Bob Sjogren wrote a book called Cat and Dog Theology in which the basic premise is that “cats” have an underlying belief that “you exist to serve me” while “dogs” believe that “I exist to serve you.” Cat lovers, please notice that I put “cats” in quotes because I don’t personally believe that all cats hold this philosophy (just most of them!).
Several years ago I heard Mr. Sjogren give a presentation of this concept. It was challenging and convicting. His warning was that the Church needs to guard against “cat theology;” the basic idea that it is all about us. How He Loves could be considered a “cat theology” song in that the song focuses on God’s incomprehensible love for us. I am sure I have just polarized my reading audience…sorry. Mr. Sjogren used the song Above All, by Paul Baloche. Michael W. Smith really brought that song to popularity and it is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNv4xVVVHd8 on YouTube.
Here is the dilemma, and it is a common one for my feeble mind. Scripture clearly supports both “cats” and “dogs” in their thinking about their relationship with God. “Cats” hold tightly onto the John 3 discourse as well as 1 John and many other passages of scripture clearly proclaiming that God’s love for us is so deep that it brought about the greatest of sacrifices to redeem us to himself. “Dogs” would respond with the comment that God did all of that to bring glory to himself, also supported by pages and pages of Scripture. Obviously this could be fleshed out much more deeply, but you get the idea.
One person explained these types of challenges in our faith to me as a mountain where the slopes of either side are clearly visible but the peak, where both sides come together, is obscured by clouds. Brian McLaren, in A New Kind of Christian, explains that most of us think and take our stand somewhere along a continuum from one extreme to the other. God’s truth, however, lies somewhere above our human continuum, on a different plane altogether. You could say that all things like this, where contradictory concepts are both supported in Scripture, find their intersection somewhere in our infinite God.
Someday we may know how all those things come together; but my personal belief is that, when that time comes, stuff like this will have lost its interest for us being overwhelmed by the glory of our God and Savior. So, for now, let’s have fun dissecting these issues but focus on loving each other anyway…whether “cats” or “dogs!”
