Encounter With God and Understanding Scripture and Its Use in Theology

¶ … God

Describe an experience of faith in your own life where you were aware of an encounter with God. How does this encounter illustrate some of the concepts which Haight and Barth bring out in their chapters on faith?

Encountering God, if one is lucky, is possible at any time. The unknown nature of spirituality, combined with the material presence of existence, necessitates a faith of some sort. There are many theological and philosophical views that pertain to varying ideas of faith. Haight (2001) interpreted faith as a symbolic, yet personal journey that leads to many benefits for those seeking spiritual guidance. He additionally believed that all of humanity is destined to come to some understanding of faith. I can appreciate this interpretation in my own personal experiences dealing with God and theology. For me, symbolism represents the unknown and helps me relate what's going on in the real world to within the spiritual world, and the symbolism helps align these ideas to what is located deep within my soul. The purpose of this essay is to explain this inspirational feeling in terms of faith and symbolism.

Haight explicitly laid out the relativeness of this experience. "Faith is real only insofar as it is an actual human reaction and response to reality (p. 20). Relativeness is a personal interpretation that cannot be seen other than by the individual or God . Who is to say what is faithful and what is not ? Jesus died for our sins and now without them, humanity must use this individual and relative interpretation of faith . Father Haight's recent banishment from the Catholic church "appears to be purely punitive " as no explicit contradiction to orthodoxy has been revealed (Gibson, 2009). Using this form of expressing my encounter with God seems to best align with this concept.

I recently experienced God in an unusual fashion which may help demonstrate different aspects of my faith. On a recent car trip, I had passed by, very slowly, a bloody and gruesome truck and automobile accident. I immediately felt a very strange presence as I drove past this violent and bloody scene. To myself I thought where is God? How can God allow such a travesty? I was looking for my faith at that very moment. Barth (1959) interpreted faith as a moral and pluralistic mechanism to connect with one's own spirituality and eventually to God and Jesus Christ. Barth mentioned faith as trust and this is what I needed to do in order to gain some sort of understanding during this particular instance.

This interaction inspired faith in my consciousness in three ways. The imagined form, the interpreted form and through Christian ideology contributed to this experience and the deepening affect of coming closer to God. Through imagination, I portray God as a symbol of oneness, atonement and all that is. If God is a symbol, what symbol can be taken away from a premature death and a violent one at that? This was a test of faith for me. The relativeness of this experience is all I can take away from such a dramatic event. God is ever present and everywhere while the symbol of God can be interpreted in many different ways and should be interpreted by an individual in a relative way, but for me, in this case, it was a test of faith to make sure that I was still aligned with this notion. Barth also noted that faith is knowledge which may help us " become sure of the meaning of our own existence and of the ground and goal of all that happens " (p.26). Although this was a gruesome incident, the knowledge of it helped me deal with life and death cycles that are present here on earth and cannot be escaped.

This very cycle of life and death, as seen in the life of Jesus Christ, is a testimony of faith. Although God is omnipresent, our consciousness does not allow for the Spirit to totally enrapture our complete being. These gifts of God in which pain and suffering seems inevitable, are probably most likely part of the mystery of life that is assumed when dealing with the spirit and spiritual matters.

Regardless of Barth or Haight, faith seems dependent upon trust. Trust relies on mystery to give it context and purpose. Faith is a function and system of trust, but trust would not be needed if there were no mystery. God is our symbol to recognize this mystery. Symbols are metaphors to explain the necessary confusion that brings knowledge.

1. Discuss Haight's understanding of the nature of scripture and its use in theology. In what ways does this understanding cohere with the understanding of revelation and faith contained in his text The Dynamics of Theology and Dei Verbum?

Scripture and the written word are tools of man and man alone. The same may be said about spirituality and religion. Do animals recognize Christ in all his goodness? It is unlikely that they recognized Him in the same manner that humanity has come to grips with this colossal mental undertaking. Faith, in my opinion is demonstrated and celebrated through the revelation of God through the written and spoken word. It is important that we select our words carefully and with kindness and with foresight.

The nature of Scripture and its use in theology is an engrossing subject that can be interpreted in many ways, so a relative interpretation of spirituality must be respected. Contained within the dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation within the Catholic traditions, revelation is explained through the words of interpreters dedicated to the revelations of the Catholic traditions. The words themselves are sacred and divine inspiration and interpretation is actually a manifestation of the Holy Spirit. Schaab's Exploration into God reverberated Haight's interpretation of symbolism for God, " theology quite literally, the study of God is essentially an exploitation into the mystery of God into the mystery of those things which God created into which God is related namely the natural world " (p.1) . Mysteries and symbols are interchangeable in my opinion and this is an agreement to which all those who approach the subject of God must understand before continuing further.