Reshaping
Christianity
Mysticism, Spirituality
and Global Faith
John Hetherington
A
Free to Believe
Booklet
Mysticism, Spirituality and Global Faith
Contents Page
1. Introduction 2
2. A changing Christianity 2
3 Surveys
of contemporary Religion and
Spirituality 6
4. Progressive Christianity 7
5. The New Spirituality 8
6. A Perennial Philosophy 10
7. The Implications for Christian Doctrine
12
8. Rediscovering Mystical Christianity 14
9. Relating this
to the world’s faiths 16
Sufi Islam 19
The Bahai Faith 20
10. A
final challenge to the churches 22
References 24
Introduction
This booklet in the Free to Believe series
is ambitious in its scope, as it seeks to
relate evolving Christian belief and practice to developments in both the
emerging “New Spiritualities” and the major world faiths. The issues raised are relevant to those
remaining in, but on the edge of, Christianity; as well as open minded
practitioners of the other historic faiths and participants in the newer forms
of spiritual practice.
Globally, we are witnessing increasing
tension and schism in Islam and Christianity as modern and post-modern ways of ‘knowing’ challenge the core
assumptions of what are at heart ‘pre-modern’ faiths. The increasing global
reality of travel, trade and the internet could shape a common understanding,
but also generate a significant destabilising backlash. This Pamphlet explores
a possible way forward.
In Christianity, a growing movement for change is occurring not just in liberal contexts, but through direct movement from evangelical and catholic positions. Ways of knowing or experiencing the divine, as the ‘ground of being’1 rather than a God ‘out there’, are increasingly capturing the interest of those leaving dogmatic religion, or exploring beyond ‘theism’2. Liberal reflection on the authority of the Bible has been underway for over 150 years, with the application of scientific analysis and ‘historical-critical’ methods to key sources.
As that knowledge spread
across wider western society it began an apparently unstoppable process of loss
of allegiance to traditional faith and doctrine. The pain of this loss of faith
in the modern world was famously captured by Matthew Arnold:
The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round
earth’s shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle
furl’d.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing
roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges
drear
And naked shingles of
the world.3
For those hanging on to
‘traditional’ faith (Catholic, Reformed or evangelical) since Arnold UK
What is new is that post
modernity, through its re-awakening to the ‘spiritual’ or ‘mystical’ is now
opening up new avenues of faith exploration for
some beyond the old evangelical / liberal divide. For others, the “melancholy
roar” provokes a pulling up of the drawbridge and a retreat to historic
fundamentals rooted in formulations reflecting ‘pre-modern’ faith.
Dave Tomlinson’s book, The
Post Evangelical4, first exposed this situation in 1995. He
acknowledged the “growing discontinuity” of many nurtured within the
evangelical milieu who had “growing difficulty in reconciling what they see and
experience in evangelicalism with their personal values, instinctive reactions
and theological reflections.” Tomlinson
argues that both liberalism and evangelicalism are “two sides of the same coin”
as they “find their natural cultural roots in modernity.” Citing the liberal
American theologian Walter Wink5, he notes that, “after a long
search Wink became convinced of the need for a theology and spiritual life
which, whilst incorporating the fruits of the critical age, press on to a more
holistic consciousness than objective knowledge can achieve.”
Gordon Lynch (Professor
of the Sociology of Religion at Birkbeck, University, London
·
The
unity of the ineffable and immanent divine – the guiding intelligence behind evolutionary process
and the energy of the universe itself
·
Pantheism
/ Panentheism –
replacing a transcendent, patriarchal view of God
·
Mysticism
and the divine feminine
– using symbol and liturgy, encounter with nature and celebration of the
feminine in God
·
The
sacralisation of nature
– affirmation of the material and nature / life as participation in divinity
·
The
sacralisation of the self
– as a manifestation of the divine – with human consciousness derived from the
supra-consciousness of the “All”.
·
Understandings
of Religion – as
culturally and historically bound and thus metaphorical – enabling a growing
spirit of ‘ecumenism’
·
The
deeper cultural roots of progressive spirituality show underlying coherence, reflecting adaptation to modernism, liberalism and
welcome insights in quantum physics and cosmic ‘unfolding’.
