What is God?

Kojeve, Heidegger, Scholem, Benjamin, Arendt, and Schmitt

Continuing our previous panel discussion

Moderator: What is God?

Kojève: God is the idea of the infinite, discovered by those find themselves externally constrained by the will of their masters but internally free to think whatever they want. God is the idea of the master who rules all earthly masters—discovered by slaves; the father of all fathers, discovered by children; the leader of all leaders, discovered by followers; the judge of all judges discovered by all who stand trial. God, as Nietzsche knew, was the invention of the resentful. His challenge to Biblical theology is in this word— “invention”— which contrasts with the depiction of Moses at the burning bush as a scene of discovery. When all resentments are buried and all contradictions resolved, there will be no need for God, except vestigially. We will look back at religion and be proud of the stories and rituals we invented so that we could reach the present moment.

Schmitt: God is the one who commands us to be political, first, and philosophical second. “We will do, and then we will understand,” says Scripture. In this we find the dictatorial principle. God puts facts on the ground and only then offers explanation. We must do the same. Ideas come second. Many liberals have embraced this sentiment at the level of micro decision-making, as in, “trust your gut,” but few of them appreciate that the political ramifications are wholly anti-democratic.

Strauss: God is the guarantor that some values are objective and timeless, and that the human being is created, maximally, with a capacity to obtain the objective and timeless truths and minimally with a capacity to obey laws which protect him from self-destruction.

Benjamin: The great tragedy of life is that we forget. We do not remember the toils of the everyday peasant who lived three thousand years ago, nor do we remember even the plight of those who are our contemporaries. And, as Freud teaches, we are perhaps most forgetful of our own suffering, the history of anguish that is our secret autobiography. And yet God is described as a rememberer, the ultimate keeper of memories. For God, no thought, no person, no idea is too small, not to have its place. God is omniscient, not in that God knows all, but in that God remembers all; God looks upon absent things and restores them to presence. This is the true meaning of the resurrection of the dead—the return to life by means of divine memory. God does not get bored, but looks on the smallest detail as though it deserved infinite attention. And this is what Hegel misses in his great triumphant story of progress. He turns God into a perfecter instead of a contemplator. But for God, the contemplation of all lost causes is their redemption. Imitatio Dei means: just as God remembers, so must we.

Arendt: I do not believe in God, but let me say this: a people that worships no God worships itself, and I much prefer the worship of a non-existent God to the narcissism of ulta-nationalists for whom God is an afterthought. At its best, God is the anti-flag.

Heidegger: The word God has lost its poetic brilliance, destroyed over many years by theologians and scientists alike, and so it is necessary to shock ourselves into awe by speaking of gods. But the point is not to say what God is, but to be open the manifestation of the divine. We can cultivate such an openness through contemplation, song, dance, going on pilgrimage, and sharing meals, but the pursuit of God can never become a rule or a technique.

Scholem: Traditionalists know God as a Creator, a Supreme Cause; mystics know God as an effect, the result of collaboration. Just as in a relationship the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, God is greater than the sum of God + World + Human. That is why the greatest religious minds have sought not to define God, but to influence and even change God through mystical union.