The Presence of God (8) – Leaving aTwo Storey Life

… a “two-storey universe.” In short, this is a description of how many modern Christians see the world. There is the first floor – the natural world which operates according to naturalist, “secular” rules, and the second floor – the world of God, heaven, hell, angels, etc. The spiritual crisis of much of modern man is the inherent disconnect in these two worlds.
How to believe in a God who is “everywhere present and filling all things” is a very different way of life than to believe in a God who is “out there.”¹ Fr Stephen Freemanhttps://fatherstephen.wordpress.com/2009/04/29/unbelief-and-the-two-storey-universe/

This post concludes, but does not exhaust, implications of abandoning a Two Storey life. In addition to “moving from abstraction to the realm of living“ “and “being more about knowing than believing“; today’s post focuses on Christian Atheism. at You can read the previous post HERE.

When we live our lives in the two-story world, we practice what Freeman calls “Christian atheism.” Since God is “upstairs,” God is “not here.” God isn’t close; God is elsewhere, far away and distant. And not just physically distant, mentally distant as well. God is at the back our minds, an afterthought, if we think of God at all.” ²Beck, Richard, Hunting Magic Eels (pg104)

Having confessed to mostly living in a Two Storey life; Beck’s assertion that I have been practicing Christian Atheism is a shocking declaration worthy of some serious scrutiny. What follows is a synopsis of Christian Atheism from Fr Stephen Freeman’s essay “Christianity in a Two Storey Universe”

CHRISTIAN ATHEISM

How can one be both an atheist and a Christian? 
In the history of religious thought, one of the closest versions to what I am describing as a “two-storey” world-view, is that espoused by classical Deism.
[In] an almost pure, two-storey worldview. God, “the Deity,” had created the universe in the beginning, setting it in motion. He had done so in such a way that the world could be described as directed by His Providence, but not in any sense interfered with after its creation. 
The creator had accomplished His work: it was up to us to conform ourselves to His purposes and morality – which were pretty indistinguishable from natural law. If you read the writings of the period it’s much more common to read Providence where a Christian might put God. Many modern evangelicals mistakenly read such statements as Christian.

…other than having some notion of an original Creator, Deists were practical atheists. The God Who created had completed His work. Ethics were as much a matter of scientific discovery as any other principle of physics. They believed in something they called “God” or “Providence” but only in a very divorced sense. It would be hard to distinguish their thought from that of an atheist except that they clung to an idea of God at least as the initiator of all things.
…“practical atheism,” meaning by it, that although a person may espouse a belief in God, it is quite possible for that belief to be so removed from everyday life, that God’s non-existence would make little difference.

…“practical atheists.” Though they had great, even absolutist, faith in the Holy Scriptures, they had no relationship with a God who is living and active and directly involved in their world. Had their notion of a God died, and left somebody else in charge of His heaven, it would not have made much difference so long as the rules did not change.
The more the secular world is exalted as secular, that is, having an existence somehow independent of God, the more we will live as practical atheists 
Christianity that has purged the Church of the sacraments, and of the sacramental, have only ideas which can be substituted – the result being the eradication of God from the world in all ways other than theoretical. 
…much of modern Christianity functions on this ideological level rather than the level of the God-Who-is among-us, much of Christianity functions in a mode of practical atheism. The more ideological the faith, the more likely its proponents are to expouse what amounts to a practical atheism.

The more truly sacramental becomes the Christian life, the more thoroughly grounded it is in the God-Who-is-among- us. Such a God is indeed, “everywhere present and filling all things.” Our options are between such a God – as proclaimed in the New Testament – or a God who need be no God at all for He is removed from us anyway.

There is a dialog that may take place between Christians and atheists. But there is, prior to that, an even more important dialog to be had, and that is with the practical atheism of Christians who have exiled God from the world around us. Such practical atheism is a severe distortion of the Christian faith and an extremely poor substitute for the real thing.

Richard John Neuhaus has written frequently of returning the Church to the public square. I think the problem is far deeper. In many cases we have to speak about returning God to the Church. In cases where practical atheism is the faith of a goup of “believers,” their presence in the public square makes no difference. Who cares?

God cannot be exiled from our world no matter how men try. He has come among us, and not at our invitation. “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). He is already in the Public Square as the Crucified God who is reconciling the world to Himself, whether we like it or not. The opposite of practical atheism is to do the only thing the Christianity of the first- storey can do: keep His commandments and fall down and worship – for God is with us.

Next: Christianity in the One Storey life

STILL ON THE JOURNEY

• 1
  Fr Stephen Freemanhttps://fatherstephen.wordpress.com/2009/04/29/unbelief-and-the-two-storey-universe/
• 2
  Beck, Richard, Hunting Magic Eels (pg104)