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ghost-dog-girl

04/27/01 8:38 AM

monergism, synergism, and psalm 131


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Since I was a little girl, Psalm 131 has been a favorite of mine.

O Lord, my heart is not lifted up,
my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
too great or marvelous for me.
But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
my soul within me is like a weaned child.

O Israel, hope in the Lord
from this time on and forevermore.

To me, this psalm illustrates the sense in which we are dependent on God and yet in some sense independent of God as we transition from loving God for what God can give us to loving God for who God is. This would be a synergistic reading of this psalm. Synergism holds that we are created with some power over and against our creator ("like a weaned child with its mother"). Synergists (lit. "joint work") tend to use terms like "cooperation" and "participation" when it comes to our response to God's activity in the world. Monergists (lit. "one work") believe that God has all power and that there is no such thing as "over against" God. Monergists tend to use words like "election" and "decree" to refer to God's activity in the world. Of course, synergists also talk about election and monergists also talk about participation, but these words tend to mean very different things when they are used in these different paradigms.

I'm just learning about monergism and synergism (in the context of the Phillipist and Gnesio-Lutheran debates in the late 1500s, early 1600s--but it also applies to the more familiar debate of Calvinism vs. Arminianism), so if anyone has anything to add to my very brief summary, please do so. I'm curious to know what a monergistic reading of Psalm 131 would look like. Oh, and I'm considering this a theological exercise, NOT biblical exegesis, because I highly doubt the author of this psalm had monergism or synergism or whatever in mind when this was written. GDG

Posted Originally From: Christus Victor Ministries



Wislawa

04/27/01 9:01 AM

RE: monergism, synergism, and psalm 131


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OK I’ll give it a try but only to flex some theological muscles which are in need of some exercising. It occurred to me that a monergistic reading of this Psalm might look a lot like a Monergistic reading of the Abraham and Isaac sacrifice. Doesn’t Kierkegaard juxtapose a mother who blackens her breast in order to wean her child with Abraham’s relationship to God (and Isaac’s to Ab) in “Fear and Trembling”? Maybe it would be like that. That God has weaned the child not that the child has weaned herself. We are acted upon not the other way around. Now the real trick would be for the child to wean the mother! Imagine that. We could tell God “Its OK, you’re a big God now, you don’t need us anymore.” But that’s just for chuckles.

—Wislawa