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[Christians] believe that the living, dynamic activity of love has been going on in God forever and has created everything else. And that, by the way, is perhaps the most important difference between Christianity and all other religions: that in Christianity God is not a static thing - not even a person - but a dynamic, pulsating activity, a life, almost a kind of drama. Almost, if you will not think me irreverent, a kind of dance.

C. S. Lewis#61

SpiritualityGodTheologyChristianityDivinity

About this quote

What does it mean?
Christianity depicts God not as a static being but as a dynamic, relational activity like a dance.
In plain terms
God is seen as active and relational, not a fixed thing.
What can you take from it?
View the divine as dynamic activity rather than static object.

Where it applies

  • religious study
  • comparing faiths
  • spiritual practice

Putting it to work

  • explore active spirituality
  • compare religious views

Questions to consider

  • How do you imagine God?
  • Is God a person or activity?

Another view

This metaphor may confuse those preferring traditional theistic descriptions.

More from C. S. Lewis

  1. My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked un…

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  2. The most dangerous thing you can do is to take any one impulse of your own nature and set it up as the thing you ought to follow at all costs. There's not one …

    Permalink to quote #62
  3. We have two bits of evidence about the Somebody. One is the universe He has made. If we used that as our only clue, I think we should have to conclude that He …

    Permalink to quote #59

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