Opentheology - Compassionate God

"A religious person is the one who holds God and fellow human being in one thought at one time, at all times, who suffers harm done to others, whose greatest passion is compassion, whose greatest strength is love and defiance of despair."

Abraham J. Heschel

Revd Dr Piotr Ashwin-Siejkowski (University of Chichester/UK)
Compassionate God

Whatever God does, the first outburst is always compassion

Meister Eckhart OP

One thing is sure: modern people must be obsessed; if they are, there is still hope. If people are passionate, meaning: com-passionate..., there is hope

Elie Wiesel

Abstract

The paper argues that among the traditional attributes of God revealed in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, compassion still awaits its proper evaluation and greater proclamation as well as its celebration. In relation to anthropology and ethics, compassion emerges as one of the most important, positive and inclusive incentives, which provides people with a new way of self-understanding and new ways of engagement with current moral, social and other issues.

Introduction

Intellect and metaphysics have ruled Christian exegesis and theology for a long time and with spectacular success. Together, as good partners, they have produced a number of highly complex dogmas, decrees, definitions and laws. This impressive legacy can be still clearly recognised not only during a theological debate among professional theologians, but also each time a child is brought to a parish church for baptism, or when a couple asks for the blessing of their marriage. The complexity of theology stands clearly as the opposite of the simplicity of the Absolute, the One who is the subject of various theological narratives. A paradox emerges: the longer theologians contemplate the divine One of the monotheistic religions, the more compound their theology becomes. Classical metaphysics and the human intellect established a particular view of God wrapped up in sophisticated attributes, for instance ‘transcendent', ‘omnipotent', ‘omniscient', and preferably male. The intellect and its ally argued, with some success, that it is possible to find the way to the Absolute through so-called ‘classical arguments'.[1] However, this specific intellectual tradition, while overemphasising one approach to the divine, overlooked another important characteristic of God. As far as we can tell from God's self-disclosure, S/He wishes to be known as compassionate love. The evidence from the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures about this aspect of God's nature is overwhelming.[2] This approach to God's mystery, if only genuinely accepted and subsequently followed, reveals something very significant about those who take on its values.

Rediscovering God as compassionate love [3] or even Lover leads to various consequences not only in theology as an academic discipline, but also in daily, ethical life. This approach and experience of God as compassionate love asks a direct question about my resemblance to God, as the human being created ‘in God's image and according to God's likeness' (Gen 1:26). This new self-understanding provides also a new comprehension of the meaning of personal and public life. The theology of compassionate love/Lover asks each believer how far his or her daily existence is inspired by and transformed into compassion. Even further, the discovery of this dimension in my personality while looking at the active, inclusive, close to the core of my being, compassionate God, urges me to allow the compassion in me to transform the world outside my deepest self and my relationship with the world. Compassion as the human quality, as a rational and free choice and as an ethical way of life, cannot be limited to the inner self. It naturally transcends its subject and aims to reach other people, the natural world and be involved in the current and practical issues of the local as well as the global community. Compassion, when discovered in an individual's self-awareness commonly known as ‘heart' and ‘mind', loudly calls for the attitude of, not only feeling-with-others-the-same, but also being-with-others-in-the-same-way. In brief, compassion insists on a specific response to other people's pain, suffering and unhappiness.

1. The theological dimension of compassion: God's relationship with us through compassion.

One of the direct outcomes of accepting that compassionate love is central to God's perception of creation is a serious revision of our view of God. In the light of compassion as the primary characteristic of the divine Being, still accepting the restraint of our comprehension of God and our language originating in this limited world, it is important to re-examine the notion of God's dominance over all creatures. The present paper offers only a sketch of that possible correction.

Often the image of God the Monarch is attached to our way of thinking about the Creator, in which the divine Ruler shows mercy to his subjects as and when he wishes, or punishes them, if that suits his programme of pedagogy. Compassion seems to be an emotion which does not do justice to the Lord, whose plan of salvation is comprehensive, perfect and has to be realised in detail. All is guided by God's mind and will, that sort of tradition would claim; there is no room for spontaneous interaction with God's subjects. Yet, the human experience of compassion challenges that sort of theology and its construction of God. First, in the human context compassion is not a negative emotion which needs to be controlled by mind and ‘rational behaviour' as a part of an ascetic programme. On the contrary, compassion is one of the qualities which make us truly human. Compassion is not about the relation of subordination superior/inferior. Again, the opposite, it is about equality and solidarity. Yet again, these are very human characteristics. Secondly, if we then relate our experience to God, as we are made as God's icons, then we can conclude that it is God's intention to create us as equal, as interacting and supporting one another, as passionate about other human beings and other creatures. These are qualities of human nature, therefore these features reflect their origin in God's nature.

God is the most compassionate Parent and Lover, as the history of salvation shows God's desire to be intimate, supportive and caring for all creatures. If we are ready to read the Scriptural narrative in the context of a holistic theology, not biased to only ‘male', ‘Jewish' or ‘Christian' agendas, then the image of God emerging through the historical and limited account shows the divine Parent as compassionate. God is not ashamed of that emotion, S/He does not try to hide it. God does not act as the superior who has pity on the inferior. God is totally involved in all the divine attributes in the history of people; God cries with the persecuted as well as echoing the laughter of children. It is compassion and its synonym compassionate love which gives us a unique insight into God's mystery and God's majesty.

