Three Important Questions

This may take a while so grab your cup. I've been reading for the past two years on the subject of religious development. Archaeological discoveries in the last year allows us to now date religious development as far back as 17,000 years. Though the actual site under examination was uncovered 55 years ago it has taken that many years to begin, literally, mining the artifacts. It is, as you can imagine, terribly tedious work to avoid destroying an ancient treasure that could never be replaced if damaged.

Now I know some will find this information heartening while others will find it disturbing. The reason being that many who find their faith in the Judea-Christian tradition take literally the premodern, Biblical assumption that creation began around 6000 BCE. The discovery of early religious development is good but too early can cause issues with some people's faith.

In the study of religious life in human existence it is clear that the roots of our tradition don't go as deep as do the roots of other traditions. Yet there are significant similarities found in these traditions that are as important as our own.

Some folks may, undoubtedly, find it disturbing for Christian thinkers to consider that anything of value could be discovered in other religious traditions. But my particular religious affiliation has from its roots taken a considerable amount of tolerance towards divergent views shared by our compatriots among the varied branches of our great tradition. This tolerance has opened the door for not only those who share our brand of faith having something of value but that great value can be found in other religious as well.

Now that's not to say that all roads lead to the same destination for clearly some religious traditions have very different goals than our own. Yet when our paths come close or parallel one another it would be nonsensical if we failed to acknowledge what we have in common. Nor should we avoid those comparisons when the fact that we can make such similar analogies reinforces that which is common in our humanness.

This might lead us down a path of, “So why believe the way we do and why be concerned about whether others ever hear what we have to say about God?” The words of Shubert Ogden, my theology professor, have stayed with me the longest, “I am what I choose to be because it has the most decisive answer to my questions.” The key word in this statement is “decisive”. It is the answer to our questions about God that makes a life changing difference. Which is not to say for someone else that their way of understanding God cannot also be decisive for them. Nor does it say that when someone is offered an understanding that is of greater value that they would make a different choice. What is important is that it be decisive for us and that we carry the witness of that difference in how live in the world so that our characterization of God speaks as loud as our ideas.

Karen Armstrong in her book A Case For God, identifies three significant similarities in the roots of our human religious traditions. I'll list these here and then come back later with the details.


      1. What do we understand about that which is the ultimate reality?

      2. How we speak about this ultimate reality in story, symbol, and myth?

      3. Where is the God awareness grounded in our humanness?


Let me warm that up for you. I'll be back.

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