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.
Intelligent Christian Spirituality 