I was delighted to see that Clair Woodbury referred to the Canadian Centre for Progressive Christianity’s points in his article in the Edmonton Journal today, Christianity for the Questioning Generation.
Clair undertook to write a response to his granddaughter’s request for a brief outline of Christianity that she could share in her pluralistic school. It took him two years to write it. And he was already well down the road in his understanding of contemporary, critical scholarship before he even started.
My description of Christianity needed to honour the fact that we human beings live on one globe and are increasingly interconnected — issues teens take for granted. That meant being positive about other cultures and honouring the insights of other faiths.
Distilling the salient points out of a religious tradition can be tricky work. Particularly if you are embedded within that tradition. Being there limits your perspective somewhat, requiring that you dig away at assumptions you may not even recognize as assumptions. Remember how long it took to acknowledge that the world is round, not flat? That, too, was a perspective issue. And there are perspective issues in every discipline we engage that will get in our way if we really want to figure out what is fact and what is fiction.
The ultimate in digging through assumptions needn’t be that hard, however, if you are mining your tradition for what is worthy of carrying forward, fact or otherwise.
… I had to ask myself what in Christianity was really essential for me. This meant putting aside the baggage that Christianity had accumulated through the years and identifying what is really important for me as I live my day-to-day life.
Clair’s litmus test is the key to examining our religious heritage. That doesn’t mean we’ll find the answer to all things religious if we use it. Our contexts are as fluid as were those of our forebears. Future generations will test and test again. But if we use a lens that has meaning to us, that boils it down to what is critical in this day and age not only for ourselves but for the realization of a sustainable future, we have all we need to review our religious heritage for the here and now. What will help us build that future? For me, that lens filters everything using this question, “Is this text, symbol, person, ritual, or tradition going to help us in the important work of building right relationships with ourselves, one another, the planet, and the seventh generation?” If it’s not, it isn’t worthy of being brought into the place where I pave the road toward my tomorrows, my heart and my church home.
Religious stories have always been about helping us find our way in the world and we have used them to do so, sometimes badly, sometimes with great dignity. When they are hardened into literal truths, they get in the way of their original purposes, or, because I’m not an anthropologist, what I believe were their original purposes. Getting back to using religious story as a way of edifying our efforts to build meaning into ours and others’ lives and convicting us when we fail to choose to dignify all life, now and that which will unfold in the future, is an ongoing task. So, too, are finding new stories that will continue to inspire us.
Clair has published his book, A New Take on an Ancient Story. You can email him if you would like to purchase a copy. Perhaps for your own grandchildren!
I was struck by the comment, “issues teens take for granted”. How perceptive to note that what concerns the grandchildren suddenly is a no brainer. Can we listen to their stories, young as they are, and resist the temptation to say “you’re just young, you’ll change as you get older”. Yes they will change (hopefully) but it misses the point that what they think matters now and if we aren’t listening now why would they listen to us. Let’s find out what they are saying and maybe, just maybe, they will think we have something worth listening to. The progressive path doesn’t have any special privileges as far as the young are concerned – I’m sure we know that but it always helps to remind ourselves of that.
Thank you, John. I think the conversations that take place between grandparents and grandchildren are sometimes cleaner than those that take place between parents and children. Less congestion and so more opportunity to open wide those questions and peer into whatever might lie within.
Gretta Vosper trained for ministry at Queen’s Theological College where the foundations for her post-theistic work were laid.
I like what you are saying here, Gretta. But I have one doubt.
Are Clair’s words not better rephrased as follows: “We … needed to honour the fact that we human beings live on one globe and are increasingly interconnected — issues teens take for granted. That means being positive about other cultures.”
Is this not a far simpler and more direct construction of the problem?
And what about your words: would they not be clearer if rephrased like this: “We need to … build meaning into ours and others’ lives and convict [each other] when we fail to choose to dignify all life, now and that which will unfold in the future.”
Is this not what you really mean? What’s Christianity and religion got to do with it?
Thanks for your comments, Brett. I think Clair was referring to the work he was trying to produce which was something his granddaughter could share with her schoolmates that spoke to the essence of what Christianity means for their family. He was speaking from a specifically Christian perspective. I agree with you that the broader statement is, outside this context, the better one as it would call all religious and non-religious traditions to that work.
Similarly, my comment is improved by your wording but I, too, was referencing the work that is ongoing within the Christian tradition. The religious stories that still circle the world, many of them holding whole groups of people in bondage, must be recognized as helpful or harmful to human community. Those that are harmful should end up on the anthropologist’s desk, not the minister/priest/rabbi/imam’s. But those that are edifying, we can continue to use in the same manner that we use some of the ancient myths of long dead religions. And, of course, as I noted in the blog, new stories we create can also help with the work of building meaning into our lives.
Thanks for commenting, Brett!