The God problem (part 2)

[Thats my opinion]

42. Try this definition from Tom Hayden

I’ve been rummaging around in a book written by Tom Hayden, an acquaintance from our radical Chicago days. Tom has never been known as a theologian, but his book, The Gospel of the Earth resonates with some of the things I have been trying to say recently. A quote or two:

We have abandoned the spirit of the natural world, for a sky God that is separate from the earth…The sacred earth is interchangeable with God …We divide grace from nature and spirit from matter at our peril ...Since God has acquired the image of a bearded gentlemen, a term like sacred, which revokes no human shape, seems more appropriate … Long ago the sacred was believed to reside on earth. Then came an era when God and the sacred were projected from earth to a glorious cloud. Today we need a sacred presence more than an absentee landlord.

Perhaps “the sacred presence in the living earth” is better than my term “energy.” At least it is closer to more traditional religious language. But we are saying much the same thing. Hayden calls this a sacred spiritual insight, and evokes religious saints from across the centuries to testify to its reality.