My last post ended with the suggestion that what we call religion might best be understood as the way we manage the balance of love and power in our lives. The two systems of supremacy and communion which act like great attractors in the patterns of culture throughout history, also pull on our individual lives,Continue reading “A Religion That Matters”
Tag Archives: communion
The Two Systems
I’ve decided that my purpose as a writer is not to persuade readers to my position on some topic, as much as it is to inspire (or at least provoke) creative thinking around things that matter. After all, my blog is devoted to contemplating creative change across culture, and persuasion is more about converting othersContinue reading “The Two Systems”
Moving Into Wholeness
My last post ended with the controversial statement that a religion which is organized around the goal of getting the individual ego safely to heaven is really a delusion from which we need to be saved. It is widely assumed that religion generally is about everlasting security in the next life, including all the obligations – moral,Continue reading “Moving Into Wholeness”
Our Quest for Oneness
Despite the fact that so much of religion tends to divide and antagonize (including terrorize), I’ve been exploring its essential function as a unifying force in human culture. We take as our starting point the root meaning of the word “religion” itself, deriving from the Latin religare, to link back or reconnect. Whatever distortions or corruptionsContinue reading “Our Quest for Oneness”
Why Religion Can’t Advance
Working from the root meaning of the word “religion” (from Latin religare) I’ve been making a case for it as a necessary and essential dimension of human cultural life. Even theism, which I don’t regard as the only model of religion worth considering, occupies a critical place in the development and “awakening” of human consciousnessContinue reading “Why Religion Can’t Advance”
Supremacy and Communion
Quick, before you start thinking too much, give your spontaneous response to the following question. Which of the two combinations of geometric shapes do you find more appealing? Now that I have your attention (though perhaps for only one more paragraph), let me do a little “psychic reading” of your life. This preference means thatContinue reading “Supremacy and Communion”
God and Ground
There is a very interesting paradox at the heart of healthy religion. Our notions of God – just looking across the landscape of world religions, and then deeper into the private religion of individuals – are practically innumerable and infinitely diverse. God is represented as a personality, a force of some kind, a supreme intelligence, orContinue reading “God and Ground”
The Spirituality of Dropping Out
In recent years there’s been a lot of talk about purpose and the importance of living a “purpose-driven” life. In Christian circles especially, the message has been that knowing god’s purpose for you and living with a mission-in-mind is what it’s all about. This has turned out to be a “best-selling” proposal, as apparently manyContinue reading “The Spirituality of Dropping Out”
Flow in the Creative Life
I am of the opinion that a human being desires. Before this desire gets directed along a particular channel and attached to a specific object, it is life in its purest form. Life, desire, creativity and spirit – these are deeply synonymous terms in the vocabulary of what it is to be human. Think ofContinue reading “Flow in the Creative Life”
No Use for God
Religion is to spirituality as meaning is to mystery, as god is to ground, as belief is to faith, and as body is to soul – if we can resist the old habit of making the second term of each pair into some separate and metaphysical “thing.” These pairs are paradoxical, not antagonistic or merelyContinue reading “No Use for God”
