Views of the Absolute in World Religions
Center for Media and Independent Learning - University of California Extension
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Christianity
Course Guide written by Mike Fedel
New Views of Christianity
The term Gaia has caught on among those seeking a new ecological spirituality as a religious vision. Gaia is seen as a personified being, an immanent divinity. Some see the Jewish and Christian male monotheistic God as a hostile concept that rationalizes alienation from and neglect of the earth. Gaia should replace God as our focus of worship. I agree with much of this critique, yet I believe that merely replacing a male transcendent deity with an immanent female one is an insufficient answer to the "god-problem." [Rosemary R. Ruether, Gaia & God, 4]
The basic rule is to let all thoughts on the river go by. As long as they are going by, you don't need to do anything about them. But when you want to look on board one of the boats to see what is hidden in the hold, think of the sacred word. [Thomas Keating, Open Mind, Open Heart, 48]The two quotes above might not be the first that come to mind when one thinks of Christianity. In this chapter, we will introduce a few themes that give a wider range of introduction to the Christian tradition.
Christianity is, in some ways, the most difficult religion to talk about in an introductory course in the United States. The Christian religion, in both its Catholic and Protestant flavors, has been the majority religion in this country since its inception and most people have already formed some opinion of it.
Giving a birds-eye view of other traditions seems, on the surface, less challenging because readers often have only a vague idea of what Hinduism or Islam, for example, are about. Yet, when we go just a little deeper into the question, this is not such a simple distinction after all. Christianity is not the only tradition which is divided into numerous branches. There is not one Buddhism, one Islam, one Hinduism. Once we realize this, we must make choices about how to present a particular tradition.
In this course, as in Smith's book, we have chosen the idea of common themes, trying to give some impression of the tradition by speaking in broad terms of fundamental beliefs most members of the tradition accept. In the Christian tradition, as in all others, we can find several common themes, as illustrated by Smith and Novak in the reading. Among them are the questions of the relationship between Jesus and God, the questions of sin and salvation, and the question of faith and reason. In this chapter, we will add some additional elements to the picture. These will be some comments on Christian mysticism and on women and Christianity. In addition, we will make some comments on the Absolute as viewed in Christianity.
Christian Mysticism
In the last few decades, we have seen an explosion of interest in spiritual growth. From people becoming students of Zen to searchers trying to have spiritual visions in Native American-type sweatlodges to the so-called "new age" movement with its crystals and channeling, people are seeking something. Underlying this seeking is the desire for a more direct experience of the Absolute than was offered them by the Christian tradition in which many were raised.However, we may have missed an important point. Christianity has always had a contemplative side with its own meditation techniques and literature. As Thomas Keating puts it
A positive attitude toward contemplation characterized the first fifteen centuries of the Christian era. Unfortunately, a negative attitude has prevailed from the sixteenth century onward. [Keating, Open Mind, Open Heart, 19]Keating cites various reasons for this shift, which we will not pursue here.
The existence of these practices has not been as visible (or possibly may not have had the attraction of the exotic) as have Zen or Sufism, for example, but the tradition has been there nonetheless. Reading through the history of the Christian church, we see figures such as Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Ignatius of Loyola, and more recently figures such as Thomas Merton, Howard Thurman, Brother David Steindl-Rast and Thomas Keating. All of these were individuals who believed in cultivating their experience of God, individuals who were aware of the contemplative side of the tradition and who cultivated its fruits. For example, Howard Thurman describes his experience of the Absolute:
When I was a theological student in Rochester, New York, very late one night I was returning to the Seminary by way of Main Street, the central artery of traffic for the city. The hour was so late that streetcars ran only infrequently and there was almost no traffic. As I walked along, I became aware of what seemed to be the sound of rushing water. I realized that I had been hearing this rumbling for quite some time, but had only suddenly become aware of it. The next day I was talking about this with one of my professors who told me that for a certain distance under Main Street there was a part of the old Erie Canal. This was the sound of water that I had heard. The sound itself was continuous, but when there was the normal traffic in the daytime, the sound could not be heard. it was only when the surface noises had stopped that the sound came through. This is analogous to the mystic's witness of God within, whose Presence may not become manifest until the traffic of the surface life is somehow stilled. This is what is meant by the experience of centering down. [Thurman, Mysticism and the Experience of Love, 7]This is a common way to describe the Christian approach to meditation: being quiet and listening for the "still small voice" of God. There are other meditation techniques in Christianity such as lectio divina, the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius and Centering Prayer. In this section, we will briefly talk about two of these both of which are described in Keating's book Open Mind, Open Heart. The first is lectio divina and the second is called Centering Prayer.
Lectio divina is translated as 'divine reading'. The approach to the practice is to read a particular verse or several verses of Scripture, then listen for what God is saying to us individually through this passage. This is done by repeating the verse to ourselves over and over, letting it integrate itself into our consciousness, then listening for some additional response from God.
Centering prayer is a more complicated technique. We try to quiet the mind to allow ourselves to hear the voice of God. This quieting is accomplished through the use of a 'sacred word'. In some ways, the particular word is arbitrary. It should be one with which you are comfortable, one that does not cause your thoughts to attach to it or to wander away from it. We then try to let go of our thoughts: when a thought arises, we let it drift gently through our mind and move on. If we find that our mind is starting to attach to the thought, we begin repeating the sacred word softly to focus the attention. Unlike Zen and some other meditation, however, the idea is not to have an 'empty mind', a mind with no thoughts. The idea is to avoid becoming attached to the thoughts that do arise. This includes not becoming too excited and attached when we have what we feel is a 'revelation' or a 'mystical experience'.
