In the second of our series on faith development at Cafechurch Melbourne (www.cafechurch.org) , based largely on John J Shea's book "Finding God Again", we talk about the transformation of our ideas of God from those of the Superego God to the Living God, a God as Thou, God of Love, God of Mystery, God of Freedom and God of Community.

1. Caféchurch 17/9/13
passage
Faith
Development
2 of 3 (or so)

2. Introduction
This is the second in a
series of sessions about
faith development –
becoming adults. This
week, we move from
thinking about the limited
(and limiting) ideas of God
of our adolescence, and
think about the idea of the
Living God.

3. A Contradiction in Caféchurch
One of the odd things about
Caféchurch is that we give
you a lot of information – but
the purpose of that
information is to explain why
extra information is not going
to help.
What is needed is not more
facts, but a whole new way of
thinking

4. Holy
Cross
Caféchurch 17/9/13
John 3:13-17

5. No one has ascended
into heaven except the
one who descended from
heaven, the Son of Man.

6. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that
whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

7. ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him may not perish
but may have eternal life.

8. ‘Indeed, God did not send the Son
into the world to condemn the
world, but in order that the world
might be saved through him.

9. A Question
In light of this passage,
give me one word which
describes God

10. Summary
• Jesus is someone who
reaches beyond the
boundaries of us and them,
and incarnates God’s love
to outsiders, outcasts, and
skeptics.
• Jesus has a truly adult
faith, and an “unfettered”
image of God

11. The soul is one’s true spirit and, like God, it is a spirit too
slippery to capture. The uniqueness of the soul shows itself
most whenever someone seriously elects a path of
psychospiritual growth for the remainder of his or her
lifetime. It is as if psychopathology of the ego is like mud,
and the more it gets cleared away, the more the soul
underneath will shine forth in glory, in a distinct pattern of
glorious colour that can be found nowhere else on earth.14
And while I am certain that God creates a human soul
differently each and every time, this doesn’t mean there are
no unanswerable questions. Nonetheless, however
mysterious, the process of soul creation is individualized.
The uniqueness of individual persons is undeniable (except
at peril to your own soul) and cannot be explained by mere
psychology or biology.
Peck, M. Scott (2011-10-31). The Road Less Travelled And Beyond

12. Main Resource for Tonight
• Finding God Again, John J
Shea (any uncited references
are from this book)
You may also want to read:
• Paradox: The Spiritual
Path to Transformation
Tickerhoof, B
• The Road Less Travelled
And Beyond Peck, M S
• Stages of Faith, Fowler, J

13. Spiritual Adulthood
“…the Son of Man came not
to be served, but to serve”
Mark 10:45
• Do you ever think that what
the world needs is not more
technical fixes and tinkering
around the edges, but a
change of consciousness?
• Do you ever think that’s
what you need?
• That’s what we are talking
about tonight.

14. The Superego God
“In our early development,
superego images of God –
as a parent-like, all-
powerful, all-knowing, all-
loving deity who is also
controlling, rule-issuing,
judgemental, guilt-evoking,
and at times terrifying, are
hard to avoid.… There
comes a time when… this
God becomes too narrow,
or too rigid, or too unreal, or
too inadequate to continue
holding our trust.”

15. Characteristics of the Superego
God
The superego God is a:
• Supreme Being
• God of Law
• God of Belief
• God of Dependency
and Control
• God of the Group

16. Supreme Being
• “This God… is a ‘God who
is simply “a being” among
other beings, part of a
series of beings, an “object”
which can be discovered
and demonstrated’”
• “Throughout the whole
time of its tenure… this
Supreme Being promises
security from harm and evil
– on condition that we can
stand in proper relation to it
and respect its authority”

17. God of Law
• “Morality and religion go
together. The God of Law is
a God of Obedience
because the essence of
morality consists of carrying
out all the commands the
God of Law imposes…. The
promise of security of the
God of Law is often
enormously reassuring to
us.”
• “An implacable judge who
has impossible and rigid
standards”

