Transcendent, transparent, translucent

Then spoke Solomon, The LORD said that he would dwell in the thick darkness. (1Ki 8:12) He made darkness his secret place. (Ps 18:11)

We always believe that God is light and that light drives out darkness. Yet darkness, dark clouds, dark stormy waters seem to be God dwelling place. How this?

It gets interesting when we look at the etymology of the English word “dark”. It comes from a Proto-Germanic root meaning “to hide, conceal”.

The German word “dunkel” connects the two concepts of Hebrew and English, as it on one side means “fog, smoke”, but then also “blind, unclear, dark”, even “hard to understand”.

Connecting all this, we can paint a picture: God lives in a place that is chaotic, like dark, stormy waters, covered with dark clouds, a place that is challenging to see, we might even be blind for because of all the fog and smoke. It is obscure. God hides there, concealing himself, difficult to understand.

For centuries, even millennia, we located this dwelling place somewhere out there. Unusual sources have helped us understand much better, what those images were speaking of.

Carl Gustav Jung was paramount in the discovery of the unconscious, even the common unconscious that connects and spans all being, with all its archetypal wisdom and complexes.

He introduced the West to a concept called shadow work, uncovering the concealed within, whether golden or dark.

I cannot but think of Jesus telling us that “the Kingdom is within”.

But even more than that, I think of the choice of the New Testament writers to express the concept of truth, as in Jesus sharing with us that he is the truth.

The word literally means to uncover.

The static, yet vivid image of God dwelling in darkness now becomes a process, a story. This story goes like this:

Humanity was blinded to the light of God when they decided that they did not measure up and had to do something to be like God. Deciding that this was the way they wanted to become conscious and grow in ever more profound awareness, we placed God in darkness.

We even placed him outside ourselves, which God allowed for out of love, respecting our free will. Inside, in God's true dwelling place (or, let us say, in the portal to and most important part of God's dwelling place for each of us, as God dwells everywhere), there was chaos, mayhem, darkness, fogginess. We became blind towards the truth and made God something difficult to understand.

The story of humanity is filled with attempts to “get to God”, be it different religions, be it different approaches (pun intended). Some were initiated by God, some by men. God called Abram on a path of discovery, while men looked for a system of rules and rituals to please God.

Jesus clarified: I AM the truth. I am the one that uncovers and holds nothing back. I never wanted to hide myself, rather I wanted to share everything with you. Plus, don't look for me out there. I am within you.

And yet, he tells us that we are in him as well. Christ spans more than us. Paul informs us that God can be seen in nature, in all creation. If we take this, we could say that the Bible is pantheistic, but that would be a misinterpretation. The Bible does not tell us that God is everything, it tells us that God is in everything, and everything is in God. The concept for this is panentheism. God in everything, yet bigger and more than everything.

The common consciousness that Jung talks about, or the concept of consciousness being at the ground of everything, one of or the constituting factor of everything, as Iain McGilchrist concludes – these are valuable tools to understand and uncover more of the light that is hidden in darkness, the darkness of the old belief systems we so cherished.

Putting on these lenses when reading the Bible, we can see it everywhere. Expressed in poetry, metaphors, archetypal imagery because they lacked the language. We have some more language to put to it, to clear some of the fog, but we are not there yet. I expect that we keep on growing and uncovering, bringing order to the chaos, telling the storm and the waters to be still.

Is God truly transcendent, then? A good Rabbinical answer would be “yes and no”. God inside of us is translucent. Changing our worldview, becoming more transparent, God will shine through more and more. I am reminded of Paul saying that we see like through glass dimly, and of Jean Gebser’s concept of diaphany. Again, our vocabulary and language was broadened.

Using the imagery, connotations, thought patterns that led to the words used in the text, not only in Hebrew and Greek but also in our languages, learning from the archaic, magical, and mystical thinking around words, enlarging it with rational concepts, poetic expression, metaphors will help us to dig deeper.

This is a call to adventure, to go without knowing where we are going. Think of Abraham, and think of the starship Enterprise. What do you think, Number One?

Fascinating.