Editorial September 17, 1966 Issue

Healing a Deep Discontent

William Milford Correll

The current discussion of the "God is dead" theology reveals a deep discontent with traditional theories regarding Deity and an earnest desire to challenge existing concepts and reach for new ones. The fact that such a pronouncement has caught the imagination of some groups shows a very basic hunger for something better. But this is not necessarily a new phenomenon. Job voiced it when he said, "Oh that I knew where I might find him!"^{Job 23:3;}

One of the pertinent points in the many discussions about the nature of God is that rarely does anyone among the theologians refer to God as Spirit. In the preoccupation with matter as the basis of life and intelligence and the belief that man is, partially if not wholly, a material creation, men have lost sight of or perhaps have never really thought of God as Spirit. Spirit and matter are antithetic, and the reality of one uncovers the unreality of the other. Few are ready to challenge the reality of matter and prove the presence and the power of Spirit.

This could be the reason that some have lost sight of God or that some have concluded that God no longer speaks to us in the current day. Jesus said, "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."^{John 4:24;} If the present overturning of old concepts indicates a willingness to change from matter to Spirit, it can be said to be healthy.