Lynch also
includes the first survey in print of networks such as Free to Believe and PCNB
(TCPC in the States), which support this new territory.
The
Australian, David Tacey8 has also written in this context,
commenting “Religion taught me to find God in heaven; aboriginality has shown
me how to find the sacred on earth.”
I have
made this journey too, from a mainstream Congregational upbringing in Lancashire , to conversion through the Manchester
University Christian Union, eventually moving to post-evangelical liberalism
while training as a non-stipendiary minister in the URC on a diocesan training
course. This booklet
arises from my desire to share this process of ongoing change – and my
excitement at where the journey might take us.
My aim is to suggest a way forward for
people of all Christian backgrounds that will enable us to embrace insights from both the new spiritualities and other faiths.
A chorus of voices now proclaim that Christianity
must re-embrace the spiritual, the mystical in ways that make the
mystery of God real in human experience. My italics indicate the need to
unpack each of these slippery terms. Karl
Rayner9 said, “The Christianity of the future will be mystical, or
it will not be at all.” He considered
that all human beings have a latent awareness of God, who he describes as
“absolute mystery”
This call to mysticism will not be
easy for those whose faith journey has been rooted in accommodation to the
religious critique posed by modernity where God is simply the “religious ideal” 10. They will think us delusional, as all this must also
seem to Dawkins11. It will be hard also for those from more
conservative faith backgrounds who cannot accommodate the necessary theological
reorientation. However, it may be welcomed by those who can find ‘God’ in these very different contexts.
Surveys of
contemporary Religion and Spirituality
The Religious Studies
Department at
At the heart of the
research is a distinction identified between those who see ‘life as religion’
and those who seek ‘subjective-life spirituality’. There
is ample evidence that religion is in decline, while ‘spirituality’ is growing
– but what is spirituality? The authors identify the “massive subjective
turn of modern culture” with a profound rejection of the authority claimed by ‘religion’. They caution that, where
the word spirituality is used in Christian circles it traditionally references
the transcendent, not an experience that flows “through one’s own subjective
life”, though there are overlaps. They suggest that “forms of the sacred that
are compatible with the turn to ‘subjective’ will be faring better than those
that serve to reinforce ‘life-as religion’ modes of existence, which emphasise
a “transcendent source of significance and authority.”
The Kendal Project looked at the
‘congregational domain’ and the ‘holistic milieu’ and
found that there are “two worlds” in Kendal with the subjective turn “far more
evident in the holistic milieu than in the congregational domain”. They are
“largely separate and distinct worlds” - with the exception of the Unitarian Church
Progressive
Christianity
My own experience in
Kendal broadly confirms the analysis from the Heelas and Woodhead project above. Yet it is not that simple. Over recent
years there are emerging in Kendal and many other UK KEG ) with
which I have been involved alongside others with a Free to Believe and PCNB
background, has provided the opportunity to hear locally from Jack Spong14
and Richard Holloway15, to name but two, and share in ongoing study
of, for example, the Living the Questions course16. All of
this has broadened our insight beyond the textbooks – allowing those involved
to meet real practitioners of the “new Christianity”. Recently KEG has begun to engage across the faiths, sharing
experiences with Sufis and Bahá'ís, of which more later.
Adrian Smith17,
a Roman Catholic Priest, author of ‘Tomorrow’s Christian’ and many other books
addressing this theme, has been another leading explainer of these trends –
helping to map out what would characterise a contemporary, open and accepting
way of life earthed within the Christian spiritual tradition.
The main challenge now for open Christians is to reach out and
explore the complex networks and individuals who are in what Heelas and
Woodhead call the ‘holistic milieu’. If the Kendal survey results indicate a
national trend, it is clear that most open Christians (still in the
congregational domain) remain unfamiliar with the holistic milieu and thus misunderstand it. At root,
we both seek the same journey into the experience of the one God. For both,
experience and practice matter more than doctrine.
