A star-forming region called NGC 346 is located in the nearby dwarf galaxy called the Small Magellanic Cloud. NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/A. Pagan

​God as The Living Whole
​

There are many people today who do not believe in God as a king on a throne. Where is the throne? Where is the king? And why a man?

And yet they do believe in something that staggers the human imagination and far transcends human capacities: namely the universe as revealed through astronomy. With help from telescopes, images of a king on a throne have been replaced with images of an enormous web of mutual becoming containing, by estimates, 100 billion to 200 billion galaxies, each housing millions to billions of stars, around which revolve millions to billions of planets, many of them habitable. We are small but included in a larger multi-galactic whole, and this whole is what transcends us. We do not stand outside the whole as observers, we are within the whole has creative participants. God is then reimagined, not as a king separate from the whole of the universe, but as the mind of the universe itself: a mind that lures the process into various forms of creative becoming and carries the memories of all that has come before. God is the living whole of the universe.

Can we learn to tell stories that help awaken us to this living whole? Perhaps it can help if we recognize that the universe itself is made of stories: that is, historical processes, with narratives of their own, that form the body of God. Let Patricia Adams Farmer, Sallie McFague, and Teilhard de Chardin be our guides.

- Jay McDaniel

​A Whole Universe of Stories

Patricia Adams Farmer
​

"We are in the midst of seismic cultural change.  In the old paradigm, priorities are shaped by a mechanistic worldview that privileges whatever can be numbered, measured, and weighed; human beings are pressured to adapt to the terms set by their own creations.  Macroeconomics, geopolitics, and capital are glorified. . . . In the new paradigm, culture is given its true value.  The movements of money and armies may receive close attention from politicians and media voices, but at ground-level, we care most about human stories, one life at a time.”  ---Arlene Goldbard, The Culture of Possibility: Art, Artists, and the Future 


GROWING UP THROUGH THE CRACKS of the broken worldview we call modernity are verdant shoots we call stories—human stories built of words and images and feelings and connected threads of subjective experience.  We see them everywhere, not only in film and literature, but in the daily lives of regular people telling their own stories about where they come from and what makes them happy or sad, about people they love and animals that make them laugh or weep.  About what makes life meaningful.

These are the messy, imperfect bursts of life that modernity views with suspicion.  After all, stories lack “objectivity” and precision; they can’t be tested and measured—-or trusted.  Unless stories can be marketed for big profits, they are devalued and walked over without a thought.  But they just keep shooting up through the cracks—all these human stories on the internet, in faith communities, in murals and memoir and songs—living, fresh, personal stories that don’t quite jive with a mechanistic worldview.

And along with the spurting up of verdant stories comes a little Cosmic Irony. For all our modern advances,  a sustainable future may depend on what we have left behind long ago: the stories and myths that birthed us into being.  We need to replant ourselves in stories as we move into a new, organic stage of human consciousness—one that just might save the day in the eleventh hour of our questionable future on planet Earth.  

Stories circle back to the past, to ancient peoples, story-tellers and shamans who told their hair-raising and comedic tales of creation around warming fires—or painted their stories on damp, cool cave walls.  Stories in sacred texts are like this, too.  But sacred texts are old and cracked like cave paintings, and not many people pay attention to them anymore.  But as constructive postmodernists, we do pay attention.  We have to.  We need to read, listen, watch, and feel the stories all around us, for stories teach us about empathy and connect us to the world and to God and to God's body, the earth. 

All our stories—written, spoken, sung, painted, danced—come from way down deep, from an ancient place, an organic and healing place.  In the beginning, our stories are the sparks flung out from the primordial fireball itself.  Like our expanding universe, these are the ongoing stories of the world, of people and frogs and trees and floods and revolutions and love and war, and even species extinction.  We need them—all of them, no matter how sad or how insignificant they may seem.  For in an organic world, a process world, all stories matter. 

Our stories matter because we live in a narrative universe.  In a philosophy of organism, the worldview of Alfred North Whitehead, stories make up everything.   Stories begin with experience and are shot through with feeling.  They inherit from the past and contribute to the future.  They have a beginning, a middle, an ending; they become and perish, and yet live for evermore in the eternal unfolding of new stories.  In this way stories are through and through organic, relational, always in process, and never quite finished.  Even in God, Whitehead would say, tragic stories are creatively transformed from mere wreckage to “tragic beauty.”  In this way, stories become another word for hope.

The entire universe consists of stories within stories within stories—within stories!  As Jay McDaniel says, “People have their stories; animals have their stories; plants have their stories; the earth has its story; stars have their stories; and heaven has its story, too.  Sometimes the stories are pleasant and sometimes painful.  Often they are both and always they intersect.  We are storied into existence by the stories of others.” 

We could say that the world, instead of being made of “turtles all the way down,” is made of stories all the way down.  But if we think of stories as frameworks for human meaning, we can also say that stories go all the way up!  A child’s life is a story that finds meaning in the story of a  family, which finds meaning in the story of community, which finds meaning in the story of global community, which finds meaning in the cosmological stories of the universe.  Stories go all the way up to  the sky and journey through the stars and planets and galaxies.  We are storytellers; we are meaning-makers.  