The image Keating uses in the quote at the head of this chapter refers to an image he uses when teaching centering prayer. Imagine a river with boats drifting along upon the surface. Now imagine that you are either sitting on the shore or, better yet, are at he bottom of the river looking upwards. The river is your consciousness, the boats are the random thoughts that seem to spring unwanted out of nowhere. As Keating has said in one of his courses: "it's ok to watch the boats go by, we just do not want to climb aboard and inspect the cargo."
In most of these techniques, the goal is to hear the voice of God within. This is important in carrying out one of the goals of Christianity: allowing God to work through us--more precisely, to co-create with God a better reality here on earth. As Smith puts it on p. 326-7, what we seek is an awareness of God's love for humanity, and ways to "accept that love and let it flow through [us] to others." Whether we are quieting ourselves down so as to be receptive to the "still small voice" or concentrating on scriptures and lessons, the goal is to be receptive to the flow of God's love to and through us.
We see from these brief descriptions that the Christian tradition does have its own contemplative side. The introduction of eastern meditation techniques such as yoga and zazen have prompted some Christians to search deeper into their own roots and reappropriate their own contemplative practices.
WOMEN AND CHRISTIANITY
Recently, the question of the ordination of women by the Catholic, Episcopal, and other churches has been an issue debated among the governing ecclesiastical bodies, in the press, and among scholars of religion. While some denominations allow and even encourage ordination, others adamantly maintain their position that only men may be appropriately ordained. Scholarship by various theologians has challenged this position. In this section, we will consider briefly some of the themes which are pertinent to feminist theology.Elisabeth Schssler-Fiorenza's book In Memory of Her takes its title from Mark 14:9: "Wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her." This refers to the story of the woman who anoints the feet of Jesus with an expensive bottle of perfume. His disciples complain that the perfume should have been sold and the money given to the poor. But Jesus sides with the woman, her action was appropriate for her and he gives her his support.
Religious writers and theologians such as Rosemary Ruether, Mary Daly, Elisabeth Schssler-Fiorenza, Phyllis Tribble and others have done research and review of the Christian scriptures and the available historical and cultural information available concerning the time of Christ. They have come to the conclusion that women played a much larger role in the early Church than has been recognized by traditional scholarship. The types of theology they are writing are faithful to all of their sources and grounded academically. One of the major conclusions they reach, in differing ways, is that Jesus was not supportive of existing patriarchal structures which marginalized women. Among the arguments they use is a clear sense of his challenging of Jewish purity laws, his willingness to recognize and help people who needed him regardless of their sex (as seen by his acceptance of women among his followers), social position (his acceptance of tax collectors, the diseased and the poor), or nationality (as in the parable of the Good Samaritan). See Smith p. 322 for a description of how Jesus responded to existing purity codes.
They also point out that the behavior of Jesus' male followers immediately before and after his death was very different from the behavior of his female followers. Whereas Peter denied having known Jesus and the others hid themselves away, the women kept a vigil at the cross and at the grave. When Jesus rose from the dead, Mary Magdalene was the first person to whom he appeared (Mark 16:9). The place and prominence of women in Jesus' experience has been established through these and a variety of other arguments.
Though they start from similar positions, feminist theologians include a wide range of approaches and conclusions. Mary Daly, for instance, seems to find the male sex unredeemable while Rosemary Ruether finds that any valuing of one gender over the other is sinful. "Evil comes about precisely by the distortion of the self-other relationship into the good-evil, superior-inferior dualism" [Rosemary Ruether, Sexism and God-Talk, 163]. This argument applies to the assignment of "the female is good, the male is bad" just as well as "the male is good, the female is bad". Both Ruether and Daly perform sophisticated analyses of scripture, church history, and contemporary society, as do other theologians. Feminist theologians provide serious criticism and analysis of the contemporary religious scene, as well as proposing constructive ideas about how the new world, the 'new community' which Christianity speaks of, might look and how we might begin to help it take shape.
CHRISTIANITY AND THE ABSOLUTE
When asked "what is the greatest commandment?" Jesus replied "Love your God fully and Love your neighbor as yourself." This can be considered the primary Absolute in Christianity. As its best, then, this is a religion of devotion and service, not a religion based on the acceptance of creeds and dogma. The arguments that led to the Protestant Reformation, and various other movements critical of established Church policies, are arguments about how these primary commandments should be interpreted and applied. But the motivation is always the same. It stems from the understanding that God works through human beings and therefore "we are here to be God's hands." This is a good synopsis of the tradition at its best. And this constant focus on the love of God and neighbor above all else is what gives strength to movements of criticism.Rosemary Ruether states this very clearly:
Feminism, in claiming the prophetic-liberating tradition of Biblical faith as a norm through which to criticize the Bible does not choose an arbitrary or marginal idea in the Bible. It chooses a tradition that can be fairly claimed, on the basis of generally accepted Biblical scholarship, to be the central tradition, the tradition by which Biblical faith constantly criticizes and renews itself and its own vision. [Ruether, Sexism and God-Talk, 23-24]While we might assume that a discussion about "the Absolute" in Christianity might begin with a study of the idea of the trinity or with the problems of interpreting what is meant when we say "Jesus is God", it seems clear from our reading of the life of Jesus and from nineteen centuries of Church history, the real centerpiece of the message of Christ was in his service to others. As Peter said, "He went about doing good works."