Rethinking Theology and Spirituality
RETHINKING THEOLOGY AND SPIRITUALITY: some thoughts
Prepared for a online colloquim of the Wayne Oates Center, Louisville, Ky.,
“Finding a Common Language.”
Paschal Baute, November 11, 2001.
Abstract. Our spiritual journey is interpreting the precious meaning of this unique life given to us and, now aware, recognizing and living this present Oneness, brought to us in many forms by the great teacher, Life itself, relationships, nature, in all its various crises and transitions. No belief concepts of any Wisdom tradition are adequate to explain this individual journey for us, nor suffering or evil, at least for the thinking person.
Preface: We can’t see anything until we have the right metaphor to perceive it (Robert Shaw) but the problem right now is that we are between stories (Thomas Berry). What this means is that all current concepts of God, and even every Wisdom tradition’s view of divine reality is too limited, too parochial, too closed, too small.
1. Reality, both scientific and theological may be one hundred fold, or even 1000 fold more vast and complex than our concepts of today. Experts studying the expansion of information estimate the total information now doubles about every three years. This means that in 30 years, the information will be one thousand fold more, and in 60 years, humans will possess a million times as much information. The challenge is for us to increase the spiritual information and wisdom to deal with this development.
2. Does this mean that our vaunted current understanding of science after an accelerated five centuries of progress is yet one millionth of what the future holds for us? Does this mean that in fact that we are not at some peak of progress, but are discovering still how vastly ignorant we are? As the cell biologist, Lewis Thomas has said, “The greatest of all discoveries of twentieth century science has been the discovery of human ignorance.”
3. There is a fundamental unity to our universe, transcending all the divisions and distinctions developed by the human mind, both on the micro and the macro scale. Cosmology, not theology with its patriarchal props, categories, creeds, labels and certainties, is inviting us to encounter the relational G*d at the heart of a relational universe. Theology is invited to give up its supposed supremacy and parochialism, to outgrow all human constructs, and pursue ultimacy with the skills and discernments of a multi-disciplinary imagination (Quantum Theology, p.202). The entire scientific enterprise can be characterized as the development of sensitivities and ideas necessary to become more fully aware of what is happening all around us. (Brian Swimme). We would add also the theological enterprise and our understanding of spirituality.
4. The mystery of life is fundamentally open-ended. Revelation is ongoing, and cannot be subsumed in any religion or Wisdom tradition or cultural system. “Let us not be among the number so dwarfed, so limited, so bigoted as to think that the infinite God has revealed himself to one little handful of his children, in one little quarter of the globe, and at one particular period of time. (Ralph Waldo Trine). No one source of knowledge is sufficient to provide a complete description of reality.
5. If we pursue a humble way to these mysteries, we will be open to the possibility that god is the only reality–all else being fleeting shadow and imagination, limited mostly to expressions of our five senses, eight, measure and number, acting on our tiny brains. The awesome mystery may be that we are already inside this reality which is one and complex.
6. In this case, spirituality is defined differently: not as an aspect of being human, but the very core of being human. Spirituality would be living one's life from the realization that the body/mind/ego personality we have been taught to identify with is just the tip of our iceberg, our little head sticking through the window of the senses into this world, whereas our true body is the universe. We could recognize that most of our perceived world is an illusion, a shared dream we are sto;; asleep in. The goal of life is to awake to our real Self which is vast and multidimensional--already intimately connected with all of creation, with a twin shadow self that is already scripted, mostly primitive, and hidden from us. This whole Self is already One with this mystery we call God/dess whose essence can hardly be understood, but to which we give names as Eternal Wisdom, Ultimate Reality, Birther of all Life, S/he Who Is, etc. The very first task is simply to become aware of the mystery inside which we dwell.
7. Our spiritual journey is interpreting the precious meaning of this unique life given to us and, hopefully, recognizing and living this present Oneness, brought to us in many forms by the great teacher, Life itself, relationships, nature, in all its various crises and transitions. No belief concepts of any Wisdom tradition are adequate to explain either suffering or evil, at least for the thinking person.