The New Spirituality
There is a growing spectrum of credible writers and spiritual teachers with an
increasingly high profile role in drawing together the holistic milieu into a
more coherent framework of belief. By its nature, the new spirituality
comprises many spiritual paths which are being pursued by those who do not
directly follow one of the recognised eight or so historic faiths. A
look at the literature demonstrates that the historic faiths are a core source
of the wisdom the new spiritualities advance. Christian and Buddhist writings,
as well as aspects of psychology, are regularly quoted.
One significant example is found in
the writing of Eckart Tolle18 – author of The power of the Now
and A New Earth. His website illustrates this
reworking of Christian and other religious language. For example: “In the
Gospel story of Mary and Martha, Jesus says to Martha, ‘You are anxious and
troubled about many things, but only one thing is needful.’ (Luke 10:41) As I
was writing A New Earth, people would sometimes ask me, ‘What is the new book
about?’ And invariably, my answer would be, ‘I only ever write or speak
about one thing.’ What is that one thing? Spiritual awakening.”
For Tolle the key is the Now.
He suggests that for most of us life is one damn thing after another – rushing
here and there, too busy with work or other commitments to ever be still and
expand our God consciousness. Most days we
never get beyond the constant internal prattle of our minds and ego –
regretting the past – planning the future – never ever stopping long enough to
discover our real nature – that we are part of the ‘immanent19’
divine being and becoming.
At heart, the historic faiths also
provide ways of realising a person’s spiritual development in the here and
now. Yet, in an age suspicious of dogma
and authority, seekers are doing their own investigating. As the Kendal Project
points out, the faiths need to be better informed and in touch with this trend.
Neil Donald Walsch20,
writer of the fascinating trilogy, ‘Conversations with God’, sets out a
comprehensive ‘theology’ of the way we and the world are. A selection of his
key points illustrates the genre:
“Life is an ongoing
process of creation... We call forth what we think feel and say... The soul
creates, the mind reacts... The soul understands what the mind cannot
conceive... Your feelings are your truth... Be in the present moment... “
He reminds us that God
is critical of religion – God is known intuitively. However, that inner sense
can get blocked by religious claims and requirements which go counter to common
humanity. He puts in God’s mouth some telling criticisms: “Religion ordered men
to bow down before God where once man rose up in joyful splendour. Religion
taught you need intermediaries – when you were already living your life in
goodness and truth. You are all priests. There is no original sin.” This
repeats the view on sin well expressed in the 80s by Dominican Matthew Fox21.
It has, down the millennia, been religion’s task to introduce human beings to
the God within – the ‘life force’, the ‘being-ness’ in whom they subsist.
Both authors provide a challenging set of pointers to living out
our true nature, and in so doing re-appraise Judaism’s and Christianity’s
emphasis on sin and judgement. Yet none of this is really new.
A Perennial Philosophy
Aldous Huxley22,
writing in 1946, referred to a “Perennial Philosophy” – a term coined by the
German philosopher Liebniz. This
refers to a way of understanding which is immemorial and universal – in which a
person recognises a divine Reality substantial to the world of things and lives
and minds – with an ethic that places our end in the knowledge of the immanent
and transcendent ‘Ground of all being’, the mystery of ‘Thou art Thou’23.
For Jews, Christians, Muslims and
Bahá’ís, this is both the absolute and
immanent “I am” introduced in the Old Testament. The path of the spiritual
seeker is to come to know this Being in his or her own being – in his or her
soul. To borrow a term from Buddhism – we are to become ‘enlightened’. There
are numerous passages in the writings of every religion seeking to say the same thing – not just in the western faiths but in
Hinduism and Buddhism too. At heart all the religions and spiritualities are or
were in the business of supporting their adherents as they journey into “the
experiential knowledge of God” 24.
Thus a key challenge for
both traditional and progressive Christians is to realise that Christianity can
no longer be seen as the only route by which God has been, or can still be,
truly known. This understanding makes clear that there have and always will be
many pathways to individual spiritual enlightenment. God’s universe is a place
of infinite and ever growing variety in which the historic faiths will remain,
while increasingly be seen to embody the basic unity of all faiths and spiritualities.
