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The Arrogance of Religion
By John Gavazzoni
Picking up my copy of Karl Barth's Commentary on Romans, as I often do, I just opened it up at random, and began to read when the phrase, "the arrogance of religion" caught my attention. I believe, from my recollection of that moment, Barth repeated himself in a short context. Whatever one might think of the man who was considered the greatest theologian of the twentieth century, one would have to admit from even a cursory reading of Barth, that he, in the strongest language, exposed the difference between God and what religion presumes to know and declare of Him. According to Barth, there is between the two a vast and deep chasm.
Sometimes the arrogance of religion is just plain out-in-the-open apparent. J. B. Phillips took that arrogance to task noting that God doesn't not fit in our conceptual box(es), declaring appropriately, that our God (the God according to us) is too small. Yes, I'm generalizing when I say, "our" and "us," because the indictment is applicable to all in some measure or another since we all have an inclination toward the kind of presumption, as the story goes, of a child telling her teacher that she was drawing a picture of God. "But, no one knows what God looks like," explained the teacher. Nonplused at that claim, the child said, "well they will when I'm through." Yep, that sums up the arrogance of religion.
But it's not always just plain out-in-the-open apparent; it's more, as the saying goes, hidden in plain sight. Some examples: With presumptive confidence, mainstream evangelicals, for instance, are often heard pressing upon their audience the need "to make Jesus your Lord." Now that is definitely arrogance hidden in plain sight, hidden because of a presumption on the part of the speaker and his hearers. The root-presumption is that, in the final analysis, where the rubber meets the road, what God desires to do for us, he leaves up to us to determine.
Peter preaching on the Day of Pentecost declared to his hearers that while they, by wicked hands, had crucified the Lord of glory, God has made Him both Lord and Christ. Did you get that? God hath made Him...." What God hath done, let no evangelist, teacher, pastor, or theologian, disclaim by the making of Jesus to be Lord the prerogative of a man. We can neither make Him Lord, nor deny Him His Lordship over us, over any of us! God has made Him Lord of who? Of all; none excluded. Is Jesus Lord only over those who have surrendered to His Lordship? Can the obstinance of a man nullify what God has done? Later, in the house of Cornelius, Peter made it clear, "The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of ALL:)" (emphasis mine).
Like-mindedly preachers are often heard plaintively pleading, "God is trying to tell us..." Really? God is trying? Poor God, just can't get through our thick skulls; can't manage to be heard above other voices. What indignity we project upon the word of God! He spoke the heavens and the earth into existence but He can't command the hearing of the human ear and conscience? Whether His voice "is like the sound of many waters," or "as the still, small quiet voice," the speaking of God cuts through any and all vainly-attempted resistance. "Let him that hath an ear, hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." God doesn't try to get through to someone who He has not given an ear to hear. Is there any suggestion in the gospel accounts of Jesus calling the disciples to follow Him of Him laboring to get a hearing from any of those called? He spoke, "come follow Me..." and they came. The required response to the voice of God is inherent in that voice. What God requires, he provides (Barth).
And then there's the equally disgusting plea, "let God..." No, God permits a man, a man does not permit God. Such passages as, "let God arise and His enemies be scattered," and, "let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts..." convey, not God needing our permission in regard to anything, but such passages rhetorically convey agreement and encouragement, not permission. To get the sense of what is conveyed, imagine someone beholding God in a field of action, and that one saying, "Yes, Lord, wonderful!" Our "letting" doesn't release His action. His action releases our assent.
We need our concepts and our language to be aligned under the majesty of God. Mary, the mother of Jesus, exclaimed, "My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God, my savior." Let our speech magnify the Lord, not minimize Him. We lack the fear of God, that is, we lack the standing in awe of, and the reverential respect due, him, and our language so often reveals our lack. "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." And it follows that our speech betrays our heart's thinking.
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