Is God More Like a Magician, Doctor or Teacher?

What job category best fits your conception of God? For our pre-scientific ancestors who wrote the Old Testament, God was like a very powerful magician. He could change the laws of nature to further his often mysterious purposes. For example, God gives Moses and Aaron the ability to throw down a staff before the Pharaoh and turn it into a snake. Exodus 7:8-10. A more violent show of power occurs when God enables Elijah to do battle with the prophets of Baal and eventually kill all 450 of them. I Kings 18. And, of course, his most far-reaching display of power was the creation of the universe itself. This God was not particularly loving and forgiving, but if you complied with his rules, his powers would be used on your side, not on your enemy’s.

With the advance of science, the typical conception of God has changed from God as a powerful magician to God as a divine doctor. Most people still think of God in anthropomorphic terms. They refer to God as “He” and imagine a God with a human-like personality. Recent surveys show an increasing number of people who refer to God a “higher power” but do not think of a personal God. Nevertheless, many in both groups think of God as a force that mitigates the pain of life. They rely on the idea of God to reduce the anxiety and stress of life. They look to God to give them comfort at a time of sorrow, such as the death of a loved one. Most of all, they imagine a God who gives eternal life and, thus, provides a means to escape the ultimate pain of death.

I do not want to diminish this role of God as doctor. Millions of people derive enormous comfort from this idea of God, particularly in times of tragedy. However, the paradigm of God as doctor has two major limitations. First, the reduction in suffering is often temporary. A spiritual experience may be comforting, even exhilarating, but the pain of life returns after it is over. God as doctor does not provide a permanent framework for living. Second, many find it hard to accept the assumptions required to experience this escape from suffering, particularly the beautiful vision of life after death. Those who cannot accept this vision must deal with the eventual end of existence, not just their own own, but that of their loved ones.

I want to suggest a third job category: God as teacher. I do not mean God is a divine being who functions as a cosmic professor. Instead, imagine God as a source of ideas and attitudes. In this conception, God does not eliminate suffering, at least directly. Like teachers in real life, God imposes obligations and demands, namely that we live up to a set of standards. It may be that when we live up to those standards, or come as close as we can, we find the burdens of life are lifted. But that is because we discovered how to lift them ourselves. Perhaps it is more accurate to say that God is wisdom, and we are students who have to be our own teachers, too. In that way, we are not much different from the followers of Jesus, who was after all a teacher himself. What is John 3:16 if not the most important lesson in all of human history?