7 - Assumptions about God’s Power in Problematic Pastoral Remarks

Summary

Problematic pastoral remarks assume the validity of an unsystematic and incoherent synthesis of “traditional” theological accounts of God’s power, which are grounded only in accounts of God’s power in providence, and culturally “conventional” notions of power in general. In certain respects the former arguably could block attribution to God of “conventional” notions of power. However, they are sufficiently vague in other respects that they invite “clarification” by “common sense” “conventional” notions of power, which warrant problematic pastoral remarks. This proposal urges that God’s power be understood, not as the basis of God’s sovereignty, but as the power of God’s intrinsic sovereignty, i.e., intrinsic self-regulation of self-relating, which in turn is understood in terms of the intrinsic glory of God’s living reality.