Faith - Beyond the Power of Reason

The classic definition of Christian faith appears in 11th chapter of the Letter to the Hebrews in the New Testament. "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Many Christians draw a distinction between 'natural human faith' and 'faith in God'. The former includes things like faith in natural laws such as gravity and inertia, so that we can assume that they will not suddenly stop working, causing us all to fly off into outer space. And we trust that vegetables and animals and even, to some extent, human beings, will grow and behave in accordance with these natural laws.

But Christians believe that faith in God is a gift from God. So far as I, an outsider, understand it, the central requirement of becoming a Christian is to have faith in the fact the Jesus is your Saviour, who by his death on the cross somehow atoned for the sins of humankind, and enabled us to be reconciled to God. This was an unmerited gift from God, made by His grace, and the human part is to accept it with gratitude, and try to be worthy of it. It is not a path that most Unitarians can take.

And yet, Unitarianism is often spoken about by Unitarians as a "faith" rather than a "religion". In his book The Unitarian Life, Stephen Lingwood calls us "a faith community for those on a spiritual journey, for those who believe there is still more to be discovered in religion. We believe in religious exploration - through the intellect and through the spirit. Through the intellect we explore religious questions in sermons, lectures, workshops, and dialogue. Through the spirit we explore through worship, music, ritual, meditation, and prayer." 

I rather like his distinction between intellectual and spiritual exploration. For me, having faith involves trust, whether it is the "natural human faith" mentioned above, or faith in Someone or Something beyond the natural world. It is not the same as belief, which you can do with your intellect. It is not by accident that people speak of "a leap of faith" - it involves jumping into the unknown and trusting that you will be caught. As in the Martin Luther King Jr. quotation above. "Faith is taking the first step even when you can't see the whole staircase." Yes.

I appreciate that many Unitarians would not agree with this view, as they do not believe that there is Someone or Something beyond the natural world. But faith is, by its very nature, beyond the power of reason, something that can only be discerned with the heart, not the mind alone. And on those grounds, I, an individual Unitarian, have faith in the divine, the numinous, the sacred other.

What Is This "Human Nature"?

Some people find the bad things that human beings do very easy to explain. It’s all to do with “original sin”.  Many Christians believe that when Eve tempted Adam to eat that famous apple in the Garden of Eden, and God expelled them from Paradise, the result was that all humans are fated to carry the burden of that sin in perpetuity.

 In his fascinating book The Unitarian Way, Phillip Hewett speaks of “the outlook of those forms of religion that lay heavy stress upon the depths of depravity to which human nature can sink – an outlook illustrated classically in the words of the Westminster Confession: ‘we are utterly indisposed, disabled and made opposite of all good, and wholly inclined to all evil.’” I would imagine that if you have to repeat those words (or similar sentiments) in church every Sunday, it would be difficult to have a hopeful view of the potentialities of human nature!

And if you look at any newspaper, this pessimism may seem to be justified. Or is it just that decent behaviour seems less spectacular and is less often reported? Perhaps the reason for this is because we instinctively expect such behaviour, and therefore feel it unnecessary to call attention to it? Perhaps this is more a Unitarian view of human nature. I believe, as many Unitarians do, that every human being has a divine spark, "that of God" within us, which can guide us to do good, if only we will listen.

As I see it, our job as Unitarians, as human beings, is to be constantly aware of the “divine influences” around us, in the world, in our fellow human beings, and to recognise that there is that of God in everyone, and that we are all connected to each other, on a very fundamental level. If we approach life and our relationships to the rest of humankind with these thoughts in mind, surely we cannot write humanity off as evil or depraved? I think that we have to believe that there is good in the world, and that we can help to make it a better place. Otherwise, what is the point of living?

Another way of putting it is to agree with Phillip Hewett that “Unitarians are committed to an affirmation of life in face of all life-threatening forces [and] a hopeful belief in the potentialities of human nature.” If we believe that Life with a capital L is fundamentally good (although our individual lives at any particular point may be fairly horrible) and that all human beings have the potential to be good or evil, then we must commit ourselves to doing our best to live our lives as well as we can, in accordance with the best we know, and to make our lives and the lives of those we touch as good as we can. This is what being part of a Unitarian community is all about.

