Faith is higher and more perfect
than any knowledge or science available on Earth.
Faith has inestimable dignity and greatness
because it is a gift from God.
Religion gives culture its
meaning/seriousness/depth.
And culture gives religion its particular form
which varies from culture to culture.
“Religion is the substance of culture
and culture is the form of religion.” – Paul Tillich
In a healthy “theonomous culture”
religion neither dominates culture
nor withdraws from it:
religion and culture critique and support each other.
Religion saves culture from itself:
if just one-seventh of our life consists of
daily/weekly/yearly choices that are
liminal/Sabbath/sabbatical times
of consciousness/presence/naked ‘being’
the rest of our life will take care of itself
and not just be shallow producing/consuming/doing.
But religions often get stuck
in dualistic/anthropocentric/anti-world thinking:
only humans matter and if you want to be holy
you must not contaminate yourself with ‘the world.’
Carl Jung is the cure for this stuckness:
Jungians argue as Jesus did, not by logic
but by bringing in the big picture:
‘metanoia’ (mistranslated as ‘repent’)
actually means ‘go to your higher mind’
and Jung’s whole philosophy of life is:
individuals become happy and integrated
through ‘individuation:’
the conscious and unconscious minds
balancing and complementing each other.
Everyone has an unconscious shadow
which is not evil. Shadow is self-alienation
and requires reconciliation with your higher Self.
Sin is spiritual alienation
and requires reconciliation with God.
Shadow is like Original Sin
against your Self, not against God.
Shadow comes from repression
of parts of your Self so you are not whole.
Reconciliation with your Self comes from spirituality.
Spirituality is energy/experience/prayer
meditation/doubt/peace
love/creativity/intuition.
Religion is institution/hierarchy/dogma
doctrine/orthodoxy/buildings
rules/authority/certainty.
The religious far right and far left dogmatically
shutter the mind or at least keep faith small
with no openness to the thoughts of others.
But small faith is cured by cosmic hope:
Neo-Darwinian evolution engages
in an ongoing process of greater
complexity/crisis/renewal despite catastrophes
in the three great domains:
- Cosmos: exploding supernovae (crisis)
chemically enrich the cosmos (renewal)
- Biosphere: mass extinctions (crisis)
result in new, more complex species (renewal)
- Culture: human revolutions (crisis)
result in more inclusive living (renewal).
Ongoing hope conquers major catastrophes.
In any case, suffering can bring acceptance.
Buddha’s teaching that existence consists of
egolessness/impermanence/suffering
allows us to accept rather than struggle
against the facts of life and to not blame ourselves
for not being able to cure these facts.
On the other hand, people are fearless who know that
“In all things (even disaster) God works together
for the good of those who love God” (Romans 8:28).
They become holy adventurers.
But adventure requires wisdom and community –
those who become hero-adventurers
often find a Wise Person –
an older woman or man – an Elder
gives them aid for their journey
of transforming Self/Culture/Religion.
Intelligent Christian Spirituality 