discussion response for one of the classes... on question about God's presence in relation to Dietrich Bonhoeffer's WWII situation

I have enjoyed reading the conversation thus far; very thought provoking. I have to be another voice of agreement that God is present even in war and atrocity. This Autotheism Kent brings to the conversation is also interesting, especially from the perspective of Jesus's comments on being one with the Father. If we are living in the creation of a Creator, and are therefor part of it, then mustn't we be of the Creator? Jesus may not have been separating himself from us with his description of his relationship with his Father, but rather, as I think Kent is indicating, have been pointing us toward a new understanding of our own relationship with that Father. In being conscious beings in the midst of our own limited perception of creation, we may be little eye balls of creation itself, looking at a limited form of the image manifested by the great Creator. As actors in the manifest realm, we may be the ones we are calling on when we pray for God's intervention. Bonhoeffer chose one path of resistance to engage a dark power he saw acting in the world around him. He saw suffering and he acted in the best way he saw fit to stop Hitler, a figurehead of wrathful violence, cruelty and horror of his time. Where is God in death and dying, cruelty, rape and murder? God is infinite, but we are temporary. Yet we have eyes to see and bodies to experience creation with (and we use them to all these terrible ends sometimes). God, as far as we can see, is not of this world, flesh may be no more his, than ours. So God can be present in death, as God is in life, in that death is the portal to infinity (immortality, heaven, call it what we will), but death is also the price of playing the game. To physically witness infinite creation we have to be separate from it, we have to become temporary to catch a momentary glimpse of timelessness (maybe). To live in the physical realm could be the greatest gift, but death is the price we have to pay for receiving it. Can we stop killing each other and be more God like? Damn good question.

best,

Andrew S