{"id":1552,"date":"2006-07-27T04:20:31","date_gmt":"2006-07-27T09:20:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/2006\/07\/27\/heretics-guide-to-eternity-1\/"},"modified":"2006-07-27T04:20:31","modified_gmt":"2006-07-27T09:20:31","slug":"heretics-guide-to-eternity-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2006\/07\/27\/heretics-guide-to-eternity-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Heretic’s Guide to Eternity 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

A while back I posted on our brief visit with Spencer Burke, creator of TheOoze.com<\/a>. At the time I mentioned that Spencer had written a new book that gives a twist to universalism called The Heretic\u2019s Guide to Heaven<\/em>. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I\u2019ll be taking a look at this book. The first section of Heretic\u2019s Guide<\/em> is called \u201cQuestioning Grace: The Future of Faith.\u201d I like Spencer, and he has my respect for his website and for the energy and kindness he has brought to the world around him. But, and I can\u2019t think this will surprise him, I stand on the other side of the fence when it comes to the central issues of his book.
\nHere are Spencer\u2019s central theses:
\n1. We need to get beyond religion.
\n2. We need to get beyond religion to find spirituality.
\n3. We need to discover that Jesus can get us beyond religion to find spirituality.
\n4. What we find beyond religion is grace.
\n5. People who will take us into that grace, where we find the \u201csacred beyond religion,\u201d are heretics.
\nSome important points:
\nSpencer doesn\u2019t define his terms very well; and he has an annoying habit of using a category (say \u201cheretic\u201d or \u201creligion\u201d or \u201cspirituality\u201d or \u201cgrace\u201d) and only later defining it, and then when he does he might define it in more than one way. Part of the struggle of reading Heretic\u2019s Guide<\/em> is the need to hang on because eventually Spencer will come to terms with his favorite words \u2014 religion, spirituality, and grace. But, if you do hang on, you\u2019ll see what he means with his terms.
\nTo begin with, I simply don\u2019t like that he chooses the term heretic <\/strong>to describe himself. A heretic, in theological discussion, refers to someone who denies the central creeds of orthodoxy \u2014 and it can almost be reduced to the doctrine of the Trinity (Father, Son, Spirit). As I read this book, I\u2019m not sure that he has denied the Trinity, but he wants to call himself a heretic because a heretic paves a new path beyond religion into spirituality and grace. Spencer chooses this term in order to provoke; I\u2019ll accept that we need to be awakened. I just wouldn\u2019t use that term to define what we are to be about. Not sure what you think of his use of this term.
\nReligion <\/strong>seems to me to be his term for institutional faith, esp Christianity, in its churchiness, its creeds, and its required commitments. It is finite attempts to capture the infinite (28) and, as I read him, religion is a \u201cconsensual illusion\u201d (29). It is designed to \u201cpoint the way to God, not to control the flow\u201d (40).
\nSpirituality <\/strong>is equality, a feminine\/masculine sense of God, countercultural dynamic, mystery, experience, interconnectedness, beyond authority structures, holistic individuals, the particular rather than the universal, material as much as heavenly, authenticity and honesty, and a communal, holistic celebration of the sacred that eradicates boundaries.
\nHe repeats the mantra of our day: religion divides, spirituality unites.
\nGrace <\/strong>tells us \u201cwe are already in unless we want to be out.\u201d As I see it, for Spencer \u201cgrace\u201d is God\u2019s unconditional love, or his preemptory commitment to humans, it is the foundational commitment of God to humans, and it is guaranteed relationship with God before one asks and apart from having to do something to get it. Here\u2019s a quotation: \u201cWe don\u2019t experience salvation because we believe right things but because we have faith in the experience of grace\u201d (66).
\nWhat I most like about this book is that Spencer is committed to Jesus. Here are his words:
\n\u201cDo I remain personally committed to Jesus and his teachings as found in the Bible? I do\u201d (11).
\n\u201cWe need to move past religion. I believe the time is right for another way of looking at the Christian message, freed from the confines of religion and open to the possibility of a radical new incarnation and manifestation. The message of Jesus needs to evolve for our times\u201d (16).
\n\u201cFor me, this temptation [to postmodern narcissism] is remedied by remaining deeply committed to the teachings of Jesus\u201d (36).
\nHe wants us to encounter \u201cthe message of Jesus without the baggage of brand Christianity\u201d (48).
\nLet me now say this: I don\u2019t very often take authors to task on this blog. I don\u2019t see my role here to be a book critic but a book reader who helps others to hear about things they might not otherwise have time to read. And I try to do that so we can engage the substance of a book even if we haven\u2019t read it. But, I want to ask a couple of hard-hitting questions to see if you think I\u2019m being fair to him and to see how he might respond.
\nFirst, do you think his definitions of \u201cheretic\u201d or \u201creligion\u201d or \u201cspirituality\u201d or \u201cgrace\u201d are consistent with the last point I made: consistent with the teachings of Jesus. I think each could be challenged by Jesus.
\nSecond, has Spencer redefined by grace by making it nothing other than God\u2019s unconditional love? Is there a distinction between \u201cgrace\u201d and \u201clove\u201d in the Bible and in the teachings of Jesus? Does the former refer to those who have spurned the latter or are they synonymous?
\nWould Jesus recognize a quest for the unity that comes from spirituality or did he find unity in another way? In light of the teachings of Jesus, did Jesus believe in unity or did he think his teachings would also create division? How does that play into what Spencer says about spirituality?
\nJesus\u2019 favorite word was \u201ckingdom.\u201d How does Kingdom relate to what Spencer means by religion, spirituality, and grace?
\nIn the end, what I see here is the quest to form a unity of spirituality while following a teacher who cut into the fabric of an entire world and summoned people to follow him and, if I read him aright, Jesus created all kinds of division. You can\u2019t capture Jesus into a spirituality of unity \u2014 it won\u2019t work.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A while back I posted on our brief visit with Spencer Burke, creator of TheOoze.com. At the time I mentioned that Spencer had written a new book that gives a twist to universalism called The Heretic\u2019s Guide to Heaven. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I\u2019ll be taking a look at this book. The first section of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[476],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books"],"yoast_head":"\nHeretic's Guide to Eternity 1<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A while back I posted on our brief visit with Spencer Burke, creator of TheOoze.com. 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