Above: The Harrowing of Hell, by Fra Angelico
Image in the Public Domain
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READING THE BOOK OF PSALMS
PART LXXV
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Psalms 130 and 131
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Were You, O Yah, to watch for wrongs,
Master, who could endure?
For forgiveness is Yours,
so that you may be feared.
–Psalm 130:3-4, Robert Alter
As I keep writing at this and other weblogs, “fear of God” is an unfortunate expression. TANAKH: The Holy Scriptures captures the meaning:
Yours is the power to forgive
so that you may be held in awe.
We all have learned childhood lessons we may question or renounce later in life. The more I mature in faith, the more I question childhood assumptions regarding theology. I have not, for a long time, regarded entrance to Heaven as depending upon passing a divine canonical examination. If it did, theological orthodoxy would constitute a saving work, and salvation would not be by grace. The most recent development in my thinking regarding Hell is approaching the concept as something nearer to Purgatory–a temporary reality and state of being. The Harrowing of Hell (1 Peter 4:6) influences me, as it has for years. The reasoning is: If Jesus did this once, he can do it again.
A more recent influence is Eastern Orthodox scholar David Bentley Hart, the author of Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and Its Fashionable Enemies (2009), the translator of a “ruthlessly literal” translation of the New Testament (2017), the author of That All Shall Be Saved: Heaven, Hell, and Universal Salvation (2019), and the author of Tradition and Apocalypse: An Essay on the Future of Christian Belief (2022). My copy That All Shall Be Saved contains marginalia in which I critique arguments and pieces thereof. One of Hart’s arguments proceeds from creation ex nihilo, a proposition I reject in favor of the Jewish doctrine of the creation of order from chaos (Genesis 1). So, that particular argument does not hold water with me. If x, then y. If x is a faulty proposition, that particular argument collapses upon itself. Nevertheless, Hart provides much food for thought, makes many cogent points, and offers a fine lesson in the history of theology, especially from the first five centuries of Christianity.
Hellfire-and-damnation preachers and teachers depict God as one who chomps at the bit to condemn people for their sins. Fear–not awe, but fear–is a powerful force for controlling behavior and changing it. Yet fear is not the approach in Psalm 130. No, hesed–steadfast love–is the approach in Psalm 130. And the focus in Psalm 130 is simultaneously individual and collective.
So is the focus in Psalm 131. In Psalm 131, God is like a mother and the psalmist is like an infant. That is a beautiful and potent image.
Divine judgment and mercy exist in balance. A good parent loves a child. Love includes discipline when necessary. Yet discipline is not abuse. God, as some of the faithful describe the deity, is an abusive and tyrannical figure. Any “orthodoxy” which requires thinking of God in those terms is a heresy. On the other end of the spectrum, any theology which gives short shrift to the judgment side of divine judgment and mercy is heretical, too. I do not pretend to know what the balance of divine judgment and mercy is, but my theology favors mercy more often than judgment.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
FEBRUARY 18, 2023 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINTS COLMAN OF LINDISFARNE, AGILBERT, AND WILFRID, BISHOPS
THE FEAST OF SAINTS BARBASYMAS, SADOTH OF SELEUCIA, AND THEIR COMPANIONS, MARTYRS, 342
THE FEAST OF EDWARD SHIPPEN BARNES, U.S. PRESBYTERIAN ORGANIST, COMPOSER, AND WRITER
THE FEAST OF BLESSED GUIDO DI PIETRO, A.K.A. FRA ANGELICO, ROMAN CATHOLIC MONK AND ARTIST
THE FEAST OF JAMES DRUMMOND BURNS, SCOTTISH PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER, HYMN WRITER, AND HYMN TRANSLATOR
THE FEAST OF JOHANNES DANIEL FALK, GERMAN POET, HYMN WRITER, AND SOCIAL WORKER
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BLOGA THEOLOGICA 
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