18. God of Belief
• “The God of Belief
becomes the God of
Orthodoxy. The right beliefs
easily become the essence
of religion and, therefore,
the adolescing self
possesses the Superego
God by holding the right
beliefs…. The task of the
believer involves, at most,
the mastery of objective
doctrine and teaching.”
• Along with the doctrines, a
strong emotional component

19. God of Dependency and Control
• “the God of Dependency and
Control provides all the things that
the adolescing self needs for its
growth and development, while…
[it] seems to leave little room to
the adolescing self for any use of
its own power and authority”
• “…promises to protect us from
the pain of inner struggle and
from having to make responsible
life choices, on condition, of
course, that we surrender any
serious striving toward real
freedom or autonomy.”

20. God of the Group
• “The place where the
Superego God lives, moves,
and has its being is the in
the group… the authority of
the God of the Group lies
with certain individuals who
apparently are directly
appointed for this task by
the Supreme Being. Only
those who have this
authority can speak, and
only those who have this
authority can be heard.”

21. The Living God
The Living God is:
• God as Thou
• God of Love
• God of Mystery
• God of Freedom
• God of Community

22. God as Thou
“the experience of salvation…
In the presence of a God as
Thou, the adult self can be just
as it is”
“We find ourselves in a mutual
indwelling with a God as
Thou… and… we experience a
synergy or shared interactive
energy, an empowerment in
God that makes us more our
own integral process. This
empowerment expands us and
moves us more deeply into the
reality of the God as Thou”

23. God of Love
“The God of Love is in the
law and beyond the law at
the same time. Morality is
now understood as a
relationship with the God of
Love”
Transformation results in a
response of more love and
care for others and an
increase in respect for the
demands of justice.

24. God of Mystery
“The God of Mystery pints to
‘a reality which is
experienced by whose
inexhaustible depths and
breadth our powers can
never encompass.
Understanding that there is
no adequate understanding
of God is somehow a more
adequate understanding of
God.”

25. God of Freedom
“As our relationship with the
God of Freedom unfolds,
what seems to arise is a
living paradox. We
surrender to a God who
invites us to be free, and
often our full realization of
the freedom comes from the
surrendering…. In this
surrendering, nothing really
important is lost…. We
experience… an
empowerment in God that
makes us even more our
own integral process.”

26. God of Community
“In our relationship with the God of
Community, what seems to arise is a
living paradox. We have our personal
experience of God by sharing this
experiencing with others, and in fact,
we can only have this experiencing
of God for ourselves when we are
able to find this experiencing in
others.”
This is “a God who invites a diversity
of adult selves to come together in
some greater unity.”

27. The Movement From The God of the
Superego to the Living God
Superego -> Living God
• Supreme Being -> God as
Thou
• God of Law -> God of Love
• God of Belief -> God of Mystery
• God of Dependency and Control
-> God of Freedom
• God of the Group -> God of
Community

28. Transformation
“The ambivalent feeling and the
conflict are transformed… Now we
seem to feel a kind of hopeful
anticipation as the promise of security
is transformed into the experience of
salvation”
“The goal of life is transformation, the
total reconfiguration of the self and all
of life into a new and dynamic
relationship with and presence to
God.” (Tickerhoof)

29. Salvation
All these experiencings of the Living God
resonate in the feeling and depth of the
adult self is an experience of salvation.
“That is to say, it is an experience of healing
or of the adult self being brought into some
greater wholeness. Salvation is experienced
as being without condition. In the presence
of the [Living God], the adult self can be just
as it is.”

30. A Useful Definition of Paradox
“Paradox is the harmonizing of two opposing
experiences or aspects of an expreience
that in themselves are irreconcilable but,
through another force acting upon them at a
crucial moment, are created into a new or
transformed reality.” (Tickerhoof)

31. Paradox and the Living God
God as Thou
• “External” God transcends external/internal
God of Love
• God is both in the law, and beyond it
God of Mystery
• The God who can be known is no God at all
God of Freedom
• In our surrendering, we become truly free
God of Community
• We can only have our personal experience of
God by sharing this experience with others