This is not to say that there is no evil in the world. But I think that we have to believe that on an individual level, each person can choose whether to behave in a good or evil way, and that most human beings would instinctively choose to behave in a good one, left to themselves. It is when humans allow themselves to be influenced by others to commit evil acts, or believe evil things, that problems start.

I think we have to accept that the polarity between what we call good and what we call evil is present in every individual, as well as in humankind generally, but that it is up to each one of us to make a conscious effort to choose the good over the evil, and to make of our lives a greater whole. This might be easier to do if we understand how our human nature works. And fundamentally, it works through our relationships with and reactions to other people, and other living beings, and events.

Unless we walk through life with our eyes, ears, minds, and hearts shut, we will inevitably be influenced and changed by the actions and words of people with whom we come into contact, whether it is a casual encounter in the street, a member of our family, or of our spiritual community. And by things we see, and by things which happen to us. And of course our actions and words influence everyone else. I suppose another way of putting it would be to quote John Donne’s famous meditation:

“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, … any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” 

So what should we as Unitarians do about it? We are all human beings, we are all members of many communities – our families, our friends, our colleagues, our church – and we are all members of the human race. What difference can we, as individuals, make to those communities? We need to be aware that we are in a living relationship with the rest of the world, and that our words and actions can influence the fate of that world and its inhabitants, our fellow human beings, not to mention all the other living things. Whether our influence is for good or ill is up to us.

The Spirit: "That Of God In Everyone"

I love Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's words: "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience." With the Quakers, I believe that there is a part of each of us that is more than human, a divine spark reaching out to the rest of the universe and to God. Some Unitarians believe in the Holy Spirit as “the active divine presence in individuals and communities, as the divine breath that gives us life, as … the divine mystery moving among us and within us as we work and worship.” 

 The belief in God as the Spirit working through human beings is one which many Unitarians, including myself, are increasingly warming to. While we may have rejected the concept of an omnipotent, omniscient God, we still believe that God definitely exists, as that "active divine presence" that Cliff Reed refers to.

Many, of course, do not believe in any divine being at all, and so will not agree with my belief that the Spirit does dwell in each one of us, in our hearts, waiting to be listened to. I love Quaker Stephen Allott's description of the Spirit: "What manner of spirit are we of? have we any connection with the spirit which descended on the upper room, sounding like a 'mighty, rushing wind'? Do we look to be swept out of our comfortable existence by an invading power which comes, as Jesus said, no one knows whence? Or do we look rather for a gentler movement within? Do we say, it was this Spirit of God which breathed into our human clay to make us living souls? It is there, in our humanity, but mixed with passions which confuse its purpose, limited by the tunnel vision of the self. Occasionally a blinding flash may come from without and someone is jolted forwards; but the Spirit's normal method is a quiet insistence, a still small voice barely audible amid the turbulence of earthquake, wind and fire."

Two lines of this particularly speak to me: "it was this Spirit of God which breathed into our human clay to make us living souls" and "the Spirit's normal method is a quiet insistence, a still small voice barely audible amid the turbulence of earthquake, wind and fire."

"It was this Spirit of God which breathed into our human clay to make us living souls." This is something I have come to believe in the last eighteen months or so, through reading the works of the great Celtic poet and theologian, John O'Donohue. He wrote, and I have come to believe (because it makes sense to me) that our souls come from elsewhere, and inhabit our human bodies, and go elsewhere after death. Our souls are animated by the Spirit - it is the Spirit that enables us to respond to the divine in the world.

One of the most obvious ways in which the Spirit works within us is when we respond to something beautiful. I am sure that you have felt your heart lift and your levels of joy soar when contemplating a majestic mountain, or the endlessly changing sea, or the intricacies of a flower, or a man-made work of art, or the face of someone you love, or when you are listening to uplifting music or the songs of birds or to a beloved voice. I believe that this is the Spirit within us recognising and responding to the beauty of the world around us.

How can we learn to listen to the Spirit, and to recognise her at work in the world? I think that this may be attempted by what I would call 'sacred living'. The Christian author John Macquarrie believes that we live in a sacramental universe. Rather than the Divine presence being limited to either two or seven sacraments, Macquarrie believes that God has so arranged things that the material world can “become a door or channel of communication through which he comes to us and we may go to him." For this reason, “man’s spiritual wellbeing demands that he should recognise and cherish the visible things of the world as things that are made by God and that provide access to God.”

