Tillich ... says ... ... theism as ordinarily understood ' has made God a heavenly, completely perfect person who resides above the world and mankind'. ... [however it would be better to think of God as] ... Professor Norman Pittenger's description of God as 'the Reality undergirding and penetrating through the whole derived creation'. p. 40

But suppose there is no Being out there at all? Suppose, to use our analogy, the skies are empty. ... Tillich proposes replacing the images of 'height' by those of 'depth' in order to express the truth of God. ... Tillich points out: 'Deep' in its spiritual use has two meanings: it means either the opposite of 'shallow', or the opposite of high'. Truth is deep and not shallow; suffering is depth and not height. Both the light of truth and the darkeness of suffering are deep. There is a depth in God, and there is a depth out of which the Psalmist cries to God. ... When Tillich speaks of God in 'depth', he is not speaking of another Being at all. He us speaking of ' the infinite and inexhaustible depth and ground of all being', of our ultimate concern, of what we take seriously without reservation. ... The name of this infinite and inexhaustible ground of history is God. That is what the word means, and it is to that to which the words Kingdom of God and Divine providence point. And if these words do not have much meaning for you, translate them, and speak of the depth of history, of the ground and aim of our social life, and what you take seriously without reservation in your moral and political activities. Perhaps you should call this depth hope, simply hope. ... What Tillich is meaning by God is the exact opposite of ... a supernatural Being ... God is not 'out there'. He is in Bonhoeffer's words ' the "beyond" in the midst of our life, a depth of reality reached 'not on the borders of life but at its centre' ... by ... in Kierkegaard's fine phrase ... 'a deeper immersion in existence'. For the word 'God' denotes the ultimate depth of all our being, the creative ground and meaning of our existence. pp 45-47

Belief in God is the trust, the well-nigh incredible trust, that to give ourselves to the uttermost in love is not to be confounded but to be 'accepted', that love is the ground of our being, to which ultimately we 'come home'. ... theology ... asks ultimate questions aboput the meaning of existence ... what ... is the reality and significance of our life. ... God, the final truth and reality ' deep down things', is love. ... the final definition of this reality, from which nothing can separate us', since it is the very ground of our being, the 'love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord'. p. 49

Statements about God are acknowledgements of the transcendent, unconditional element in all our relationships, and supremely in our relationships with other persons. Theological statements are indeed affirmations about human existence - but they are affirmations about the ultimate ground and depth of that existence. p. 52

Buber ... 'Every particular Thou is a glimpse through to the eternal Thou', that it is 'between man and man' that we meet God ... 'the transcendent is not infinitely remote but close at hand'. p.53

God as the ground, source and goal of our being cannot but be represented at one and the same time as removed from the shallow, sinful surface of our lives by infinite distance and depth, and yet as nearer to us than our own sleves. This is the significance of traditional categories of transcendence and immanence. p. 59

The same question, though with a different slant, had been asked by the crowds of Jesus when he began his public ministry: 'What is this new teaching?' And so it has always been. paul was dismissed as a setter forth of strange gods, Socrerates was condemned as an 'atheist'. Every new religious truth comes as the destroyer of some other god, as an attack upon that which men hold most sacred. p. 125

All true awareness of God is an experience at one and the same time of ultimacy and intimacy, of the mysterium tremendum et fascinans. p. 131

... the beginning is to try to be honest - and to go on from there. p. 141