Category: theology

SPIRIT UNDERLIES AND CONNECTS ALL

When the Spirit of God – always feminine in the Bible

breathed life into human beings in Genesis

She breathed life into all human beings

not just Jews or Christians – these two world religions

have no exclusive claim to the Holy Spirit

so it is not surprising a Buddhist like Thich Nhat Hanh

claims the Holy Spirit as the Source of his life and all life

the Holy Spirit connects everything –

Rupert Sheldrake postulated that repetitive behaviour

creates “morphogenetic fields” – gene-transforming spiritual fields –

that influence the behaviour of all members of a species –

this explains how generation after generation 

of birds and butterflies know what pathways to take 

when they fly south guided by the Spirit

therefore, contrary to the great atheist Richard Dawkins

we are more than our selfish genes –

our Spirit-fueled behaviours/relationships/souls guide us

the desire for God is behind all our motivations and all our sins –

pride wants what is lofty, but nothing is loftier than God

so pride wants to be God – to replace God with ego

ambition seeks honor and glory

but God alone is worthy of honor and glory

cruelty wants to arouse fear

but the only thing we ought to fear is God –

the Lord Almighty/Creator of Heaven and Earth –

but Jesus said “Do not fear God for God loves you

and even numbers all the hairs on your head” (Luke 12:7)

sloth is a desire for a quiet life

but God alone gives true rest

the problem with the Bible is it’s true teachings

always become subverted by counter-teachings –

the radical assertions of Jesus are subverted 

by putting rhetorically violent words in his mouth –

the sheep go to eternal bliss, the goats to eternal torture (Matthew 25) –

on the other hand, Jesus was always authentically himself 

and expressed what he truly felt: even anger and grief

he lived what he preached – 

walked his talk no matter the cost – 

expressing all aspects of love: self-revelation/

understanding/empowering/celebrating/

uniting all things.

SPIRITUAL ESSENTIALS

Myth is “deep truth” not “falsehood”

and it is the secret door

through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos

pour into human life – religion/philosophy/the arts

have all boiled up

from within the magic ring of myth

 and myth stems from the innate desire of humans

to find meaning

in a simultaneously overwhelming/frightening/confusing/

amazing/glorious universe –

humans are the universe’s meaning-makers

and therefore myth-makers

 

out of myth comes religion and contemplation

and the key to contemplation

is to realize that the love of God

pours into life

seeking us in every situation

and particularly in hard situations

the love of God seeks our good/awakening

 

myth begets religion begets contemplation

and after contemplative prayer

the second essential of the devout life

is spiritual friendship –

joining with two or three others

for mutual support

 

spiritual friends vivify and grow each other

and, according to Ruth Barrows

“God is not glorified by half-persons”

but rather, according to Irenaeus

“The glory of God is human persons fully alive”

 

when we affirm ourselves and others

we participate in the infinite spiritual love

with which God contemplates God’s own Self

 

and what God finds in God’s own Self

is Grace –

 and Grace is not something God does

it is who God is

and Grace makes up for

all the deficiencies and suffering in the universe.

 

SACRIFICE/LIBERATION/SALVATION

Contemporary theologians would do well

to free themselves from the “Hellenic complex” –

the integration of Greek categories of thought

into Christian theology – starting with Thomas Aquinas

and his merging of Aristotle into Judeo-Christian beliefs –

Popes John Paul II and Benedict thought Catholicism

should no longer be dominated by Aquinas

but they embraced no one else

 

they could have embraced Gustavo Gutierrez

who realized the new European theology he learned

could not deal with the structural injustices

of his South American continent

so he began interpreting the gospel in light of the poor

but “Saint Pope J.P. II” condemned this as Marxism

and so destroyed liberation theology

 

in spite of “Saint Pope J.P. II” liberation theology

became the key to black theology in North America –

the theology of liberation contained in the Bible –

the liberation of the Jewish slaves from Egypt –

parallels the liberation of black slaves in America –

Lincoln was Moses to the sharecroppers –

because the very essence of Jesus is freedom

Jesus became the model of liberation for blacks

 

understanding is the most powerful tool for “liberation”

which in Buddhism is “salvation from suffering”

so Buddhists talk about salvation by understanding

and the seed of understanding in everyone –

so similar in Christian or Buddhist terms –

is God/Jesus/Christ-Consciousness/Buddha-Mind –

Buddhist meditation involves deep insight

and creates understanding/love/salvation

 

love is both dependent and free at the same time –

it depends on objective values and creates new values:

joy/gratitude/self-sacrifice –

the bodhisattvas sacrificed entering into nirvana/heaven

until all sentient beings were liberated

 

similarly, Muslims sacrifice sex during the Great Fast/Ramadan:

“Do not lie with your wives during the day but cleave to the mosque –

(but during the night you can go into your wives and lie with them)” –

some sacrifice (but not too much) there. 😊

THE EVOLUTION OF BELIEF

In 139 C.E. (Common Era), Ptolemy, a Greek astronomer,

developed a system of circles within circles

which became the primary astronomical model

for 1500 years!

