Saturday, October 16, 2010

What Does It Mean to "Worship" God?

The idea that people of different faiths nonetheless worship the "same" God is pretty widespread nowadays. At the very least, many will argue that the adherents of monotheistic religions (Christianity, Judaism and Islam) worship the One God. This is certainly a tenet of what is known as "liberal" theology. But does this view find support from John Calvin? I pose this question because it has been asserted to me on more than one occasion, by pastors with many years of experience.

I suppose it all comes down to what it means to "worship" God. Calvin did argue that everyone has some knowledge of God. Knowledge of God exists in nature, for instance. But I do not understand Calvin to argue that a partial knowledge of God is equivalent to the correct worship of God. For that reason, I think it is a stretch to enlist Calvin in any campaign to convince people that Christians, Jews and Muslims worship the "same" or "the one true" God.

This question deserves a fuller treatment but these are my preliminary thoughts.

No comments: