The Infinite Love of God

Workshop number: 
15
Deborah
Haines
Audience
Who may register: 
Open to All (adult & high school)
part time-attenders welcome
Time breakdown
Worship/worship-sharing: 
35%
Lecture: 
30%
Discussion: 
35%
Experiential Activities: 
0%
Description
Leader Experience: 

I have frequently offered workshops at Gathering over the past decade, focused primarily on Quaker history, Quaker process, and the intersection between Christianity and universalism. I have also been involved in the FGC Traveling Ministries program during that time, with a particular concern for meeting revitalization.

Short Description: 

George Fox spoke of his experience of "the infinite love of God." Testimony to the direct, mystical encounter with unconditional love is found in the Hebrew scriptures, the Christian gospels, and other sacred writings. Explore what experience, theology, and science have to tell us about creation, universalism, and God’s love.

Long Description: 

This workshop is a newer version of the one I gave at the 2011 Gathering. It grows out of my observation that the way we experience truth is often very different from the way we define truth. Most religions seem to have a mystical, experiential aspect that points toward vast, wordless truths beyond human understanding, and a doctrinal aspect that spells out restrictions and qualifications. The two ways of knowing are almost always in tension with each other. Early Friends sought to set aside doctrinal and intellectual ways of knowing, and focused almost exclusively on direct, unmediated encounter with the Divine. The result was a deep-rooted universalism, grounded in an experience of infinite one-ness and infinite love.

This workshop will provide participants an opportunity to explore the experience of infinite love as expressed in early Quaker writings, as well as in the Hebrew scriptures, the Christian Gospels, and the writings of other religious traditions. It will also lift up parallels between the universalism of science and the universalism of the Quaker Way. Could it be that observing the one-ness of the universe, in all its infinite complexity and variety, is only another way of experiencing what George Fox and other mystics have identified as the infinite love of God?

During the week I plan to present the following five topics:

Monday: Early Friends
Tuesday: The Hebrew Scriptures
Wednesday: The Christian Gospels
Thursday: Other Religious Traditions
Friday: Science and Experiential Knowing

These topics will build on each other to some extent, but each can be understood on its own. Participants who can only come for a day or two would be welcome.

Each day will begin with worship, followed by a brief presentation. After a discussion period, we will divide into worship sharing groups to explore our individual responses to the issues raised in the presentation and discussion.

I will probably expand the list of recommended books over the coming months, but these are a few of the basics:

George Fox's Journal
Robert Barclay's Apology
Philip Gulley and James Mulholland, If Grace is True
Peter Eccles, The Presence in the Midst
Harvey Gilman, Spiritual Hospitality
Samuel Caldwell, Inward Light

There will be no required reading for the course. I will pass out handouts each day including selections from these and other sources.