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Living With Theological Diversity
- Thread starter EverChanging
- Start date
applewuud
Active Member
Thanks for bringing a thoughtful article to our attention.
I need to re-read it when I'm in a more theological frame of mind. My initial reaction is a bit fuzzy. I agree with Rev. Young overall, but think he's reinforcing a kind of relativism that reinforces our theological stagnation, even as he points out that not every religious expression is equal. What's missing is a search for progress, or the idea that we should be using our freedom for carving ever-better metaphors, despite our awareness that the metaphor can never capture the truth of experience itself.
The position is basically that theological diversity itself is progress, and relative to conflict, that's certainly true.
But when he says few UU ministers want "to get caught in the trap of behaving AS IF the clergy role is to articulate a coherent and internally consistent religious point of view", is he promoting incoherence and inconsistency? How can you put out a message that grows a movement, or even an individual church, that way?
It is the job of scientists to look at what came before, and improve on it, despite the intellectual elegance of an old paradigm (as he cites with Copernicus and Ptolemy). Why can't we have similar critical approaches to religious thinking and, while not dismissing people who think the sun revolves around the earth, show all the benefits of a newer way of thinking that fits the facts--or the heart--better?
But maybe I'm not taking his challenge to heart, may well be, I'll think about it. :sorry1:
I need to re-read it when I'm in a more theological frame of mind. My initial reaction is a bit fuzzy. I agree with Rev. Young overall, but think he's reinforcing a kind of relativism that reinforces our theological stagnation, even as he points out that not every religious expression is equal. What's missing is a search for progress, or the idea that we should be using our freedom for carving ever-better metaphors, despite our awareness that the metaphor can never capture the truth of experience itself.
The position is basically that theological diversity itself is progress, and relative to conflict, that's certainly true.
But when he says few UU ministers want "to get caught in the trap of behaving AS IF the clergy role is to articulate a coherent and internally consistent religious point of view", is he promoting incoherence and inconsistency? How can you put out a message that grows a movement, or even an individual church, that way?
It is the job of scientists to look at what came before, and improve on it, despite the intellectual elegance of an old paradigm (as he cites with Copernicus and Ptolemy). Why can't we have similar critical approaches to religious thinking and, while not dismissing people who think the sun revolves around the earth, show all the benefits of a newer way of thinking that fits the facts--or the heart--better?
But maybe I'm not taking his challenge to heart, may well be, I'll think about it. :sorry1: