imaging god why and how it matters

“Tell me your image of God, and I will tell you your politics” — Marcus Borg explains that the image of God as a distant patriarch translates into a hierarchy of righteousness and supports a politics of authority, domination, and competition for power … might serve to support and legitimate a concentration of power in imperial corporations and governments deeply at odds with the teachings of Jesus and other great religious teachers. The image of God as a universal spirit manifest in all creation supports a politics of cooperation, compassion, and sharing. He notes that both images find strong support in the Christian Bible.

Marcus J. Borg, The God We Never Knew: Beyond Dogmatic Religion to a More Authentic Contemporary Faith (New York: HarperCollins, 1997), chap. 3, “Imaging God: Why and How It Matters.