Читать книгу The Psychosis of God - Jeff Hood - Страница 7

God is sick. Let every word of that statement sink in. Such thoughts make us cringe. Our earliest cultural engagements with God teach us the opposite. Our religious expectations inform us that a sick God is no God. We demand perfection from our God. Unfortunately, our thoughts of perfection are distorted around our own expectations of what perfection must look like. We assume that God must be without any type of defect. Our ideas of defection are rooted in the things that we are repulsed by. God has never engaged perfection and defection in such a way. God has always been found in spaces of defection. God has always been found with us. For God, defection is perfection and perfection is defection. The Psychosis of God is about finding God in defection.

Theologies of liberation begin in oppression and marginalization. Such theologies dare to construct a God that is intimately and intrinsically connected to the suffering of God’s people. Liberation theologians are persons dedicated to the task of demanding the liberation of God through demanding the liberation of God’s people. The Psychosis of God begins in a place of oppression and marginalization. The mentally ill are considered to be the most defective people in our society. Liberation theology is always about running to places of defection. Liberation theologians sprint to such places because we know that God is there. We know that God is most fully found in the oppressed and the marginalized. This liberation theology dares to imagine the movements of a mentally ill God through the movements of mentally ill people. Fighting for the liberation of the mentally ill is about fighting for the liberation of a mentally ill God. For the mentally ill, liberation comes from the wide recognition that in defection exists perfection. God is there.

Queer theologies dare to purport that God is located in that which is queer or strange amongst us. That which is queer has transcended boundaries of normativity. Mental illness has never been considered normative. The minds of the crazy are always outside of the boundaries of what society assumes normal minds are supposed to be. Normativity tells us to stay within the lines. We are told to hide everything that is outside the lines. The true queer refuses to be closeted. The true queer refuses to play by the rules. The true queer has always been considered mentally ill. God has never played by the rules. God has always refused to be closeted. God has never fit in. God has always been queer. God has always been mentally ill.

I didn’t start out in defection. I started in perfection. Throughout my life, I just wanted to be perfect as I assumed God was perfect. The older I got, the more I realized that God is perfect in defection and so are we. The Psychosis of God is about liberating the queer mentally ill minds amongst us. Lasting liberation always begins and ends with the knowledge that your perfection is found in your defection. This is a very strange book. The mentally ill image of God is used to resurrect a mentally ill God. I proceed from my mentally ill mind to other mentally ill minds to ponder the mentally ill mind of God. This is not an exact science. This is an exploration. Some will argue that this book is crazy, they will be right.

—Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood, May 2016