 

for 15 centuries everyone believed

this was how the universe operated

but the accretion of more and more untested beliefs

along with increasingly sophisticated science/history/psychology

caused some Christians, desperately trying to keep up

to assert increasingly unbelievable things

like the existence of hell – a place of eternal torture –

what could anyone do in their brief lifespan to warrant that? –

this belief was the projection of our worst fear onto God

made God into an Absolute Demon/Monster

and created scepticism/atheism

 hell exists, but it is a God-forsaking mental state not a place

7 centuries before Teilhard de Chardin

St. Angela of Foligno saw the whole evolving creation as

a divine milieu – a universe pregnant with God – a heaven

 

in Fall/Redemption traditional spirituality

the quest is for perfection

and the goal is to keep the soul clean

but in Quantum Theology/Spirituality no perfection exists –

imperfection is integral to all nature –

and holiness is cosmic hospitality – welcoming all things –

and the goal is to keep the soul green/

evergreen/ever-growing

 

7 centuries before, and surprisingly like, Quantum Theology

Meister Eckhart’s writings on the soul

answered the fundamental philosophical/theological questions:

“who are we?/why do we exist?”

which supply the basic purpose/direction of our lives

 

no one but Meister Eckhart

according to Matthew Fox

so thoroughly integrated

biblical theology/spirituality/

prophecy/mysticism/

faith/reason/

art/life.

 

THE GREAT REVERSAL

There was a development from first generation Christians who

focused on the special relationship of Jesus to God

to second generation Christians who

to counter growing Gnosticism

focused on Jesus as the Cosmic Christ 

as the only way to redemption

the kingdom/queendom/kindom of God

is available to us here and now 

because Jesus is the door 

thru which we enter the kingdom/salvation/life everlasting

and we do not go to the kingdom – the kingdom comes to us –

since Jesus not only is the door – he stands at the door/knocks/and asks

will we let “Thy kingdom come” to us?

this is the Great Reversal: Jesus showed us 

we cannot deduce anything about Jesus

from speculation about God – everything about God

must come from what we know about Jesus 

Jesus unconditionally accepts sinners –

he does not condemn them

but gives them a strong challenge: 

he will not tolerate 

objectively destructive behaviour that ruins people

therefore repentance – turning from sin –

is the key to Christ’s door 

of a new beginning –

Jesus unconditionally accepts sinners

but does not unconditionally accept their sin

“Besides the ‘Communion of Saints’

we should also affirm the ‘Communion of Sinners’

since all of us firmly belong to both groups”

– Richard Rohr

“God says ‘Abide in me, abide in my love,

make your home in the love 

of the homemaking God

and you will bear much fruit’”

– Canadian folk music legend 

Bruce Cockburn

THE PARADOXICAL GOOD NEWS

The deeper and wider our knowledge of God

the greater our love of God

 

but Christians tend to limit love to humans

and not see it in other species or in the universe itself

therefore we focus on inner love and outer darkness

another classic duality/division in our thinking

 

true nondual language is paradoxical

like a Zen koan – “I am different from all others

yet the same as them” – this is true in life

because life itself is paradoxical


and even though Christianity stands or falls on Christology

we couldn’t handle the paradox of Christ:

both human and God – and so we spiritualized Jesus –

we couldn’t handle the humanity of Jesus

like the docetist heretics – so we made Jesus into pure God

rather than the God/human

and we made salvation totally spiritual

so that Christianity had only a limited impact on the world

and we didn’t have to change – so far

 

but when we divorce theology from cosmology

we get just an idea of God

rather than the living God

and there exists a tremendous gap

between the transcendent/religious dimension

and the material/science dimension of life –

life becomes divided against itself

 

but contemplation opens our dualistic minds

to the paradoxical Good News

of intelligent Christian spirituality:

our fulfillment/salvation is received not achieved

but we have to work out our salvation

with fear and trembling

“for it is God who works in you

both to will and to work

for God’s good pleasure”

Philippians 2: 12-13.

