culture – Page 2 – Intelligent Christian Spirituality

RELIGION/SCIENCE/POST-TRUTH

A major mistake for atheism and science advocates

is the massive fallacy of freezing all religion

at the pre-rational/mythic level

and believing modern science and culture

are purely rational

which war and science-used-for-war disproves

to some scientists evolution is a meaningless process

controlled by blind chance

whereas to some Christians evolution can give new depth

and richness to our view of God –

God works thru chaos and does not impose design

but gives nature the chance

to participate in its own creation

the universe intended life from the beginning –

if the Big Bang had happened a trillionth of a second

slower or faster the universe would have imploded

or flung apart into nothingness

whereas North American and European theologians

address the non-believer –

how can you speak of God in a scientific age? –

Latin and African liberation theologians

address the non-person –

how can you speak of God to the poor/marginalized?

over the course of centuries the Church

has worked out a body of principles based on the Gospel

regarding communal justice and equality –

and Vatican Council II in the 1960s

wanted to reinforce/enlarge these principles

particularly regarding communal economic development

as our culture turns in the “post-truth” era

towards the authority of experience

rather than the authority of religion or reason

it is good to remember that religion and reason

are part of human experience

and to be spiritual and religious

is to stitch human experience and wisdom together

so experience renews reason

with awe.

CADUCEUS

God created humans in God’s image: male and female

God is both masculine and feminine energy

but once the male and female separated into separate forms

the fall began from perfection into duality

which was further exasperated by the discovery of good and evil

and the subsequent banishment from Paradise

where God walked with humans in the Garden

the disconnection of humans from the Cosmos

continued with Martin Luther the Protestant reformer

whose doctrine of “sola scriptura” – “only scripture”

as the revelation of God – banished Nature as the first Bible

and resulted in extreme anthropocentrism –

humans as the center of everything

thus divorcing salvation from anything to do with Nature

modern society has further exasperated things

by teaching individualism: your body belongs only to you

not also to God and others

so you can do whatever you want with your body –

“George W. Bush get off my bush” –

but according to Buddhist emptiness/no-self/interbeing theory

your body belongs to your parents/ancestors/every living being –

your body is not only your own – you belong to the human race

and belonging to a group is essential to our inner growth and maturity –

it breaks us out of individualism/self-centeredness

but this requires true humility: journeying into the darkness

of oneself/others/divinity

and always a strain remains between the “Via Positiva” –

the Cosmos as glorious – and the “Via Negativa” – life as hard/suffering

always conflict remains between love and sacrifice

the Caduceus – the Staff of Hermes

in Greek/Roman/Egyptian mythology –

the staff born by heralds/messengers/gods

with two serpents twined around it and topped by wings

symbolizes healing by the medical/pharmaceutical professions –

the rod represents the spinal cord

where the serpents cross represents the seven chakras

the serpents represent the solar and lunar/

masculine and feminine energies

that come together in each chakra

and heal all our divisions.

TRANSFORMATION OR EXTINCTION?

The most essential practice of peace is non-attachment

to your own views – clinging too tightly to our own beliefs/

ideology causes violence/war on the one hand

but on the other hand you have to believe in something

or your life is meaningless – you have to hold your beliefs

tightly/loosely – to be committed/open

and in our culture the number one blasphemy

is to question anyone’s views on autonomy – their right

to do their own thing without consideration of others –

their separation from others and God –

and the faith of the modern mind is based on this:

science can and should be allowed to do anything

no matter how horrendous – we have created

nuclear weapons – therefore we are morally obligated to use them

but one of the best things – if your faith brings you into conflict

with science/history/culture/philosophy

is that this conflict can stimulate new and deeper theology

the quantum theologian has already learned

that extinction (crucifixion) and transformation (resurrection)

are central coordinates of cosmic and planetary evolution –

in Romans 8:22 the Apostle Paul wrote

“the whole creation has been groaning together

in the pains of childbirth until now” –

birth/transformation and extinction are the two great possibilities

facing us right now and should be our primary focus

our primary focus is too often misplaced:

we focus only on: “Am I full or hungry? Am I sick or healthy?

Am I rich or poor?” Good questions but

if we leave God out of the equation

we will not be fully full/healthy/rich:

“You say ‘I am rich, and have become wealthy,

and have need of nothing’ but you do not know

that in God’s eyes ‘you are wretched/miserable/

poor/blind/naked’” (Revelation 3:17)

our true food/health/wealth is to do the will of God

who made us – only when we get this

will we be headed towards a world

that is interspiritually unified by both

the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.

GRATITUDE, A COUNTERCULTURAL RESPONSE TO THE WORLD’S DESPAIR

The best thing you can do for yourself, others, and the planet is: be grateful.

Gratitude is a countercultural response to the scarcity mentality we are brainwashed into in subtle ways every day.

While I realize that capitalism, business, and advertising underlie our whole culture, they seem to thrive on keeping us unhappy with whatever we presently have so we are in a constant state of dissatisfaction.

Mary Jo Leddy, a Catholic theologian, social activist, and Order of Canada recipient, noted in her 2002 book Radical Gratitude that the hidden message that drives our culture is “you do not have enough, you do not do enough, you are not enough.”

Gratitude gives you the strength to combat this message because it shows you how abundant your life already is. By teaching you to appreciate what you already have, gratitude prevents the feeling you must frantically get, do, and be more.

It could be argued that this constant desire for more is causing the over-consumption of the world’s resources such as land, forests and fuel that underlies climate change. And many wars have started because some political leader thought he needed more. A case in point is Vladimir Putin, who although he is the president of Russia, the largest country in the world, decided that was not enough, he needed Ukraine.

I have found that keeping a daily gratitude journal can be revolutionary. Writing down things I am grateful for from each day has gradually positively shifted my awareness.

I used to be like Charles Schulz, creator of the Peanuts cartoon, who once quipped “I have learned to dread one day at a time.” Now, before I get out of bed, I anticipate the blessings of the day because I know I will be recording them that evening before bed.

There are so many things one can be grateful for: births, birthdays, graduations, work, promotions, having a spouse or partner, children, groups you belong to, friends, health, education, travel, a place to stay, movies, sports, the list is endless.

There are lots of both common and unusual things we could be thankful for: butterflies in our garden, hummingbirds at our feeder, podcasts that shed new light, fixing a computer glitch, learning a smartphone trick, our pets, books, receiving a drawing from a grandchild or funny card in the mail, documentaries about whales or fungi, a walk in the woods, learning a new way of exercising, and on and on.

As an abundance mentality, gratitude tends to loosen up peoples’ purse strings: when they realize their life is already overflowing with things to be thankful for, they more easily give to those who are in dire straits caused by war or poverty.

Scripture is full of verses calling us to gratitude: “In everything give thanks, for this is God’s will for you” (I Thessalonians 5:18). “O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever” (Psalm 30:12). God has created a world of abundance not scarcity, but as Jesus said, it is “for those who have eyes to see” – seeing abundance or scarcity are choices we can make, for better or worse.

At this time of year, despite all the emphasis on consumption of physical gifts, churches try to help people be grateful for the greatest gift of all, given to us out of God’s infinite abundance: “For God so loved the world that God gave God’s only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

The greatest thing to be grateful for is God’s overflowing love, manifested in a physical way we can understand, God in the form of a human being, Jesus the Christ.

With political chaos. climate problems, and wars, the world seems dark and depressing right now, but let’s open our eyes this Christmas season and choose to see how abundant our lives already are, be grateful, and open our hearts to God and others.

