I'm reading an interesting book, How (Not) To Speak of God, by Peter Rollins. One very interesting concept he brings out deals with idols. He states that the words idol and ideology both come from the Greek term eidos, which means essence. Idolotry is wrong because it reduces God's essence to whatever is used as an idol. An idol can be aesthetic, such as a statue, or it can be conceptual -- such as a theological system.
He states "The only signficant difference between the aesthetic idol and the conceptual idol lies in the fact that the former reduces God to a physical object while the latter reduces God to an intellectual object"
Many with a fundamentalist bent believe they can define God and that their personal definition is both accurate and proper. We have to remember that God is so much bigger than anything we can define and be careful not to limit his essence to what we believe/understand about him at any time in our lives.
