The Silence of the Lamb: Exploring the Hiddenness of Christ and God

Description

Many Christian philosophers and theologians have proposed a variety of explanations over the centuries for why a God of love might exist yet seem so silent and hidden. The Silence of the Lamb: Exploring the Hiddenness of God and Christ considers these arguments, particularly those of the philosopher, J. L. Schellenberg and a variety of post-Reformation theologians. Ultimately, Silence of the Lamb focuses particular attention on the ideas of Process Theology and Open and Relational Theology. These recent theologies envision a God who loves, who longs to relate to us, and who is in time sharing our suffering with us. Their explanations for God’s hiddenness, by dispensing with notions like God’s omnipotence, are more straightforward than the explanations of earlier traditions.

In the final chapters, Silence of the Lamb uses Process and Open and Relational ideas, sometimes pushing a little beyond them, to propose three scenarios that illustrate how our hopes for glorious afterlives might be justified. A fourth scenario suggests that God might have evolved from a creator more concerned with the technical side of designing universes into a sustainer devoted to love and relationship. This evolving God desires our help, and even needs our help, to turn reality into the glorious, everlasting community God dreams it can become.