Sunday, June 14, 2009. 10:10 AM
No One Sees God: The Darkness in Which We Find Faith
The Sunday Forum: Critical Issues in the Light of Faith
Deryl Davis, host
Michael Novak joins Deryl Davis, producer of the Sunday Forum, to discuss a topic entitled “No one sees God: The darkness in which we find faith.”
“God is just not on our frequency,” Novak says. “Not on the frequency of our senses, nor our imaginations, nor our memory, nor our ability to form an adequate concept of him.” This is why we sometimes go through long dry spells in our efforts to pray. In Novak’s view, this is also why Deuteronomy says that God is spirit and truth. Although we do not directly observe God, Novak believes that we can find evidence of God all around us, wherever we see love and truth.
The world is the way it is, complete with evil, because God grants freedom. “If God wants to create a world in which the fundamental reality is freedom, he’s got to make a creature who is free: who has the capacity to reflect, to organize his or her own interior life so that he or she can make sound, reliable decisions,” Novak comments. And God created the world to have the potential for surprises and accidents, where beauty sometimes happens by chance.
Novak compares God to an artist, but allows that God’s work extends far beyond artistry. He recommends the words from “America the Beautiful,” “Confirm thy soul with self-control, thy liberty in law.” Humans’ capacity for reflection, wise decisions, and self-government can improve the world. Novak asserts that many of the loftiest ideas, such as justice—although claimed by people of many persuasions, including atheists—come from the ancient Jewish tradition or from Christianity.
Theologian, author, and former U.S. ambassador Michael Novak holds the George Frederick Jewett Chair in religion, philosophy, and public policy at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. He is the 1994 recipient of the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion. Novak has written 26 influential books on the philosophy and theology of culture, especially the essential elements of a free society. His latest book is No One Sees God: The Dark Night of Atheists and Believers.
About Michael Novak
Theologian, author, and former U.S. ambassador Michael Novak holds the George Frederick Jewett Chair in religion, philosophy, and public policy at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. He is the 1994 recipient of the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion. Novak has written 26 influential books on the philosophy and theology of culture, especially the essential elements of a free society. His latest book is No One Sees God: The Dark Night of Atheists and Believers.