Bruce Tallman is a London religious educator of adults and spiritual director. http://www.brucetallman.com

THE THIRD WAVE

The second major arc of human development

after the pre-rational and before the trans-rational

is the anti-religious/atheistic stage

which is all about reason and science

and which brings seemingly staggering benefits

to humanity in terms of reducing suffering

but we are right on the edge

of the third wave of transformation:

from farming to industry to information –

from the suffering caused by the rational-industrial

to the visionary-informational

the visionary Paul Tillich developed and applied

the “Protestant Principle:” vigorous protest

(which is why they call it “Protest-antism”)

against all distortions of the Truth –

particularly rational ones against the Gospel

particularly the “demonic tendency”

to make the Church into an Absolute replacing God

and manipulate God with sacraments

since World War II modern society has gone thru

an “expressionist revolution:” replacing external authority

with inner authority – each person expresses

their authentic self/individuality/personal choices

of purpose and meaning

in a fractured commercialist society –

old loyalties to family/nation/religion are gone

and others revolt mindlessly against this loss

of the old values and the old Church

our formerly simple world has changed

to one of pluralism – both culturally and religiously –

consequently, the meaning of Christ must be changed

and expanded exponentially

beyond all protest

the humble scientific researcher

even though s/he is unaware of it

as he/she tries to penetrate

the secrets of the universe

is being led by the Cosmic Christ of Divine Love –

into the Third Wave after religion and science:

the perfect marriage of science and religion.

ARMCHAIR CATHOLICISM

As churches institutionalized, they professionalized

and a professional elite took over, the clergy

who focused on how to live the Christian life but lost the why –

the motivations of regular lay believers

Catholic clergy have been wrestling with laity forever:

when Catholicism fought the heretical monster

it labeled “modernism”

it condemned modernism’s chief architects:

Galileo/Darwin/Marx/Freud

all Christian and Jewish-atheist laymen

who threatened the church’s

classicism/Hellenism/Thomism

however, Bernard Lonergan’s “transcendental precepts”

that underlie his General Epistemological Method (G.E.M.)

that underlies all the hard and soft sciences:

attentiveness (paying attention)/intelligence (what seems to be happening?)/

reasonableness (is that accurate?)/responsibility (what should be done?)

gave Catholicism a new way of doing theology

that matched our fast-emerging world civilization

hopefully Lonergan’s work will not be subverted

because assertion and then subversion

of the good/true/beautiful

is the basic pattern of the Bible –

the nonviolent resistance of Jesus to the “normal” state

of his society – the violent Roman Empire –

is met with his murder

when individualism reigns in our society

Christian charity alleviates the suffering of individuals

but ignores the unjust structures/laws

made by the privileged to protect the privileged

that cause the suffering in the first place

“A Merchant Mentality destroys compassion and the soul –

and the sin behind all sin is dualism – splitting things apart”

– Matthew Fox

rather than meditating on God from our armchair

it would be more fruitful to actually unite

with “others” who are least like us

and find Jesus the Christ in them too.

THE POVERTY OF THE RICH

Biblical salvation is about liberation –

the Book of Exodus is the prototype

of God liberating us

but people often prefer the security of slavery

to the uncertainty of freedom –

God meant the Israelites to be a beacon of light

to the world – a liberated community

dedicated to peace and justice –

but their need for “security” is undoing them

we could be secure/happy/content

with God’s grace and the life God has given us

but in our culture we need approval

which comes from having truckloads of money –

if you are poor, capitalism excludes you –

you are excommunicated

from the heavenly banquet of western culture

but the poor have a spiritual advantage over the rich

since the rich can take away their pain too easily –

they can fill their emptiness with travel

distract their loneliness with shopping or fine dining

whereas the poor must face their poverty

and learn its lessons

the “Fifth Buddhist Precept: Mindful Consuming”

reminds us to not ingest toxins like

violent movies/mindless television/

numbing netsurfing/cynical books

in the 1960s, just as Asia ran headlong

into the craze for money and industrialization

Asian meditation poured into the West

because westerners were desperate

for things of the spirit

but the West has always had its own mysticism/mystics

which organized religion largely ignored

and so churches have emptied to the East –

more people practice yoga/meditation than go to church

although some spiritual experiences happen

as random insights or miraculous encounters

most experiences of God come through prayer –

prayer is a way for westerners to find God

and become liberated from their spiritual poverty.

