Evolving Spiritually: Different Conceptions of God in Scripture and Experience

If you have a conception of God, then if you can think back on your life, you will probably discover that your conception of God has evolved over the years. Whether you are one who can seem to trace a progression from understanding God as the great king or father located right up there in heaven to a great power and Spirit with an involvement and presence throughout creation; or whether you are one who once had a comfortable view of God and now don't get any clear thoughts or feelings when you say the word "God," or whether you once upon a time felt that God was clearly with a certain group of people and not with others,but now it seems to you that God does not have an identification with any particular group of people, but with humanity as a whole . . . well, there are so many variations of possible conceptions of God among human beings. And, with each human life, there is a distinctive story, from the person who has gone from believing it all to believing none, to a person who has gone from believing nothing to believing every bit of what is affirmed by a religion.

We have lives that run either way: from C.S. Lewis who was a confirmed academic agnostic who became an enthusiastic Christian, to others who believed deeply in their young lives but came to see belief in God as a projection of human wishes and an avoidance of the nature of reality (see Karl Marx and Ludwig Feuerbach and Friedrich Nietzsche).

An individual's view of herself and a person's view of reality and the meaning of life is both a reflection of that person's view of God/ultimate reality and also one's view of God is a reflection of a person's view of self and others and reality. It is not a one way street. Religious knowledge is in a dialectical relationship with other knowledge. Religious knowledge constructs social knowledge as much as social knowledge constructs relgious knowledge.

For example, if I become very discouraged and depressed about life and about my life in particular, such state of mind is likely to affect my conception of God. However, my conception and experience of God is likely to affect my feelings about life and about my life as well.

For some, there may be a path of spiritual development that seems logical. For others, the conceptions of God may change with the seasons of life or even change back and forth radically with drastic alterations in experience. Or, for some, the conception of God may stay relatively the same throughout life, from childhood to old age.

I would like to know more about how people develop their belief or unbelief in relation to their psycho-social experience in life, and how people develop their pyscho-social experience in relation to their belief or unbelief in God.

Although there is something to be said for stability in views, one thing strikes me about the true experience of God. That is, that one's conceptions of God must undergo some radical challenges and changes if one's is to remain open to experience the living God in the real circumstances of life. That doesn't mean that a person cannot have a stable and genuine faith and a life-long experience of prayer and sense of communion with God. But, it does mean that if you get too clear and stable a view of God, it is probably something you have dreamed up and not from the experience of the Living God whose mystery is beyond our knowing.