소태산 평전 - 솥에서 난 성자 김형수 2016

[전자책] 소태산 평전 : 알라딘  Sejin 서재에

[eBook] 소태산 평전 - 솥에서 난 성자
김형수 (지은이)문학동네2016-06-23



종이책의
미리보기
입니다.



























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전자책종이책 14,850원
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+ 5만원이상 구매시 2,000원

원불교 주간 2위|
Sales Point : 49

8.5 100자평(0)리뷰(4)

종이책 페이지수 : 460쪽

책소개
한국의 4대 종교 중 하나인 원불교는 물질문명의 급격한 발전을 정신문명이 따르지 못할 것을 미리 깨달은 소태산 박중빈 대종사에 의해, 인류의 정신문명을 이끌어나갈 새 시대 새 종교로서 시작되었다. 우리 민족이 배출한 걸출한 사상가로부터 탄생한 자생 종교라는 점에서도 그 존재 의의가 큰데, 그런 원불교가 세상으로 뻗어나가기 시작한 지 벌써 백 년이 되었다. 이를 기념하여 교조 소태산의 일대기를 한 권의 평전으로 봉전한다.

소태산 박중빈은 전남 영광 백수면 길룡리 사람이다. 구한말, 민중의 삶이 점점 비참해져가는 가운데 의지할 곳 없던 전남의 민초들은 증산교 치성에 열을 올리고 있었다. 그러다 지도자 강증산이 사망하고, 신도들은 크게 방황하며 증산의 재림만을 간절히 기원했다. 때마침 박중빈이 대각하여 새로운 사상적 지도자로 우뚝 서자, 그를 증산과 동일시하는 분위기가 형성된다. 그러나 박중빈은 그의 사상과 증산교의 교리를 확실히 구분했다. 증산교의 신비주의에서 탈피하고 생활 속에서 깨닫는 도를 설파하고자 했던 것이다.


목차


프롤로그 발견자 _007
1장 궁궁을을弓弓乙乙 _055
2장 눈보라 사이 별빛같이 _085
3장 소를 찾아 나서다 _117
4장 고행苦行 _157
5장 옛사람이 먼저 보았네 _195
6장 버려진 땅은 없어 _227
7장 떡이 아니라 밥이여 _261
8장 돌이 서서 물소리를 듣는다 _301
9장 미륵의 눈빛이 떨어진 자리 _341
10장 우주 속으로 돌아가다 _375
에필로그 인류세人類世 _419

