False (but popular) images of God

'Two false images of God are particularly irresistible to many of us - mostly unconsciously ... God the negotiator and the other, God the Santa Claus. Though we fashion both to serve our interests, they are each other's opposites. With one, we want to make advantageous deals. From the other, we want to get warm smiles and bagfuls of goodies. We run from one to the other. Some of their features are reminiscent of the God of Jesus Christ. But we've drawn these images of God mostly from two currents of the culture in which we swim - the current of hard and unforgiving economic realities, in which we exchange goods to maximize benefits, and the current of soft, even infantile, desires, in which we long to be showered with gifts simply because we exist.'

Miroslav Volf (2005) Free of Charge. 23-24.