Promise of Love

Open and Relational Theology

Photo by John Jennings on Unsplash

---

How many teardrops does it take to make a rainbow?
How many angels fit on a pin?
It used to matter to me but now I think you'll agree,
It's more important to be
Fillin' your heart with the promise of Love.

At breakfast this morning I asked my husband to read the first draft of this post. He did and said, “Hey, why didn’t you pick a harder topic? Quantum physics maybe?”

In the spring of my senior year in high school, I heard my pastor speak directly in a Sunday morning sermon to us teenagers who would be heading to college in the fall: “Don’t  be afraid of what you may learn in college. Some people will tell you that your professors will take away your faith. The kind of faith that needs to be protected from learning is not worth having.” He ended his advice with words which I later learned were from St. Augustine: “All truth is God’s truth.” The following fall I went off to Pfeiffer College (now University), a liberal arts school related to the United Methodist Church, without the fear that many students from more evangelical backgrounds had. I was free to learn.

Long story short, I majored in English, reading some classics that Virginia’s governor, Glenn Youngkin, would ban in a heartbeat. I’ve worked as a college English teacher, a pastor, a campus minister, and writer. I’m deeply grateful for the opportunity to be a life-long student (but not of quantum physics). I like research. Had I more courage, I might have been a detective, but I’m happy to be searching newspapers.com for details about Peter, Paul, Mary and the solo Noel and reading articles and books about the cultural, political, and religious currents of our times which seem impossible to understand without talking about theology. 

But please don’t let the word “theology,” scare you away. 

Noel and I are aware that our audience is spiritually diverse: mainline protestants, Roman Catholics, evangelicals, Jews, Unitarians, Buddhists, the spiritual but not religious (SBNR), non affiliated (nones), agnostics, atheists and many others. Within some of these categories there are progressive and conservative versions and everything in between. For such a diverse group, I offer this definition of theology based on its root words in Greek: theos (God) and logos (word or study of)—the study of God. Theology is a reflection on the nature of God, and surprise! Theologies vary greatly about that nature. 

Since in his songs Noel tends to use “Love” instead of “God, I have searched for contemporary theologians and theological movements that focus on Love. One that comes closest is called Open and Relational Theology. This is not to say that Noel is an open and relational theologian, but to say that if you want to expand your way of thinking theologically about his lyrics here’s a way to do it.

“Open” refers to the flow of time and a future that is not predetermined. Within time all human beings, all creatures, the earth itself, the entire cosmos, and yes, even God are in process. As Thomas Jay Oord—the most accessible open and relational thinker I’ve found—says that according to this framework, life is like a jazz session: “Like an inspiring jazz band leader, a Guide nudges, gestures, and coaxes us toward creative expression.” God has the power of love, which Oord calls amipotence, but since human beings have free will, God can’t control everything that happens. In the last 80 years, many people have asked why a loving God didn’t stop the killing of 6 million Jews in the Holocaust. The answer from an open and relational perspective is God couldn’t—because human beings have the power to choose evil over good. 

“Relational” in open and relational theology refers to the affirmation that God gives and receives in ongoing interactions with us. Both Hebrew and Christian scriptures portray a God who can feel, empathize, react, and suffer with us. You may say, “Of course, that’s what I’ve seen in scripture,” but there are strains of traditional theology that contend that God is “impassible,” distant and aloof. Such a God cannot love.  Open and relational theologians take seriously that God is love and therefore listens to and learns from us, suffers with us, persuades rather than coerces, and empowers rather than overpowers. 

In open and relational theology, God is the Lover of the universe and not only wants the well being of all creation and every creature but invites all creatures to contribute to the work of love. And if they fail in love or refuse to love, Love does not exact retribution, but keeps on loving. There is much more to open and relational theology than can be presented here, but central to it is the affirmation that God’s unchanging nature is Love. 

The lyrics at the top of this post are from Noel’s “Promise of Love.” What’s intriguing is that the lyric doesn’t just say “fillin’ your heart with Love.” It adds that word “promise,” which suggests to me a relationship moving forward in time and involving risk. All relationships that grow and create involve some risk. “Promise of Love” seems to me to be a poetic expression of open and relational theology. 

As I reflect on open and relational theology, I can hear my high school pastor say, “Don’t be afraid of learning something new and different.” And I can hear Noel sing, “I’m fillin’ my heart with the promise of Love, / taking a chance on the answer is still mine, oh, I’m / filling my heart with the promise of Love.”

---

CONNECTIONS: 

Read a couple of brief essays by Thomas Jay Oord:  “Who Is Open and Relational?” and Paths to Open and Relational Theologies.

Watch an interview with Tom Oord on the Begin Again Podcast with John Chaffee.

VIBRATIONS: 

Listen to the track “Promise of Love” from Noel’s album Facets.

RESONANCE:  

The part of open and relational theology that is perhaps the most surprising to those who have never encountered it is a theological framework that is congruent with science, suggesting an ever-evolving God and creation. Oord says, “Nothing and no one—not even God—prerecords history. The future is open and yet to be determined. We are all in process.” Is the concept of an ever-evolving God and Creation challenging to you?

---