Defining God

[A.W. Bowman]

Recently I came across a question that gave me pause to think. How can one love that which is unknowable? In this case, we are commanded by God to, “… love the LORD thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” De 6:5, JPS, while at the same time we are informed that God is unknowable and unapproachable. That we are unable to comprehend who or what God truly is, or to understand even His ways.

The Old Testament is full of descriptions of God and explanations (examples) of His nature, while also informing us that God is nothing like what He has revealed to us in His word. That is, God is above and beyond what we can conceive or imagine. All the while, we are expected to both know and to love God – which implies an intimate relationship. How can one establish and maintain such a relationship with someone you can only “know about”, but never actually come to “know” face to face?

This question, of necessity, drives us into a more fundamental dilemma, i.e. how can we describe (even talk about) God intelligently, without committing heresy? Heresy, in this case, being defined by Rabbi Yanki Tauber as “The placement of God within the scale of our reality, the attribution to Him of qualities that are part of our vision of our world and ourselves.”

We are all guilty of making absolute statements about subjects we know next to nothing about. Many times we are willing to die for our convictions - or even to kill others over theirs, as Christians were doing to each other up to only a few hundred years ago.

I therefore place before this assembly the following question:

How can one define (describe) God in both personal and spiritually meaningful terms that demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of God’s true nature and His relationship to His creation?

Okay kids - lets give it a shot. BTW, answeres like , "You can't", or "It is impossible", are not acceptable.