A
key implication of this is that the age when Christians can be exclusive is
over. The era of mutual interfaith acknowledgement is inevitable as we become a
“global village”25. There is thus hope that, while the faiths and
varieties of individual spirituality will persist, we will mutually recognise
one ultimate Being – one transcendent yet immanent reality – unfolding within
our amazing planet and universe.
All this has, of course, significant
implications for the doctrinal basis of Christianity. Traditional Christianity
as it emerged from the Constantinian settlement, but not from the mouth of the
original Jesus, interpreted New Testament texts to imply that we are sinful
failures destined to live in fear, without God’s self sacrifice in Jesus.
Contemporary Biblical scholarship, summarised in depth by David Boulton26,
notes that “Decades of painstaking historical Jesus research have not produced
a scholarly consensus on who the man Jesus was”.
What consensus there is across the
‘New Spirituality’ implies that what Jesus actually taught is: that each of us
is capable of living, being and loving to the full now – doing the “greater
things” John’s Gospel says his followers would do. The ‘So, of course, our Christology28 needs to be restated too, by utilising ‘historical-metaphorical’ ways of telling the Jesus story. The sources combine memory and testimony, while the language combines memory and metaphor. This leads to the distinction Marcus Borg particularly highlights under the terms, pre-Easter and post-Easter Jesus29. The exalted language of ‘Son of God, ‘Lord’ ‘Saviour’ is post-Easter metaphor, and can thus be recast. Our approach to Jesus then becomes ‘following him’, not ‘believing in’ him. And his challenge? To centre our lives in God and participate in God’s passion for the world – to change the world!
Radical spiritual explorations, rather
than traditional faith teachings, broadly identify a set of common perspectives
on the nature of reality, human life and the way to experience God. These perspectives are being explored in significant
ways, both within the ‘holistic milieu’ and increasingly on the edge of
the ‘congregational domain’. Stephen Mitchell30 sets out 4 key
descriptors of this God:
1. Creation is an ongoing present process [in God]
2. God is coming to be.
3. There is not God and some
“stuff-out-of-which-he-makes-his-creatures”. Without
the ever sustaining presence of God, everything collapses.
4.
God
is the source of all things [‘good’
and ‘bad’ – my addition], God is being-ness itself, reality itself.
What I think is going on in all this,
is that Christianity and the new spiritualities are re-discovering what was
always at the heart of the Christian faith – and other faiths too: that in
mystical experience or spiritual encounter we can come to know the One, the
All. Paul surely understood this when he explained, within the Roman Imperial
context, that; “As your [6th Century BCE ]
poet said, ‘In him we live and move and have our being’”. This “Unknown
God” is the God of Christianity’s beginnings, not the divine ‘Mr Fix-it’
of later orthodoxy.
The intellectual search for truth –
necessary as it is – cannot alone meet humanity’s need to return home into the
life in God in which he/she exists. Without that inner light we and humanity
can feel lost and confused about who we are and how we should live. We become
driven by our ego and develop ‘hardened’ hearts. It
is this dilemma from which post-modern insight and the new spirituality can
free us.
There is now an exciting possibility
of mutual exploration between progressive, open Christians, practitioners of
the new spirituality, and the open forms of other faith traditions.
However, we need to tread carefully! We must not reject the
clear insights of the enlightenment rationalist project which have opened up scientific understanding
and technology. Dawkins has a point!
What we claim for God and human experience of the divine needs
to be critically assessed – there needs to be evidence to set alongside
experience of the spiritual. Our new ways of defining God and understanding
physics, evolution and the workings of the human mind must also be open to
ongoing scientific and theological dialogue. There is not space in this booklet
to cover such a vast
subject – but scientists with a Christian perspective, like Keith Ward31,
John Polkinghorne32 and Arthur Peacocke33 have written
many helpful books, as have practicing scientists with an open mind, such as
Paul Davies34.
