God and finitude: Toward a covenant of mutual affirmation

This dissertation offers an understanding of covenant for the rationalist thinker. Many of its ideas are rooted in process theology and the theologies of Mordecai M. Kaplan, David Hartman, and Abraham Joshua Heschel. In this work, I offer a summary and critique of each. I also present a constructive portion which I term "the covenant of mutual affirmation."; Kaplan's theology affirms the strengths of process thought and stresses a rational concept of God which is feels resolves many of the traditionally held contradictions concerning deity. Kaplan's understanding of revelation as our ongoing discovery of God's truth is in line with human experience. Kaplan understands human existence as worthwhile and meaningful, and God's sovereignty as functioning whenever we struggle to strengthen the good within and without us. Finally Kaplan offers on understanding of covenant, free of the idea of the chosenness of the Jews.; Hartman offers a rationalist approach to convenantal theology. Hartman is open to the realities of modernity and understands the omnipotence of God as being manifest in God's restraint from breaking into the natural order so that human freedom and responsibility may flourish.; Heschel takes note of the necessity of a rational basis for our theological thinking and creates an understanding of God's holy presence as both transcendent and immanent. For Heschel, awe and radical amazement are critical in building the pathway to religious faith. For him it is the unity of God and the inter-connectedness of everything that bring us to the awareness of God's omnipresence. For Heschel, existence deserves our gratitude to God.; In the final chapter, I offer ten articles of a covenant which affirms and celebrates the mutual finitude of God and humankind. It argues that the question of theodicy is not viable when deity is no longer understood as an intervening, omnipotent power. It understands that, finally, the responsibility for the good and evil that humans bring about rests on humankind. This covenant rejects the idea of Israel as God's chosen people, favoring instead the idea of Israel choosing God. It accepts the unity of ourselves, God and creation, and affirms God's awareness of all that we are and do. Finally, it understands the mission of the Jews as a struggle to help our species self-evolve toward a society rooted in justice and peace for all its members. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.)...