And so the ancient storytellers and shamans rise up within our collective memory, and we tell our stories of personal and communal and religious and cosmic experience.  We see ourselves within the stories that are trees and stories that are rivers and stories that are lady bugs and stories that are seeds.  We do this, as did our ancestors, because stories nurture meaning and ecological community and psychic wholeness.  Each tiny story matters, for it is part of the larger cosmological story, each story adding to the beauty of God.  Within this sacred universe of stories, we find our place among the stars and rocks and snowy egrets.  We find something of beauty; we find our significance.

Postcript: Sallie McFague
and Teilhard de Chardin

Many years ago, I was visiting with the renowned theologian Sallie McFague. Known for her emphasis on the divine immanence in creation, I was intrigued when she told me she was working on the concept of "Transcendence." When I asked her to elaborate, she shared a perspective that has stayed with me ever since. Patricia Adams Farmer takes me back to my conversation with McFague.

McFague explained that, in her view, transcendence is as crucial as immanence. However, she said, transcendence need not be understood through monarchical imagery, which depicts God as a king on a throne, distant and ruling from above. Instead, transcendence can be understood through astronomical imagery we get from science: from the images we receive from telescopes, for example, which reveal a universe of almost unspeakable vastness. These cosmic images show us that our planet and solar system are but tiny parts of an immense, dynamic universe that transcends us. We experience transcendence, said McFague, through stars not thrones.

*

Do we have stories that help us understand this kind of transcendence. I am reminded of Teilhard de Chardin. A French Jesuit priest, scientist, and philosopher, he was a master storyteller whose narratives bridged the gap between science and spirituality, offering a vision of transcendence that resonates deeply with the kind of transcendence to which Sallie McFague and Patricia Adams Farmer point.

Teilhard de Chardin's stories are powerful because they weave together the evolutionary history of the cosmos with the spiritual journey of humanity. He envisions the universe as a dynamic, evolving reality moving towards an ultimate point of unity and complexity, which he called the "Omega Point." This point represents the culmination of evolution, a state of ultimate transcendence where the divine and the cosmos are fully united.

Here are a few expanded themes and stories that can help us tell the story of transcendence in the way McFague and Teilhard envisioned:

The Story of Cosmic Evolution

Teilhard de Chardin's narrative of cosmic evolution begins with the Big Bang, the birth of the universe, and the subsequent formation of galaxies, stars, and planets. This story invites us to see the universe as a continuous unfolding of complexity and consciousness. Each stage of this cosmic journey, from the formation of elements in stars to the emergence of life on Earth, speaks to the transcendent reality that underlies and propels the evolutionary process. It's a story that instills a sense of wonder and reverence for the vast, interconnected web of life and the cosmos.

The Story of the Human Journey

In Teilhard's vision, humanity plays a crucial role in the evolutionary narrative. He saw the human capacity for reflection, creativity, and love as key to the universe's journey towards the Omega Point. Stories that highlight moments of profound human insight, discovery, and compassion can illustrate how our personal and collective journeys are part of this larger cosmic story. These narratives help us see our own lives as integral to the ongoing evolution of the universe, fostering a sense of purpose and connection to the transcendent.

The Story of Unity and Convergence

One of Teilhard's central themes is the idea of convergence, where increasing complexity and consciousness lead to greater unity. Stories that explore moments of unity—whether between individuals, communities, or even between humanity and the natural world—can help us grasp this concept. These can be stories of reconciliation, ecological restoration, or scientific breakthroughs that bring us closer together and closer to understanding our place in the cosmos. Such narratives can inspire hope and a sense of shared destiny, highlighting the transcendent goal towards which we are all moving.

The Story of the Omega Point

The Omega Point, Teilhard's ultimate vision of transcendence, represents the culmination of evolution and the full realization of divine immanence in the universe. Stories that explore this concept might delve into visions of the future where humanity has achieved a higher state of consciousness and unity. They might also reflect on mystical experiences, moments of profound spiritual insight, or visionary works of art and literature that give glimpses of this ultimate reality. These stories can help us imagine and aspire to a transcendent future where the divine and the cosmos are fully united.

The Story of Personal Transformation

Teilhard also emphasized the importance of personal transformation in the journey towards the Omega Point. Stories of individuals who undergo profound spiritual, intellectual, or emotional transformations can illustrate this theme. These might be stories of people who, through their experiences and insights, come to a deeper understanding of their connection to the cosmos and the divine. Such narratives can inspire others to embark on their own journeys of transformation, contributing to the larger story of cosmic evolution.

The Story of Interconnectedness

Finally, stories that highlight the interconnectedness of all things can help us grasp the transcendence that McFague and Teilhard spoke of. These could be stories of ecosystems, where the intricate relationships between organisms illustrate the web of life, or stories of scientific discoveries that reveal the fundamental interconnectedness of matter and energy. These narratives help us see that transcendence is not a distant, abstract concept, but a reality that permeates every aspect of existence.

​- Jay McDaniel