Clever Peter Rollins likes to play with words by writing words with slashes “/” in them, thereby giving double meanings. Anyway…
One of my favorite quotes from the whole book has to do with God’s transcendence. Rollins makes a fantastic argument that we generally misinterpret the concept. How many of you have learned/believe that God’s transcendence means He is other than us, different, even distant? This is often contrasted to God’s immanence = God is close, near, available. Rollins says:
“God ought to be understood as radically transcendent, not because God is somehow distant and remote from us, but precisely because God is immanent. In the same way that the sun blinds the one who looks directly at its light, so God’s incoming blinds our intellect” (24).
In other words, God’s transcendence is like the sun – massive, overpowering. In fact, it is too much to look at – we have to close our eyes or turn away from God’s blinding brilliance. Rollins calls this hypernymity: God gives “too much information” for us to handle.
So, transcendence doesn’t mean far away. In a weird way, it means “too close.” Rollins is essentially trying to redefine the seeming paradox between immanence and transcendence.
I like it. Try it out – face the sun, eyes closed. This is God. He is transcendent. But he is a flaming supernova who warms your skin and shows through the skin of your eyelids, no matter how tightly you shut your eyes.
He loves you.