In other words, God / the Spirit / the Divine other is present everywhere, all the time. The trick of sacred living is recognising this.

Connecting With The Divine

When Alfred Hall wrote his book Beliefs of a Unitarian, he included three sections on prayer. He explains that "prayer is the response of the soul to the call of God; it is our answer to God's movement towards us and within us. ... Unitarians have had experience that prayer helps to bring them into right relations with God." 

Today our denomination is much more diverse. So it is not surprising that a wide variety of spiritual practices are used by Unitarians in order to connect with the Divine. While this certainly includes prayer, particularly during worship, there are now many other ways in which Unitarians open themselves to the Divine.

These include meditation of various kinds - mindfulness meditation, breath meditation, walking meditation, singing meditation, to name but a few; Taizé chanting; Dances of Universal Peace; journalling; walking in nature; lectio divina; participation in engagement groups - the list is endless. Events such as Hucklow Summer School or Festival of Unitarians in the South East (FUSE) provide Unitarians in the UK with the opportunity to  sample different spiritual practices, until they find one or more that suits them.

Gems for the Journey was the title of a Summer School workshop which I attended in 2009, led by Rev. Linda Hart and the late (and much missed) Patricia Walker-Hesson. Over the six morning sessions, participants learned about different spiritual practices which might help them on their journeys. I discovered that using prayer beads really resonated with me, and have used them ever since.

A couple of years ago, I visited a number of places in which different spiritual disciplines were practiced, using a wide variety of "gems". My husband and I went on a 'mini-break' in Somerset, visiting Wells on the first day, staying overnight, then visiting Glastonbury on the second day. Wells Cathedral was a wonderful building, with its facade of golden stone, and famous scissor arches holding up the crossing tower. They obviously have some very talented embroiderers, because there were a series of beautiful altar frontals, one for each season in the Christian year, one draped in front of the altar, and others in display cases on the aisle walls. They had clearly been stitched with love and devotion.

As this was an Anglican cathedral, I was quite surprised to find a series of wonderful modern icons by a Bulgarian artist depicting the Stations of the Cross, which had been presented to the Cathedral a few years ago. The colours were like jewels, bright and vivid. There was also a larger icon of Saint Andrew, to whom the Cathedral is dedicated. It seems that images are becoming more accepted as an aid to devotion in the Anglican church.

On the second day, we visited Glastonbury. It was a lovely crisp Autumn morning, so we decided to climb the Tor first, which has been a destination for pilgrims for millennia. The view from the top was spectacular, but the peaceful atmosphere was somewhat disturbed by the fact that some horticultural work was being done, using a noisy machine to turn the earth over. We then visited the Chalice Well Peace Gardens, which were very beautiful, and then went down into the town to see the Abbey. Now a ruin, it must have been splendid in its day - as long as any of the great cathedrals in France, if not as high. I bought a beautiful olive wood chalice in the Abbey shop, just big enough to hold a tealight - another gem for the journey.

The rest of the day was spent exploring the alternative culture that dominates Glastonbury's shopping streets. There were dozens of shops dedicated to spirituality of all kinds, offering the spiritual seeker as many gems as there are journeys - statues of the Buddha, and the Hindu god Ganesh, actual gems and crystals of all shapes and sizes, Wiccan and Pagan artefacts, Celtic crosses, and much material about King Arthur, for Glastonbury has a strong association with him. Even in the Abbey ruins, there is a place which marks the putative grave of Arthur and his queen, Guinevere. There were also several amazing bookshops whose contents covered all aspects of new age spirituality, and many places offering healing and therapies of various kinds. It was fascinating.

These days reminded me again that there are as many ways of walking the spiritual path as there are people to walk it, and that each is valid to those who follow it. The important thing is to realise that we are all fellow pilgrims on this journey through life together, and that we need to show love and understanding to each other, not fear and intolerance. There is room for us all, regardless of which gems we use to guide us. So long as the outcome of the journey is to make us kinder and more tolerant, rather than the opposite.

Note: some of this blogpost has been published before, over on Still I Am One, in October 2011.

