In one way or another we are all trying to make sense of our lives, of God, and of the world around us. It seems that the way we "connect the dots" depends on a multitude of factors such as upbringing, education, personal ties, previous experiences and eventually the way we process the raw data data to construct a belief system that not only "explains" why those things were and are happening but also informs the way we try to get some sort of handle on it to cope with that very reality. This, of course, makes any general objective truth claim look like a highly subjective endeavor that is bound for failure - at least in its attempt to generalize its claims for all.
Jonathan's book is an invitation to participate in his personal journey, a journey that is full of discoveries - painful discoveries, mind boggling discoveries, discoveries that can feel like falling into an abyss initially but turn out to be wonderful and freeing for him in the end. It presents a clear break from widely held traditional views within evangelicalism but in no way a break from a commitment to biblical revelation itself, quite the contrary. It's a careful examination and constantly probing questioning of the developing story of God and mankind in regards to its two most fundamental questions which frame it: what is the root problem of humanity and how is Jesus solving it? If we don't get right what truly happened in the garden of Eden and what happened on the cross in response, we inevitably will get everything else wrong as well.
The key to understanding the root problem is found in the contrast of God's repeated judgment and evaluation of His creation as "good" - in the case of humanity even as "very good" - and of the self-judgment of shame regarding nakedness and fear of God's reaction after eating fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This fundamental and sudden change in human self-perception and the felt need to run and hide from God in fear which has no real corresponding facts to support it (nakedness was there all along and with it God's objective judgment of "good", and no wrath is poured out or God's presence withdrawn as a consequence) unleashes a downward spiral of human emotions and actions to find validation apart from God's objective and unchanging perspective of mankind, labelled the "God imagination" throughout the book. It also leads immediately to all kinds of coping mechanisms to deal with oppressive feelings of guilt by cover-up attempts, blaming others, and projecting negative personal feelings onto God Himself.
Nowhere in the initial story is the breaking of law or a debt to the deceiver described as the central problem humanity has to deal with. Neither God and His justice nor Satan are the root problem we are dealing with, but believing a lie about God and about ourselves. We see ourselves as evil and as beyond the reach of God's love and grace. We think we are unable to confront the truth about ourselves and what we believe to be true about God while all along we fail to see the actual truth about both. Truth is: God can handle any of our choices, decisions and actions without changing his mind about us. He is concerned with the consequences of our choices, not with any particular choice or the ability to choose itself. Love and grace are part of His nature and character all along. They have always been there and always will be. And the same is true of His view of our dignity and value. Nothing we do can ever change that.
The rest of human history leading up to the coming of Jesus describes the consequences of suffering and death linked to the mentioned false view of ourselves and God, and also how all our own coping mechanisms and alternate attempts to gain approval and validation simply don't work but only lead us deeper into bondage, suffering and despair. Throughout it all, God reveals His love and redemptive purposes, even using the very structures and mechanisms we created, to speak to us about our need - but always in such a way that the root problem is not ignored but directly confronted. He is not simply rescuing His people from circumstances of oppression and suffering but reveals the false projections and idols we have created and wants to enable true confession and repentance by allowing Him to umask the lie and to renew our minds.
By becoming human in the person of Jesus, God takes the ultimate step of self-revelation in response to our self-deception and all its consequences. He models true humanity in a relationship with God that embraces his dignity and identity as the beloved of God. He proclaims the kingdom and rule of God which turns all our common perceptions and expectations on its head. He calls to repentance by revealing God's true view of humanity. And he is taking the unprecedented and unthinkable step to make God subject to human judgment represented by the highest authorities of religion and empire, to willingly suffer and die and thereby reveal the true unlimited reach of God's love and grace. He overcomes even the consequence of physical death by His resurrection. Through it all, the image of God and God's redemptive purpose is revealed and upheld even in the darkest and most gruesome consequences of the twisted human mindset to help us see and overcome the root problem.
God's mission in this world continues to help us realize that our reconciliation with Him is (and always has been!) granted and that it is constantly fueled by His relentless and unchanging love - therefore it is love and not death that ultimately wins. We are constantly invited to participate in this mission and engagement with the world - not only to experience healing in the midst of our personal brokenness but also to actively participate as healing agents for the brokenness all around us. This involves embracing God's love for us and all human beings and consequently an active stepping into suffering in order to reveal the power of God's redemption. But it's the kind of suffering that holds no longer the power of fear over us because suffering cannot change our true identity and God's approval of us, nor does death have the last word regarding our ultimate destiny.
