A System Of Beliefs Or A Way Of Life?
i am reading and working through a book by Brian McClaren called "Finding Our Way Again". Though written by a Christian author, it is written in a way that it can be applied to all Western faiths (for me that would be Judaism). It is the first in an upcoming series of books on reclaiming ancient spiritual practices such as perpetual prayer, Sabbath observance, fasting, sacred meals, pilgrimages, yearly cycles and holy days, and tithing/tzedakah (charity).
After all these years of my 'theological system' searching, one paragraph in this book has changed my life:
McClaren was scheduled to interview a famous speaker named Dr. Peter Senge. He asked him...
"Why are books on Buddhism and Eastern Spiritualities so popular, and not books on Christianity?" Dr. Senge replied, "I think it's because Buddhism [and other spiritualities] presents itself as a way of life, and Christianity presents itself as a system of belief. So I want to get Western spiritual leaders thinking about how to rediscover their own faith as a way of life, because that's what people are searching for today. That's what they need most."
This very simple answer has revolutionized my Judaism and my spiritual life in general. It has sparked me to want to start journaling and exploring again with a new approach - a new set of eyes. i started my journal with the story of Rabbi Akiva as this story was my initial inspiration and is universal in appeal to all spiritual seekers. Though a spiritual seeker my entire life, my Jewish journey is a fairly late one in life. Rabbi Akiva began his journey at 40 years of age with NO knowledge and grew in wisdom and understanding to become one of the greatest Rabbis to ever live. And while i certainly do not aspire to become a Rabbi, that story has helped me to understand it's never to late to start learning 'for real'. Connecting that initial inspiration with Dr. Senge's reply above has changed my spiritual life forever.
But McClaren obviously doesn't stop there. He continues to illuminate and solidify the point so wonderfully. According to McClaren, and i agree, it's hard to deny that too many of us have lost the 'way' of our faith. Without a coherent and compelling way of life, formed in community and expressed in mission, some of us begin losing interest in the system of belief, or we begin holding it grimly, even meanly, driving more and more people away from our faith rather than attracting them toward it. Those who reject religion are often rejecting a certain arid system of belief, or if not that, a set of trivial taboos or rules or rituals that have lost meaning for them (or never had meaning for them to begin with) - each a thin residue of a lost way of life. Many of them will then find themselves on the other side - secularism. If the modern era can be characterized by a cold war between scientific and religious belief systems, then the postmodern era can best be characterized by a search for spirituality, a word that somehow captures this idea of a viable, sustainable, meaningful way of life. After centuries of a relationship almost always characterized by the term versus, the scientific and religious communities seem to realize that we need to move beyond our deadlock, our polarization, our binary, either/or thinking regarding faith and reason, religion and science, matter and spirit.
The word spiritual captures this reintigration for us; it says, "We don't believe that conventional organized religion has all the answers for us, nor does secular, reductionist science. We need a fusion of the sacred and the secular. We need an everyday sacredness." The word spirituality tries to capture that fusion of everyday sacredness. For many people, it represents a life-giving alternative to the secularist fundamentalism and religious fundamentalism, the former offering the world weapons of mass destruction and the later stirring emotions to put that suicidal machinery into motion.
We are witnessing the transition from conventional premodern religions, to an early modern period of institutional religion, to a late-modern religious collapse and replacement by secularism, to a growing dissatisfaction with all of the above. This dissatisfaction in some cases has led to a reactionary resurgence of pushy fundamentalism - fearful, manic, violent, oppressive, apocalyptic. And in other cases it has led to a search for a new kind of spirituality. This search was first associated with the term new age, which is rather vague, undefined, and mushy. But after 9/11, more and more of us are realizing that a warm but mushy spirituality is no match for a hot and pushy fundamentalism, of whatever religious variety. More and more of us feel the need for a fresh, creative alternative - a fourth alternative, something beyond scientific secularism, pushy religious fundamentalism, and mushy spirituality.
This alternative needs to be creative and new to face the new challenges of a new age, a world gone "post-al" - postmodern, postcolonial, post-Englightenment, post-Christendom, post-Holocaust, post-9/11. Yet it also needs to derive strength from the old religious traditions - it needs to face new-age challenges with age-old wisdom. The challenge of the future will require rediscovery and adaptive reuse of resources from the ancient past. There are ancient ways that can teach us to practice peace, joy, self-mastery, and justice, without the trappings of rules and dogma. These ways do for our souls what exercise does for our bodies or study does for our minds. These ancient practices are the habits by which our souls grow weighty; actions of mind, body, and will that close the gap between the character we want to possess and the charater we currently have.
It is time to explore this fresh alternative, this fourth way beyond three unacceptable alternatives. We can seek to bring ancient spiritual practices to bear on the emerging new world. We can reach twoard an alternative beyond reductionistic secularism, beyond reactive fundamentalism, and beyond a vague, mushy spirituality.
