Marianne opens the discussion referencing a recent talk that discussed that right now is an important and pivotal time for Christianity, humanity and the planet. She goes on to talk about Progressive Christianity and some of the foundational understandings for conversations around religion in the twenty first century. The main questions being asked within Christianity right now are: ‘What do we believe and why?’ ‘What do we think of humanity?’ ‘What do we think is possible?’ ‘Who is responsible?’ The question is being called on meaning and our part in making meaning. There isn’t one answer to these questions but Marianne hopes that this setting will help people find ways to articulate our concerns and wonderment.
Religion
Religion these days has some negative connotations attached, Marianne cites a quote form Monica Lewinsky saying “I’m spiritual, not religious.” The root of the word religion means to bind or to tie together. Religions are human constructions, Einstein described religions as a deep human instinct and he says that religion is part of the functioning of the unconscious. Humans will continue to construct religions or schema to help us make sense of the world and mortality. Religion is an effort to tie or bind together some kind of narrative or coherence to address our puzzlements and amazaments and our questions about mortality. Religion is as Einstein called it a deep human instinct to try to construct a narrative or world view or understanding that helps us live with meaning. Humans are meaning making and world making creatures and that’s part of our greatness and responsibility. There is a more ancient understanding of the word religion meaning to pay particular attention. Marianne very much likes this understanding, in that we pay more attention to the world around us, the opposite being to neglect or to be blind. Religions have a really important function in our history making and potentially in the future of human kind, and if you will, the future of God. Marianne would like to make the case that religion is relevant to shaping our world view and not that you should believe forty seven impossible things before breakfast.
The Bible is a Human Product
The Bible is not a dictation from some other source. In our 21st century world we understand that the new and old testament are ancient documents from ancient communities and what they were able to understand within their world view and what they knew and what they didn’t know. They are trying to make sense of their place in the world. So much is trying to understand why to bad things happen to good people, war, pestilence, hate, resentment, love, hate, wonder, magic, dying, the unexpected and uncontrollable. The bible is filled with stories about how we experience the world and how we try to make sense of the world. Our new and old testament are stories about what they knew and what they didn’t and trying to explain their experience of god and their own humanity and mortality. The bible was not written for us but it does not mean it does not have meaning for us today. Much of the bible is about the human condition which still speaks to us today. The bible addresses classic concerns of the human condition. The stories about healing and miracles in the new testament are more metaphorical stories about big issues rather than accounts of particular events. Marianne takes the example of Jesus walking on water and points out the metaphors for Jesus being able to walk through the uncertainties of life without getting dragged down by the undertow. This is an idea that can continue to speak to us today and we can wonder what was it about Jesus that would produce a story in which he was not overwhelmed by the undertow of life. Marianne suggests that if Jesus really could walk on water then it doesn’t really do her much good and isn’t easy to relate to. It is always important to ask why is this story being told, why is it being told this way, who is telling this story, and to whom is this story being told. Once we start to see and hear the stories with that kind of layering they become alive for us in a totally different way. The bible stories tell us a lot about us and how we try to make sense of us and god. The old testament and new testament are ancient communities expressing themselves and they appeal to the imagination, they are not strict histories, they are more metaphorical narratives which is why they continue to speak to us today. As twenty first century Christians we say the bible is a human product.
Jesus
There have been three quests for the historical Jesus and there has always been a conflict between Jesus as a human and Jesus as divine. Marianne would suggest that Jesus’s real value to us then and now is his humanity. Jesus wasn’t recognized as divine until after the fourth century and there are lots of reasons for why that happened. He seems to have grown in divinity the longer he has been gone. This divinity is in many ways similar to the divine right of kings. Part of Jesus’s greatness is that he shows us our capacity as human beings. He stood for something, he had an intimate understanding and sense of god he stood against a domination system that put the majority of the population in an oppressive situation. He was a healer, there was something about the man. As twenty first century Christians it is important to claim Jesus’s humanity. If Jesus was divine it doesn’t really help the average individual but if Jesus is human then he is an example I can hope to replicate.
Jesus as the Christ, the anointed one. Marianne thinks of anointed as one with purpose while anointed is often used to describe divinity. Since we live in a very pluralistic world the word Christ is associated with some historical imperialism, we have shed a lot of blood in the name of Christ. Religion is the safe standby to legitimize any agenda whether it is political or personal. Religion has also functioned positively as well. Marianne is hesitant to use Christ language because it tends to set Christ as the ultimate standard to the exclusion of any other standards. For Marianne Christianity might be the ultimate because she is a Christian and it is her path. Marianne is not however going to say that a Buddhist does not have as much passion for their path because their path differs form the Christian path.
