Sometimes i hate it when i finish reading a truly awesome book... i'll miss this one. Will probably have to read it again. I believe at the end of the year we will still be saying that this is one of the most important books of 2012. Go Diana, go! You rock.
Quotes:
Strange as it may seem in this time of cultural anxiety, economic near collapse, terrorist fear, political violence, environmental crisis, and partisan anger, I believe that the United States (and not only the United States) is caught up in the throes of a spiritual awakening, a period of sustained religious and political transformation during which our ways of seeing the world, understanding ourselves, and expressing faith are being, to borrow a phrase, “born again.”
Ellen is still reaching for connection. Even after leaving the church, she attempts to create some sort of new faith community through books, the Internet, charity, and her workplace.
there are four American Gods: the Authoritarian God (31 percent of the population), the Benevolent God (23 percent), the Critical God (16 percent), and the Distant God (24 percent).
American churches were organized on the same principles and structures as were twentieth-century American corporations.
However, in a roundabout way, their criticism actually demonstrates authentic spiritual longing. Somewhere these young adults have evidently heard that Christianity is supposed to be a religion about love, forgiveness, and practicing what Jesus preached and that faith should give meaning to real life. They are judging Christianity on its own teachings and believe that American churches come up short. Thus, their discontent about what is may reflect a deeper longing for a better sort of Christianity, one that embodies Jesus’s teaching and life in a way that makes a real difference in the world.
Insofar as religion was guardian, pastor, and priest of the old order, it will have to give way and is already doing so. Western Christendom has ended; a “Christian America” survives as mythic memory and political slogan.
No matter how fractious, wounded, irksome, hypocritical, or potentially destructive it can be, religion makes a difference, especially in the lives of the disadvantaged, the oppressed, and the poor.
The awakening going on around us is not an evangelical revival; it is not returning to the faith of our fathers or re-creating our grandparents’ church. Instead, it is a Great Returning to ancient understandings of the human quest for the divine.
As a pastor asked me, “Can we stop reciting the creed now? I’m tired of it driving people away from church.”
During the last few centuries, to ask “What do you believe?” in the religious realm was to demand intellectual answers about things that cannot be comprehended entirely by the mind. Thus masked as objective truth, religion increasingly became a matter of opinion, personal taste, individual interpretation, and wishful thinking.
People became quite militant about the answers they liked the best. The what questions often divided families and neighbors into rival churches, started theological quarrels, initiated inquisitions, fueled political and social conflict, and led, on occasion, to one losing one’s head.
SPIRITUAL QUESTION I: How Do I Believe?
SPIRITUAL QUESTION 2: Who Do I Believe?
when we insert ourselves as the ones who must trust, the tone changes and the Apostles’ Creed takes on the quality of a prayer. Instead of factual certainty, the creed evokes humility, hope, and a bit of faithful supplication.
Notice that when we insert ourselves as the ones who must trust, the tone changes and the Apostles’ Creed takes on the quality of a prayer. Instead of factual certainty, the creed evokes humility, hope, and a bit of faithful supplication. It moves the action of the creed from the brain to the heart. Changing a single word, “believe,” to its original sense of “trust” transforms the text from a statement of dogma to an experience of God.
Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, pointed out in a recent book that the Christian creeds are similar to the Three Jewels of Buddhism, the vows that shape a Buddhist way of life: “I take refuge in the Buddha; I take refuge in the Dharma (Teaching); I take refuge in Sangha (Community).”
The Religious Question: How Do I Do That?
Increasingly, as the church was externally defined as a national entity and a corporation, learning how meant being trained in how to: the professional and programmatic techniques to become an expert.
SPIRITUAL QUESTION 1: What Do I Do? The Art of Intention
From a historical perspective, borrowing simply means that conventional religious institutions—marked by “us” versus “them” attitudes—do not have adequate resources to respond to contemporary questions.
SPIRITUAL QUESTION 2: Why Do I Do It? The Art of Imitation
The primary why for any Christian practice is that the action, in some way, imitates Jesus.
