Growing up catholic in the heart of the American south east, the heart of the bible belt, I was taught to believe that there is only one God. However, at a young age I noticed the divisions within a Christian community. My southern Baptist grandmother would pray constantly for my catholic family to find Jesus and accept God into our lives. This I never fully understood. it wasn’t until I began to study the Philosophy of Religion that I realized the grandeur and transcendence of God.
“God is like the sun on a stained glass window.”
This realization first struck me from a Christian viewpoint, dissolving those imaginary lines that divided the denominations. Once I began to study other major world Religions I began to see the similarities between them and began to notice the transcendence of the divine shining through these different cultures as light filtered through colored glass. I believe, just as the sun which hits a stained glass window is one, but produces a diversity of distinct colors and shapes, so is God one. Each culture, as represented by the colored panes of glass, allow God’s light so shine in the world but shapes the divine light into its own expression. Thus, for one to focus on a single pane of God’s window would be to miss the beautiful totality which is God reflected in the flesh. So although expressions may differ in reference to God, we can begin to see, if only we look close enough, that the same light shines on and through all. This, which is God’s light, is love and it stands as the common intent and motivator of all true faiths. Now we must learn to see the whole picture rather than just our small part if we are ever to fully know God. This we can do, for there are many paths and all point to One Transcendent Divine.