Rediscovering Mystical Christianity
Marcus Borg, in a Conference at the Sheffield Centre for Radical Christianity35,36
in April 2008, explored this resurgent focus on the
spiritual in Christianity – what he calls “Mysticism” – within the Christian way. His full notes (slightly edited) are included
as an Appendix – with due acknowledgement.
Borg states clearly that for him “mystical experience
makes God real”. He uses mysticism as a broad term for experiences of the
sacred, while recognising its ambiguity in contemporary culture, in theology
and in the academic world. But of course mysticism is not new. For medieval
Christianity, mysticism is the, “cognitio experimentalis Dei” — the
experiential knowledge of God. He quotes William
James, writing 100 years ago, who identified two primary features of mystical
experience: A sense of union, connection - with God, the sacred, and a sense of
illumination - an experience of enlightenment. Borg suggests they
involve a non-ordinary state of consciousness, and a momentary softening or
disappearance of the ‘self/world’ distinction,
of ‘ego separation’.
Secondly,
he lists instances of the occurrence of
Mysticism within Christianity, noting that the central figures of the Christian
tradition have all had mystical experiences.
He then outlines what the impact for
Christians and Christianity in our time would be if we took mystical /
spiritual experience seriously. He suggests it would modify
our view of the symbolism of the word God, and our sense of the reality
of God, taking us from supernatural theism to panentheism. A key point is that Mysticism takes seriously
“the turn to experience” of modern and post modern culture.
Thirdly, Borg explains what he calls Open hearts and Thin Places. Pointing out that the Christian life has an inner dimension and outer dimension. He endorses the phrase ‘Thin Places’, taken from Celtic Christianity, to mean “places” (times, practices) where the separation of ordinary consciousness from consciousness of God becomes “thin” and concludes by saying that the goal of the spiritual life (and the height of mysticism) is union with the will of God.
The
point of this summary of Marcus Borg’s views on the mystical in Christianity is
to remind us that these ways of knowing, rather than believing, have long been
found in Christianity. They are similarly found in both the emerging
spiritualities and at the heart of the mystical traditions in other faiths. This
is what we would expect since God expresses the unity in what is.
This rediscovery of the mystical and
spiritual in Christianity challenges us – as reformed Christians – with our
historic emphasis on ‘word’. Change is already happening as post-modern influences
reshape our worship. Mystery, meditation, light and colour have become more
acceptable. The austere and plain do not mirror creation’s riotous enthusiasm!
Our churches will continue to empty less we accommodate this spiritual
revolution, and the “subjective turn of modern culture”. We have been warned.
Relating this
to the world’s faiths
To conclude, I’ll
explore how we can take on board the best insight of the two western faiths
which followed Judaism and Christianity.
The primary challenge for
Christians in working with other faiths is rooted in our traditional
Christology, summarised the arguments on page
13. If we are freed up to follow Jesus, rather than believe in doctrine about
Jesus developed to define the post-Easter Christ in terms of
sacrifice-salvation, then the whole task of engagement becomes radically
changed. The ‘Christ of Faith’ is set free too – as we “belove” 37 Jesus and follow his example of a life centred in God,
with a passion to change the world.
Then we are free to respect others similarly
centred and energised. Thus, alongside
Jesus, a series of ‘enlightened’ human beings also became divine Messengers,
anointed ones (Christs) and Wisdom Teachers.
Each primary prophet’s teaching became the foundation of a major world
religion. The messengers have included Abraham, (Krishna ),
Zoroaster, Moses, The Buddha, Muhammad, Guru Nanak and Bahá’u’lláh.
Interestingly, Matthew 10, 40-42 offers, in a possible reading, a highly
relevant reflection on God’s call to “receive his prophets” and serve the,
”little ones” of the world. Our own New Testament thus called us to listen to
future prophets.
These prophets still
challenge us to step beyond our everyday lives and concerns. Each one has
sought to enable us to change so that we can live with the ‘Being’ of God at
the still centre of our lives, set free
increasingly from anxiety and fear. The word’s
faiths can, in their different ways, free us up to become aware that we live
‘in God’, whatever our religious or other background. This enables us to
pursue compassion, justice, peace, sustainable living and acceptance of others
– now. These ways of being are the marks of
God’s unfolding purpose.