Jesus of Nazareth - the Man and the Leader

At the age of 17, I first saw the Franco Zeffirelli film Jesus of Nazareth, starring Robert Powell as Jesus. I have recently watched it again, and found it incredibly moving. Is this hypocritical of me? If I don’t believe that Jesus was the Son of God, should I celebrate Easter, which is all about such unlikely elements as God becoming man, and rising from the dead? And yet the story of this man’s life moves me immensely, as stories of other great spiritual leaders do not (or not in the same way). So I feel the need to work out just what Jesus, the man and his teachings, mean to me, a 21^st century Unitarian.

Robert Powell in the title role of Jesus of Nazareth

One thing I struggle with is the concept of the historical Jesus. Because I was brought up in a Christian society, the story of his life, as told in the Christian gospels, is a very deep part of my life. Like ghosts, I think the amount of evidence for his existence is too strong to be discounted. I think I believe that there was someone called Jesus who lived in 1^st century Palestine, who was a teacher and a prophet, and whose life touched those of many. But I cannot believe that he was the divine Son of God, begotten of a virgin, nor that he rose from death and ascended to heaven.

The conventional Christian view of Jesus is an interesting one. The Apostles Creed is used by many denominations throughout Christendom, but it says very little about what Jesus did, as opposed to what he represents. It states: “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried, descended to hell, on the third day rose again from the dead, ascended to heaven, sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty, whence He will come to judge the living and the dead.” 

As Forrest Church, minister at All Souls UU Church in New York, points out:

“What does this creed affirm about Jesus’ life and teachings? Not one thing. It states merely that he was born in an unusual way and died in an unusual way, telling us nothing about the fact that Jesus lived in an unusual way. This is what was important about Jesus. … The power of his love, the penetrating simplicity of his teachings, and the force of his example of service on behalf of the disenfranchised and downtrodden are what is crucial. The Apostles Creed … entirely miss[es] this point. It seems to suggest “if you believe in Jesus, you can live forever,” not, “if you believe in Jesus, you can live well.” 

I completely agree with this. What matters to me are the teachings and message of Jesus that have come down through the centuries, that have inspired so many to live better lives by following his example. I don’t believe in him, as my saviour or whatever, but I do reverence him, or at least reverence the Jesus depicted in the gospels. The more so if he was fully human, as I do believe. His example is one I would strive to follow, all the days of my life.

For me, the message of Jesus – love God, love your neighbour and don’t forget to love yourself – is a crucially important one in the 21st century, no matter what one believes about the person saying it.

When Bad Things Happen ...

I am reading Harold Kushner's When Bad Things Happen to Good People, in an effort to make some kind of sense of the early death of a dear friend. And now, one third of the way through, I have found something that I can relate to:

"If God is a God of justice, and not of power, He can still be on our side when bad things happen to us. He can know that we are good and honest people who deserve better. Our misfortunes are none of His doing, and so we can turn to Him for help. Our question will not be Job's question: 'God, why are You doing this to me?' but rather 'God, see what is happening to me. Can You help me?' We will turn to God, not to be judged or forgiven, not to be rewarded or punished, but to be strengthened and comforted."

That (apart from the emphasis on His/Her maleness) is a God whom I could believe in and have some respect for. I have always struggled with the idea of an omnipotent God, who by this very definition could stop bad things happening to good people, but for some obscure reason, either chooses not to, or, far worse in my eyes, actually causes the bad things to happen.

For me, if God is anything, He/She/It is a God of Love and Compassion, and yes, of Justice. So God cannot be omnipotent. As Kushner goes on to say:

"We can maintain our own self-respect and sense of goodness without having to feel that God has judged us and condemned us. We can be angry at what has happened to us, without feeling that we are angry at God. More than that, we can recognise our anger at life's unfairness, our instinctive compassion at seeing people suffer, as coming from God, who teaches us to be angry at injustice and to feel compassion for the afflicted."

Yes and yes. The God I believe in is a source of strength and comfort, of love and compassion, not of pain and arbitrary judgement and punishment.

Is there Life after Death?

Unitarian beliefs about immortality have evolved considerably over the centuries. Pre-20th century Unitarians believed in life after death with some certainty. But during the last century, things have changed.

