This Week in Housekeeping

I posted the term panentheism four years ago and thought I’d update the entry because there’s been a bit of discussion about it lately in my little corner of the internet. Most of the discussion centers around Ann Voskamp’s book One Thousand Gifts, with some criticizing her alleged “panentheism.” 

My tentative take on it all is this: You know how the term “gnosticism” is sometimes used for a belief system that shares one or two elements with full-fledged gnosticism? I think something similar might be happening with panentheism. [Tim Challies is careful to say only that her mysticism sometimes seems “to border on the view that the divine exists within and extends to all parts of nature (a teaching known as panentheism).”] 

I’m no expert, but as I understand it, if Voskamp is saying that the being or essence of God exists in the material world, then that’s panentheism. If she’s saying that the material world exists because God is actively causing it to exist, and that’s the sense in which he is “in everything,” then that’s orthodoxy. I am open to correction, so please, if you know better, help me out.

I don’t know which of the above she’d agree with. I haven’t read the book and probably won’t because I find her writing style a bit difficult and I already have a long list of books I want to read. But even if I did read it, I’m not sure I’d know on which side of the line above she stands because her writing is poetic and not the sort of things that can be pinned down precisely doctrine-wise.

Enough of that. Here’s what I updated in my theological term entry on panentheism:

panentheism

• Added a link to Part Two of Norman Geisler’s Panentheism. 
• Added a link to Panentheism from Elwell Evangelical Dictionary.
• Added related terms aseity, creation ex nihilo, omnipresence, open theism.

Thankful Thursday

I’m thankful, first of all, for baby Amelia, my newest granddaughter. She’s growing and developing as she should. She’s a mostly contented baby, sleeping five hours for one stretch last night. All those things are good gifts from our good Father.

I’m thankful that my garden is mostly in and I can catch a breather. Between the new baby coming, an extra dog boarding with me, a trip to Vancouver, and the spring yard and garden work, I’ve been overwhelmed. But God is good, helping me manage it all and now giving me a few less busy days to rest up. Once the forecast freezing nights are past, I’ll plant the seedlings and all the garden planting work will be finished. 

I’m thankful that the lawn is greening and the May Day tree will blossom soon. I’m thankful for indoor plumbing and hot baths for soaking.

I’m thankful the God upholds the universe, and that his word of power brings the sun and rain and seasons. I’m thankful that he delegated the tending of his creation to us, a job that he helps me fulfill through the gardening work I love. 

I’m thankful that God hears our prayers. 

The Hidden Life of Prayer, Chapter 1

Once again, I’m participating in Reading the Classics Together at Challies.com. This time around, the book we’re reading is Hidden Life of Prayer by David McIntyre, and this week’s assignment was to read the first chapter.

I was planning to summarize each chapter here, but if all the chapters are like this one, I’ll be scrapping that plan. This chapter just isn’t easy for me to summarize. There were a few point made: Prayer is a given for God’s people; prayer takes effort; we should always be praying.

Let me just put up two quotes and leave it at that:

Our Lord takes it for granted that His people will pray. And indeed in Scripture generally the outward obligation of prayer is implied rather than asserted. Moved by a divinely-implanted instinct, our natures cry out for God, for the living God.

One of the signs, then, of a true believer, is the presence of a life of prayer.

[O]ne who lives in the spirit of prayer will spend much time in retired and intimate communion with God. It is by such a deliberate engagement of prayer that the fresh springs of devotion which flow through the day are fed. … [T]he true defense against insincerity in our approach to God lies in the diligent exercise of private prayer.

Now it’s on to the second chapter. Look for a post on it on Thursday of next week.