The western faiths each
sprang from the same root, as one ‘people of the book’38,
with Islam and the Bahá’í Faith later also acknowledging the Old Testament and
the Gospels alongside the Koran. Until recent centuries each faith developed a
distinct human culture, and interaction was limited. The development of
humanity was not ready for a single faith and common understanding. However,
there are those who hope the time is near when this can emerge, as the global
village enables increasing numbers to see what is happening in the world
wherever it takes place.
These and other faiths,
as well as Christianity, are of course not monolithic in either beliefs or
practices. And there lies the rub. The historic faiths have each evolved
significantly and diversified in ways that emphasise belief on the one hand as
against experience of the ‘divine
mystery’ on the other. It is as an offshoot of the latter that “new
spiritualities” are emerging in the 21st Century from earlier
beginnings.
As we have come to
realise down the centuries, belief as opposed to knowing God can be very dangerous.
It has made people do terrible things to defend their own
faith’s beliefs. In each faith there are those who live loving, compassionate,
peaceable lives, because they truly live within the love and compassion of God.
Others wage sectarian or religious wars in defence of sometimes arcane
‘belief’. Our history, as children of the Christian Reformation, reminds us
that our forefathers in faith were of that mindset too.
At the heart of Jesus’
message is a simple call to live without anxiety about our past mistakes or our
future path – “consider the lilies”, “take no thought for the morrow” -- but
also warnings: “Nobody who takes his hand from the plough and looks back is fit
for the Kingdom”. It is a mistake to think of the Kingdom of God
Knowing more of other faith traditions
is thus of key relevance and challenge to Christians. So to conclude I’ll refer
to the two faiths which are particularly challenging to Christian
understandings of Jesus as the ‘Christ’, the ‘Son of God’ – since they post-date
Jesus and the development of Christian orthodoxy. First Islam (in its more mystical Sufi form)
and second the Bahai Faith, given its claim to offer a specific revelation for
the new global age. But as we approach our conclusion,
let us bear in mind the wisdom of the Dalai Lama who said that even as we come
to understand other faiths, our primary task is to move deeper into the wisdom
already within our own faith.
Sufi Islam
Islam is a religion that
was aware of Judaism and Christianity from its birth. It fully acknowledges
Jesus as God’s “messenger” alongside key Old Testament prophets. Of course
Islam rejected some of the doctrine added by the church, in particular the
Trinity. Muhammad’s message was quite clear – that human beings need to turn
wholeheartedly to God, living faith out in everyday devotions – the Pillars of
Islam - that bring the faithful into inner awareness of God’s Being.
By the 800’s the Sufis39
emerged as a protest movement against the excesses of the Islamic Empire,
reacting against its materialism and inhumanity. They reminded their fellow
Muslims that their God was supposed to be compassionate, all-loving,
all-merciful. As Sufism developed it emphasised an
inward religion of the mind and heart – developing ways to experience the
mystery of Allah. Through the Kendal Ecumenical Group, I and others have
experienced the way Sufi Islam lives its faith through its Zikr service – men,
women and children chanting and moving together in heightened experience of
God. Sufi’s believe that perfect
self-understanding leads to the understanding of the Divine. This is based on a
typically succinct saying of Prophet Muhammad: "Whoever knows
oneself, knows one's Lord."
Sufis acknowledge that
the ways to reach God are ‘as numerous as the
number of people on earth’, but at root require
abandonment of false pride and the following of a path of selfless service to
humanity.
For Sufis there is ‘one human brotherhood and one morality that blooms
in deeds of service’. They are sceptical of churches
and shrines. Rumi, the famous Sufi poet of the 13th Century said, “I
gazed into my own heart; there I saw him,
nowhere else.” They also see each religion as different lights: “The lamps are
different, but the light is the same: it comes from beyond. If you keep looking
at the lamp, you are lost. O you who are the kernel of Existence, the
disagreement between Muslims, Zoroastrians, Christians and Jews depends
on the standpoint”40.