2. The ethical dimension of compassion: interdependence of all creation.

Discovering the fact that we exist together with a compassionate God guides us to a new evaluation of our ethical situation. Again, the common, but so misleading relationship of superior/inferior has to be corrected. What unites all creatures, not just men and women, all believers and non-believers, is not hierarchy but equality and interdependence. The previous model in the Christian context, of hierarchy within God-the Trinity, then hierarchy within creation with angels above, then men below, women even lower and finally animals and plants, led to a tragic abuse of power. Consequently the ‘hierarchical' model amalgamating political power and theological ideology, has contributed to the suffering of millions of people and the degradation of the natural world. The theology of compassionate love highlights the interdependence of all of us, and enhances the change in our attitude to ‘others' as there is no longer the superior/inferior dichotomy which still dominates so many of our views about other human beings and the rest of creation. It has to be stressed that the positive theology of the compassionate God in its ethical application is neither innovation nor invention. If compassion is the main characteristic of God, if it magnifies God's vital relationship with all creation, this theology pre-dates other human intellectual constructs. It is the original narrative about God, it is also the very language of God. Also, God did not become compassionate in the moment when S/He created the visible and indivisible universes, but their creation and the further relationship with them only makes more ‘visible' what was always in God's heart/mind. Equally the divine Logos did not become compassionate at his incarnation, but his life in flesh expressed the sensitivity which was in the Logos before he became Jesus of Nazareth. How can the ethos of compassion influence our debate on controversial issues such as abortion and euthanasia? It certainly can help us if not understand, at least feel better the pain of those who for so long were treated as ‘the objects' of judgmental ethics and theology.

3. An open door to the natural world: making room for the future

There is yet another aspect of the theological theme which this short reflection aims to emphasise: it is our human compassionate relationship with the natural world. Again, the previous theological paradigm focused on human beings, especially male, as the centre of God's attention. The Patristic ideal of man as an embodiment of mind, with woman as a representation of sensual or sense-perception, inherited from Philo of Alexandria, dominated preaching and speculative theology. Equally the approach to the human body needs to be readdressed as treating it exclusively in a quasi-dualistic way does not lead to integrity in our life. But perhaps the most urgent issues relate to our destructive, arrogant and selfish abuse of the natural world.[4] If God's compassion embraces the whole of reality, not just our human, male-female world, it is we who have acted against our vocation, role and dignity. It is hard to find any direct ecological statement in traditional teaching, but this is only so because traditional theology constructed an image of Jesus as God's Messenger, which is alien to the whole significance of the incarnation of the Logos. The overwhelming and popular themes of traditional theology such as ‘original sin', ‘salvation through faith/deeds', ‘salvation only through the Church' diverted attention from the essential context of God's compassionate act/s. Our imagination and behaviour became limited to a narrow comprehension of God's message. However, the evil acts of self-destruction and destruction of the world have come back to us in the form of unpredictable nature, bringing home to us the consequences of the previous metaphysical paradigm. Yet again, the theology of compassionate love is able to change our minds and open a new outlook in front of our eyes. We have to make room in our narrow minds for a new way of thinking and feeling. That new room, but not fresh start, offers all of us some glimpse of hope.

4. Conclusion

There are two main approaches to theology, which lead to two ways of creating a vision of God. The first one accepts the dominant value of history and tradition. This approach is focused on safeguarding what we ‘already know' about God. The second approach, while critically examining history and tradition, humbly confesses that our ‘established knowledge' is only a temporary, limited way of ‘seeing in a mirror dimly' (1 Cor 13.12). If so, the best way of ‘cleaning the mirror' is to celebrate God's compassion to all creation. The second approach offers a new ethos; it helps to rediscover passion for other people, passion for justice and economic fairness, passion for life, passion for positive values, passion to cohabit with nature. This insight is only, but importantly, just beginning to find a new metaphysics where love and intelligence can support each other.

[1] As my paper is dedicated to non-professional theologians and philosophers, further information can be found in A. Jordan, N. Lockyer, E. Tate, Philosophy of Religion for A Level, (Cheltenham: Stanley Thornes Publishers Ltd, 2002), 51-81.

[2] Instead of a list of references to the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, I wish to recommend a chapter from John Hick's book, which elaborates the Biblical notions of God's compassion in the context of other world religions and their notions of generous goodwill and love, see J. Hick, An Interpretation of Religion. Human Responses to the Transcendent, (London: MacMillan, 1989), 316-331.

[3] In this part of my reflection I am influenced by the theology of love presented by Jean-Luc Marion in his two works, God Without Being, (Chicago University Press, 1995) and The Idol and Distance, (Fordham University Press, 2001).

[4] See more in Ruth Page, God and the Web of Creation, (London: SCM Press, 1996); Darby K. Ray, Theology That Matters: Ecology, Economy and God, (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2006); Anne Primavesi, Gaia and Climate Change, (London: Routledge, 2008).