The Religion We Really Need.

I see that it was on this day in 1170 that Thomas Becket, one time tool of the king Henry II, and later thorn in his side in an interesting if generally antique argument over the relationship between church and state where neither were particularly concerned for the actual people under the thumb of state & church died a bloody death, possibly following a casual remark from the king.

At the same time on my Facebook feed I noticed an article about the rise of the new atheism linked and with a comment by a liberal Christian minister, fellow Pacific School of Religion alumni. The comment lamented the general decline of religious sensibilities within our North American culture, a popular rumination among my clergy colleagues of most all theological stripes.

Me, I’m not so sure there’s anything wrong in the decline of religion. Assuming there is such a thing going on, a fact I’m not entirely sure about. There appears to be a decline in church going, but we Americans seem to continue to be among the most religious of peoples. For the most part it seems we’re just rejecting the old brands…

I’ve said elsewhere that as I see it too much of religion is about social control.

And I have some serious problems with the idea there’s a deity with a human-like consciousness directing things.

And, I have little use for religion being used as a substitute for science when one is ill. I think it has some complementary qualities, but it ain’t medicine.

And, as long as I’m on the subject, I have a pretty low opinion of religion’s preoccupation with what happens after death. But, then, that tends to take me back to my first problem, the one about social control.

All that said, there are some pretty powerful things that happen within the world usually contained within the rubric “religion.”

On my Facebook feed I participated in some exchanges at Stephen Batchelor’s (the renowned Buddhist Atheist) feed about “secular Christianity” and “humanism.”

Along the way a Facebook friend, Richard Kollmar offered how “I continue to hope that we might be moving beyond its limitations to a trans-human, cosmic perspective that draws upon evolutionary biology, genetics, the Avatamsaka Sutra, indigenous wisdom, systems theory, etc.. Learning to see the world as a living web of relations would serve us better than any number of isms & -anities.”

I made a passing and vague appreciative noise.

But, as I sit with it, I think he rather succinctly put his finger on the religion we really need.

We need to see our deep connections on the biggest possible scale, that includes us as biological creatures, and how we live within a mysterious web where “I” am transient but also precious, and completely a part of something larger, actually several somethings larger. And the pointers besides our own sitting down, shutting up, and paying attention are enshrined in various aspects of indigenous wisdoms, that most amazing spiritual document the Avatamsaka Sutra (and several others. Big, big fan of the Heart Sutra as well. And, I’ve been told recently that the new Kaz Takahashi book is a great way in, should you be interested), systems theory (reading a little Johanna Macy is always in order) culminating in a new universalism where we are, as Richard sings to us, “learning to see the world as a living web of relations…” could be a very good thing.

Richard ends his comments without much hope we will do this.

He’s probably right.

But, me, I think of this, I think of the religion we really need, and I feels something moving in my heart. And about a God worthy of the name…

I think that feeling is hope.