Idols Made of Words

Salve!

Once upon a time, there was a speck of dust in the universe. God called it Earth. With his words, He called entities into existence. As He called them, they appeared on Earth. They were assigned immediate tasks, and commissoned to faithfully serve their God-given purposes. They obeyed. One day, God's heart compelled Him to create something different. He thought of the perfect words to say, but could not speak. Speechless, He drew closer to the Earth, so that His fainting voice could be heard, but the words never came.

Now frustrated, God placed his fingers on the Earth and began to sketch his thoughts. He reviewed what he drew, and said "It makes sense." He smiled and placed his face upon the dirt and sighed. As His breath penetrated into the Earth, the sketch came to life. Amazed, God lifted his face to get a better look at what He had done. He called it "man." It was surely different, but nevertheless retained His image. He smiled again, and said that it was good.

It is often supposed that human beings were created in God's image. This way of speaking often refers to our distinctive virtues: self-awareness, the capacity to foresee possible futures and the rational powers to create concepts as well as tools for manual use. We can also speak. We are apt to create many things with words. The Ancient Greeks loved them. In the Market Place, most of the men were generous with their words. Others were slick, and actually traded words for cash. They were known as "the Sophists." They were word-pros! When they had nothing good to say, they still managed to make non-sense sound good. However, they could not fool everyone.

2000 years later, a Renaissance thinker likened our butchering of words with those of the ancient Sophists. He argued specifically against Aristotelian philosophy (characteristic of Medieval thinkers), but I believe that his words ring true for many of us today. He expressed:

"... the Idols [or illusions] of the Market Place are the most troublesome of all — idols which have crept into the understanding through the alliances of words and names. For men believe that their reason governs words; but it is also true that words react on the understanding; and this it is that has rendered philosophy and the sciences sophistical and inactive... The idols imposed by words on the understanding are of two kinds. They are either names of things which do not exist (for as there are things left unnamed through lack of observation, so likewise are there names which result from fantastic suppositions and to which nothing in reality corresponds), or they are names of things which exist, but yet confused and ill-defined, and hastily and irregularly derived from realities." (Francis Bacon, New Organon: 59-60 -- my emphasis)

Bacon brilliantly identified these problems in natural science and philosophy. I believe that this critique also applies to Christian theology, since many are inclined to think that we can paint a coherent picture of God by using words. Thus, human images, creeds and doctrines, with their sophisticated terminologies, are somehow supposed to come close to explaining that which is God. While they are helpful ways to talk about God, they often serve as obstructions. While they may also stir the imagination to probe deeper into mystery, words also tend to serve as the means by which we construct the idols we call God. Thus, the image of God as Judge can easily be mistaken for an old man with a hammer, waiting to obliterate those who step out of line. Used to strike fear to the masses, the idol of the Judge misrepresents God. Is God really as intolerant as many humans tend to be?

The image of God as Warrior is another interesting example. In the name of "God the Warrior", many nations have justified their acts of cruelty against others. The idol of the Warrior, with its swords and chariots, makes God the commander-in-chief of political and social oppression. There are many other images we can toy around with here. In the end, however, we run the risk of making idols with our words, and unknowingly mistake them for the Christian God.

Camardicus