PERSONALLY SPEAKING… [Sat, 10-19-24]

BEYOND WINTER; The Irrelevant Musings of An Old Man—PERSONALLY SPEAKING… [Sat, 10-19-24]

 

Theologically, I am a Borden Parker Bowne personalist. Have been ever since I came across his book, Personalism, in the stacks of the IU library when I was a janitor, supposedly dusting those dusty books instead of pulling them off the shelf to read them.

Personally, I don’t see how any Christian can be anything but a Borden Parker Bowne Personalist. I am, however, probably the only one. Not only because Bowne has been dead since 1910, the year my mother was born, but because Personalism makes too much sense to be a good theological doctrine. You think Karl Barth could write 12 volumes of Church Dogmatics about Personalism? Hardly!

Bowne said that God chooses to treat persons in a Personal way, the way persons deal with persons. As in, “I know the Lord has laid his hand on me.” and “We are upheld by the everlasting arms.” We are persons, so we know only personal ways of living and treating one another. We aren’t transcendent and eternal and omnipotent and such, the way God is, so God relates to us not transcendently and imperishably and omnipotently but… personally.

After all, who is Jesus but God treating persons in a Personal way?

Sure, existence—space and time—show us a Creator who is transcendent and is busy with lots of stuff besides me and my life, and you and your life. God is in the past and the future and everywhere, while we are here just in the now and the here. But God doesn’t get caught up in that stuff. God treats eternity in eternal ways. God treats persons in Personal ways. Why? Because… God! As Luther said, “Let God be God!”

Don’t get me wrong. I think God enjoys theology, finding out what people think about them. {Yes, God’s pronoun is “them.” Haven’t you heard of The Trinity?} {Grammatically, you’re supposed to use {} when bracketing about God rather than [].} God, however, knows that theology—thinking and talking about God—is for fun. If we take it seriously, we get into all sorts of trouble. God just wants to have fun. That’s the whole point of the creation. That’s why God treats persons Personally.

That’s why I am a Borden Parker Bowne Personalist. He wrote the book on Personalism. Literally. Also, if you look at his photo on Google, you’ll see that his beard looks a lot like mine.

John Robert McFarland