Understanding God through Christ
The Orthodox Foundations of A More Christlike God
 
"No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." (Luke 10:22)
"It would be more godly and true to signify God from the Son and call him Father, than to name God from his works alone and call him unoriginate." (St Athanasius, Con. Ar., 1:34)
 
Screen Shot 2017-01-24 at 2.46.32 PMWhat follows reflects my Christological development in preparation for writing A More Christlike God. But in truth, the book is my summary of what I've learned at the feet of Archbishop Lazar ​since 2003, which is why the book is dedicated this way: 
For Vladika Lazar Puhalo
For showing me Christ, 
'the good and merciful and man-befriending God'
I understand there have been concerns re: the title of my book, A More Christlike God, and specifically the question of whether calling God "Christ-like" calls into question whether or not I believe in the full deity of Jesus Christ as God the eternal Son. I'm not certain that a defense can be made that doesn't sound defensive, but an explanation is surely warranted in any case.
 
The title was meant to be a catchy metonym for a longer premise: we need to adjust our perceptions or conceptions of God until they align fully and completely with the revelation of God through Jesus Christ. The title is not meant to invite heretical assumptions, but to grab the reader's attention so they will ask, "What does that mean?" 
 
What is means is nothing other than this: How do we know who God is and what he is like? As my spiritual father, Archbishop Lazar Puhalo says, the book is about
 
Understanding God through Jesus Christ. 
 
Given the critiques, I must say that would have been a preferable title or subtitle. However, I do believe I state this as clearly as necessary on the back cover of the book: 
What is God like? Toxic images abound: God the punishing judge, the deadbeat dad, the genie in a bottle–false gods that need to be challenged. But what if, instead, God is completely Christlike? What if His love is more generous, his Cross more powerful, and his gospel more beautiful than we've dared to imagine? What if our clearest image of God is the self-giving, radically forgiving, co-suffering Love revealed on the Cross? What if we had A More Christlike God? 
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