Davis, W.A. (1996, December 24). "(S)he’s not your forefather’s GOD: From books to TV, the lord is hot, but not all that almighty." The Boston Globe, pp. C1, C6.

OVERVIEW

It is obvious that this writer has been watching prime-time television when he notes that "Americans in vast ecumenical numbers...turned to angels for counsel, comfort and assistance" (in 1996). CBS’ "Touched by an Angel" (produced with strong Christian intent) is just one of several examples. But even more than angels, God has become a hot topic for books and television specials.

This God, however, is not the thunderer and lawgiver of the Torah or King James Bible. Rather, He (or She) more often comes across as a hip and nonjudgmental New Age facilitator who empathizes easily with flawed mortals, knowing full well—if on a grander scale—what it’s like to be conflicted and confused.

Harvey Cox, professor at Harvard Divinity School, is a well-known, respected commentator on secular culture. He sees diminishing enthusiasm for institutional religion in current culture but increasing interest in religious and spiritual matters:

Books on religion that don’t follow the line of major religious institutions are probably popular because there is a suspicion of them, too...(Still, people) know there must be something behind the curtain. The beliefs that people have based their lives on for many centuries and millennia don’t go away, but they always have to be reinterpreted and give a new focus.

Paul Schervish, sociology professor of Boston College, challenges us to consider the relationship between culture and popular religion:

There has always been an interaction between religion and popular culture. The popularity of books about God shows that today culture leaders, who traditionally have been imbued with the scientific ethic, are recognizing religious experience as a legitimate phenomenon. I think we’re entering an era in which sophisticated people know that religion is not just an infantile search for security.

To what programs and books are these professors and this article referring?

• Rabbi Marc Gellman and Monseigeur Thomas Hartman, dubbed "The God Squad" teamed up for a December, 1996 HBO children’s special, "How Do You Spell God?" Based on a children’s book by the same name, it "used animated fables and biblical stories to encourage kids to think theologically."
• Bill Moyer’s 10-part PBS special, "Genesis—A Living Conversation" began in the fall of 1996. Writers, and scholars of different faiths discussed themes found in the Genesis stories (also published as text and workbook). Early panelists discuss Adam, Eve, Cain, and Abel as the world’s first dysfunctional family. Even God’s instructions seem to be confusing and ambivalent.
• Robert Alter’s Genesis: Translation and Commentary (Norton, 1996) attempts to replicate the phrasing and sentence rhythm of the Hebrew original while Stephen Mitchell’s Genesis: A New Translation of the Classic Biblical Stories (HarperCollins, 1966) is a "simplified, plain-language version."
• The "Pulitzer Prize for biography went for the first time in 1996 to neither a man nor a woman:" In God: A Biography, by Jack Miles, Yahweh learns from his mistakes, growing and maturing on the job. According to Miles, "He acts, then reacts to what He has done, or what others have done in reaction to Him. He makes plans and adjusts to them when they don’t quite work out. He repents, starts over, looks ahead, looks back."
• "Rutger’s professor, Franco Ferrucci, published a supposed autobiography of God in Italy where is did well and then in the U.S. The Life of God (as Told by Himself), (University of Chicago Press, 1966). Supreme but imperfect (just like us), Ferrucci’s God creates mankind out of a wistful need for companionship and then finds He can’t control—or even inspire—what he created. Taking various human forms, He has encounters with some of mankind’s brightest and best (including Moses, Buddha, and Jesus), but none is capable of the profound self-knowledge necessary to keep the universe from disintegration. So, using ‘a recent-model computer’ to work out details of His trip, this God departs for the borders of the universe, ‘where I want to rest in the late ripeness of my years.’ The message seems to be that God isn’t dead, just retired and living in the cosmic equivalent of Palm Springs."
• Neale Donald Walsch is an ex-DJ from Oregon who claims to have had long discussions "with the Almighty. Conversations with God: An Uncommon Dialogue (Putnam, 1996), vaulted onto The New York Times best-seller list soon after publication and sold more than 300,000 hardcover copies in less than two months. "The God who answers his questions is a hip and tolerant female deity who isn’t into wrath, sin, judgment, repentance or any of the heavy stuff." Her wisdom is that we’re all going to heaven (Walsch asked specifically about Adolph Hitler and was assured he’s definitely in heaven.). That’s an example of the nonjudgmental relationship God has with us (Walsch says).

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

1. Do you find this type of article and discussion bordering on the blasphemous? What is your reaction to this article review and the trend it describes?
2. From the title and tone of this article, do you find this religious journalist completely caught up in this new trend, remaining completely neutral and objective, or raising some questions or at least an eyebrow?
3. Is there any way that today’s students and young people may be influenced by these writings and television programs? How specifically might this be or why do you think students will remain unaffected?
4. What do these books and television programs say about the zeitgeist or spirit of the times in the latter 1990s?

IMPLICATIONS

1. There does seem to be a secular revival of interest in religious and spiritual issues. More than 80% of Americans consider themselves Christian. Judaism, Islam, and Eastern religions are growing in numbers and commitment. This will likely continue as we enter the new millenium.
2. Postmodernism is characterized by a declining faith in science and increased hope in the mystical or transcendent. Teachers and leaders have a responsibility to teach in a contextualized and relevant manner.
3. Globally, young people are at the forefront of religious revivals. Their spiritual hunger is neglected in some places and exploited in others.
4. Society’s need for a common good and strong moral base needs belief in a transcendent morality. Human moral instincts point to a moral design to the universe which in turn suggests a Moral Designer.

Dean Borgman cCYS