God is the measure of relevance

This is good:

The philosopher Gabriel Marcel once distinguished between approaching life as a problem and entering it as a mystery.

This sounds like a distinction between science and religion, but it’s not. There are plenty of scientists who view the world with awe and wonder, as an object of beauty rather than calculation, and plenty of religious folk who treat their scriptures as textbooks with all the answers at the back.

Indeed I’d suggest that the fundamental malaise of contemporary Christianity is precisely its substitution of a problem-solving God for a God who is ultimate mystery.

For many people, God is a god who answers my questions, satisfies my desires and supports my interests. A user-friendly god you can access and download at the push of a prayer-key, a god you can file and recall when you need him (which gives “Save As” a whole new meaning!). A utility deity for a can-do culture. Evangelism becomes a form of marketing, and the gospel is reduced to a religious commodity.

The real God is altogether different. He is not a useful, get-it, fix-it god. He is not “relevant”, he is the measure of relevance...Read More.