There's much more in the book worthwhile meditating on and that I consider quite profound in its analysis but I just wanted to present the main gist of it here the way I understood it. This was not an easy book to read. I found it to be quite convicting in the way it laid bare some of my own projections and idolatrous tendencies and to see how deeply ingrained it still is in my way of thinking and acting and even my lense of interpretation regarding some well known Bible passages. But it also confirmed and brought together many other puzzle pieces I had discovered on the way of my own journey and not only resonated deeply within but also made a lot of sense in the bigger picture it presented.
I don't have a lot of criticism but I do have some open questions:
1. Why call God's perspective of unchanging love towards us and His objective judgment of our value apart from our works or other qualities the God IMAGINATION when imagination usually is understood as something unreal or only potential reality which only exists in the mind but is seen as lacking fleshed out reality? If truth and objectivity apart from our own perception (or misconception) is the point, this choice of words seems rather counterintuitive.
2. How do we deal with the inherent tension of an objective truth claim (God's view and disposition towards all people) and the statement that religious constructs do work for some people? It almost sounds like the FEELING of relief from guilt takes precendence over an accurate understanding WHY we should think we are loved and forgiven. If Jesus truly wanted to put an end to religion (which I do believe too) why should we be content with leaving people in the dark regarding the root problem they are still stuck in if they can't seem to be able to let go of their traditional beliefs?
3. Isn't this last point (that religion still works for some) an open admission that some people just don't have the capacity - in the sense of a prevailing blindness or a lack of will power due to fear - to overcome?
4. If some people aren't able to overcome does that limit the statement that love ALWAYS wins?
5. If human participation is the only way to see, enter and experience the truth of what is already true from God's perspective, aren't we essentially responsible ourselves for our own healing and the degree to which we enter our God-given purpose and destiny?
6. To what degree does the lense of the God imagination possibly become a criterion to claim distortions of an accurate picture in the portrayal of the biblical writers themselves? For example, if punitive justice never was the point what do we do with Scriptures that are still pointing in that direction (like Isaiah 53:5+10)? Are they then also symptoms and remnants of the root problem rather than solutions? And what do we do with those situations where Jesus, the perfect imago Dei, could have consistently demonstrated God's unconditional acceptance but chose to do and say things that point in the opposite direction (Matthew 15:24-26; Mark 4:11-12) - in other words: what do we do with apparent exceptions to the rule? Or do we decide they aren't exceptions even if we can't explain why, based on the majority of other evidence? Also, what do we do with Jesus' statements that seem to be directly contradicting the notion that we are not evil, thereby seemingly reinforcing the root problem (Matthew 7:11; 12:34)?
7. If the apostle Paul understood the God imagination why is he still seemingly making a difference between saved and unsaved people, people who have the Spirit of God and those who don't, people who are in Christ and those who are not?
8. What exactly is the point in proving that there are no possible exceptions that could change God's view of us when human perception remains the "bottle neck" through which everyone must pass to truly see and enter the kingdom? And isn't the sin against the Holy Spirit exactly that one exception that remains and will remain - not to dispute God's judgment but to render it ineffective and powerless because love by nature will never coerce anyone?
9. Jonathan explains brilliantly the inner turmoil following the choice to explore the possibility to make our own judgments independent of God and particularly the subtle nature of the original temptation which offered something that simply had no reference point. What he doesn't explain is how Adam and Eve could have made any sense of the command not to eat in the first place. The kind of response we would expect without the existence of a reference point in experience or observation is something along these lines: "God, what do you mean? What is that - "evil"? God, what is that - death?"
10. Which brings me to one last question: to what degree does Jonathan think there needs to be an actual historical fall and the real existence of a world without death for the God imagination to be true? Would we all have to change our mind once again, if no literal Adam existed and no literal change from life to death happened at a certain point in history? It's one thing to point out common threads with neuroscience but what about the scientific evidence of the presence of death from the very beginning of the world?
