Reflection for the weekend

In an interview published in http://newhumanist.org.uk/2085; Articles > Volume 124 Issue 4 July/August 2009, Laurie Taylor interviewed Terry Eagleton about his new book, Reason, Faith and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate.

In the interview is this exchange:

But is the emperor really as well dressed as such critics allow? I decided to press him further about his theology. "You say that God made the world simply for the love and delight of it. But you don't mean 'made' in the usual sense of the word as you've already insisted that God did not create the world."

"That's right. Aquinas is saying that the relationship between God and the world is about the fact that the world is in some ways His. Not in the sense that my shoes are mine because I manufactured them but because at the centre of the world lies his love and freedom. God didn't create the world. He loved it into being. Now what that means, God knows, but that's exactly what Aquinas was saying. The concept of God is what will not let you go. He will not let you slip through his fingers. It's that kind of unconditional love. If you like, that's impossible. We can only know conditional love, but if you are to have some kind of authentic idea of God that's the place from which you have to start, not seeing God as some kind of manufacturer."

That is both an amazing affirmation of God and of doubt and wonder. How do you respond to this?