Defining God

Defining God

            The ultimate conflict of ages; what is God?  An omnipotent supreme being, a higher self-consciousness, the bringer of good and evil, an internal spiritual

Enlightenment, manifested as one, manifested as many, or a loving being to personally relate with.  Mankind’s attempt to expound God has been, and seems will prove to be his greatest downfall.  To each, the definition given is true; all others are false.  For one woman named Elizabeth, the chaotic journey through the definitions of God leads her to the farthest reaches of reality.

            Bessie Head’s so called “nightmare soul-journey” (p. 35) in the novel A Question of Power, is a vision that initially torments the scattered pieces of the main character Elizabeth’s mind, but ultimately pulls them together.  “It was the kind of language she understood” (Head 35).  In a very sane and truthful expression, Elizabeth admits her incomprehension of God; that no one could posses an infinite power embodied in the universe.  So if not a power possessed by one entity, then this power must lie in the souls of all people.  “At a time when this was openly perceived, the insight into their own powers had driven them mad” (Head 35).  To assume such a burden of power is more than a human can bear, Elizabeth being no exception.  Bessie Head’s portrayal of this ultimate mental struggle seems to span a perspective of both pure sanity and utter madness.  While immersed in a schizophrenic vision Elizabeth truly understands the problem in defining God. 

Page 35 goes on to read, “people would awaken to a knowledge of their powers, but this time in a saner world”.  From the madness induced by the realization of exclusive power in ones’ self, to an idea that power could be shared in all souls, Elizabeth begins to pull together the pieces of her mind.  “God is the totality of all great souls and their achievements” (Head 54).  In articulating her definition of God, Elizabeth finds peace and reenters reality. 

Defining God is subjective.  Similar to love, God is an ideology felt, not something tangible.  Bessie Head seems to inadvertently (or intentionally) draw this correlation on page 54.  Elizabeth is able to essentially admit failure; that God is indefinable as any one thing.  So in doing however, she finds the answer she is looking for. 

As humans continue to either evolve or devolve (depending on your perspective), when will they come to the simple realization that God is simply a belief within, never correct or incorrect?  When will they understand that they can’t understand?  To what extent will mankind warp the perception of God by attempting to define God?