In the original version of Beliefs of a Unitarian, British Unitarian Alfred Hall stated that “Unitarians believe in the survival of human personality after death.” But by the time the third edition was published, in 1962, three years after his death, the editors added the following rider: “but now it must be said that Unitarians are far from unanimous in their views about life after death.” They summarise current (early 1960s) attitudes as follows: firstly, the general belief that “it is more important to concentrate on living the good life on earth than in speculating about the hereafter.” A variety of views are mentioned: “Some believe that life hereafter is conditional upon our using rightly the opportunities for spiritual development … in this life. Some believe that … our souls are not completed in this short phase of existence, and that future life or lives … will continue and complete the ‘making’ of the soul. Some believe that the souls of men will ultimately be absorbed into the infinite being of God. Some Unitarians … believe that human life is limited by the duration of the human body.” But the authors state that many Unitarians would still agree with Alfred Hall, “that there are rational grounds for believing in the survival of human personality.”

In his 1977 book On Being A Unitarian, Canadian Unitarian minister Philip Hewett summarises four Unitarian views on immortality. Firstly, those who believe in personal continuity – the immortality of the soul. But not in the traditional views of heaven and hell. Secondly, those who believe in reincarnation – a succession of re-births. There is an element of continuity here, but what part of us continues? Thirdly, that death is the end of everything, and that nothing continues on. Fourthly, the death of the individual but survival as part of a larger whole. The analogy here is of a raindrop falling into the sea and becoming part of the ocean. 

Bringing us right up to date, Cliff Reed has a section on life after death in Unitarian? What’s that? He states that while some believe in personal survival after death, most are less categorical, not wishing to be specific about how, where or in what form.

All views on immortality have to be conjectural. Some are congenial, some touch us, some don’t. The thing that emerges clearly is the desire for an afterlife; longings for immortality. My own view is summed up by the Quaker Geoffrey Hubbard: “The concept of the indwelling spirit of God must incline us to see resurrection as symbolising the death of the ego-self and the rebirth in awareness of God which can happen to us in this life. It also inclines us to accept death as breaking the link between the physical body and the divine light within us, letting that of God which is in us return back to complete unity and absorption with the totality of God.”   

A bit like Philip Hewett’s raindrop in the ocean. Hubbard also argues that  thinking about immortality relates back to our present life, and it is how we live this present life that is important.

Nevertheless, most present-day Unitarians hold some views on the question. Perhaps partly because of the old adage that only two things in life are certain: death and taxes. In other words, death is something that happens to all of us in due course, and it is only human nature to speculate what (if anything) happens afterwards. So much has been written in the Bible and other sacred texts about the immortal soul, that it is something we have grown up with, and perhaps accepted without thinking too much about it (that we each have one, I mean). Personally, I believe that human beings are divided into mind, body and spirit (or soul or heart). The part of us that feels and emotes and loves is not our mind and not our body; it is something other. That is what I mean by the divine spark in everyone. And it is this divine spark that “goes on” after death. 

As we have seen earlier, some Unitarians do not believe in an afterlife of any kind, believing instead that death is the end of everything. But I would guess that a majority believe in life after death in some form or another; whether it is the reuniting of the divine spark or soul or spirit with the divinity of God, or reincarnation of some kind, or simply the fact that the person “lives on” in the memories and lives of others.

I think another reason why many Unitarians are attracted to the idea of some kind of life after death is that it can be a great comfort at a time of bereavement. If you can believe that the late beloved has survived in some form, and that you might perhaps be reunited with them after death, that must be a comfort. Also, when an individual is approaching death themselves, the belief in some kind of afterlife might enable them to accept death more easily, perhaps seeing it as the next great adventure, rather than desperately clinging to this life in terror of what is to come or in fear of annihilation.

Another factor may be that life after death is one of the few things that we cannot approach using our beloved Unitarian tenet of reason. It is a mystery; perhaps the ultimate mystery. A late Unitarian friend whose word and rationality I trust had a near-death-experience, and described it in some detail. I have no reason to disbelieve him. But it is a mystery – we cannot know the answer until we are dead. So perhaps the widespread belief among Unitarians in some kind of life after death is just a matter of hedging your bets: you cannot know the answer, but it might be foolish to reject the idea completely, in case it’s true. But in any case, I think most Unitarians would believe that it is what we do in this world that matters, in the here and now.