Why does God want/need glory from humanity?

So, I have to admit that I'm a little bummed out that only 5 people (one being me) actually commented on the blog when there are 111 (for now) who joined the group, but then again it may have been a little bit early to simply ask you to become vulnerable with you concept of God. After all, religion and politics are the two things we aren't supposed to bring up at the dinner table; however, I can't stress enough how important I feel it is that these things NEED to be discussed. By being able to discuss these ideas, especially if we can get multiple worldviews (not just the Christian one), we will be able to clear up so many of the misconceptions and judgement held between belief systems.

Now with that said, I'm going to try a different approach and kind of hammer a hard question that I personally have been struggling with so that hopefully it can inspire some good discussion. Oh btw, (and this is not a shot at jason) instead of offering books or websites to go read, try and bring discussion to the table and give ur response to a question someone has so we can all learn from it!

Ok, so here it goes. From the Christian world view, we generally explain humankind's purpose as "to bring glory to God," or something similar. But why does an all perfect God, at least as we typically understand perfection, want/or need glory from us? Perfection means that God is complete and lacking nothing; yet, through desiring our glory (by either want or need) it would seem to suggest that God is lacking in something without humanity.

so what does this mean? to be honest i don't really know. Perhaps God was not complete until man was made, or perhaps, if God has always been perfect, then maybe ever since God was, we were. Thusly, we complete God as he completes us. Not at all to say that we are God or equal to him in anyway, but that there is some sort of strong dependence shared between God and humanity that is demonstrated through a shared glory or love.

Anwyas, this was just a thought i had pass through me during a class one day and i wanted to put it up here to see if anyone has any insights or to point out if maybe im missing something. Anyway lets get some discussion going!!

Let's Get Started

So where do we begin? There are soooo many complex issues and details intertwined with theology that it feels somewhat strange to simply start a discussion on this vast topic. After all, there are books and scholars on nearly every teeny tiny topic and then even more scholars who devote their lives to some of the teeny tiny topics within those. Truly, theology is no easy matter. Well, let's try something; before we reach into too many gruesome details within the beliefs we share, we all have some sort of developed concept of God. Who he is, what he is, his nature, his existence, his number, his power, his knowledge, his intimacy, his wrath, his love, his exclusivity, his universality, his mercy, his judgment, etc. are all taken in to account in our individual concepts of God. With that in mind, i challenge you all to consider what your own personal beliefs are and i ask that you will also share those ideas with us on this blog. I'm sure that some may be very similar and some will be quite different, but don't be afraid, instead be vulnerable and open up your ideas to the thoughts and ideas of others.

Here's mine:
To me, God is so much that it really is so difficult to describe him. I believe that there is only one true God; YHWH (Hebrew for i am for those of you who don't know). I believe that he is an all powerful and loving being who has created the existence we see and experience everyday. In fact, I believe that God's greatest demonstration of his power is the creation of free will; that is, the ability for mankind to go against (or for) the will of God. This gift that we have been granted is, to those of you wondering, what allows for both the immense amounts of love and evil to occur in our world (we can deal with this deeper in another post if you want). I believe that God is a God who desires a deep an intimate realtionship with all of his creation. And above all, I believe God is a God who loves all of his creation completely, wholly, and unconditionally. There is nothing you could ever do to earn God's love and nothing you could ever do to make it go away. He loves you for and despite every good and bad thing you do.

Well, there you have it. That covers my concept of God pretty well, I'm excited to see how the rest of you share your own concept and asess my own. Good luck and don't be afraid to be vulnerable! ;-)

The Way it Works

The way (I'm hoping) things will work out in this blog is that i will dive into a certain question that has popped into my head and figure my way through it. After i've done so i encourage everyone who wants add more to that argument, defend it, prove it wrong, ask questions about it so that the topic can be thoroughly discussed.

Secondly, I am definitely not some amazing theologian and do not know all the questions and out there. So if there are new questions or suggestions you have please email them to theallogyblog@gmail.com.

The Purpose

Before I post any questions, ideas, postulations and "what ifs", I want to let everyone who comes here to know the purpose of this Blog. Like the title suggests, this blog is a COMPLETELY open theological discussion blog for everyone and about anything that wants/needs to be discussed.

Point 1: The fact is, everyone has a theology whether you know it or not. No matter what you believe ABOUT god(s) the truth is that you indeed believe SOMETHING about god(s). (For example, if you believe God exists, if you dont believe God exists, or if you believe you can't know if God exists or not; they key is you still believe SOMETHING about God's existence and your side of the matter NEEDS and SHOULD be discussed.)

Point 2: Theology is important. Theology is often considered frivilous and tirersome but the truth is that it deals with so many key issues. The meaning of life, creation, after-life, salvation, ethics, etc. are so greatly developed through theology that one cannot simply ignore theology.

Point 3: I want to make it as clear as possible that i literally mean everyone who wants to join in may: Atheist, Agnostic, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jew, Muslim, Pluralist, Scientologist, w.e. This needs to be critically understood because for a truly effective theology to be developed by any one person, he/she needs to be able to experience and better understand OTHER WORLDVIEWS aside from their own. This can tend to become extremely difficult for many of us as we often think that the way we interpret "insert here" is how everyone else interprets the same idea. However, the fact of the matter is that every one of us comes into ideas with several presuppositions based on where we live, how we grew up, what friends we had, etc. Therefore, a major point of this blog is to encourage eachother and question our presuppositions with the intent to develop a more open world view and hopefully devolop much stronger theologies.

With the above considered, I need it to be understood that I (and other eventual moderators) will not tolerate any form of biogatry or slander WHATSOEVER. There is no place for that in our world let alone a blog discussing such a complicated and meaningful worldview as theology. It is stupid, immature, and flat out ignorant. Furthermore, (and i know this is not completely avoidable with blogs) please avoid any form of harrassament or insult in any argument you present or defend. The purpose of this blog is to have intelligent, mature conversation over theology--not to see who can come up with the best comeback line. So please, be respectful and openminded and I hope everyone who participates with this blog in either conversation or observation will learn from it.