Howard: the fact of the Father

Friday, March 29, 2019
    Commemoration of Jack Winslow, Missionary, Evangelist, 1974
Meditation:
    And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.
    —Revelation 5:11-12 (KJV)
Quotation:
    The desire for certitude is natural enough and explains the human tendency to mistake faith for certainty. This is not a specially religious mistake. We think of supernaturalism when faith is mentioned, but the naturalistic description of the world also operates on assumptions that require a faith as robust as does the most soaring mysticism. The usual efforts to skirt faith beg all the questions there are. A psychiatrist, for instance, who points out to you that you believe in God the Father because you need a father, or that you became a missionary to expiate your guilt feelings, may be quite correct, but he has not touched on the prior question as to whether there is, in fact, a cosmic father figure who is the archetype of all other fathers, or whether there is an evangel worth spending your life promulgating.
    ... Thomas Howard (b. 1935), Christ the Tiger, Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1967, p. 97 (see the book)
    See also Rev. 5:11-12; Ps. 20:7; 94:20-22; Matt. 7:11; Rom. 8:15; 1 Cor. 15:9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are my true Father. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth