Clifford Ratzlaff's Books

Freeing God from Religion

By: Clifford Ratzlaff

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If you tend to shake your head when you read religious literature, please read this book. I invite being disagreed with; I welcome debate and do not object to being told I am wrong. The question remains: Who has the right religion? Despite being an octogenarian when presumably all should be settled and nailed down, I now challenge the theology I nodded to so vigorously in a previous time of my life. What I once assumed as truth is now open to the kind of tough scrutiny I had never dared engage in. My theological life scripts were deeply rooted and beyond challenge. Born and raised in a fundamentalist Mennonite conservative evangelical community, doubting and questioning were considered acts of sin. Even though we were good ethical people, we were repaganized every year by visiting English speaking evangelists and getting saved was an annual event. I know; I did it three times before I was fifteen. I include a simple caveat. Once you start critiquing and investigating your beliefs, even the most cherished, you will find that you cannot go back. The very act of questioning intensifies the importance of the question. Millions of books exist about God; every book written by a human being (mostly men). Over twenty five miles of shelves with books about God are in the archives under the Vatican. I had fifteen shelves with many books that talk about God.

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Page Count

375

Publisher

Trafford Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

1466947845

ISBN 13

9781466947849

Freeing God from Theology

By: Clifford Ratzlaff

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Freeing God from Theology

By: Clifford Ratzlaff

In this book, the author, Cliff Ratzlaff, presents the idea that theological definitions of God are not only confusing but also implicated in so many of the social problems afflicting the world of people on planet Earth. God as a spiritual concept, however, invites discussion of seeing God in each other. Spirituality of necessity ends wars, alienation, enemies, hate, and wrath. The author includes reference to Gestalt psychology and to the writings of Martin Buber to help us experience spirituality in a way that frees us. As we free God from theology, we invite experience of God in our I Am experience. To be is equivalent to to be in union and unity with the infinite God of the infinite universe. When we meet others, we look for God in them. If you look for God, you see God. The religious experience of God is the experiences sacred presence: presence without location. Ratzlaff makes much of Gestalts figure-ground phenomenon involved in human perception. The human seeks to put order on chaos, rule over the unruly, and direct over lostness. The experience of transcendence helps us to validate our self-awareness. The person is always sacred, godlike, and holy. God as our experience is inclusive of our fellows. God is love, acceptance, order, and life itself. It all makes sense as soon as one releases God from the fences we have put him in. Those fences are theologies. Among the worst theology to ever be imposed on the chaos of human essence is the Nicene Creed. Pauls description of Yeshua of Nazareth was a gross distortion grabbed by both Constantine of Rome and the church. Rome liked Nicaea; the pope liked Nicaea. Behold politicized theology and theologized politics, followed by the grossest distortion in human history; Nicaea led to the Dark Ages, the demonization of women, the witch trials, the Inquisition, fundamentalism of the reformation and contemporary Islam. Islam started during the Dark Ages. Awareness and practice of spirituality releases God from the fences of theology. When you free God, you free yourself.

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