This new focus is an acknowledgment that we have lost the path and are seeking to rediscover our faith as a way of life, shaped and strengthened by ancient practices together with new approaches to our spiritual texts and lives.
i am ready to begin.
After all these years of my 'theological system' searching, one paragraph in this book has changed my life:
McClaren was scheduled to interview a famous speaker named Dr. Peter Senge. He asked him...
"Why are books on Buddhism and Eastern Spiritualities so popular, and not books on Christianity?" Dr. Senge replied, "I think it's because Buddhism [and other spiritualities] presents itself as a way of life, and Christianity presents itself as a system of belief. So I want to get Western spiritual leaders thinking about how to rediscover their own faith as a way of life, because that's what people are searching for today. That's what they need most."
This very simple answer has revolutionized my Judaism and my spiritual life in general. It has sparked me to want to start journaling and exploring again with a new approach - a new set of eyes. i started my journal with the story of Rabbi Akiva as this story was my initial inspiration and is universal in appeal to all spiritual seekers. Though a spiritual seeker my entire life, my Jewish journey is a fairly late one in life. Rabbi Akiva began his journey at 40 years of age with NO knowledge and grew in wisdom and understanding to become one of the greatest Rabbis to ever live. And while i certainly do not aspire to become a Rabbi, that story has helped me to understand it's never to late to start learning 'for real'. Connecting that initial inspiration with Dr. Senge's reply above has changed my spiritual life forever.
But McClaren obviously doesn't stop there. He continues to illuminate and solidify the point so wonderfully. According to McClaren, and i agree, it's hard to deny that too many of us have lost the 'way' of our faith. Without a coherent and compelling way of life, formed in community and expressed in mission, some of us begin losing interest in the system of belief, or we begin holding it grimly, even meanly, driving more and more people away from our faith rather than attracting them toward it. Those who reject religion are often rejecting a certain arid system of belief, or if not that, a set of trivial taboos or rules or rituals that have lost meaning for them (or never had meaning for them to begin with) - each a thin residue of a lost way of life. Many of them will then find themselves on the other side - secularism. If the modern era can be characterized by a cold war between scientific and religious belief systems, then the postmodern era can best be characterized by a search for spirituality, a word that somehow captures this idea of a viable, sustainable, meaningful way of life. After centuries of a relationship almost always characterized by the term versus, the scientific and religious communities seem to realize that we need to move beyond our deadlock, our polarization, our binary, either/or thinking regarding faith and reason, religion and science, matter and spirit.
The word spiritual captures this reintigration for us; it says, "We don't believe that conventional organized religion has all the answers for us, nor does secular, reductionist science. We need a fusion of the sacred and the secular. We need an everyday sacredness." The word spirituality tries to capture that fusion of everyday sacredness. For many people, it represents a life-giving alternative to the secularist fundamentalism and religious fundamentalism, the former offering the world weapons of mass destruction and the later stirring emotions to put that suicidal machinery into motion.
We are witnessing the transition from conventional premodern religions, to an early modern period of institutional religion, to a late-modern religious collapse and replacement by secularism, to a growing dissatisfaction with all of the above. This dissatisfaction in some cases has led to a reactionary resurgence of pushy fundamentalism - fearful, manic, violent, oppressive, apocalyptic. And in other cases it has led to a search for a new kind of spirituality. This search was first associated with the term new age, which is rather vague, undefined, and mushy. But after 9/11, more and more of us are realizing that a warm but mushy spirituality is no match for a hot and pushy fundamentalism, of whatever religious variety. More and more of us feel the need for a fresh, creative alternative - a fourth alternative, something beyond scientific secularism, pushy religious fundamentalism, and mushy spirituality.
This alternative needs to be creative and new to face the new challenges of a new age, a world gone "post-al" - postmodern, postcolonial, post-Englightenment, post-Christendom, post-Holocaust, post-9/11. Yet it also needs to derive strength from the old religious traditions - it needs to face new-age challenges with age-old wisdom. The challenge of the future will require rediscovery and adaptive reuse of resources from the ancient past. There are ancient ways that can teach us to practice peace, joy, self-mastery, and justice, without the trappings of rules and dogma. These ways do for our souls what exercise does for our bodies or study does for our minds. These ancient practices are the habits by which our souls grow weighty; actions of mind, body, and will that close the gap between the character we want to possess and the charater we currently have.
It is time to explore this fresh alternative, this fourth way beyond three unacceptable alternatives. We can seek to bring ancient spiritual practices to bear on the emerging new world. We can reach twoard an alternative beyond reductionistic secularism, beyond reactive fundamentalism, and beyond a vague, mushy spirituality.
This new focus is an acknowledgment that we have lost the path and are seeking to rediscover our faith as a way of life, shaped and strengthened by ancient practices together with new approaches to our spiritual texts and lives.
i am ready to begin.