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REFLECTIONS
Christianity without god: possibility or delusion
(by Noel Preston)
1.A Profile of the conference
The organisers and most attendees gathered under the label of “Progressive Christianity”.The conference theme was “Pursuing the progressive religion dream”. The label, progressive, which may sound elitist is not self-explanatory but I shall use it in this review. The label has been around for a number of years and is adopted in North America particularly to refer to those who seemingly don't want to give up the 'spiritual quest' but who can only take that quest seriously if they can jettison much of what they inherited as 'the faith'. A common catch-cry of this movement is: the way we live is more important than what we believe. This slogan, which is trying to undermine the dogma of traditional creedalism, turns out to be only part of the message of progressives, for inevitably beliefs do matter.
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(with special reference to her book, With or Without God (Harper Perennial, 2008). Page nos. below refer to this source.)
(Rev.) Gretta Vosper is from West Hill United Church in Toronto and founder and chair of the Canadian Centre for Progressive Christianity. As a pastor (rather than an academic) she is primarily a practitioner of the revisions she advocates, testing them daily with her community. At the conference, her relative youthfulness – she in her 40s – signalled that, unlike many attending the conference she is more influenced by post-modernism than the radical/secular theology of the sixties which shaped others like this reviewer.
Vosper's presentations, and the book she authors, provide argument, resources and guidelines for those who would go beyond traditional theistic Christianity. The appendix to her book is a 'toolbox', a mini-manual of practical ideas. A key characteristic of her contribution is that it goes beyond 'deconstruction' of unviable beliefs to positive 'reconstruction' of a substantial spirituality. In her view it is time for liberal church leaders to to 'come out' as progressives and stop the doublespeak about unbelief which has been inflicted on congregations. (The list of 'unbeliefs' is extensive though unsurprising to this reviewer.)So, in designing liturgies with integrity she says “if it can't be said in the pulpits, it shouldn't be sung in the pews” (p.302).
Fundamental to her approach is an explicit reappraisal of the idea of god. Vosper no longer uses the term. There is no creator as such. In fact we humans are responsible to create our own future. Ethics assumes major significance in her approach.
Without an external authority or god, one's approach to the bible must be radically different. She particular targets (in her original acronym) the idea of TAWOGFAT (the authoritative word of God for all time). Whole chunks of the bible and even some socalled stories and words of Jesus should be jettisoned. Moreover, as she writes: “I'm suggesting that we boldly, comfortably and confidently write our own sacred wisdom again this time gleaning from scripture all that is life-enhancing...and stretching ourselves to seek new sources of inspiration.”(p.27)
What then is Gretta Vosper's prognosis about the future of the church and Christianity?
“ Whether non-theistic religious gatherings can thrive and survive is anyone's guess. We are in the midst of a great experiment. I fervently believe that we need to see that experiment through to the end, giving our all to the creation of communities of “faith” that celebrate the communal nature of life and challenge us to engage in right relationship with self, others and the planet....If we transform church into a vessel in which love can be held, shared and offered to the world, then we will have been successful. And if we find along the way that church is not necessary to the work of making love known and teaching one another ways in which it can be lived out radically, ethically, beautifully, then we will be able to let church go and face a world without it with confidence and grace.” (p.356)
For my own part, I hope her book is widely read in Australia. I am encouraged and inspired by her leadership. It inspires hope in me that there is a new and gifted generation of non-theistic Christians emerging.... If in 2010 I were starting out again with a sense of vocation as I did in the 1960s I find here a role model of integrity and a blueprint for ministry that credibly replaces orthodoxy by orthopraxis and authority with authenticity.
3. A Commentary (personal concerns about differing emphases )
Personally, I am happy to be known as a non-theistic Christian. Some time ago my metaphysical beliefs crossed the line demarcated by Paul Tillich and other process theologians who characterise themselves as pan-en-theists. From pan-en-theism, conceptually and practically, it is really only a small step to recognise that much 'god talk' and prayers or worship to an interventionist divine being are meaningless. Traditional theism has no credibility in the light of scientific knowledge about the evolution of life, nor indeed, in the face of the persistence of evil and suffering in the story of life.
Consistent with this belief I choose to practise a spirituality, moulded by a relationship with the earth and its life systems as sacred and centred on the mysterious presence of One who has been characterised by mystics and spiritual teachers as the “God” who is Love.
I am therefore uneasy that some proponents of a progressive religious position fail to emphasise sufficiently the link between this reconceptualisation of “God” and an eco-centric worldview and an eco-theology which centres its spirituality on the interconnectedness of all life, as articulated by the Australian biologist and lay theologian, Charles Birch, and others. As evidence of this deficiency, the Common Dreams Conference did not include one keynote address that explored the way the progressive dream moves from anthropocentric religion to one that is driven by an ecocentric reference. My complaint is not that such a view would be disputed by other progressives but that this omission represents a failure to acknowledge the critical and essential nature of ecospirituality to Progressive religion. (That said, Norm Habel, a renowned biblical and ecotheology scholar gave one of the many workshops at the conference while, in her writings, Gretta Vosper makes it clear that she endorses this perspective).
If that is my first concern, my second arises from a tendency, which is also characteristic of the 'churchianity' which, paradoxically, progressives are disowning. That is, when religion is refashioned so as to remove the practitioner's discomfort with its tradition there is a risk that the challenge of the spiritual life will be diminished. The concern would be that, in justifiably reinterpreting what has been called the Good News, the traditional call “ to take up the cross” might be softened. I began to wonder whether, if Dietrich Bonhoeffer had been on the speaker's list – and, according to some, his latter day advocacy of “religionless Christianity” make him a patron of Progressive and godless Christianity - might he (Bonhoeffer) accuse us of falling into the trap of 'cheap grace' rather than taking up the cross of 'costly grace'. (That said, there was plenty of allusion to social justice in the conference presentations - though there was little of a rallying cry to mobilise for social change).
The question of 'the cross' is not incidental for progressives. Quite rightly, one of the hallmarks of this position is the need to dismiss the traditionally termed “ substitionary theory of atonement”, i.e. that the sacrifice on the cross was a necessary act to bring about the socalled forgiveness of humanity's sin. Such nonsense is to be debunked. It is alien to any religion espousing a god of love.
At the same time I am puzzled as to why Gretta Vosper writes: “ It is my hope that, in time, as the horrific story the cross represents loses its place at the centre of Christianity, the cross will become obsolete, a silent reminder of the past” (p.326). Is there a connection between this proposition and her off-handed assertion that prayers of confession and assurance of pardon should be dropped altogether in religious gatherings(p.329)?
For my part, the place of the story of the cross in a progressive credo is better articulated by Ted Noffs (a leader of radical religion of a few decades ago):
“The cross of Christ becomes the most important event in the world only when it is the inspiration for a journey every Christian must make. In the sense that he was not spared, so we will not be spared. Thus it is a salutary reminder that the reward of Christian discipleship is not a peaceful mind, freedom fromanxiety in personal living, but the very opposite.” (Noffs 1979 By what authority)
Precisely because it is life affirming and reforming in its character, the way of non-theistic Christianity is surely costly. The alignment between progressive religion and eco-justice (the synergy between social justice for the human community and ecological sustainability for all life) belongs at the forefront of this movement. This is a priority because, as the prophets of radical religion cry out, “it is more important how we live than what we believe” (remember the prophet Jesus is reported: “ why do you call me lord,lord, but do not do the things I say” Matt. 25). Moreover, under the banner of eco-justice, progressive christians can join in common cause with non-christians, theistic christians, atheists, followers of other religions and none – indeed, members of the whole human family where our fundamental identity is to be known.
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