Evil, like love, suffering, joy, passion, fear and hope, are all mysteries. They are irrational aspects of human existence. Our post-Enlightenment left brain dominant need to rationalize and commodify
mystery and wrap it up in discursive concepts. Wisdom traditions can help us on this journey, but the constant danger is to use them for comfort rather than summons to transformation.
8. Maybe it would help to realize that we are so made as humans that we need and yearn for the ultimate in our lives, the Tremendum Mysterium. If we don't find it in this mystery we call God/dess, we are bound to create it by worshiping some thing in our exterior, material worlds, such as our comforts or way of life, or even some idea (=ideology) or, possibly, ideas about God.
9. Many are of such orientation and persuasion that this Divine Entity needs to be definitive, nailed down, with all parameters set and explained. Some end up worshiping their way to God, rather than this mystery we call "God", and as a result, judging all others by their way to God, thereby judging others as further from God than they. Someone said that we must leave "religion" to find God. This is mostly true: I must leave all my preconceived ideas about God to find God. I prefer to think of this Mystery not as a noun but as a verb, always new: the possibility of each new moment. It is the Birther of all Life, Ultimate Reality, Eternal Wisdom, Unconditional Love.
10. The problem is that many end up worshiping their own CERTAINTY, or the singularity of their belief system, not the unfathomable Mysterium. Gregory of Nyssa in the 4th century said it well: "Concepts create idols, only wonder understands anything." Religion is about certainty, spirituality is about wonder. Many escape into religion in order not to be challenged by God. Christians may have made Jesus into the only Son of God in order not be confronted with his prophetical challenges to a vast new way of living and who he was as a human being. Jesus Before Christianity (before the Christians got hold of him) by Albert Nolan (Maryknoll, Orbis) is
an excellent start. Because we do not want to have to continually rethink things, most of us prefer our illusions and private idols to reality and mystery and challenge."Church" is only one of the messes we've made out of "Jesus." It is unlikely that he meant to establish any of what we have today as "church."
11. Religion attracts those of a Guardian type personality--needing certainty. Spirituality attracts those of a more Pilgrim type of personality--more open to learning, wonder, mystery. These "types" are more bearings on a dimension rather than a dichotomy. Wholeness means having both, integrated, but ever new, never fully "arrived." More becoming, as a verb. Jesus invited us to the journey, not to "church", certainly not to organized religion--which he seems to have opposed. He gave the Reign of God back to ordinary folk without the need for official intermediaries.
12. A metaphor. What if what we are part of is a vast and complex symphony, in which each note is already intensely alive? Each note would feel itself in relation to others, and feeling its place in the whole, as well as the whole. The symphony as a whole is what sustains the lives of the notes. There is a deeper locus of awareness than the lives of the notes, in the life of the entire symphony from remote beginnings. This is a living symphony, sparkling with the awareness of its own beauty both from the perspective of the whole and from the multiplied perspective of each part–the single beauty is intensified through the multiple awarenesses merged into the unified awareness of the whole.
Every listener, whether sentient or non-sentient, is a participant in the symphony, adding new notes. The symphony is everlasting, ever deepening, ever intensifying, ever developing,–infinite, inexhaustible wondrous beauty. Perhaps this metaphor is but a small glimpse of a process notion of God, infinitely relating to the entire cosmos, bringing that universe to resurrection life within the divine nature, unifying it within the divine experience. The reality of this mystery we call God could be something like this, though even this metaphor is insufficient to describe the amazement of God. (Marjorie Suchocki: God, Christ, Church)
Therefore, our challenge is to come home to this mystery in whom we live and move and have our being. We are already home. We simply need to awaken to the fact of the Mystery within us and all around us and in all our relationships.
Namaste! (=The Divine Mystery in me welcomes and salutes the Divine Mystery
in You. )
Paschal Baute
_____
References:
Celtic Spirituality
Diarmuid O’Murchu, Quantum Theology
Marjorie Suchocki. God, Christ, Church
Joseph Campbell. The Inner Reaches of Outer Space.
Brian Swimme, The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos.
Sir John Templeton. Possibilities for Ove One Hundred Fold More Spiritual Formation.
