The Origins of the New Testament, Part XIII: The Theology of Paul as Revealed in Romans

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on 28 January 2010 1 Comments
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Question

Sara Taylor from London, England, asks:


You say that all societies have or have had a word or concept meaning God. Is this true of Buddhism? I know that Buddhas have been deeply revered, but not that they were equated with God. So my question is, does Buddhism really necessitate a belief in or a word for God?

Answer

Dear Sara,


Your letter reflects an important understanding and also makes a common fallacy. The important understanding comes in the universal realization that all human beings postulate a realm beyond and greater than the realm of the human. That is what self-consciousness does to each one of us. The common fallacy is that there is only one human definition of that meaning.


Western religion has regularly and consistently defined God in theistic terms. That is, God is perceived as an external being, supernatural in power, who periodically invades the world in miraculous ways to establish the divine will or to answer our prayers. Eastern religion in general, but Buddhism in particular, does not define God in theistic terms. That has caused some westerners to refer to Buddhism as an "atheist" religion. Well, it is, but only in the sense that "atheist" means "not theist." It does not mean that there is no sense of God in Buddhism. Language is our problem. The theistic definition of God is so total in the western world that the word "atheism" has come to mean that there is no God. Theism is a human definition of God and, as such, is destined to die like all human definitions do in time. Theism is not God.


The second point of your question makes it clear that this common fallacy is operating. You are correct in that no claim is present in Buddhism that suggests that the Buddhas be equated with God. If God is not external to life as theism projects, then God cannot invade the world in human form. That is an idea that grew up in Christianity and, in my mind, still distorts the meaning of Jesus. The early Christian writings suggest that God — the Holy external other — designated Jesus to be "son of God." That designation took place at his resurrection for Paul, as he writes in his letter to the Romans about the year 58. It took place at his baptism for Mark, who writes his gospel in the early 70's. The literal identity between Jesus and God that brought about such doctrines as the Incarnation and the Trinity are the products of the next three hundred years, and are based on what I regard as a Greek misreading of the Fourth Gospel. The claim of divinity for Jesus, or the suggestion that he is the second person of the Trinity, is unique to later Christianity. The Jews never claimed a divine nature for Judaism's greatest heroes, Moses and Elijah; the Buddhists never made that claim for Buddha, and Islam never made that claim for Mohammed. That is not to say, however, that these religions do not have a profound sense of the holy for which the word God is the most popular human symbol.


I have moved theologically over the course of my life into a non-theistic understanding of God. That does not mean that God has become less real to me. Indeed the exact opposite is the case. When I speak about God I embrace the fact that I am only using words as symbols that describe not God, but my experience of God. I experience God as the source of life, the source of love and the ground of being. I see the divinity of Jesus in the fullness of his humanity. I believe the way into God is to journey into, through and beyond the human. While the pathway might look different, the goal is quite the same.


Thank you for your question.

– John Shelby Spong
 

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