I am informed that as a result of my last publication some have taken to their prayer desks with carcanets of ice to pray for me, the pantheist! Arise and desist. The rumour is false. To them that had such concern, allow me to advise a visit to my earlier publications on this site: on Faith—2, on Faith—3, and on Masks posted on 12, 13, and 26 February 2012 respectively. Note as well, a half paragraph with pastoral intent cannot embrace the whole of a complex dogma.
God is within not exhaustively, but really. The divine in its Transcendence is ever beyond the reach of man, the divine in its Dynamic exists always one breath before the human, and the divine in its Immanence is at the heart of man summoning ever to manifest the divine, and therein and thereby to truly worship and adore. It is in arising to this summons that one becomes fully self, an “I”, a saint, an expositor of God. It is in eschewing this summons that one becomes something lesser, a “me”, a sinner, a detractor of God. In traditional terminology, we know the Father (the transcendent) only through the Son (the immanent) and we know the Son in the Spirit (the dynamic); only by acting upon the divine Spirit’s evocation do we realize, actualize the incarnate Son and glimpse the eternal Father.
In the last century, Karl Barth restored the primacy of the doctrine of the trinity to Western Christian theology. The trinity is the definitive dynamic unicity, the ceaselessly intertwining singularity, the divine perichoresis of traditional terminology. Within this animate and eternal dialogue, communion, and concinnity of transcending, dynamic, and immanent is nestled the wonder, the rapture, the mystery of creation’s why. Herein resides the proper most basis and home of creation and sanctification, being and holiness. It is the tri-unicity of the divine that makes comprehensible and real all that is. It is this dynamic solidity that grounds all movement, physical and spiritual. It is this divine movement that concretizes all being.
In emphasising the practice of acting upon the incarnational aspect of divine presence and grace I am not playing at pantheism, neither am I cathecting a mere ideal, resuscitating Ludwig Feuerbach, or revisiting Henry James. I am simply echoing the divine fiat that calls forth the Christ abeyant within to arise and shine for the wellbeing and welfare of all.
There is a Shaker tune, “Lord of the Dance”, that has in recent times gained some prominence. While some may find it novel, it references images of the divine found in religions more ancient than even our own ancestor in faith. Thus, I give to my reader this request: in this season of holydays and holidays, amid the brumal bustle, pause in silence, reflect upon that ceaseless “dancing in circles”, the perichoresis of the divine trinity. Contemplate the supernal rhythms and rhymes, look upon this God who is the dance that causes the music to play, who sets the spheres to the making of their music and the angels to their songs. The locus of the divine never exists with-in, with-out, above, or beyond in isolation, in traditional terminology: God is always one holy undivided trinity. We, in our finite dimensionality of body and soul, can never at once observe that breadth of being, that complexity of dance, and thus, we must, as commanded, ever “sing a new song”, ever find anew the faithful tune.