Next Meetup

Our discussion this time will presuppose the existence of the divine. Our focus will be on how we should go about understanding who or what the divine is, assuming some sort of deity exists.

Did the medieval theologian St. Anselm get it right? He described God as "that than which nothing greater can be conceived." His conception lives on today in the common Judeo-Christian belief that God is a perfect or greatest possible being. But the God of the Old Testament at times appears not to fit this conception. For example, according to Exodus 20:5, "I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me." We don't usually think of jealousy or intergenerational vengefulness as perfections. Is Scripture a good guide to the nature of God?

There are of course countless other conceptions of the divine, from multiple gods (polytheism) to the noninterventionist God of deism to the all-embracing God of pantheism.

Last but not least, there is the challenge of so-called "negative" or "apophatic theology," according to which we can legitimately speak of God only negatively, by speaking of what God is not. Related to this kind of theological modesty is the view that God is so unlike us -- so much "greater" -- that he transcends our comprehension in any meaningful sense.

It should be an interesting discussion. I hope you'll join us!