Richard’s Daily Meditations: Seven Underlying Themes of Richard Rohr’s Teachings
Second Theme: If God is Trinity and Jesus is the face of God, then it is a benevolent universe. God is not someone to be afraid of, but is the Ground of Being and on our side (Foundation).
Approach/Avoidance
Rudolph Otto in his book The Idea of the Holy says that when someone has an experience of the Holy, they find themselves caught up in two opposite things at the same time: the mysterium tremendum and the mysterium fascinosum, or the scary mystery and the alluring mystery. We both draw back and are pulled forward into a very new space.
In the mysterium tremendum, God is ultimately far, ultimately beyond ¢â‚¬”too much, too much, too much (Isaiah 6:3). It inspired fear and drawing back. Many people never get beyond this first half of the journey. If that is the only half of holiness you experience, you experience God as dread, as the one who has all the power, and in whose presence you are utterly powerless. Religion at this initial stage tends to become overwhelmed by a sense of sinfulness and separateness. The defining of sin and sin management becomes the very nature of religion, and clergy move in to do the job.
Simultaneously with the experience of the Holy as beyond and too much is another sense of fascination, allurement, and seduction, a being pulled into something very good and inviting and wonderful or the mysterium fascinosum. It ¢â‚¬â„¢s a paradoxical experience. Otto says if you don ¢â‚¬â„¢t have both, you don ¢â‚¬â„¢t have the true or full experience of the Holy. I would agree, based on my experience.
Adapted from Following the Mystics Through the Narrow Gate
. . . Seeing God in All Things (CD, DVD, MP3)
Discussion
No comments for “Approach/Avoidance (Richard Rohr)”