i am arthur flowers of the delta clan flowers and the line of o killens.
i am a babagriot of the hoodoo way
i have a question.
what is the nature of god.
this question came up recently for me in another forum. what pray tell is the nature of god.
the question was not answered to my satisfaction. or rather i should say the question was not explored to my satisfaction. questions like this i don’t expect a definitive answer. but the question itself intrigues me
i use the word god generically. god, gods, orisha, the divine force, the powers that be, the ultimate wow. polytheistic, monotheistic. whatever.
and i am not interested in religious dogma. if all you are going to do is give me textbook examples of what your particular religion or atr path got to say about god, don’t bother. for that i can read a book. i would like to know what folk think about the ultimate nature of god beyond dogma.
i am most interested in exploring the african way of god.
what defines an african way of god. what is universal about the african way of god. what is particular. what is viable across atr traditions.
there are some cross traditional factors that come to mind right away. generally polytheistic and ancestral. probably ecstatic over meditational. congregational.
i would like to take this question further and ask what is the relationship of the atr understanding of god to the gods of other cultures.
and how do we validate our particular understanding of god over other cultures definitions of god. or can we. what makes our beliefs true and other folks beliefs not true. or are they all true.
what is universal about god. what is not.
and what is the process by which national religious traditions are universalized. do we want to universalize the african way of god. what are the advantages. disadvantages.
how do cultures empower their gods in the world. how do we empower the african way of god in the world. what exactly is the african way of god.
every religion pretty much claims its dogma and its rules of ritual are inviolate and divinely sanctioned. are they all inviolate. if not, which are and which arent.
which aspects of african worship are eternal and unchanging and which should be left behind as we move into the 21st century
and even further, what is the point. why concern yourself with a question as nebulous as the nature of god.
does it affect your life to ponder this ultimately unanswerable question. how does your understanding of god affect your practice. how does your understanding of god, and our relationship with god, affect your daily life.
does one have to be religious in order to be spiritual. whats the advantage of being religious. of being spiritual. of god as personal quest.
and let me get even more specfic
of what use is an understanding of god, and in particular an understanding of the african way of god, to us as afrospiritual workers in the various atr traditions.
in particular my own hoodoo tradition. which has not historically been concerned with the divine. what is god to us. the lost children of legba.
and what about the political component of god. the ideological aspect of god in the world. what makes a god strong. how and why do folk forge new gods.
are gods a function of how many people serve them. are gods who aren’t served dead gods. are gods whose precepts are no longer viable in contemporary society dead gods. what is a dead god. what are living gods. mythical ones. when do gods go bad.
and why are holywars the worst of wars. what roles do priests and prophets play. what is the nature of revelation. what is the power of faith.
god, i got so many questions.
most folk believe what their cultures tell them to believe.
most folk believe that their cultural teachings about god are sacred and inviolate and all others myth.
most folk believe that we already know everything there is to know about the gods
and the very act of questioning gods nature a blasephemy.
yet it is probably presumptuous to assume that we know everything there is to know about god. our understanding of god has often been refined by divine revelation and scientific discovery
and just as often corrupted
i personally believe the ultimate question unanswereable. i believe that we are probably incapable of fully encompassing the divine. touching perhaps but not encompassing. never fully understanding
folk generally define god according to their cultural needs and natures
but god is probably beyond anything we can conceive.
were i to boil my understanding of god down into a digestible proverb it would be:
god the benevolent universe
in its many names and infinite manifestations
well now clearly the universe may not actually be benevolent
the human condition appears to be one of unrelenting trial and tribulation
and when planets shrug both saints and sinners suffer
but i believe in harmonies far greater perhaps than we are capable of hearing
and i believe the universe is ultimately benevolent because i want to believe it is
which seems to be a basic criteria of god belief
i somewhat arbitrarily chose to believe in:
god the benevolent universe
in its many names and infinite manifestations
i somewhat arbitrarily chose an african way of god
as most resonant to my soul
some vague hoodoo fusion of congo, yoruba, fon, blackbaptist
and whatever else i choose to throw into the pot
devoted horse of legba, oshun and highjohnny conqueroo
but i am always open to further understanding
in this perhaps the most fundamental of beliefs
i would like to know
what you think, what do you believe
word by rickydoc
gods blessings on us all
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