What songbirds have to do with God

A little-known great thinker of the 20th century

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Years ago a New York City publishing house editor asked me, “If I offered you an advance for a book that had no chance of selling, who or what would your subject be?”

I answered without hesitation: Charles Hartshorne.

She laughed and said, “You’re right. That won’t sell. Never heard of him.”

Charles Hartshorne, 1897-2000, was a great philosopher – we’re so concerned with politicized ideology that philosophy has fallen into the background – and a great theologian. Next week comes the 127^th anniversary of his birth.

In my view, Hartshorne solved the number-one problem of Christian belief – why did God first show violence and rage, then become serene and forgiving? Doesn’t make sense if God is immutable, that is, never changes, and if God sees the future, that is, knows serenity to be the endpoint.

Hartshorne also solved the number-two problem: if God is omnipotent why is our world so screwed up?

Spoiler alert: in the main, the sacred writing does not depict God as omnipotent. The Bible presents the Maker as frustrated by inability to work the divine will (not omnipotent), surprised (not future-seeing), admitting mistakes (“I repent me of the evil I have done,” God at Jeremiah 42:10).