- To what extent has the study of religious texts helped you become more loving?
- To what extent have you observed people who are experts on religious texts being of higher consciousness and exuding more loving attitudes towards themselves and others.
- To what extent have you found the study of religious texts as being helpful and nourishing in the development of your interior spiritual life?
An online magazine of faith based on a free and responsible search for truth and meaning. The mission of Unitarian Universalism: A Way Of Life ministries is to provide information, teach skills, and clarify values to facilitate the evolutionary development of increasingly higher levels of spiritual development for human beings around the world.
Thursday, February 4, 2021
Spiritual Book Discussion - Scripture Unbound - The finger pointing at the moon is not the moon.
Tuesday, February 2, 2021
Spiritual Book Discussion - Scripture Unbound - Historical understanding
ANY LITERATURE or history teacher can tell you that texts are situated in the place and time they were written. The vocabulary, the genre, the structure, every aspect of a work is influenced by the time and culture of its origin—not to mention the author. While recent works may meticulously cite dates of publication, names of authors, and references, ancient works require detective work to unearth even these basics. That’s what historical-critical reading provides.
- If you were raised in a faith tradition which espoused a sacred text how has your view of the authority of the text changed over the years?
- Have you found yourself picking and choosing various interpretations of the text according to your biases?
- Have you found religious leaders attempting to persuade and influence people based on their interpretation of the meaning of the text?
- Have these religious leaders claimed they have the one, and only, and true interpretation and so should be accepted as authoritative?
- Have you ever used a religious text in this way to persuade, convince, and influence others?
Saturday, January 2, 2021
Spiritual Book Discussion Group - Scripture Unbound, Scripture and authority
“IT’S IN THE BIBLE!”
This statement is often used to justify a claim or argue a point by those who see scripture as a stable and reliable source of values in a time when social mores in the wider culture are shifting rapidly. On the other hand, many of those who are hostile to the idea of scripture say that it has been used as a weapon against their beliefs or identities.
Johnstone, Jonalu. Scripture Unbound: A Unitarian Universalist Approach (p. 13). Skinner House Books. Kindle Edition.
In logic, the appeal to authority is considered fallacious, and is called argumentum ad verecundiam. The argument is that something is true just because someone considered an authority says it is so. Parents use this argument when children complain and challenge the parent with “Why do I have to?!” and the parent says, “Because I said so!”
The idea that a sacred text is the revealed word of God and, as such, has intrinsic, unchallengeable authority to determine truth has become highly suspect since the time of the enlightenment.
Even if the text is considered authoritative, who is to determine whether any particular interpretation is more correct, authentic, and /or definitive than another?
The text is held up as an idol for worship rather than the thing being referenced by the text.
Texts considered authoritative often get used in political ways giving one class of people domination and control over others.
Francis David, the Unitarian Pioneer, in the Sixteenth century, said that we need not think alike to love alike.
Jesus taught that the way to the Kingdom is Love and often condemned the Sadducees and the Pharisees for their intellectual parsing of their religious texts.
It is written in the first verse of the Tao Te Ching that “The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name. The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth.”
It is written in A Course In Miracles that “The Course does not aim at the teaching of love, for that is beyond what can be taught.”
Sacred texts are the finger pointing at the moon, not the moon. They are a light illuminating shadows in the darkness so that we might sense the Divine more clearly but they are not science textbooks to be taken literally or a great deal of political, psychological, social, and spiritual harm can be done.
What has been your experience of sacred texts?
Have they been used as instruments of coercive subjugation or tools of liberation?
Have sacred texts been used on you to exert compliance to the demands of external authorities or as vehicles for enhanced understanding and enlightenment?
Friday, January 1, 2021
Spiritual Book Discussion Group, Scripture Unbound, What's a canon?
Wednesday, December 30, 2020
Spiritual Book Discussion - Scripture Unbound, What God are we talking about?
Tuesday, December 29, 2020
Spiritual Book Discussion Group, Scripture Unbound, Why read scripture
There is something about reading a text that is revered by a community, with a reach that is often worldwide and handed down through millennia. The practice of applying it to our own lives can help us feel less alone and more connected to a truth larger than ourselves. It prompts us to examine how we are called to be and what we are called to do in this world. This reflection is the beginning of wisdom. Scripture, then, can illuminate how, individually and collectively, we have come to where we are, and can push us toward more profound truth.
Monday, December 28, 2020
Spiritual Book Discussion Group - Scripture Unbound, What is scripture?
Sunday, December 27, 2020
Join our Spiritual Book Discussion group of Jonalu Johnstone's, Scripture Unbound
In January, 2021 we will be discussing, Jonalu Johnston's book Scripture Unbound. We'd love to have you join us.
Join the Spiritual Book Discussion group by going here.
Sunday, November 8, 2020
Spiritual Book Discussion, Scripture Unbound - Fundamentalist or open minded when it comes to scripture?
- How does scripture, if it does, speak to you? Which scriptures, when, and how?
- Is fundamentalism a stage that people pass through during their religious journey or is it a permanent position that people hold over time?
Thursday, November 5, 2020
Spiritual book discussion, Scripture Unbound, What's your scripture?
- What is your scripture?
- Are there texts which you turn to on a regular basis for prayer and contemplation to sustain and nurture your spiritual faith?
- Are there texts that you regularly share with others when talking about your faith?
Tuesday, November 3, 2020
Spiritual Book Discussion, Scripture Unbound, The free and responsible search.
The free and responsible search.
“In terms of understanding our Unitarian Universalist heritage, early Unitarians and Universalists were biblical people, immersed in the stories and symbols of Jewish and Christian scripture. Many of them reached their so - called heretical positions through Bible study, as we’ll see in chapter 7.” p. Xii
“Among the six Sources of our Unitarian Universalist living tradition, we claim Jewish and Christian teachings, as well as wisdom from the world’s religions.” p.xiv
“This attitude (respecting other religious texts) toward scripture places Unitarian Universalism in a position distinct from other faiths; rather than venerate one text over others, we feel free to read each in the light of all the others.” p.xv
As Francis David, the pioneering Unitarian in the 16th century said, “We need not think alike to love alike.”
One of the wonderful things about Unitarian Universalist tradition is the idea that my God is too big for any one religion.
Unitarian Universalists are an especially religiously literate people. They are free to explore the perennial philosophy and theology from whatever source. It is this comparison and contrast and wide ranging religious exploration that deepens rather than detracts from the understanding of a universal faith.
The fourth principle of seven in Unitarian Universalism is the free and responsible search for truth and meaning.
To what extent has your religious tradition facilitated this search?
What has your journey been: from where to now?
Where are you inclined to search next?