Dynamic Evolving Cosmic Presence

There are many sources of information and inspiration for me.  I like to read things from other Christian traditions to supplement my own valued Quaker spirituality.  And I feel blessed by all the non-Christian friends I have.  And I appreciate chances to read some from their traditions, like Judaism, Islam and Buddhism.  Our multi-cultural society is so much different than the little, homogeneous world of rural Indiana of my growing up days.   

One of the groups within Christianity I appreciate are the nuns and religious sisters.  I have never been an official Roman Catholic, although I proudly admit to some crypto-Catholic tendencies.  I obviously have never been a monk or nun, but I have learned about their calling and way of life and highly value what the monastic life has taught me.  Recently, I had the honor of speaking to a fairly sizable gathering of Catholic sisters in the city where I live.  Their warmth, welcome and wisdom were palpable when I was with them.  I don’t know whether they gained anything from me, but I know I left that day a rich guy! 

One group of nuns I follow is the large umbrella group known as the LCWR, which stands for the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.  This is an association of leaders of various congregations of religious women.  Their website says there are 1350 members, which represent about 80% of the 48,500 Catholic religious women in the United States.  They have an annual gathering and, honestly, some of the best theology I read comes from gatherings like theirs. 

At a recent such gathering, the final speaker was a Benedictine monk from Belgium who has spent the last forty years living in Peru.  Brother Simon Pedro Arnold brought some intriguing ideas to me.  We were told that he “blended Christian theology with Andean spirituality.  For example, he began by “introducing the sister leaders to the concept of ayni, reciprocity, particularly in the Trinity.”  I have never heard that word, so I wanted to pursue it.  I like the idea of reciprocity and could quickly talk about how I think that is a core idea of Quaker spirituality. 

His next sentence really drew me into his thinking.  The author of the article, Soli Salgado, says of Arnold, "In the Andes, individual experience does not exist," he said.  God is seen "as a kind of dynamically evolving cosmic presence," a concept that influences his approach to Trinitarian faith.”  This is very much not the way the typical American---even American Christian---tends to see things.  Much of our culture is grounded on a kind of individualism.  Probably the most used pronoun in our American English is the word, “mine!”  Our vocabulary is built on getting ours---usually at the expense of others or, at least, before they get theirs.   

Even when we think about religion and spirituality, it tends to start with the person---the individual---and maybe get to the community or group.  As much as Quakers emphasize community, our approach typically talks about personal experience as primary.  Start with me and may get to you and us.  So to hear Arnold say the Peruvians where he lives do not have individual experience blows my mind.  I would love to spend time with him to pursue this.  Right now, we have to take it at face value.   

The sentence from Arnold then moves to a comment about God.  I am fascinated by his description of God.  God is a “dynamically evolving cosmic presence.”  In many ways this is not the God of the creeds, but it is an attractive way to talk about God for our 21st century.  As a Quaker, to talk about God as presence resonates very much.  And it matches my most predictable experience of God.  Experientially God most frequently comes to me as Presence.  Arnold helps me with some nuancing of this Presence. 

Presence is dynamic.  That is a good way to see it---not static.  The Living God should be dynamic.  It moves, dances, flits and ebbs---and many more cool verbs to use descriptively.  And that dynamic God is evolving.  As a boy, I don’t think I ever heard anyone dare say that perhaps God also was evolving.  However, as I have immersed myself more in the way scientists describe our world, evolution makes sense.  I have come to see and appreciate that God is also evolving.  That does not make God any less of a god.   

And indeed, God is a cosmic God.  Years ago I learned to talk about the universe rather than our world.  The language of world tends to limit and be too narrow.  Our world may be simply earth---or earth with a few nearby planets.  Universe for me is a more expansive terms.  Universe reaches to other galaxies and takes into account the mind-blowing number of “things” so far out there I cannot even conceive of their magnitude.  But they are part of God’s Presence. 

I value this brief description of God offered by this Benedictine brother.  But it is also a challenge.  It means I have to think about prayer in new ways.  How do we pray to this dynamically evolving cosmic Presence?  What does obedience mean?  But these are questions that are worth pursuing.  I would love to pursue them in conversation with the religious women and men of the Catholic Church and many other folks from various traditions.