집필과정 및 자료 해제 _437
작가의 말 _453
인명 색인 _456


책속에서


P. 59~60 인간에게는 자신의 뜻을 감격적으로 전하기 위해 때로 본말을 전도시키는 우스꽝스러운 서사 본능이 있다. 부처님이나 예수님 이야기를 전하는 자들도 그랬을 것이다. 범인에게 구원의 길을 찾은 전범典範을 보여주고 싶어서 성자 이야기를 꺼냈다가, 결국 옆구리에서 태어나지 않은 사람은 부처님이 될 것을 꿈도 꾸지 말라는 뜻을 만들거나 숫처녀에게서 태어나지 않은 사람은 예수처럼 살아볼 엄두도 내지 못하도록 만드는 결과를 야기한 셈이다. 접기
P. 114 어머니의 등에 업혀 있던 순간부터 세상은 모르는 것투성이였지만 그는 무방비의 상태로 안내판 하나 없는 우주의 어느 모서리에 놓여 있었다. 어른들의 관심은 전혀 다른 곳에 가 있으니, 그는 모든 것을 혼자 묻고 스스로 알아내야 한다. 그걸 겪어보지 않은 사람은 태초의 고독을 기억하지도 못할 것이다. 그들은 세계의 원본 앞에 너무도 쉽게 좌절하고 투항하여 세간의 상식이 내모는 쪽으로 마구 달아나버린다. 그러나 진섭이는 달랐다. 비록 어려서 어머니의 등에 업혀 있을 때조차도 그는 어머니의 등이 아니라 별빛 아래서 잤다. 어머니의 품을 빠져나와 고샅에서 노는 동안에도 하늘이 이야기책이고, 달력이고, 삶의 안내서였다. 거기에서 점점 복잡한 의문이 출현하기 시작한다. 접기
P. 165~166 이제부터 불경스런 짓을 저지를 심사인바 만일 불상에 영험이 있다면 내게 큰 벌을 내릴 것이다. 급살을 맞거나 신체의 어디가 어긋나 병신이 되어도 하는 수 없다. 처화는 작심을 하고 불상 앞으로 다가가 뺨을 냅다 후려쳤다. 왜 이게 부처님의 뺨인가, 쇠붙이의 뺨이지. 천둥벼락 소리가 들리지 않자 이번에는 옆구리를 힘껏 걷어찼다. 얼마나 떨리는지 공포감을 이기기 어려웠다. 온몸에 땀을 쏟고 가슴이 짓눌렸지만 결과가 어떻게 되는지 하룻밤을 지켜보는 수밖에 없었다. 그리고 해가 지자 심한 두려움 속에서 잠을 청했다. 다음날 일어날 때 죽어 있거나 신체 어디가 망가져 있을 것이었다. 그런데 아침에 깨어보니 표시가 나는 곳이 없었다. 얼떨떨한 기분으로 동네 한 바퀴를 돌아도 평소와 똑같았다. 사람들과 대화를 하면서 자신을 대하는 것을 봐도 역시 변화가 없었다. 산신님이 허망했고, 도사가 허망했듯이, 불상 또한 허망할 뿐이었다. 접기
P. 197 과학은 물질의 세계요 사상은 정신의 세계이다. 현상계의 만물은 감각할 수 있지만 그것이 운동하는 법칙은 냄새도 없고 보이지도 않는다. 사람도 몸을 지배하는 마음은 감각할 수 없지만 마음에 따라 움직이는 몸은 쉽게 느낄 수 있다. 여기서 보이지 않는 법칙을 ‘도道’라고 한다. 바로 그같은 것, 그동안에는 느끼지 못했던 세상의 무엇이 홀연히 눈앞에 있었다. 접기
P. 315 사람들은 자꾸 일어났다 스러지고 응결됐다 해체되는 것들에 집착한다. 바다에서 파도가 일었다가 없어지듯이, 허공에서 바람이 나타났다가 사라지듯이, 땅 위의 물체들도 생성과 소멸을 반복해간다. 문제는 그 너머에 있는 것. 불교적 인식에 의하면 잠시 출현했다 해체되는 것은 인간의 눈에만 보이기도 하고 곤충이나 특정 동물의 눈에만 보이기도 한다. 세계의 본체는 저 홀로 유구하다. 접기
P. 330 소태산은 늘 생활 속에서 상황에 맞게 가르침을 주었다. 오늘날 소태산에 대한 이야기는 대부분 ‘말씀’이 놓였던 배경화면이 생략된 채 전해진다. 때문에 늘 잊지 말아야 할 것이, 그는 항상 ‘보편’이 아니라 ‘구체’를 말했다는 점이다. 소태산은 현실 속에 살아 있는 경전을 보라고 강조했다. 그를 따르는 제자들은 다수가 글을 배우지 못한 까막눈이었고, 그중에도 부녀자들이 많았다. 소태산은 그들에게 맞는 훈련법과 교리를 내놓아 정기 훈련을 실시하면서, 경이 많으면 사람들을 오히려 혼란스럽게 한다經多返迷人고 설했다. 접기



저자 및 역자소개
김형수 (지은이)
저자파일
신간알림 신청

시인, 소설가, 평론가로 활동하고 있다. 시집 『가끔 이렇게 허깨비를 본다』, 장편소설 『나의 트로트 시대』, 『조드-가난한 성자들 1,2』, 소설집 『이발소에 두고 온 시』, 평론집 『흩어진 중심』 등과 『문익환 평전』, 『소태산 평전』, 『김남주 평전』을 출간했으며 작가 수업 시리즈 『삶은 언제 예술이 되는가』, 『삶은 어떻게 예술이 되는가』, 『작가는 무엇으로 사는가』로 큰 반향을 얻었다. 2023년 518문학상(본상)을 수상했다.

