On knowing God

The Christian radio station (the grown-up one, not the teenager one) this morning played a song I'd never heard before. I didn't catch the title or band, but it started out, "I tried to write a song/Three minutes long/But God wouldn't fit into the lines..."

Well, yes, but no.

I think that song (besides being self-aware and insipid) is a good illustration of a church fad at the moment, namely that you can't know God. I think it comes from a couple sources. Eastern Orthodoxy has a good solid handle on mystery, which is closely related to not knowing and being okay with it. But then there's the Emergent emphasis on not knowing, which draws heavily on Postmodern wafflings whether knowing and communication are even possible. (That's true for you. I can't tell you who God is!)

God wants to be known, actually. He set up a universe where it was possible. We can't know Him fully, but we can know Him truly. We can also talk about Him truly. What did God say about Job's "comforters"? "You have not spoken of me rightly as my servant Job has." Here God assumes that it's both possible and important to speak of Him rightly.

I love Postmodernism because it asks the right questions, but then I think you've got to let Christianity answer them. :-D