The term Universalism is most commonly reserved for those Christians who hold that in the end all souls will be saved. It is also one of the two currents of that stream of Western liberal religion that became the Unitarian Universalist Association.
Within Unitarian Universalism there has been a dynamic engagement with what it means to be a spiritual or religious person. Following this path the institution that is Unitarian Universalism moved in the past century from being a liberal Christian church to becoming a liberal church with Christians. The major theological force within UUism for the larger part of the twentieth century was humanism.
Humanism is a powerful spiritual stance. It is also somewhat difficult to define. My rough attempt would be to say that the humanist spirit is essential rational. It is deeply marked by the rise of scientific method and a skeptical approach to all truth claims. It is also “this-worldly.” That is while the word humanism implies anthroprocentricism, in fact it means naturalism. The place to find meaning and purpose within a humanist context is in the here and now. A shadow, as I see it, of this position has been that along with a disinclination to supernaturalism has been a hostility to most aspects of traditional religious perspectives.
Many within Unitarian Universalism have felt that a bare attention to this vision of humanism has not been enough to feed the human heart. As a result there has been a wide variety of exploration of matters spiritual within the world’s traditions. Mostly this has involved a re-examination of Christianity, and in the same spirit a long glance at the other Abrahamic traditions, Judaism and Islam. But, also this has included a look Eastward at Hinduism and Taoism and most of all at Buddhism. And it has included an embrace of aspects of the neo-pagan revival. All without a repudiation of the best of the humanist spirit.
The tradition of liberal religion continues to be dynamic and it is hard to say where it is going with any certainty. But I just stumbled upon a comment made by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, one of the central leaders in a radical Jewish spiritual movement called Jewish Renewal.
“I do not believe that anyone has the exclusive franchise on the truth. What we Jews have is a good approximation, for Jews, of how to get there. Ultimately, each person creates a way that fits his own situation. While there are differences between Jewish and non-Jewish approaches to mysticism in specific methods, observances, and rituals, there are no differences in the impact of the experiences themselves. When it comes to what I call the ‘heart stuff,’ all approaches overlap.”
I am inclined to believe this could easily be a description of the new spirituality that is emerging within Unitarian Universalism. It draws upon the deep waters of the original impulse of universalism, but gives it a twist. It doesn’t ignore any aspect of Unitarian Universalism’s past but takes it all together.
It is a renewal of the path of heart, of the exploration of who we truly are and what it is we might actually be. It is a reclamation of the spirit that inspired the mystics as well as those who gave their lives to service and prophetic challenge to the hurts of the world.
And where this new universalism is leading, certainly appears, at least to me, to be toward a new healing for our world, a vision of hope for those who suffer, and a path for those who long.
What an exciting time…
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