Having been a “seeker” for most of my life and enrolling full time for a theology degree once (thankfully stopped after six months), your books in particular (and those by Marcus Borg) have finally enabled me to decide where I stand. Thank you most sincerely for your courage and insight.
I have two questions – perhaps the first is more of a comment. I am happy that people may choose to believe whatever they wish. I’m aware, however, of a “restrained anger,” perhaps more of a frustration, within me about the role of the organized Christian Church, past and present and with those who simply “follow like sheep.” I seldom show this and am sensitive to people’s right to do and be whatever they wish. It has to do, of course, with what I see as the tragic “misdirection” that was adopted, though often/sometimes in “good faith.” I’d hate to become a “nouveau fundamentalist.”
Second, I have been working on calling God “something else” because I want to try and escape the traditional “baggage” that goes with the name. This is quite hard being close to my 70th year now and brought up, until a few years ago, as a “traditional Christian,” but it seems important to me. I understand God to be “divine” or “the essence” of everything; to be the “connectedness” of all things; to be the power and influence that we cannot and should not fully understand. I see that God is in me and all things and must rather be “let out” than “let in,” as I was brought up to believe. I’m not sure that I qualify to be called “Christian” any more (which does not concern me). I attend a Sunday gathering that acknowledges and respects all faiths and we use Jesus, amongst others, as an important source for furthering the “Kingdom of God,” the “here and now.”
I’d really appreciate any comment on this – perhaps I’ve “gone overboard,” but it seems just right to me!
Dear Mike,
Thank you for your letter. The deeper we go into the meaning of faith, the more questions we have and the less pleased we are with the performance of the Christian Church of yesterday. Of course, the Christian Church has abused its primary message. Anti-Semitism, the Muslim-hating series of Crusades, the endorsement of slavery, segregation and apartheid as legitimate behavior for Christians, the legitimization of wars of conquest and the denigration of women have all infected our world with the approval of the church. We could say the same thing about other religions, political movements and even the practice of medicine. All of us walk through and live in history and are compromised by it. The fact is, however, that the journey continues and consciousness rises.
In regard to your second concern, how to understand the word “God.” I share with you the difficulty. I see myself as a committed believer – even a “God-intoxicated” person, but every attempt I make to define God ends in failure. I now no longer try. I experience God, I do not define God. This means that even when I try to define or explain my experience, I wind up failing. Those regular readers of this column, who are walking with me through the series entitled “Charting a New Reformation,” surely know this by now.
I do not think that the pathway into faith for me comes by finding the lowest common denominator and seeking to be inclusive of all faiths and committed to none. I very specifically identify myself with the Christ path and seek to walk deeper into the Christ experience. I literalize no part of that story, but believe that if I go into it deeply enough, I will find the universal truth buried within it. I can respect the place to which you have arrived, but I cannot share it. I will continue to walk the Christ path. I hope those committed to other faith traditions will continue to walk their paths until all of us transcend our limits and come into a new unity at the depth not the surface of our faith. Then the real religious conversation can begin.
Thank you for writing.
John Shelby Spong
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