MSI Press Blog

  Most people think the hardest question in religion is Does God exist? But the deeper, older, more human question is simpler and more unsettling: What do we even mean by “the Divine”? Across cultures, the Divine is not a single idea. It is a constellation — a set of intuitions, metaphors, and experiences that different peoples have tried to name with the language available to them. When we ask What is the Divine? we are really asking How do human beings encounter the sacred? And that answer changes depending on where you stand. 1. The Divine as a Person In many traditions, the Divine is Someone — relational, intentional, responsive. Christianity speaks of a God who loves, grieves, forgives, and seeks relationship. Islam names Allah through 99 attributes — Merciful, Just, Compassionate — each a window into divine personality. Judaism often avoids naming God at all, not out of distance but reverence: the Divine is too alive, too holy, too present to be reduced to a label. Her...

  Arthur Yavelberg, author of the award-winning book,  A Theology for the Rest of Us , was recently interviewed on the Daily Soul Bytes podcast: "Exploring Definitions in Authenticity." This is the essence of Hinduism--that we are all part of the dream of Brahman/God. That needs to be properly understood. It doesn't mean, for example, that we "don't exist" and that we "disappear" when Brahman "wakes up." Having been "dreamt" ("created," to use Western terms) by Brahman, we become part of his consciousness--which is eternal. In that context, when the material part of us recognizes its eternal source, our realization and  Brahman's are two sides of the same coin. Put another way, just because our dreams are "dreams" doesn't mean they don't "exist." Such dreams become a part of us and may even be expressions of our natures and unconscious that, until the dream, of which we are not aware. Yo...

  The following is a guest post from Arthur Yavelberg, author of the highly regarded book,   A Theology for the Rest of Us ,  This is the essence of Hinduism--that we are all part of the dream of Brahman/God. That needs to be properly understood. It doesn't mean, for example, that we "don't exist" and that we "disappear" when Brahman "wakes up." Having been "dreamt" ("created," to use Western terms) by Brahman, we become part of his consciousness--which is eternal. In that context, when the material part of us recognizes its eternal source, our realization and  Brahman's are two sides of the same coin. Put another way, just because our dreams are "dreams" doesn't mean they don't "exist." Such dreams become a part of us and may even be expressions of our natures and unconscious that, until the dream, of which we are not aware. You could say we then recognize that we are both fully human and fully d...