religion – Page 14 – Intelligent Christian Spirituality

THE MARRIAGE OF HEAVEN AND HELL

For Carl Jung, consciousness and archetypes

underlie all religion –

religious symbols are a response

to power centers in the collective unconscious.

Jesus deserves the claim

of universal salvific significance

because he is the archetype

the paradigm, the living parable

of humanity, of God’s love for us

the human face of God’s mysterious care.

And for Jesus, no amount of

learning, authority, tradition, or sacredness

was immune to his challenges.

Even fundamental assumptions and values

like obedience to the Law

could be questioned and changed.

Catholic and Orthodox priests

made the Great Indwelling of the Holy Spirit

depend on membership and sacraments

and Protestant clergy made Spirit

depend on personal decisions.

Both tried to control

the Uncontrollable.

Transformation happens in ‘liminal space’

when we are in-between stages of

life, relationships, faith

when we are not in control –

transformation does not happen in our comfort zone.

William Blake, Chuang Tzu, and Zen

knew that vision and imagination

are necessary to counter

a world of rationality –

both reason and imagination are needed

for the marriage of heaven and hell.

According to Michel Foucault

the 18^th to 20^th century scientific Enlightenment

resulted in people becoming

“objects of information”

rather than “subjects of communication”

that is, persons became “its” with no

depth, intentionality, or personhood.

The spiritual void

in a culture of “its”

intensifies anxiety over

death, guilt, and meaninglessness –

all “existential threats of non-being.”

Pleasure and pain are inevitable

components of bodily existence.

Happiness is not all pleasure and no pain

but the ability to handle pain

and, when necessary, delay pleasure

preventing denial, blame, scapegoating and addiction.

All major religions

transform suffering into

deep connection to salvation.

Many great religious figures suffered

for others

or ascetical purification.

But religion was never just

how to handle suffering –

along with lists of sins

there were lists of virtues.

Christians added three theological virtues:

faith, hope, and love

to Aristotle’s list

of four cardinal virtues

justice, temperance, fortitude, and prudence.

Seven cardinal virtues

counterbalanced seven cardinal sins.

And beyond positively practicing virtues

there is non-elitist “street spirituality:”

seeking out the stranger

the broken, the prisoner

were part and parcel of the biblical prophets

wisdom literature, and saints

down through the ages.

All this is the opposite

of treating persons as

“its.”

WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

Few of us can run off

to the wilderness or hermitage

so the older religions

to break us out of

our normal, comfortable, sleepwalking trance

help us get into liminal space

through pilgrimages, fasting, silent retreats

Lent or Ramadan.

You are baptized with the Holy Spirit

not by believing in the Holy Spirit

as a doctrine, but by drawing upon

the Divine Indwelling already within you.

According to Thomas Merton

the Holy Spirit is the Soul of the Church

so when the Holy Spirit prays within you

whether in public or private

it is the Soul of the Church

praying within you.

Bad things happen to good people

but the Holy Spirit is always present

prompting you from within

to take care of your self

and comforting you from within

when your health, work, or marriage fails.

Quantum theology befriends and redeems

the pain, the dark, the chaos

by helping people see the interdependence of

darkness and light

pain and pleasure

sickness and health

death and rebirth.

The Holy Spirit shows us

there is a virtue to be practiced for every sin:

pride/humility, anger/patience

avarice/compassion, lust/chastity

gluttony/sobriety

all the Enneagram

vices and virtues.

If you are engaging with those

who have not suffered

“rings of fire”

your attempts to explain

the reasonableness of faith

or prove God’s existence

will fail.

Systematic atheism insists

humans must be free

of any kind of God

as their author and goal

in order to be responsible

for their own life.

Since YOU are your own author, goal and end

you cannot foist off onto God

responsibility for your own life.

Atheism relies upon science

but science believes only

what can be physically located is real:

cells, brains, stars.

So science scrubs the universe clean of

values, meaning, consciousness, ethics and depth

since these things cannot be located in the cosmos

they are unreal fantasies/illusions.

What Alfred North Whitehead called

“the fallacy of simple location”

leaves us with a culture of superficiality.

We are like seed

that falls upon gravel

and withers because it has no roots.

Merton studied the “archaic wisdom”

of Mayans, Zapotecs, Toltecs

to learn how to counter the efficiency, ambition

and triviality of technocratic society.

Science saps us of passion

but Eros is the Holy Spirit in action – and passion

deserves a home among spiritual people

– passion for pleasure and sharing it

– compassion: awareness of suffering

– passion for restorative justice

– all these are works of the Holy Spirit.

