Explaining the Experience of God: The Purpose of Christian Theology

Did God have a beard when He appeared to Abraham (Gen.18:2)?

Was God dressed in a satin robe when he confronted Moses and the elders of Israel (Ex. 24:9-11)? Did Isaiah see a crown on top of the head of God when he saw "the Lord, high and lifted up" (Isaiah 6:1)? Why did God not appear as a woman to these men, or as a little child? Why did Paul or Peter not experience God in the same way as Moses?

Finding the answers to these questions is part of the complex problem associated with explaining an experience of God. Whether God is experienced as a man with a beard, dressed in a robe and crown, and not as a little child or a woman is governed by the rationality within which this experience occurs. This explains why God is not presented in the New Testament as appearing to Paul or Peter like he appeared to Abraham, Moses, or Isaiah. Different rationalities are at work which represent different ways of thinking about God. This rationality also determines whether a specific experience is considered a genuine experience of God, an illusion about God, or a delusion. How to discern one from another embodies the essential character of theological activity. This book provides a way to discern this distinction in explaining the experience of God.