humanism – Intelligent Christian Spirituality

SCIENCE/STOICS/FEAR/LOVE

What the ancients called the ‘soul’

or the essence of personhood

emerged thru billions of years

of converging and complex evolution

giving rise to ever greater consciousness:

matter/plants/animals/humans/

religions/sciences/Internet/smart phones/AI

but some religious people ignore common sense/

empirical science and develop utopian visions

and some scientists ignore the direction of evolution/

personal experience/religious wisdom

reducing humans to objects or machines

and some humanists in their quest

for self-fulfillment ignore the communal dimension/

traditional teachings about human nature –

dialogue between religion/science/humanism

is necessary for all of us to avoid our delusions

for everyone new knowledge can seem like an assault

on our cherished idolatrous concepts –

even Einstein resisted the new knowledge

his own theories pointed to

however, he later admitted his resistance

to God playing dice with the universe

was his biggest mistake

Einstein claimed time and space are mental constructs –

its all going on in our minds, therefore

the only thing that makes things fearful is the fear itself –

the fearfulness of things is in us not in them

as Seneca the Roman Stoic philosopher claimed

“Nothing is terrible in things except fear itself”

and Epictetus the Greek Stoic philosopher claimed

“It is not death or hardship that is a fearful thing

but the fear of death and hardship”

and Henri Nouwen the Roman Catholic mystic claimed

“Our greatest fear is intimacy with ourselves

and the greatest paradox is:

the heart is where we are most ourselves

and most alienated from ourselves

and since God is beyond even paradox

and cannot be thought but only loved

we can approach God only in a cloud of unknowing.”

SYNTHESIS

Newton’s mechanistic universe was the harbinger

of Nietzsche’s “death of God” – God was replaced

by the inexorable laws of physics as the means

of explaining things – no need for God anymore.

The abandonment of God and religion

is no longer unusual – it is seen as a requirement

of scientific progress and a new humanism

which has affected the arts/literature/history/law

and has left people shaken not stirred.

However, the great role for religion

in our postmodern world is to move people

from pre-rationality to rationality to trans-rationality

from child to adolescent to adult spirituality.

There have been great religious thinkers

trying to bring about a new synthesis

by including everyone. Rev. Dr. John Macquarrie

put us in touch with traditional wisdom

through Augustine and Aquinas

but also with contemporary great thinkers:

psychologists Freud and Jung

neo-Marxists Bloch and Marcuse

theologians Tillich and Rahner

philosophers Wittgenstein and Sartre.

And William McLoughlin outlined five stages

of religious awakening:

doubting the old ideas
seeing institutional malfunction
a new vision of human nature/spirituality/God
new practices/ways of life/being emerging
the transformation of institutions.

Universal oneness/we are all one/all connected

was described by the ancient mystics

and now is being discovered anew

by modern physics.

Thesis: religion

Anti-thesis: science

Synthesis: religion and science as equals.

SOLIDARITY

The modern-day Apostle Paul Tillich warned

that a culture dominated by religion

stagnates/becomes monolithic uniformity/

loses the dynamism of pluralism/

degenerates morally into legalistic conformity/

ironically loses its inner Spirit.

Most nation-states form their solidarity around a religion

but America has always been religiously pluralistic –

therefore, the Founding Fathers

wisely built solidarity not on religion

but on self-evident truths.

Humanists are always concerned

that belief in God limits human freedom

and creates apathy to life on Earth.

However, this is misguided thinking:

belief in God does not block freedom and dignity

because God is the Source

of freedom and dignity.

Also, believing in our future union with God

does not block our discharging present responsibilities –

God wants us rooted and perfected in God

which provides both stability and motivation to act now.

Theism naturally gives birth to the idea of resurrection

and a spiritualized and transcendent view of the self

which humanism completely misses

making humanists ironically unable to really help humans

since real humanness involves divinization –

being filled to overflowing with God and God’s love

so your love flows out to all sentient beings.

Mystics always find a God who does not

judge/compare/differentiate/compete – since all these block love.

Our minds are meant to be like God’s:

all-embracing, all-loving receptors and givers.

The Apostle John spoke of Jesus as the revelation

of our solidarity with God/ourselves/others on a local scale.

The Apostle Paul spoke of Christ revealing unity on a cosmic scale:

“Through Christ, God was pleased to reconcile all things

to God whether in Heaven or on Earth” (Colossians 1:20)

so that “God may be All in All” (I Corinthians 5:28).