SEEING CLEARLY

First, learn to pray.

Love must be primary in prayer

and God must be loved for God’s own Self.

We need to form a ‘cloud of forgetting’

between us and all things

to block distractions.

The word ‘penance’

has ironically been corrupted

by moralistic and individualistic

meanings – the original meaning was

‘turning away from the world-trance’

so you could see clearly.

All Seers engaged in this life

of penance – clear-seeing.

John of the Cross advocated

carrying in your heart

an image of Christ

crucified

clearing away the confusion

and fog of living.

Then you can see that

Planet Earth is in the middle

of a Calvary-disintegration

thousands of species extinguished

our lungs, the rainforests

destroyed by the pandemic

of greed and nuclear weapons

threatening annihilation of everything.

Rather than seeing these facts

we anaesthetize the pain

with addiction:

to computer games, binge-watching, porn.

If there are no names already written in Heaven

no grace, then I have to make my name everyday

“Its all about the money”

and I have to out-compete the seven billion

other dogs gobbling up other dogs.

And so, I anaesthetize, I enter the world- trance.

What is needed is

a return to Nature.

Identifying my self with the universe

is not romanticism or sentimental

it is essential

to Christian mysticism

the salvation of the planet

you cannot discover your True Self

without discovering you are One

with Nature.

But scientists don’t want mysticism –

symbols and emotion bother them because

– although they are a fact

with undeniably immense impact –

they cannot be precisely

defined or measured.

New religions are powerless

unless full of the sacred life-force of Eros

which creates powerful

visions – Jesus’ preaching

is full of Eros –

both exciting and disturbing.

The first letter to Timothy

witnesses the Church’s transition

from a charismatic, democratic movement

into an institution

ruled by a hierarchy.

To get back to the Original Church

we must return to mysticism:

loving God, others, and our True Self

embedded in Nature.

We need to return to nature-mysticism

to grace, names already written in Nature

to see clearly

God in all things

and save our Mother

Earth.

WORLD NEEDS ADULT FAITH

Fundamentalism, in terms of people having a simplistic faith, has become a problem for all of us. As a person’s world view progressively narrows, they become more and more judgmental, intolerant, and even dangerous. In some cases people are willing to kill themselves and others for their religious cause.

As our world becomes increasingly complex, people seek simple answers in order to cope, and so fundamentalism is spreading everywhere. The solution is for people to develop an adult faith.

By integrating the thinking of James Hayes, a former Catholic archbishop, Friedrich Von Hugel, a nineteenth century theologian, and Gordon Allport, a Harvard psychologist, we can outline ten characteristics of an adult faith which could apply to Christians, Jews, Muslims, Bahais, or any other faith-based tradition.

First of all, a mature faith is open. It honours the basic freedom and autonomy of other adults, knows that our world is complex and ambiguous, and therefore respectfully listens to others and tries to understand their viewpoint. Then it speaks its own truth freely. This “dialogical” rather than argumentative approach represents a middle path between saying nothing and being authoritarian, that is, trying to impose our faith on others.

Secondly, an adult faith is searching. The adult believer distinguishes between constructive questioning (the search for truth) and destructive questioning ( the desire to disprove the truth). Constructive questioning is essential to progress in faith and normally produces greater clarity, broader horizons, and deeper ownership of one’s beliefs. The adult believer is wary of anyone who tries to shut down the quest for understanding.

A mature faith is also informed and comprehensive in its world view. Ideally, adult believers know the scriptures of their tradition well, and supplement this with ancient and modern spiritual classics. Adult believers should also become familiar with at least one science, and scientific methods of investigation, to keep their faith from becoming superstitious and ungrounded.

An adult faith is humble. It is a pilgrim faith that never believes it has fully arrived. It is open to ongoing learning and conversion, rather than the faith of someone who has all the answers.

Fifthly, a mature faith is critically evaluative. While it immerses itself in its culture, it critically evaluates the social order in light of the demands of human rights, responsibilities, and justice.

An adult faith is also decisive. In spite of cultural complexity, the mature faith is not paralyzed. Rather, it is able to make sophisticated judgments and to take appropriate action for the common good.

Seventh, a mature faith is integrated, that is, it integrates the sacred and the secular, faith and life. It acts the same whether inside or outside the synagogue, church, mosque or temple. It is consistently moral and just.

Adult believers also have a differentiated faith. That is, they don’t believe that all religious traditions are the same, so that it doesn’t matter which one you belong to. They make critical discernments about the different truth claims between major world religions and also the diverse claims by the various branches within each tradition. At the same time, the adult believer focuses on similarities more than differences and builds bridges between and within traditions.

Adult faith is also personal. Adult believers struggle to come to their own conclusions rather than just simplistically accepting what is handed to them by religious authorities. They wrestle with whether or not assertions by those in authority make any sense to them based on their own personal life experience.

Finally, knowing their own limits and the limits of others means that the adult believer’s faith is simultaneously compassionate and communal. They know that they and others cannot do it all alone, they need human support. They know that being a part of, and being accountable to, a supportive religious or spiritual community is essential to maintaining an adult faith.

What the world needs now is not just love but also adults with an adult faith.

THE PRIMACY OF CHRIST

The Cosmic Christ is the blueprint

and raison d’être for the Creation.

The First Incarnation was at the Big Bang

when the Cosmic Christ became incarnate

in the universe.

The Second Incarnation was when

the Son of God became incarnate

in Jesus of Nazareth.

Paul, Origen, Bonaventure, and Duns Scotus

testify to this.

In Christo-genesis

which is larger than evolution

the dynamism of the Church’s life

and the life of the Christian individual

are meant to lead evolution

to a new level of cosmic life.

As individuals we are meant to progress

from Egocentric basal, genital, gut chakras 1,2, 3:

food, sex, power

to Ethnocentric heart and throat chakras 4 and 5:

authentic relationships and communication

to World-centric mind and soul chakras 6 and 7:

psychological and spiritual fecundity.

As civilizations we are meant to progress

from Premodernity – the great Chain of Being

to Modernity – the differentiation of Science, Culture, and Religion

to Postmodernity – integration of the Big Three.

But the System constantly teaches

the Calculating Mind

and alas we are only ever momentarily in

the Contemplative Mind

taught by the Spirit.

The System can thwart the progression

of the Spirit-filled life:

from finding the sacred in one place

to finding the sacred – the Gate of Heaven –

everywhere – so everything is sacred.

Dualistic, either/or, calculating thinking

has blessed us

with scientific and technological revolutions

but can’t access eternal things.

Dualism is not the Tree of Life –

it is the Tree of This or That.

Fearlessness and clairvoyance (clear-seeing)

are our fundamental nature

as images of God

we can see that

the Rational Mind cannot grasp

what the Religious Mind can.

Heidegger appealed to conscience

for authentic living

but Macquarrie critiqued conscience

as impotent

using Paul and Luther’s

bondage of the will.

Rationality cannot grasp

that God loves us

even when we don’t love God.

The devil tries to make us believe

our sins are too great for God

but God constantly leads us

to internal expanded awareness

of Infinite Mercy.

Constant Love

never consumes or absorbs us.

This Higher Love lives within us

and our True Self marinates in it.

Discovering this gives us power

to embrace the world

and our Total Self:

our prodigal self (the wayward son)

our self-righteous self (the older brother)

and our merciful self (the father).

Constant Love teaches us to embrace

God, our Total Self, and the world

that is becoming Christ

who is greater than evolution

and its core, center, and raison d’être.

ONLY IN GOD DOES EVERYTHING BELONG

Only in God

does everything belong:

the good and the bad –

all other systems exclude

contaminating elements

for ideological purity.

Both communism and capitalism

believe in a future paradise/utopia

in which there is no shadow

which makes them ironically open

to every moral infestation/corruption.

Only by abiding

in God’s unconditional love

do we find the safety and freedom to be

who we really are (our True Self)

all that we are (good and bad)

more than we are (saints)

and less than we are (sinners).

People believe

if they find their True Self

all problems will be solved.

However, this narcissism

ignores social/cultural dimensions

necessary for transformation of civilization.

Sorry, evangelicals:

converting individuals

does not convert society

does not create the kingdom/queendom of God

the Beloved Community.

Ego intuits Spirit

as Higher Self, Soul

Archetype, Enneagramtype

Inner Voice, Witness

Universal Mind, Pure Awareness

Transcendental Consciousness, Gnosticism

but this leaves out

the We of culture

the It of politics.

Christology must be seen

thru eyes of victims’ oppression

not thru magical conceptions

of victors’ redemption.

When scripture is seen

literally/historically

not spiritually/symbolically

the Perennial Philosophy

mysticism……is lost

which is what the world

needs most.

We must learn to live with relativity

of all human ideas

all theological/scientific dogma.

The future is open-ended and inter-connected:

the freedom to flow and connect

are the new survival skills

in this twenty-first of all centuries.