Deep Dive into Christian Theology by Millard J. Erickson - God's Nearness and Distance: Immanence and Transcendence

Søren Kierkegaard’s concept of dimensional beyondness offers a unique, non-spatial way to understand divine transcendence. Instead of thinking of God as merely infinitely distant or "higher" in a spatial sense, Kierkegaard suggests that God exists in a fundamentally different dimension of reality altogether than humanity. This isn't a difference of degree but a qualitative distinction in the very fabric of existence.To illustrate this, Kierkegaard uses the analogy of sound and sight. Just as the question of the color of a musical note is nonsensical because they exist in different realms of sensory experience, so too does God's reality exist on a different plane than ours. This concept of dimensional beyondness helps reconcile the seemingly contradictory ideas of God's immanence and transcendence. God can be immanent, meaning present everywhere within our reality, yet still transcendent, residing in a different dimension that is not directly accessible through ordinary human means.The text uses the analogy of radio waves to further clarify this. Numerous inaudible radio waves are present in a room (our reality), but a receiver (spiritual discernment or revelation) is needed to access their different frequencies (God's dimension). This suggests that connecting with God requires a "change of state" rather than simple physical or intellectual effort. This model also helps explain scriptural descriptions of God as both near (immanent) and far (transcendent). Ultimately, Kierkegaard's dimensional beyondness emphasizes that God's otherness is rooted in a fundamental difference in the plane of existence, highlighting a qualitative chasm rather than just a spatial gap between the divine and the human.Reformed Theologian GPT: https://chat.openai.com/g/g-XXwzX1gnv-reformed-theologianPatreon: patreon.com/edi_reformed