QUESTIONING PATRIARCHY

We are made from and for love

the intensity of divine love never varies

God loved us equally: before God made us/

as God loves us now/as God will love us in the life to come

healthy parents do not want their children

just to think rightly about Mommy and Daddy

they want a personal relationship with them

and for their children to thrive

similarly, God did not create us

just to think rightly about God (doctrine)

God created us to have a personal relationship with us

and wants us to be fully alive –

“The glory of God is man and woman fully alive”

– St Irenaeus

“I have come so they might have life

and have it abundantly” – Jesus

in How to Read the Bible and Still Be a Christian

John Dominic Crossan wrote “Accept the nonviolent Jesus

as the true image of the nonviolent God

and reject the subversion of Jesus and God

into violence”

similarly, gender subversion needs to be rejected

where “woman” in both religion and civilization

was associated with “matter” and “nature”

and “man” with “spirit” and “culture”-

this gender division was an ordering/organizing principle

which created hierarchical structures and relationships

but God’s Work like God’s Wisdom

turns the world upside down

our challenge is to join God’s Work

by challenging the status quo/

being as revolutionary/prophetic as Jesus

faced with the silence of God/

the silence of his own soul/

and the silence of the souls entrusted to him (novices)

Thomas Merton realized eighty years ago

the most practical thing would be to stop asking questions

but today he would encourage us to ask questions

about sexuality/gender/patriarchy.

LOVE AND SOCIAL RENEWAL

Maslow’s growth hierarchy of needs operates like this:

physiological needs must be met before we can pursue

safety/belonging/self-esteem/self-actualization/

self-transcendence needs – the need to move beyond self

into ever-expanding circles of care/consciousness –

this is the transpersonal/spiritual level

but the Enlightenment emphasis on separation

of religion and state made Christianity captive

to the financial values of the middle class

which then used religion to justify those values –

so we got stuck

at the physiological/financial safety need level

the middle class version of Christian joy

then became the synthetic “happy-making”

of going on a vacation cruise

whereas true Christian joy

takes you from the limitations

of what you had no choice to be born into

to the freedom of creatively loving

those who are strangers to you

for the soul this is all or nothing –

either we see God’s image in all people

or we don’t see at all –

love of enemies makes no logical sense

but absolute soul sense –

we can no longer exclude anyone

sometimes the “enemy” is the one you are married to

but conjugal love could become highly regarded

and bring about psychological/social/cultural renewal

if Christian couples focused not on money

but on committed/harmonious love –

divine love would shine thru everything –

“Seek joy in God/peace within yourself/love in relationships –

seek to rest in the good, the true, and the beautiful –

this resting is then God within you

loving God all around you – this is authentic social renewal.”

– Richard Rohr

IN PRAISE OF COMMUNITY – EAST AND WEST

The Shantivanam Ashram had a wide impact

because its founder, Bede Griffiths, embodied the marriage

of East and West – he was at one and the same time

the brilliant Christian intellectual and the Indian sadhu (holy man)

and he knew that Christianity and Hinduism

could meet at the mystical level.

Griffiths also knew every one of the eight billion inhabitants

of Earth is circumscribed by their context –

their culture and institutions dictate what

books/entertainment/freedom/moral values/political system/

religion they should follow.

However, healthy psychosocial development means

individuals are not only shaped by their context

they choose and shape their context –

in other words, healthy childhood/adolescence/adulthood

involves self-regulation and self-agency.

Christians have a special agency to play in politics:

to fight for the common good, that is, to show how

authority can be harmonized with freedom

diversity can be harmonized with unity

initiative can be harmonized with communal good.

Jesus taught women and included them freely

in the early Christian community/ecclesia

and would ordain them today.

The Buddha also was naturally oriented to justice –

he invited women to be active and teach

in the Sangha (Buddhist community/ashram).

Our culture and institutions used to be guided

through psychological perils by the symbols

and rituals of our religious inheritance.

But now that all mythology/gods/demons

have been rationalized out of existence

we now have no overarching myth that binds us all together

we have no protection – no community/church/sangha/ashram

to keep us warm/comforted/sustained/fighting for the good –

sadly, our impoverished/individualistic lives means

we have to face our daily perils on our own.