We have much to learn and respect from this long existent scholarly and
progressive face of Islam.
The Bahá'í Faith
Finally I’ll highlight
some of what I’ve discovered about the Bahá'í Faith. Again, I have had the
opportunity to share in its festivals locally in Kendal.
Bahá’ís41
proclaim that the latest of God’s Messengers - Bahá’u’lláh - brought new
spiritual and social teachings for the coming global age. The 19th
Century was a time when the world was becoming fully aware of the diversity of
human cultures and religions. Bahá’u’lláh, is a title that means "the
Glory of God". He was born on 12 November 1817 in Tehran Iran
In April 1863,
Bahá’u’lláh and His companions camped in a garden on the banks of the
Bahá'u'lláh said, “The
earth is but one country and mankind its citizens”; and that, as foretold in
all the sacred scriptures of the past, “now is the time for humanity to live in
unity”.
The core elements of
Bahá'í thought include these key ideas – which make deep sense to me:
·
Independent
search after truth, unfettered by superstition or tradition;
·
the
oneness of the entire human race,
·
the
basic unity of all religions;
·
the
condemnation of all forms of prejudice, whether religious, racial, class or
national;
·
the
harmony which must exist between religion and science;
·
the
equality of men and women;
·
the
introduction of compulsory education;
·
the
abolition of the extremes of wealth and poverty;
·
the
institution of a world tribunal for the adjudication of disputes between
nations;
·
the
exaltation of work, performed in the spirit of service, to the rank of worship;
·
the
glorification of justice as the ruling principle in human society, and of
religion as a bulwark for the protection of all peoples and nations;
·
the establishment of a permanent and universal
peace as the supreme goal of all mankind.
The Bahá'í Faith
is now a recognised worldwide religion with its world administrative
centre in Haifa , Israel
A final
challenge to the churches!
As Christians we are
called by Jesus to begin a journey of discovery in this life – to experience
the God who is both within us and ‘more than’ us. We are called to awaken to
the truth that our being, our life, is but an expression of the great “I am”
that shouts from every atom, star, galaxy and life form in the Universe. There
are numerous passages in the writings of every faith
that seek to say the same thing.
To build God’s future,
the core message of all religions and all spiritual searching is that we need
to discover ourselves, discovering fresh ways of living in the now
of God’s reality. We can do this within our own faith background, without converting to another faith or insight. But
from this generation on we must be open to all that God has made plain
through the insights of all the faith founders and the countless other deeply
spiritual human beings.
The time is now very
short to learn to live sustainably and in harmony with one another on this
planet. Yet, together, we can change the world!
Bahá’u’lláh
said: “all nations should
become one in faith and all men as brothers; that the bonds of affection and
unity between the sons of men should be strengthened; that diversity of
religion should cease, and differences of race be annulled — what harm is there
in this? … Yet so it shall be; these fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars
shall pass away, and the 'Most Great Peace' shall come.…”
These are exciting times!
