what is the meaning of transcendent?

dms1972

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In theology and in discussion of the attributes of God, it is often said God is transcendent (in fact both transcendent and immanent). In liberal theology the emphasis is on immance (eg Tillich's "ground of being"). Neo-orthodoxy as best I understand seems to emphasise God's transcendence.

What does transcendent mean?

I know the metaphor of height is also often used in when speaking of God, in this sense height is not meant to taken literally.

Also should we think of God as outside of us?
 

com7fy8

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Hi, dms :) I would say different people can mean different things, by saying God is "transcendent".

I think a basic meaning is God is very different than we are, so He is outside our experience and comprehension.

But God is "imminent" > very close to us. God is even in us, though we may not experience Him to be in us.

So, "transcendent" has to do with not if God is totally away from us, but it means He is so different, that He is right in us but we do not experience His presence . . . humanly. But He is able to change us so we do experience Him >

Romans 5:5.
 
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1213

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Also should we think of God as outside of us?

Or maybe it is so that we are in God, because:

that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 'For in him we live, and move, and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also his offspring.'
Acts 17:27-28

Maybe these could help to understand God:

God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.
John 4:24

He who doesn't love doesn't know God, for God is love.
1 John 4:8

We know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.
1 John 4:16
 
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ViaCrucis

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In theology and in discussion of the attributes of God, it is often said God is transcendent (in fact both transcendent and immanent). In liberal theology the emphasis is on immance (eg Tillich's "ground of being"). Neo-orthodoxy as best I understand seems to emphasise God's transcendence.

What does transcendent mean?

I know the metaphor of height is also often used in when speaking of God, in this sense height is not meant to taken literally.

Also should we think of God as outside of us?

One way I'd define transcendence is "radical otherness". God is radically other, He's outside, different from, completely unlike all which exists and which we have experience of. His transcendence is His total and utter otherness from all of creation, being outside of it, beyond it. Thus God cannot be understood as though He were a creature, whether like man, beast, or great celestial body, He says, "To whom will you liken God? To what image will you compare Him?" (Isaiah 40:18) For there is nothing in all of existence, seen or unseen, known or unknown, to which God can be compared--God is more than it, beyond all of it, greater than all which is conceivable. That is His transcendence. The wholly, completely, radically Other beyond all, greater than all, ineffable and incomprehensible and unknowable.

-CryptoLutheran
 
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