Sunday, March 8, 2009
A morning with Phyliss Tickle (part 1)
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Yesterday Adam and I drove down to Cincinnati to hear Phyliss Tickle for a few hours. She covered a lot of the basics from her book, The Great Emergence, and I'm not going to outline it all here. But there were a few things that peaked my mind and raised a few questions.
The first was that she went through a fairly extensive list of events, inventions, academic breakthroughs and well-known personalities who impacted society from about the mid-1800's through the late 1900's. She pointed out (IMO very conclusively) that each of these had a significant impact on society, and especially in regards to religion, upon the standard assumption that Scripture is the final authority. All of this is what she called the "peri-Emergence," basically saying that it was the precursor to the time of questioning, refiguring and re-exploring that Christians are experiencing right now. What was so incredible about this, to both Adam and I as we were listening, was that we realized that everything in our life was interconnected.
Previously, I think I had the idea that my faith was some sort of pristine, untouched, objective reality that was "out there." It was true, it was real, and I just had to find it and experience it and believe in it. And my job was to purify my faith from secular sins, to slowly over time perfect and polish it like a gem I had found in the ground. And what I would finally some day be left with would be a perfect stone that was my faith. But in reality, it's more like my faith is being formed by, informed, shaped, molded, and is changing along with society. My beliefs about God - while I may think they are pure, true and objective - are very much informed by the rest of the world and my experiences. Perhaps my faith is more like a pearl that is formed by the oyster, slowly over the years rolled around and around, created within a context and not meant to be taken out of it.
The one question I have about this though is a question I also thought about during the many conversations about and with Peter Rollins we had a few weeks ago. Peter did a great job pointing out how our faith can be manipulated to be ironic and can cease to provide any real source of transformation (ideas and truths I am still wrestling with). But I have to wonder that, in all of this, isn't there something else on the other end of the line? I agree that my input matters a lot in this whole faith game, and that I shape what it looks like and what I believe. But I also think that if I believe that God is real (in a real, objective sense) and that this all goes beyond just my ideas and my own head, then there is a real being that is also interacting with me, and shaping this whole game as well.
So perhaps religion and my faith is impacted by society and all the many advances and changes in technology, science and academics. But it can't be just about me. At some point, my beliefs are rooted in the reality of an existent God, and there is an interpersonal relationship - a give and take - that exists between us. And I believe that shapes me as well, in a very real way.
Yesterday Adam and I drove down to Cincinnati to hear Phyliss Tickle for a few hours. She covered a lot of the basics from her book, The Great Emergence, and I'm not going to outline it all here. But there were a few things that peaked my mind and raised a few questions.
The first was that she went through a fairly extensive list of events, inventions, academic breakthroughs and well-known personalities who impacted society from about the mid-1800's through the late 1900's. She pointed out (IMO very conclusively) that each of these had a significant impact on society, and especially in regards to religion, upon the standard assumption that Scripture is the final authority. All of this is what she called the "peri-Emergence," basically saying that it was the precursor to the time of questioning, refiguring and re-exploring that Christians are experiencing right now. What was so incredible about this, to both Adam and I as we were listening, was that we realized that everything in our life was interconnected.
Previously, I think I had the idea that my faith was some sort of pristine, untouched, objective reality that was "out there." It was true, it was real, and I just had to find it and experience it and believe in it. And my job was to purify my faith from secular sins, to slowly over time perfect and polish it like a gem I had found in the ground. And what I would finally some day be left with would be a perfect stone that was my faith. But in reality, it's more like my faith is being formed by, informed, shaped, molded, and is changing along with society. My beliefs about God - while I may think they are pure, true and objective - are very much informed by the rest of the world and my experiences. Perhaps my faith is more like a pearl that is formed by the oyster, slowly over the years rolled around and around, created within a context and not meant to be taken out of it.
The one question I have about this though is a question I also thought about during the many conversations about and with Peter Rollins we had a few weeks ago. Peter did a great job pointing out how our faith can be manipulated to be ironic and can cease to provide any real source of transformation (ideas and truths I am still wrestling with). But I have to wonder that, in all of this, isn't there something else on the other end of the line? I agree that my input matters a lot in this whole faith game, and that I shape what it looks like and what I believe. But I also think that if I believe that God is real (in a real, objective sense) and that this all goes beyond just my ideas and my own head, then there is a real being that is also interacting with me, and shaping this whole game as well.
So perhaps religion and my faith is impacted by society and all the many advances and changes in technology, science and academics. But it can't be just about me. At some point, my beliefs are rooted in the reality of an existent God, and there is an interpersonal relationship - a give and take - that exists between us. And I believe that shapes me as well, in a very real way.
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