It was great being in Pittsburgh over New Years, although it was too bad Mom wasn't feeling well. As I mentioned to some of you over the weekend, I discovered -- pretty much by accident -- a new guiding spirit in my quest for enlightenment: the former Director of the Religious Studies Program at NYU, James P. Carse. The Daily Dish, which eventually covers all things, mentioned him awhile back: Religion As Poetry. The Dish refers us to a Slate article.
Carse's latest book is called The Religious Case Against Belief. His insight is that belief systems are in one sense the opposite of religion. In the Slate interview he says that:
Carse's latest book is called The Religious Case Against Belief. His insight is that belief systems are in one sense the opposite of religion. In the Slate interview he says that:
A belief system is meant to be a comprehensive network of ideas about what one thinks is absolutely real and true. Within that system, everything is adequately explained and perfectly reasonable. You know exactly how far to go with your beliefs and when to stop your thinking.With religion, on the other hand, "[Y]ou begin your inquiries and you find that as you get deeper and deeper in your studies, the questions get larger and larger. If people come to religion authentically, they find their questions not answered but expanded." Indeed, "Religion in its purest form is a vast work of poetry."
So, I present the following for your consideration:
4 comments:
Myk mentioned this to me during his visit and for a split second it sounded like a Chesterton chestnut—perhaps containing more wit than wisdom—but after that first reaction, I think that it is a very nice insight. The sentiment is, of course, not entirely new. In fact we have defined religion on this blog (via Karen Armstrong) as "the endless search for meaning." That certainly isn't a belief system. But John P. Carse puts it in a new and insightful way. Religion is the exact opposite of a belief system. That statement means a lot.
I will repeat my theory that religion is distorted primarily because it is only taught to and for children. Because the emphasis for children is on a series of belief tenets, the adult never has a chance to see that religion is a constant questioning and not a belief system.
The emphasis of most, if not all, religious institutions, especially the Catholic Church, is on religion as a belief system, and a narrow, orthodox one at that.
Finally, in a bit of irony, I can't help going back to the video where the 'four horsemen' discuss science and religion. Kudos to Hitchens because he clearly doesn't seem as comfortable (read smug) as the others. Essentially they set up science as a belief system in opposition to religion. Science is NOT a belief system. Like religion it is endless questioning.
Reading over my comment I think my desire for emphasis made me sound dogmatic. Not being a belief system seems to be a useful characteristic of science (and religion), but definitely not the most important characteristic.
I certainly do not want to minimize the truths (and rules) provide by science—"follow these rules to build a stable bridge, or an atomic bomb, or to help Cystic Fibrosis patients"…nor those truths (and rules) provided by religion—"follow these rules to make life more meaningful, or to live peacefully."
A couple of weeks ago there was an op-ed piece in the paper concerning why young people aren’t going to church. I almost skipped it when I saw that it was penned by some minister from Alaska, but I’m glad I didn’t. I think his 3 points are spot on. (Excerpts)
• Churches are no longer intellectually challenging. …Young people often conclude that they know more than the person in the pulpit and are not willing to accept the church's rigid catechism….As an educational tool, catechism is outdated and provides no challenge to students eager to question and discuss. Ministers must re-establish themselves among the leaders of the intellectual community.
• Churches are no longer leaders in broad moral and ethical discussions. Young people have grown weary of churches that cannot get past issues such as homosexuality and abortion. Our new crop of church drop-outs is still very interested in alternatives to a selfish, hedonistic society. Justice is high on their agenda, and they are looking for opportunities for public service. ….By contrast, pizza parties and rock concerts -- techniques that have been used to make churches appear more relevant to the young -- are not high on the agenda of young people concerned about society's deep-seated problems.
• Churches are no longer visionary. They have remained focused on saving souls for the next life and offering rituals tied to perpetuating theologies that no longer seem relevant to many young people. Churches are no longer significant players in shaping the life of our communities. If ministers and churches will not lay out what the kingdom of God on Earth might actually look like, young people will continue to look elsewhere for other models.
During an advent homily one of our parish priests reflected on a line from a letter by Rilke: “Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves.” Well, that at least, seemed to be moving in the right direction – and from a Catholic pulpit, pretty shocking.
Jim, interestingly enough, Carse says almost exactly the same thing you do about science. In another interview, he confirms that science is an approach and not a belief system. But then he goes on to say, “What they’ve done is to take a scientific point of view and attack a belief system. But the only way you can do that is to convert your scientific point of view into a belief system."
As to Pete's comment, Carse says that conversations end and religions -- even long lasting ones -- die: Gnosticism, Mithraism, the religion of the Aztecs and the Etruscans.
He suspects that Christianity is now showing "early signs of mortality." As what he calls the Restorationist elements of Christianity push for control with the obsession with orthodoxy, they are driving the church itself into becoming a belief system, cutting off all dialogue and the embrace of mystery. "Even more perilous, this splintering seems to have tossed aside the centuries of culture that has accumulated around the historic church--its music, literature, architecture, rituals, schools of higher (non-ideological) learning. The grand conversation that provided the unity for the religion as a whole is largely ignored."
Elsewhere he says: "Once they've married their Christian faith to a national or ethnic identity, then it loses its deep historical Christian character. To look at these huge mega-churches, for example, the startling thing to me is when you go to their services, you don't have any sense of the enormous complexity of the history. You have the feeling that Jesus walked in here yesterday, and the minister will pick up a few contemporary cultural phenomena, like popular music. You're seated in something like an auditorium. There's no cathedral atmosphere. There's no great chanting choir. I think it's lost that indefinability."
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