Classical Theism: The True Vision of God
There’s a creator on TikTok that I’ve been pretty fond of recently. His name is Colten Barnaby and he makes videos about historical Christian theology. The first video of his I ever saw, and I think possibly the first one he ever posted, was entitled “Your Pastor Doesn’t Believe In God”. Obviously drawn in by this phrase, I watched the video in which he broke down the notion of the God envisioned by most modern Christians and the concept of God most widely understood by ancient Christians. His breakdown brought up a lot of thoughts for me, and I thought I’d share some of them here.
As should be obvious, the notion that this creator is putting forth is worded in a way that gets a reaction. He’s being inflammatory for views. But he does actually get at something quite interesting - the notion of Classical Theism and how it differs from more modern notions of a creator deity.
Put simply, and perhaps a little rudimentarily, Classical Theism is the idea that God is not “a being”. God is “being itself”. In other words, God is not a person or a thing that is out there in the great beyond and needs to be sought out and hemmed in for our understanding. Rather, God is the very ground of our being, the ultimate reality of the universe - that from which all things flow. Classical Theism also emphasizes a concept known as “divine simplicity”. This is the idea that God’s essence and existence are one and the same. What this means is that God is not loving. Rather, God is love itself. God is not merciful. God is mercy. And so on with all the other things so often associated with God - knowledge, truth, kindness, inclusivity, presence, will, etc.
Classical Theism can still be found in faiths like Hinduism who hold to the idea that the ultimate reality is a concept known as Brahman. They even have different types of Brahman. Nirguna Brahman is Brahman with attributes, essentially such the stuff of existence. But Saguna Brahman is Brahman with attributes and can be understood through the devas (gods), the world itself, and the creatures that inhabit it. This sort of panentheism allows God to both encompass all things and transcend them. A similar concept, the Tao, comes to us from China. We are told that the Tao contains all things but can be contained by nothing. This is the same kind of existence as enjoyed by the God of Classical Theism.
For me, the God defined by this concept just feels so much more obvious than the personal deities imagined by most people. The idea of God as a magic man in the sky who some is a person but doesn’t have a body, has a will yet has no brain, and cares at all about what we do despite being infinitely above us in their being? That’s all nonsense to me. But the idea of a God that is will, love, care, and connection. Well…that’s just easier to swallow. Plus, this frees us from the idea that we are meant to please this other being who is really a person just as we are but greater in scale and power. Religion stops being about rules and laws and becomes about how we relate to and connect with this force which is already pervading all of creation.
My final thought is to take a page from Advaita Vedanta, which is a non-dualistic Hindu school of thought. In Advaita, there is no difference between the self (atman) and the ultimate reality (Brahman). These two things are completely enmeshed with one another, and, in fact, the atman simply is Brahman on the small scale. For Advaita, obtaining liberation from Samsara - the cycle of rebirths - is not about discovering a new truth. For Advaita, liberation comes from realizing at your core that which has always been true.
I think we can all take a page from the Advaitins on this one. God isn’t out there, and your relationship with the divine doesn’t rely on uncovering great and mysterious truths. God is present at all times. The only think holding us back from embracing the divine is the realization of what has always been.
