By James V. Schall, S.J. (1928-2019), The Catholic Thing - This abstract god rejects “violence.” Logically, when a religion does specify that violence can be used in the name of its god, it cannot be a religion... So, can we pray to an abstract “god” hoping thereby to avoid any judgment about what god, in particular, we believe in? I suspect not. We cannot avoid the logos, the God that is, by abstracting all the elements that reveal God to be God, or which, on the contrary, make it clear that this particular god is not God.