Cross Currents: The Fiftieth Anniversary Issue: Wisdom of the Heart and the Life of the Mind,.
Prepared for a online colloquim of the Wayne Oates Center, Louisville, Ky.,
“Finding a Common Language.”
Paschal Baute, November 11, 2001.
Abstract. Our spiritual journey is interpreting the precious meaning of this unique life given to us and, now aware, recognizing and living this present Oneness, brought to us in many forms by the great teacher, Life itself, relationships, nature, in all its various crises and transitions. No belief concepts of any Wisdom tradition are adequate to explain this individual journey for us, nor suffering or evil, at least for the thinking person.
Preface: We can’t see anything until we have the right metaphor to perceive it (Robert Shaw) but the problem right now is that we are between stories (Thomas Berry). What this means is that all current concepts of God, and even every Wisdom tradition’s view of divine reality is too limited, too parochial, too closed, too small.
1. Reality, both scientific and theological may be one hundred fold, or even 1000 fold more vast and complex than our concepts of today. Experts studying the expansion of information estimate the total information now doubles about every three years. This means that in 30 years, the information will be one thousand fold more, and in 60 years, humans will possess a million times as much information. The challenge is for us to increase the spiritual information and wisdom to deal with this development.
2. Does this mean that our vaunted current understanding of science after an accelerated five centuries of progress is yet one millionth of what the future holds for us? Does this mean that in fact that we are not at some peak of progress, but are discovering still how vastly ignorant we are? As the cell biologist, Lewis Thomas has said, “The greatest of all discoveries of twentieth century science has been the discovery of human ignorance.”
3. There is a fundamental unity to our universe, transcending all the divisions and distinctions developed by the human mind, both on the micro and the macro scale. Cosmology, not theology with its patriarchal props, categories, creeds, labels and certainties, is inviting us to encounter the relational G*d at the heart of a relational universe. Theology is invited to give up its supposed supremacy and parochialism, to outgrow all human constructs, and pursue ultimacy with the skills and discernments of a multi-disciplinary imagination (Quantum Theology, p.202). The entire scientific enterprise can be characterized as the development of sensitivities and ideas necessary to become more fully aware of what is happening all around us. (Brian Swimme). We would add also the theological enterprise and our understanding of spirituality.
4. The mystery of life is fundamentally open-ended. Revelation is ongoing, and cannot be subsumed in any religion or Wisdom tradition or cultural system. “Let us not be among the number so dwarfed, so limited, so bigoted as to think that the infinite God has revealed himself to one little handful of his children, in one little quarter of the globe, and at one particular period of time. (Ralph Waldo Trine). No one source of knowledge is sufficient to provide a complete description of reality.
5. If we pursue a humble way to these mysteries, we will be open to the possibility that god is the only reality–all else being fleeting shadow and imagination, limited mostly to expressions of our five senses, eight, measure and number, acting on our tiny brains. The awesome mystery may be that we are already inside this reality which is one and complex.
6. In this case, spirituality is defined differently: not as an aspect of being human, but the very core of being human. Spirituality would be living one's life from the realization that the body/mind/ego personality we have been taught to identify with is just the tip of our iceberg, our little head sticking through the window of the senses into this world, whereas our true body is the universe. We could recognize that most of our perceived world is an illusion, a shared dream we are sto;; asleep in. The goal of life is to awake to our real Self which is vast and multidimensional--already intimately connected with all of creation, with a twin shadow self that is already scripted, mostly primitive, and hidden from us. This whole Self is already One with this mystery we call God/dess whose essence can hardly be understood, but to which we give names as Eternal Wisdom, Ultimate Reality, Birther of all Life, S/he Who Is, etc. The very first task is simply to become aware of the mystery inside which we dwell.
7. Our spiritual journey is interpreting the precious meaning of this unique life given to us and, hopefully, recognizing and living this present Oneness, brought to us in many forms by the great teacher, Life itself, relationships, nature, in all its various crises and transitions. No belief concepts of any Wisdom tradition are adequate to explain either suffering or evil, at least for the thinking person.
