It's Been A While

Time to pick up where I left off. In case you were wondering, I felt like I said all I needed to say. So why start again? Well, I've continued to read and reflect on many issues, some too narrow or technical to be inspirational. In the last month or so I've read and re-read Karen Armstrong's book, A Case For God. It has challenged and changed my thinking in an important way.

A Case For God starts at the beginning of religious exploration and really grounds itself in the thinking of the earliest of the great philosophers, Socrates. Plato and Aristotle would come later but Socrates set the stage for thinking that has carried us for centuries and should still be our model for the now post-modern era.

Socrates' premise in regards to the eternal questions, "how did we come to exist and what are we doing here?" is simply "we don't know and there is no way to find out." So why are we talking about it? Well, in admitting that we don't know gives us the freedom to explore, question, be creative, and most of all, listen to one another. It is in the creating of doubt about that which we think we know that new possibilities open up.

What has changed in my thinking over the last year relates to what I learned in seminary; that theology above all has to be logical and systematic. Systematic meaning it all has to connect. Connection that avoids contradiction is good but if we are not careful it too often evolves into a closed system; a tidy, neat package that balances and makes sense but leaves no room for other possibilities.

We have this human necessity to find the ultimate and final truth when reality is that it is likely not there. In fact, the more we accept that truth is so massive we can never boil it down to a few simple principles the sooner we are able to explore the unlimited. Possibilities are, after all, unlimited.

In Armstrong's book she encourages thinking, listening, and openness. She challenges those who are able to interpret this openness and who have a desire to be progressive in religious understanding should be busy about challenging others to a similar approach.

So this year's blogging will be about helping those who don't have the time to read extensively in ongoing religious developments can find something to stir their thinking. They say such thinking keeps our minds alert and will help us to stave off mental deterioration. I'm all for that. Coffee helps too. Get out the old percolator and stay tuned.