 

MANIFEST TRANSFORMATION

Buddhists talk about rebirth not reincarnation

but things are not born nor do they die –

they are manifest/remanifest/transformed –

flowers are manifest (latent) within sun/soil/rain/seed

remanifest in flowers of stunning creativity/color

transformed into soil when they wither –

reality contains no birth/death/being/nonbeing/

no something out of nothing/no nothing out of something

things are always everywhere all at once

 

but things do emerge – the new paradigm/scientific story

of the universe expands our imagination/causes us to let go

of anthropocentric views of God and humans

allowing us to embrace the entire cosmos

 

we all emerge as apprentices – we learn everything we do

by imitation: smiling/laughing/walking/eating/feeling

 

“We all long to be filled with endless joy and bliss

for we are made for this”

– Julian of Norwich

 

we all long for the happiness

the Beatitudes of Jesus made manifest

and God is the only one who can remanifest us in bliss

 

in the Incarnation God completes what God began

with the creation of the cosmos

and crowns it with eternal significance –

the Incarnation is the realization

of what is manifest in human nature –

union with God

 

in the Second Vatican Council the Catholic Church

reminded us the Holy Spirit

is active in the whole world/cosmos –

in all religions/art/science/technology/politics

and most of all in peoples’ consciences

where the still small voice of God

subtly transforms our minds/hearts/actions/

communities/civilizations

transforming hate into love

war into peace

that surpasses all understanding.

 

 

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.

PARADOX AND PAROUSIA

Paradox allows us to understand realities too complex

to be explained from a single point of view –

it allows us to speak the whole truth by juxtaposing

two seemingly contradictory statements –

Jesus is both fully human and fully God

 

it is paradoxical that through deeply living/looking into

our own religion we become free/able

to deeply look into/listen to other traditions

and see the beauty in both

 

our worldview is not just a system of thought

but a way of imagining the world –

how it is and how it ought to be –

and it is prescriptive – it informs/is informed by

our actions in the world

 

“Nothing is just a part or a whole –

everything is both whole in itself

and a part of something bigger –

a ‘holon’ – an integral system” – Ken Wilber

 you are whole in yourself yet part of society

your religion is whole in itself yet

part of the world which is whole in itself yet

part of the solar system/galaxy/universe

 

although science is just beginning

to understand integral systems

the idea that everything is interconnected

has been around in mysticism

in every major world religion for millenia –

science is finally catching up/catching on

to religion – science and religion are becoming one

 

the New Testament writers did not run wild

with their interpretations of Jesus –

rather there was a gradual deepening of insights

into his Message and who He was

 

the “Parousia” – the coming “kindom” of God

is already here

just not fully developed yet –

we are in a time of decision and choice –

do we get the Message of Paradox

or not?

EMPIRES OF IDEAS

In Carol Gilligan’s model of moral development

the order is: selfishness/care/universal care/integrated care –

the integration of masculine and feminine energies in the soul

 

dualism – separating things – causes us to project

our personal and social shadows onto goats –

scapegoats –

instead of integrating our shadow –

if all things are one, which they are –

you have to own your own shadow – you cannot escape it

 

the fact that nondualism is central to 3 major world religions –

Hinduism/Buddhism/Christianity –

and that Christianity taught it for 16 centuries –

“I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you”

(John 14:20) – proves that nondualism

is absolutely important

 

dualisms like spirit vs body/human vs animal/sacred vs secular

falsify the holism of life/nature/God – God works thru

both-and polarities

not either-or dualisms –

God is in the body/nature/secular

just as much as in the spirit/the human/the sacred

 

but atheists separate God and man – they cut God

out of the picture completely – as Wayne Dyer liked to say

EGO means Edging God Out –

the famous atheist Bertrand Russell

was even more cynical than John Calvin who professed

humanity’s “total depravity” –

Russell believed the soul’s foundation had to be built

on ironically soul-killing and unyielding despair

since every human accomplishment will be wiped out

because the universe will eventually disappear

 

but take courage  – for empires of ideas like dualism

just like empires of power and wealth

come and go –

“In the world you will have trouble, but take courage

I have conquered the world – these things I have spoken to you

so that in me you may have peace” – Jesus in John 16:33.