I woke up early Easter morning thinking about this Western Christian Holy-Day and my own religious journey. My mom was a committed Catholic and my dad, a self-described agnostic. He did not know whether a God or gods existed. He accepted my mom’s desire that their three sons be raised Catholic.
My mom’s religious gift to me, helped along by 16 years of Catholic education, was to embed me in one of the world’s religious traditions, a starting point of a journey. My dad’s religious gift was to unsettle me enough to never feel completely comfortable in the Catholic or any other religious tradition. Like him, I don’t know. Like him, I keep searching. Below are three insights I have picked up on this journey; links are provided to help in your own journey.
Pope Francis has said Catholics should not fear “that God allowed different religions.” Indeed, the fact of religious pluralism is all around us in this season of Beliefs. A very incomplete litany of religious celebrations for just the month of April would include: Western Christians & Easter April 12; Eastern Christians, on April 19; Jews & Passover , from April 8 to Thursday, April 16; Muslims & Ramadan, from Thursday, April 23 to Saturday, May 23; Buddhists & Buddha’s Birthday, on April 30 or May 8; Kerala Hindus & Vishu on April 14; and on the same day Tamil Hindus & New Year.
Are there common elements in this religious pluralism? Are the millions who celebrate these and other religious holidays bound together by anything you or I might latch on to? In The Heart of Christianity, Marcus Borg describes two worldviews relevant to this question, the religious and nonreligious.
In the religious worldview there is a nonmaterial layer or level of reality, an extra dimension of reality. This view is shared by all the enduring religions of the world. In a nonreligious worldview there is only the space-time world of matter and energy and whatever other natural forces lie behind or beyond it.
Similarly, William James distinguished between those who believed there was a “More” beyond the material world and those who believed there was only a “This.” The rituals, symbols, and beliefs pointing to “More” vary, by time and culture, but the constancy of the urge toward such guidance seems compelling to me. Comparative Religions scholar Karen Armstrong writes that religious traditions are…
“Like fingers pointing to the moon; so very often we focus on the fingers and forget about the moon.” –
Along with the millions around the world celebrating one religious holiday or another, I am unable to give up this search for the moon or the More. Religious traditions, however imperfect, offer the means many have used across time and space to look beyond the ‘thisness’ of the world.
Yet both the search and the end point are shrouded in mystery. Father Luigi Giussani in a quote cited by Irish author John Waters in Lapsed Agnostic writes this about the mystery of God.
Only the hypothesis of God, only the affirmation of the mystery as a reality existing beyond our capacity to fathom entirely, only this hypothesis corresponds to the human person’s original structure.
Humans have developed to pursue the unknown and to not take the easy path of certainty. This suggests a humility before that which we can never fully comprehend. Despite so much evidence to the contrary, true religion requires kneeling, in a prayerful gesture of submission. This gesture of humility is for me more than for God.
The recognition and welcoming of religious pluralism, the common search for a More, and the recognition of mystery are helpful companions during this season of Beliefs.
My mother’s commitment to Catholicism, my father’s skepticism, and my own refusal to say NO to a More join us together, again.
Another mystery.
Reader Comments
I think of myself as an agnostic/humanist who Knows there is a lot we don’t have answers for. I am rather comfortable with not having answers for all the unanswerable questions particularly as they involve religions. Religious belief systems are good for those who feel the need for them. For me churches buildings are not really necessary though some just astound be with the effort that has gone into building and designing them. I think anywhere 2 or more people are together talking about a belief system or the greater unknown are actually in the spirit of a church. As the early Muslims, there is no need for a designated place to worship. Consequently, I gave up going to church for anything but weddings and funerals, the latter being a bit more finite. I suppose many people follow a religious order for just that and a kind of community. It puts some kind of order in their lives and gives them comfort with many questions there are no answers for. Faith.
I am very comfortable with religious pluralism. I think it healthy and is probably as old as humans in general. I sometimes fantasize about what the ancients came up with to satisfy the same comfort zones providing explanations again for the unknown. This is surely the basis for religions in the first place. Over the centuries they have surely provided us with some interesting architectural monuments to wonder at. For me, there is nothing like the empty space of a big cathedral or church to celebrate ones sense of spirituality. Its the same feeling I get when standing in front of 6000 year old minuments on Malta and New Grange in The Republic of Ireland. Then there is Avebury Circle in England and so many standing stones throughout Europe all related to belief systems. Okay so now I am, wandering. I enjoy your insights, Paul.
Thanks Jack; I have been re-reading Jonathan Haidt’s The Happiness Hypothesis and he writes a wonderful two or three chapters on religion including its evolutionary role. The short story, religion is great at binding people inside a tradition to each other and also very good at drawing boundaries with those outside the tradition. Even though most, maybe all?, religions teach to love one’s neighbor, this teaching contradicts religion’s evolutionary purpose. As Haidt writes, this is not really a contradiction, as religion is good at both, in-group altruism and out group animosity.