Evil, like love, suffering, joy, passion, fear and hope, are all mysteries. They are irrational aspects of human existence. Our post-Enlightenment left brain dominant need to rationalize and commodify
mystery and wrap it up in discursive concepts. Wisdom traditions can help us on this journey, but the constant danger is to use them for comfort rather than summons to transformation.
8. Maybe it would help to realize that we are so made as humans that we need and yearn for the ultimate in our lives, the Tremendum Mysterium. If we don't find it in this mystery we call God/dess, we are bound to create it by worshiping some thing in our exterior, material worlds, such as our comforts or way of life, or even some idea (=ideology) or, possibly, ideas about God.
9. Many are of such orientation and persuasion that this Divine Entity needs to be definitive, nailed down, with all parameters set and explained. Some end up worshiping their way to God, rather than this mystery we call "God", and as a result, judging all others by their way to God, thereby judging others as further from God than they. Someone said that we must leave "religion" to find God. This is mostly true: I must leave all my preconceived ideas about God to find God. I prefer to think of this Mystery not as a noun but as a verb, always new: the possibility of each new moment. It is the Birther of all Life, Ultimate Reality, Eternal Wisdom, Unconditional Love.
10. The problem is that many end up worshiping their own CERTAINTY, or the singularity of their belief system, not the unfathomable Mysterium. Gregory of Nyssa in the 4th century said it well: "Concepts create idols, only wonder understands anything." Religion is about certainty, spirituality is about wonder. Many escape into religion in order not to be challenged by God. Christians may have made Jesus into the only Son of God in order not be confronted with his prophetical challenges to a vast new way of living and who he was as a human being. Jesus Before Christianity (before the Christians got hold of him) by Albert Nolan (Maryknoll, Orbis) is
an excellent start. Because we do not want to have to continually rethink things, most of us prefer our illusions and private idols to reality and mystery and challenge."Church" is only one of the messes we've made out of "Jesus." It is unlikely that he meant to establish any of what we have today as "church."
11. Religion attracts those of a Guardian type personality--needing certainty. Spirituality attracts those of a more Pilgrim type of personality--more open to learning, wonder, mystery. These "types" are more bearings on a dimension rather than a dichotomy. Wholeness means having both, integrated, but ever new, never fully "arrived." More becoming, as a verb. Jesus invited us to the journey, not to "church", certainly not to organized religion--which he seems to have opposed. He gave the Reign of God back to ordinary folk without the need for official intermediaries.
12. A metaphor. What if what we are part of is a vast and complex symphony, in which each note is already intensely alive? Each note would feel itself in relation to others, and feeling its place in the whole, as well as the whole. The symphony as a whole is what sustains the lives of the notes. There is a deeper locus of awareness than the lives of the notes, in the life of the entire symphony from remote beginnings. This is a living symphony, sparkling with the awareness of its own beauty both from the perspective of the whole and from the multiplied perspective of each part–the single beauty is intensified through the multiple awarenesses merged into the unified awareness of the whole.
Every listener, whether sentient or non-sentient, is a participant in the symphony, adding new notes. The symphony is everlasting, ever deepening, ever intensifying, ever developing,–infinite, inexhaustible wondrous beauty. Perhaps this metaphor is but a small glimpse of a process notion of God, infinitely relating to the entire cosmos, bringing that universe to resurrection life within the divine nature, unifying it within the divine experience. The reality of this mystery we call God could be something like this, though even this metaphor is insufficient to describe the amazement of God. (Marjorie Suchocki: God, Christ, Church)
Therefore, our challenge is to come home to this mystery in whom we live and move and have our being. We are already home. We simply need to awaken to the fact of the Mystery within us and all around us and in all our relationships.
Namaste! (=The Divine Mystery in me welcomes and salutes the Divine Mystery
in You. )
Paschal Baute
_____
References:
Celtic Spirituality
Diarmuid O’Murchu, Quantum Theology
Marjorie Suchocki. God, Christ, Church
Joseph Campbell. The Inner Reaches of Outer Space.
Brian Swimme, The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos.
Sir John Templeton. Possibilities for Ove One Hundred Fold More Spiritual Formation.
Cross Currents: The Fiftieth Anniversary Issue: Wisdom of the Heart and the Life of the Mind,.
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