Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Vetamorphus Homework: New Age Christianity

Scrolling through Mr. Learning Exercise #8, I came upon this:

"When Bono of U2 said, 'I still haven't found what I'm looking for', many evangelicals despaired, thinking that he had lost his way spiritually, but he was quite clear: 'You broke the bonds, you loosed the chains, you carried the cross and my shame. You know I believe it... but I still haven't found what I'm looking for.' This is not a statement of confusion, or spiritual ambivalence: quite the reverse, it is a positive recognition of the frailty of human experience and human comprehension. We all know only in part, we experience only in part, and in a postmodern world it is crucial that we are honest about this limitation."

What does it mean? Well the article talks about today's postmodern society, in which spiritual conversations aren't that hard to come by, and are engaged much more openly than previous generations. It suggests that everyone today has their own journey spiritually, and it's not a matter of one straight path and you at a certain point on it, but a series of encounters and experiences that appear through one's life. Christians believe that God will have been evidently present and at work, and this may be even if the person does not acknowledge a God in their life.

I like this, it's something I put into most of my seminars for Vetamorphus, into my talks at school chapel, into my 'sermon' I did this year. We've all got our own journey, built upon our maturity, understanding, belief, experiences, etc. As a Christian, I've never believed in 'saving' people, or forcing them to believe for fear of being stabbed by devils with tridents... only in sharing and going that journey with them. Yes I believe, but I, too, still haven't what I'm looking for.

2 comments:

  1. Ben,
    I sense that as Christians were often expected to have "found" what we're looking for when we make our confession of faith. Subtly we're told that we should stop asking questions; questions are for those who do not believe. We're reminded, covertly, that a doubting Christian is one who is upon shaky ground. These are not my beliefs at all. Doubt is the paradoxical partner of faith, like Robin to Batman, or Bart to Milhouse, you cannot have one without the other. If I do not doubt/question/wonder I implicitly say that I have nailed all the answers to life (not bad at 27 eh?), and this is a fallicious statement. We read in our bible many writers wondering, questioning, asking, "who is this God we worship?" In many ways, the biblical authors too, still haven't found what they're looking for. Great thoughts! Great stuff Ben.
    Simon

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey Sime,
    Thanks for the comments. Are you proud? I'm doing Vetamorphus homework.
    I like the analogies - Bart to Milhouse. How about Chong to awesome?
    I think that asking questions only makes us learn more, explore more, and grow more. Unless they're 'dumb' questions, like who put the bop in the bop shoo wop shoo wop.
    Yeh 27 is an ok age, but I've had it down since 16. The biblical authors, as I think I've said before, weren't experts and they didn't have full knowledge of God. Their books are their opinions and viewpoints. Some even confessions.
    Thanks for that Sime, maybe it's time you posted some of your own explorations haha. Slacker.
    Peace,
    Ben

    ReplyDelete