John Hetherington,
Kendal – July 2000
References
1
Paul Tillich – part of his Systematic Theology - “ground of being” is used in
answer to the ontological threat of non-being [ontological = the study of
being]
2
For a full exposition see Jack Spong’s “A New Christianity for a new World”
Harper SF, 2001 – pp 72-77
3
Matthew Arnold, Poetry and Prose, ed. J. Bryson (London Bath
4
Dave Tomlinson, “The Post Evangelical, SPCK, 1995, p2
5
Walter Wink, Transforming Bible Study, Mowbray, 1990, Ch 1
6
Gordon Lynch, Losing my Religion – Moving on from Evangelical Faith, Darton,
Longman and Todd, Ltd, 2003
7
Gordon Lynch, The New Spirituality – An Introduction to Progressive Belief in
the 21st Century, I B Taurus, 2007
8
David Tacey, The Spirituality Revolution: the emergence of contemporary
spirituality. Routledge 2004 p7
9
German Roman Catholic theologian behind Vatican
10
Don Cupitt – After God: The future of Religion, Weidenfied and Nicholson, 1977
11
Richard Dawkins – The God Delusion, Bantam Press, 2006. [Also see
12
The Spiritual Revolution – Paul Heelas and Linda Woodhead - Blackwell
Publishing, 2005
13
Listed on the Progressive Christianity Network Britain (PCNB) Website: http://www.pcnbritain.org.uk/index.php/locations/
14
John Shelby Spong (www.johnshelbyspong.com)
- author of many books including “A new Christianity for a New
World ”, Harper SF, 2001 and “Jesus for the Non-Religious”, Harper
SF,2007
15
Richard Holloway - Doubts and Loves – What is left of Christianity, Canongate
Books, 2002
16
Living the Questions (Resourcing Progressive Christians) - http://www.livingthequestions.com/
17
Adrian
18
Eckart Tolle - author of several books on Spirituality, including ‘The Power of
Now’ and ‘A New Earth’ : http://www.eckharttolle.com/
19
In this Pamphlet ‘immanent’ refers to God’s indwelling in the world rather than
his transcendence – depth rather than height – “Presence” to quote Tolle.
20
Neale Donald Walsch, – The Complete ‘Conversations with God’ – an uncommon
dialogue. Hampton Roads Publishing, Putnam New York
21
Matthew Fox, Original Blessing – A primer in Creation Spirituality, Bear and
Company”, 1983
22
Aldous Huxley – The perennial Philosophy, Fontana
23
ibid, p14 – “Thou are Thou” - Sanskrit translation “tat tvam asi”. The last end
of man is the, “unitive knowledge of the Divine Ground”, p33
24
Thomas Aquinas’ (1255-74): his definition of mysticism.
25
Tony Blair, The Times 14th
June 2008 – “As the world becomes smaller, the need grows to
understand each other’s faiths grows”: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/tony-blair-as-the-world-becomes-smaller-the-need-to-understand-each-others-faith-grows-846964.html
26
David Boulton - Who on Earth was Jesus: The Modern Quest for the Jesus of
History, O Books, 2008
27
Luke 17:21
28
Christology – the doctrine of Christ
29
see Marcus Borg, Meeting Jesus again for the First Time, Harper Collins, 1995 –
pp 15-17
30
Stephen Mitchell, God in the Bath ,
O books, 2006 – Chapter 3 “In God”
31
Keith Ward, God, Faith & The New Millenium – Christian Belief in an Age of
Science, Oneworld, 1998
32
John Polkinghorne, Science and Christian Belief, 1993-4 Gifford Lectures, SPCK,
1994
33
Arthur Peacocke, Paths from Science towards God – the end of all our exploring,
One World, 2002 – see particularly his definition of panentheist Reality (God),
pp129-130
34
Paul Davies, The Goldilocks Dilemma – Why is the Universe just right for life?,
Penguin 2007
35
CRC website: http://www.stmarkscrc.co.uk/
36
Tapes and notes are available from CRC :
http://www.stmarkscrc.co.uk/resources/past-conferences
37
Before around 1600 the word ‘believe’ had much more the connotation of commit
to, love; rather than the modern
‘believe in propositions about’.
38 In Islam, the
"People of the Book" (Arabic
أهل الكتاب, Ahl
al- Kitâb), are non-Muslim peoples who, according to the Qur'an,
received scriptures
which were revealed
to them by God
before Muhammad
39 Sufi Islam - International Association of
Sufism: http://ias.org/ or in the UK
– the Sufi Muslim Council: http://www.sufimuslimcouncil.org/index.php
40 Sufism, A S Barnes and Co., Inc,
1976, p103 & p68ff (English modernised)
41
The Bahá'í Faith - http://www.bahai.org/
- with further links
42
Source for this section – Hatcher and Martin, The Bahá'í Faith – the emerging
global religion, Harper and Row, 1985, plus material on the Bahá'í website
43 Ninian Smart, The World’s Religions,
Cambridge University Press, 2nd ed, p498
Posts