The ultimate model for programmatic church was Willow Creek Community Church, located north of Chicago.
Spiritual practices are more like crafts than programs.
The path to Christian sainthood may not be as mystical as is often thought—it may be a matter of putting in the time to practice.
We are to be learners on the way, then initiates, apprentices, skilled practitioners, and masters. Not just members of a church.
SPIRITUAL QUESTION I: Where Am I?
the question “Who am I?” and its emerging answer, “I am my journey,” appear to be new contours shaping our sense of selfhood. In the twenty-first century, it may be better to ask “Where am I?” as a path toward understanding who I am.
SPIRITUAL QUESTION 2: Whose Am I?
This, I suspect, is the root of many people’s anxiety about church—that religion is the purveyor of a sort of salvation that does not address their lived struggles.
As a movement preposition, “through” reminds us that we are not static. Through God new possibilities open for growth as we move beyond our perceived limitations to new strengths, insights, and compassion.
And the reverse question is equally helpful: “Who is God through me?” What does God actually look like to others when I enact God’s love and justice in the world?
“Just putting a bunch of people together in a church building doesn’t make them a community. Community is about relationships and making connections. That’s spiritual work. And it may or may not happen in a church.”
Other than joining a political party, it is hard to think of any other sort of community that people join by agreeing to a set of principles.
Long ago, before the last half millennium, Christians understood that faith was a matter of community first, practices second, and belief as a result of the first two. Our immediate ancestors reversed the order. Now, it is up to us to restore the original order.
Jesus did not walk by the Sea of Galilee and shout to fishermen, “Have faith!” Instead, he asked them to do something: “Follow me.” When they followed, he gave them more
Jesus did not walk by the Sea of Galilee and shout to fishermen, “Have faith!” Instead, he asked them to do something: “Follow me.” When they followed, he gave them more things to do. At first, he demonstrated what he wanted them to do. Then he did it with them. Finally, he sent them out to do it themselves,
They discovered that proclaiming the kingdom was not a matter of teaching doctrine; rather, the kingdom was a matter of imitating Jesus’s actions.
It may seem as if religion is on a trajectory of unstoppable change, but genuine spiritual change does not result from historical determinism. Spiritual awakening is not ultimately the work of invisible cultural forces. Instead, it is the work of learning to see differently, of prayer, and of conversion. It is something people do.
Anxiety is frequently the mark of personal transformation, for anxiety is a primary emotion when the heart feels disoriented and lost.
Awakening is not a miracle we receive; it is actually something we can do.
What do you do to participate in awakening? To rouse others? To move to spread the good news of a new spiritual awakening? Perform faith. Display the kingdom in all that you do. Anticipate the reign of God in spiritual practices. Act up and act out for God’s love.
Awakening cannot occur without laughter and lightness.
Churches cannot be clubs for the righteous, institutions that maintain religious conformity in the face of change, or businesses that manage orthodoxy and personal piety. Churches must be more like Rolling Thunder or holy flash mobs. They must grasp—in a profound and authentic way—that they are sacred communities of performance where the faithful learn the script of God’s story, rehearse the reign of God, experience delight, surprise, and wonder, and participate fully in the play.
There is no specific technique that can be employed, no set program to follow to start a great awakening. If you want it to happen, you just have to do it. You have to perform its wisdom, live into its hope, and “act as if” the awakening is fully realized. And you have to do it with others in actions of mutual creation.
prepare by reading and learning the holy texts of faith in new ways.
engage two new practices of faith. One should be an inner practice, such as prayer, yoga, or meditation, and the other, an outward practice, such as offering hospitality to the homeless or learning to be a storyteller.
have fun.
These are hard times, worrisome times, and serious times. Try to enjoy the life you have and play along the way.
participate in making change.
This awakening will not be the last in human history, but it is our awakening. It is up to us to move with the Spirit instead of against it, to participate in making our world more humane, just, and loving.
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