Editorial May 31, 1982 Issue

A national deity? Or universal Love?

WILLIAM E. MOODY

"Has God been Americanized?" It is a rather startling question. And most of us would probably respond by asserting that such a thing is quite literally impossible. God is infinite—certainly beyond nationalization.

Yet I sat listening to a carefully reasoned argument in support of this very thesis. It was a public lecture sponsored by a local university; and as the professor continued speaking, it became obvious that he was actually referring to a people's notion of God, not to God Himself. The lecturer expanded on his thesis by outlining the history of certain philosophical ideals in North America, beginning prior to the independence of the United States. He contended that as the wilderness was settled and society approached industrialization, there also gradually appeared a rise of reason in religious thought and an application of a modern scientific world view to prevailing considerations of God. Correspondingly, some of the old superstition about the nature of the Divine Being was disappearing.

That superstitious beliefs were diminishing would no doubt appear to indicate progress in human thinking. Yet, as the lecturer pointed out, a distinctly "Americanized" perception of deity seemed to evolve in western culture at the same time. And in other parts of the world as well as in America, certain religious practices and anthropomorphic conceptions of divinity still attempt to define God according to a personal or nationalistic philosophy. In effect such philosophies represent an element of material-mindedness and its self-serving effort to circumscribe what cannot be circumscribed: the essentially illimitable character of infinite Spirit.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

A national deity? Or universal Love?

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access