William Blake and Theology

 William Blake has this idea of God and the Devil both having good and bad aspects. 

The idea is that the Devil represents passion, sexuality, desire, emotion, while God represents reason, self-control, goodness. For Blake the human stands between these two and has to balance both - to be too much one or the other - too much angel or devil - is to no longer be human.

Such a view encourages a revaluation of the story of the Garden of Eden. Traditionally people ask why did God put that Tree of Knowledge in the garden and then issue this command not to eat from it. I think Ricky Gervais ridicules this with pointing out it was an accident waiting to happen, somewhat like allowing a small child to play with a sharp knife.

But with Blake the story takes on a different meaning. Now, God no longer wants humans to simply be obedient children, to just do as they are told all the time. That would make the angels not humans. Instead the Tree of Knowledge becomes the means by which humanity shows they have grown up and achieved self-awareness and responsibility - it is the sign they are ready to "leave home" and follow their own path.

The snake, similarly, is no accident, but instead part of God's plan that humans consider different options and when they are ready to start questioning what they have been told, to experiment, to find out for themselves.

This is a sort of mixing of the values of the Enlightenment - freedom, self-determination, discovery, experimentation, independent thought - with religious sentiments of awe, wonder, ecstasy, delight and joy. Art and the imagination mix religion - symbol, myth, revelation - with science - discovery and experiment - and so re-imagine a new relationship between God and humanity different in many ways to the previous relationships - no longer that of fear before a mighty power or a helpless child before a demanding parent, but now of a more reciprocal relationship in which like a grown-up child with their aging parent the balance of power is more evenly balanced and each can learn from the other, each can value the perspective of the other.

Even looking back on traditional religious texts we might now be able to see how many times humans have questioned God, challenged God, suggested new ways for God to be, and that God has listened to these suggestions - as for example God listened to suggestions from Abraham and Moses.

This makes for a more "process" type of God as described by people like Hegel and Whitehead, changing, growing, developing, learning, listening, and a humanity now engaged in an ongoing conversation with a God who is a partner in imagining the future and together both creating and learning what it means to exist.