First, you may be like me and wondering what the heck “Ontological” means. I had to look it up. Basically it’s the study of what something is in its being. So a vague ontological theory about my wife is that she’s a human female. As I develop a more elaborate ontological paradigm concerning my wife, I perceive that she has a sweet voice, a gap in her teeth, green eyes–all pleasantly combined into something very pretty. What’s more she is a kind, patient person, with a sense of humor, and enjoys mothering and homemaking. I moved from a very simplistic ontological understanding of my wife into a sophisticated Suzanneology. Hopefully that helps as we consider Ontology as it relates to God. (Any Epistemologists out there, feel free to point out how I’ve misunderstood Ontology.)
Here’s three different Ontologies of God or narratives of God. You’ve probably encountered all of these in one way or another.
1. Overcoming Estrangement
This understanding of God erases the boundaries between creature and creator. This is the narrative of the ascent of the spirit into Godhood. In many cases it idealizes the spiritual world above the physical.
Here is an common example of the “Overcoming Estrangement” narrative as it appears in our culture. When talking with a homosexual once I explained how I believed that homosexuality was wrong because God had declared it wrong in the Bible. This person responded by saying that they didn’t find God in church or in the Bible, they experienced God in the beauty of nature and creation. So in their paradigm God is something encompassed by the glorious elements of reality. He certainly is not personal in that he would declare something as wicked. He is not separate from creation but present in the “good” elements of creation. Perhaps he is the Ideal Spirit; perhaps ultimate reality; perhaps he is the essential existence. he can be experienced in the spiritual state but does not speak in human words.
To encounter this God, one turns inward and ascends a spiritual ladder, in many cases detecting from the physical world to some sort of ultimate reality. The most obvious example of this narrative institutionalized as a religion would be Buddhism. In a less institutionalized form, this might be the New Age movement.
In the quintessential forms of this God-narrative, God never appears as something separate from creation. He is not a judge, avenger, rewarder, his is not even personal. (He/She/It) is found not by turning outward, but looking inward deep into our spiritual nature; the idea being that if God is not separate from nature then we have a part of God inside of us. The story turns to us overcoming our estrangement with the deity within and without.
In stark contrast to this stands the God of scripture. The Biblical narrative opens with the creation of the universe out of God’s imagination and by his free will. It is as separate from God as the paint on a canvas is separate from a creator. Just as the painter is independent from the painting, God is independent from creation. God is also judge in that he is the only one fully outside of the creation and can look on it with full objectivity and understanding. As everything from the atom to galaxies is created and upheld by his will, nothing is hidden or misunderstood from God. Not because he is creation but because only he is separate.
Looking inside of ourselves for a divine spark is futile. In fact, looking outside of ourselves is futile too because God is separate from all of creation. We can glimpse his Energies (as the Eastern Orthodox say so well) in creation but his Essence is nowhere to be found because he is not a part of the created world. For us to encounter God, he must show himself to us.
