How we talk about God – the power of language

I knew very early on that I wanted to be a researcher, and I got my interest in philosophy, religion, and philosophy of religion from my family – especially my father. When I grew up, we often talked about God, the meaning of life, the death and the resurrection of Jesus, and so on. I loved it. The fact that I now work with these, and similar kinds of questions, is truly amazing. To have my interest as work, what a dream! To be a doctoral student is also a journey from being more of a student to being more of a colleague – a researcher. The closer you get to the end, the more independent you get in your research. And that is an uplifting feeling. The feeling of actually having progressed, learned, and contributed to the research. The constant progression and development as a person and researcher are great things about life in academia and research.

Conceptions of God          

My research is on conceptions of God. Why talk about, and describe God like this rather than that? Why attribute certain characteristics to God but not others? So often, we accept descriptions without much reflection, but in my research, I show that there are several good reasons to reflect on how we describe God, ourselves, and nature. Take the forest as an example. If we do not know the names of plants, trees, or animals, then the forest is just an impersonal whole. But if we know the names of different flowers, bugs, and trees, they will stand out as individuals. It is harder to cause harm to and exploit that which we have a relation to than that which we don’t. It is harder to cut down and mistreat trees and animals if they are perceived as individuals, even if they are non-human. One of my chapters focuses precisely on environmental well-being and how the way we talk about God affects our relation to non-human nature.

The conceptions of God I engage with are panentheism, pantheism, and classical theism. Classical theism has been, and still is, the dominating way to think about God in the West. God is seen as the all-powerful, all-knowing, all-good, and utterly transcendent spiritual Creator of the world. Panentheism and pantheism claim that the world is part of God somehow. Panentheism claims the world to be part of God while God exceeds the world, and pantheism claims God to be identical to the world. This affects how God’s power, wisdom, love, and transcendence can be perceived.

God and political power

Political situations in our world also clearly show political leaders with destructive power ambitions. One might think this has nothing to do with God, but it has. Currently, Putin has the support of Patriarch Kirill, and leaders like Trump often appeal to God’s power and will to support their claim to political power. If God sanctions these political leaders, who are we to object? This is dangerous logic. “If God is all-powerful, then God must want these leaders to be in power; otherwise, God would prevent them.” Such logic results from a particular view of divine power, where God is seen as the all-powerful master of the universe who can intervene at any time. Whenever God does not intervene, it must be because God likes what God sees… It is not hard to see that such power logic has severe implications for the strive for equality, peace, and human and non-human flourishing.

Challenging conceptions

When talking about God, people usually assume that God is worthy of worship. But if the conception of God in question contributes to the power logic used to legitimize oppressive and dominating power, inequality between men and women, or the exploitation of the non-human world, then it is safe to assume that there is something wrong with the conception of God. Every conception of God is humanly constructed. Both classical theism, panentheism, and pantheism are human constructions – human attempts to describe the divine. Because of this, our conceptions will always be just that; constructions and attempts. We should, therefore, not be afraid to question or change our conception if it turns out that it entails harmful consequences for ourselves, others, or nature.

My research highlights some aspects of how God is described and how that affects us and our shared world. I hope my research contributes to more awareness of the power of language.

Lina Langby is a PhD student at the Department of Theology, Ethics and Philosophy of Religion at Uppsala University. She received a scholarship from the Donner Institute in 2023.