Power and vulnerability …

It is somewhat true to say as John Buchanan does that the "uniquely Christian idea is that the essence of God is not ... power--but vulnerable love" ("Extravagant gift," Dec. 11). Both the manger birth and the cross express that truth. But it is more accurate to say that the "essence of God is power directed by vulnerable love."

Both the Hebrew and Muslim name for God is derived from the Semitic root el, meaning power--not an unreasonable name for the One who creates all things, visible and invisible.

The danger of our modern religious culture is the division between those who see God as loveless power, which has given us both 9/11 and Iraq, and those who see God as powerless love, which has given us a rapidly shrinking mainline church. The God of the New Testament is hardly powerless, as the story of the resurrection proclaims. And if Harold K. Bush Jr. is to be cured of his grief and reunited with his deceased son, Daniel, it will require a God whose essence is power directed by vulnerable love to wipe away his every tear ("Grief work," Dec. 11). A powerless God cannot do that.

Barry H. Downing

Endwell, N.Y.

COPYRIGHT 2008 The Christian Century Foundation
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning