Theological Journal - May 2: Why God is Not in Control - And It's a Good Thing Too! (4)
We’ve already noted that thinking that God is in control misconstrues how the Bible portrays God’s rule and how God relates to his world in the first pose of this series. I got that insight from Tim Gombis who is doing a multipart series on this theme too. In one of his posts he explores additional ways this way of thinking inhibits a proper understanding and practice of our faith. We will follow him and look at those problematic implications in this post, three in particular: -it provokes unbiblical ways of responding to suffering. -it hinders us from taking to heart the ways scripture directs us to respond to pain. -it does not accurately picture how biblical writers address God’s anxious people who face suffering. Gombis addresses in particular the way this view of God’s control affects our imagination which, as C. S. Lewis argues, complements reason, which “ is the natural organ of truth” while “imagination is the organ of meaning. Imagination, producing new metaphors o...