God
God is a word symbol. The name is a word symbol. God has so many associations, it has been personified and associated with being male to the point that it can no longer be used for different more subtle meanings. God is such a holy and unnameable thing that you can’t even name it. Language surrounding God is becoming increasingly problematic because of it’s power as a word symbol and it’s power throughout human history. It’s going to be hard to relinquish the name god. The name god is going to continue to be powerful for a long time, but we have an opportunity to re-imagine and decide what we mean when we are talking about god. The god of supernatural theism was the god up there and out there somewhere who was omniscient. This god was anthropomorphic being that intervenes sometimes. That god of supernatural theism has been closely identified with the Christian god. In an ancient three story universe with a heaven above, an underworld below and our current existence here in the middle, it’s understandable how one could imagine a god of supernatural theism. This is part of our historical development. Marianne suggests that the god of supernatural theism never was, it doesn’t mean that god hasn’t been a part of our historical imagination and part of our constructs of our beliefs. When new atheists take shots at Christianity they are taking shots at supernatural theism. They are wrong to assume that all Christians mean the same thing when they talk about god. God can function as an attachment figure something to attach feelings of hope and awareness to and that’s very real. How we imagine god today is a really important issue for us to think about, especially because we have agency. God is not entirely a human construction but there are many things about god that are human constructions. This is not a bad thing it just needs to be a part of our awareness.
Mysticism
We do not experience the mystical beyond the physical world, it’s not metaphysical. Mystical experiences, not unlike religion is instinctive and we all have the capacity for mystical experiences. Mystical experiences are beyond the command of the ego. We won’t make them up, they effect us in an emotional manner but they aren’t just about emotion. Marianne describes a mystical experience as seeing a glimpse of the shininess that is in us, around us and everywhere all the time that we are usually blind to. These experiences can happen in ordinary places on otherwise ordinary days, in which we are caught by the wonder of our existence or by a moment of beauty. The sense of awe and wonder at our existence is really important for us to claim and cultivate. Marianne cautions about separate mysticism and the divine from embodied and created experience. In the same way she is thoughtful about splitting Jesus’s divinity from his humanity. The dualism of splitting things into they either are or are not divine or whatever the quality may be is concerning to Marianne.
We all push against the limits of our language. The thrust of limits of language points toward something. When the inexpressible expresses itself, that is the mystical.
Conclusion
Religion is an important human endeavor and it has an important human function. We are at a time when we need to take responsibility for what we believe and why we believe it. We need to look a lot of that anew. The bible is a human product and Jesus shows us our capacity as human beings, that is our hope. Marianne is concerned about Christ language especially in this twenty first century context. God is a word symbol granted a human construction but god is also beyond human construction as well. We must not disembody the divine or the sacred from ourselves or creation. As we talk about our faith and our beliefs and our wonderment there is limitations to language but let us press ahead anyway. As we move ahead, it is important that we preserve a sense of awe and wonder at our existence. We as Christians in the twenty first century need to move beyond doctrine and dogma, there is a place for it, but there is a lot about doctrine and dogma that is its own closed system. If we want to make an appeal for why being religious or Christian is so important we need to get away from doctrine and dogma. We are seeking a more humane humanity and a more humane Christianity. We also need to broaden our religious curiosity, Christianity does not have a corner on the market, we don’t necessarily have the best view and we certainly don’t have the only view. Since religions are indeed human constructions, they are cross cultural, pluralistic and linguistic storytelling. All religions give us a view into what we think of the world and our views on mortality. Learning about other religions can help us learn from one another therefore it is important that we broaden our religious curiosity and appreciate what we can learn from one another through other lenses. It’s essential that as we move forward that we be scientifically and intellectually honest about our faith. Science can be a very advantageous partner in our conversations about reality, about god, about what is real, about what is possible. Orthodoxy claims that science and religion are so very different that the language of each should be kept separate and never talk to each other. Marianne disagrees, scientific and intellectual honesty are important as we define, reconstruct and re-imagine our faith. Revelation is an ongoing process that comes from on high, it’s not a static process, it is evolutionary. Beauty, Augustine was right when he said we cannot live without beauty. Poesis which is where we get the word poetry from, means to bring something into being that did not exist before. Poesis means to make, change or transform. Human beings have this remarkable capacity of poesis. We are world meaning making creatures, we have imagination and we have agency. Changing how we behave and how we care for one another in the world is up to us and we have a responsibility for our planet and for our human future. As human beings we have to take responsibility for our futures. Gordon Kaufman suggests that God is serendipitous creativity. We’re not in control of everything, we have our limits of imagination as well as having fathomless imagination. We as humans need to think about how we can secure a future for ourselves on this planet, for god and for all of humanity and it’s up to us.