Humanity can only partially apprehend the Infinite Being we refer to as "God." Our apprehension is partial because we struggle to understand an infinite nonhuman being from a finite human standpoint. This is reflected in every expression of our faith, beginning with the sacred text.

There is nothing wrong with our human expressions, as long as those expressions are not absolutized. By absolutizing the finite, we stand in danger of "constructing for ourselves an idol made in our human image,"1 and we fall into the double jeopardy of ruining the finite itself.2 At this point, what we apprehend is not at all transcendent, but wholly immanent. This cannot be the Creator of all that is.

In spite of its predominant human language about the Creator, the Bible does present two instances in which Divine naming and description transcend the human. These are found in Exodus 3:14 and John 4:24. These two texts are keys to realizing the transcendence and immanence of the Divine Being.

In the first text, the Creator is Being itself ("I am"). In the second, with which I will begin, the Creator is Spirit. In closely observing both texts we may conclude that the Creator transcends the human but remains firmly rooted in history as Spirit.

The story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4:7–26 presents an intriguing conversation about the Infinite. In this conversation, Jesus seeks to steer the woman beyond her finitude toward the water of eternal life. In the story, this woman attempts to confine the Divine to a little mountain—maybe in Samaria or maybe in Jerusalem—where the true place of worship exists. She is not sure (John 4: 20).

Jesus answers: "…a time is coming, and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and truth.…God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and truth" (John 4:23–24). Jesus’ major point is that the Creator is Spirit.

The Greek word used for Spirit in the New Testament is pneuma. Careful observation of this word in its original language may stimulate more thought about the Creator. In the first place, the word is neuter in gender. As such, it says nothing about gender of the Creator. In Greek (and Hebrew), gender is not necessarily assigned based on sex (male or female), as in English. In these languages, a nonliving thing may be male or female.

Very significantly, too, the Hebrew word for Spirit in the Old Testament is feminine in gender. Again, this does not necessarily say anything about sex or gender of the Divine. This indicates only that thoughts about the Divine are expressed in human language. The English assignment of the masculine gender (he) to the Spirit in spite of its Greek and Hebrew rendering in neuter and feminine genders reflects a reading of the sacred text based on a male-dominated culture.

Furthermore, the word pneuma as Jesus uses it to describe God in John 4:24 has no definite article (the). In Greek, when the definite article is omitted the emphasis is often on description or quality, rather than on identity. Thus, John does not identify "The Father" as "The Spirit." Rather he describes God as Spirit. This is John’s way of saying that God is not flesh or human, and therefore cannot be confined to space (a mountain in Samaria of Jerusalem), or time, or any other human reality—including gender.

This approach is in keeping with John’s dualistic modus operandi of flesh and spirit, light and darkness, truth and lie. Indeed, John begins his Gospel (John 1:1–14) asserting that the logos pre-existed in a nature similar to that of God and entered into history as the Christ by putting on flesh.3

Thus, for John, the One we call "God" or "Father" transcends flesh (history/humanity) as Spirit. It is this very transcendence that makes the Divine immanent. Only as Spirit can the Divine move upon the waters and create the world. Only as Spirit can the Divine move among humans and convict human hearts. There is no "man upstairs."

The Infinite Being exists beyond anything we can comprehend, but remains among us so that we may understand. This is the mystery of Divine Grace that we experience every living moment, yet cannot coherently explain.

Exodus 3:14 presents the only instance of divine self-naming. "Who may I say that you are?" asks Moses. "Say that I am," answers the Divine. Here the Divine is not self-named as one who comes into existence, rather the divine is asserted as Being.4 As humans we stand within that infinite reality grasping at what we by nature may experience, but cannot fully comprehend.

Thus, an atheistic confession may really be a rejection of the finite images we construct in place of the infinite. For to deny the existence of Being is to deny one’s own existence. As we grasp this essential immanence of the Divine as Being, our focus shifts from finitude toward the boundaries of infinity, but it cannot take us beyond them.

The Divine is Being fully articulates what H. Richard Niebuhr calls "radical monotheism," and it is the legacy of Hebrew thought. This radical monotheism demands a radical ethical responsibility that lies at the heart of the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. This One Who is Being is the source of every specie, race, gender or nationality.

This radical monotheism urges us to stand in humility in the presence of this ineffable awe. It urges us to put away the idols we construct in its place in our failed attempts to comprehend the incomprehensible. It urges us to tear down the human images we put up in place of the divine—images that serve only to create havoc within the community of beings. It urges us to pull away the barriers we construct against the other, and to join hands and hearts in our desperate search to become one again with our Source.

Notes and References

1. H. Richard Niebuhr, Radical Monotheism and Western Culture (Louisville, Ky.: John Knox Press, 1960), 45.
2. For example, the reference to the Divine as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is a wonderful expression of the cosmic mode of relationship and purposefulness that humanity must as a whole emulate. However, when the exclusively male image of the Divine becomes absolutized it effaces the Divine image in womankind. Here our absolutizing of the finite becomes at once idolatrous to maleness and ruinous to womankind.
3. According to John 1:1, the logos (word) pre-existed with God, "and the word was with God and the word was God." A close reading of the clause "the word was God" in the Greek language does not indicate that the logos and God are one and the same person. Rather the absence of the definite article before "God" indicates that the logos is the same nature as God (divine). This is to say that Christ pre-existed as a divine/spiritual being. This is why the New World Translation renders this passage, "the word was a god."
4. Indeed some biblical scholars believe that the designation YHWH (Yahweh) may have its origin in this divine assertion.

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