ULC Seminary: Religious Philosophy
New Student 2011: Response to Food for Thought questions.
1. Any other great human problem? I think Huston Smith's types cover them all. But if I think of these types as three overlapping circles, what question arises when nature/social/psychological overlap and interact? The hard question I think here is when we begin to seek a common denominator that respects the transcendental in each religion and overcomes differences.
1. Any other great human problem? I think Huston Smith's types cover them all. But if I think of these types as three overlapping circles, what question arises when nature/social/psychological overlap and interact? The hard question I think here is when we begin to seek a common denominator that respects the transcendental in each religion and overcomes differences.
2. Chronological organization does have benefits like: (a) looking at the when and where of religions shows the persistence of the religious impulse and its great variety. That makes me realize how small a part of time and space my Christianity occupies; (b)Karl Jasper's proposed that there was a time between 800 - 200 BCE which he labeled an 'axial age'. He claimed that this axis or turning point was 'the point most overwhelmingly fruitful in fashioning humanity' (Jaspers, The Origin and Goal of History, Routledge 1953, pp. 1ff; cited in Mediators, SCM Press 1995, John Macquarrie. He claimed this marked the maturing of man as a spiritual being, and it was a time when all over the globe there appeared outstanding moral and spiritual leaders. He encompasses Palestine and the Hebrew prophets, Greece, China, Buddha, and also with similar figures in Africa and the Americas. So chronology when put this way shows a significant historical moment, a 'kairos' moment.
3. One shift from monotheism back to the old gods seems to be underway currently with people sensing the world of spirit and the "powers' and "spirits' present in nature. The old English saying "You are nearer to God in a garden than anywhere else on earth" brings this home to me and the awareness of "soul' in nature.
I think this is a great course and will be responding to earlier lessons.
John Simpson
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