수상 : 2016년 만해문학상
최근작 : <삶은 그렇게 물길 따라 흐르고>,<[큰글자도서] 김남주 평전>,<신영일 평전> … 총 48종 (모두보기)


출판사 제공 책소개
저자는 교도가 아니면서도 맑은 영혼의 소유자답게 원불교의 창시자 소태산 박중빈 대종사를 성자로 알아보고 그의 평전 집필에 발심하였다. 뒤이어 수많은 자료를 섭렵하고 현지답사를 수행하며 자신의 독서와 성찰을 거듭하였다. 여기에 시인이자 소설가이며 전기 작가의 재능을 아낌없이 쏟아부었으니 김형수의 문학세계에도 우뚝한 봉우리 하나가 솟은 느낌이다. 하지만 이 책은 결코 소설이 아니고 어디까지나 정직한 평전으로 교단 안팎에서 두루 읽힐 역작이다. _백낙청(문학평론가, 서울대 명예교수)

그간에는 내 몸이 어떤 영원성의 일부였다. 그런데 5월이 가고 난 뒤에는 세계가 영영 파괴되고 말았다. 잿더미의 삶을 경험한 것이다. ‘평범한 성자’를 그때 알았으면 참 좋았을 것을. 그러나 결코 벗어날 수 없는 우주에 갇혀 숱한 날을, 납득도 할 수 없고 해명도 불가능한 현실과 씨름하지 않을 수 없었다. (…) ‘세월호’처럼 가라앉아가는 세계에 대한 아득한 불안, 그 속에서 창밖을 바라보는 눈빛들, 그것을 등진 채 고통스런 연민을 감내해야 하는 대다수의 영혼들. 더이상 팔 것이 없어서 신체의 일부를 팔아야 하는 황폐한 사회를 정치적 수사와 미학적 왜곡으로 뒤덮는 현실이 내게는 끊임없이 두 세기를 하나의 시간으로 연결시키는 역할을 했다. 나는 결코 21세기로 건너갈 수 없었던 것이다.
작가는 모든 글을 오늘의 자리에서 쓴다. 내가 이 평전을 쓰게 된 건 순전히 거리에 가득찬 ‘숱한 오늘들’ 때문이었다. 아직도 종료되지 않는 5·18에 대한 감정이 내 해석의 중심축에 있었다. _김형수, ‘에필로그’에서

한국 토착사상사의 굳건한 축, 원불교의 교조敎祖 소태산
치열한 정신의 탐험자요 사상가였던 성자의 족적을 따라 걷다

한국의 4대 종교 중 하나인 원불교는 물질문명의 급격한 발전을 정신문명이 따르지 못할 것을 미리 깨달은 소태산 박중빈 대종사에 의해, 인류의 정신문명을 이끌어나갈 새 시대 새 종교로서 시작되었다. 우리 민족이 배출한 걸출한 사상가로부터 탄생한 자생 종교라는 점에서도 그 존재 의의가 큰데, 그런 원불교가 세상으로 뻗어나가기 시작한 지 벌써 백 년이 되었다. 이를 기념하여 교조 소태산의 일대기를 한 권의 평전으로 봉전한다.
집필은 일찍이 『문익환 평전』을 펴내며 역사적 사실에 엄정히 입각하되, 소설적 상상력이 가미된 서술로 인물의 족적을 곁에서 따라 걷듯 섬세하게 기록한 바 있는 작가 김형수가 맡았다. 그리고 그의 평전 집필 방식은 우리의 기대를 저버리지 않고 소태산이 숨쉬었던 일 분 일 초의 순간들을 생생하게 재현해냈다. 김형수는 특유의 꼼꼼한 성미로 치밀한 자료 조사와 현장답사를 거듭했으며, 교단의 감수를 거침으로써 이 책을 더욱 사실적이고 정확한 평전으로 완성시키고자 하였다. 교도가 아닌 저자에게 기나긴 고행의 여정이었을 이번 집필에 발심하게 된 계기는 필시 소태산이 손수 말하고 행하며 보여준 그의 사상적 깊이에 경도된 경험일 것이다.

소태산 박중빈은 전남 영광 백수면 길룡리 사람이다. 구한말, 민중의 삶이 점점 비참해져가는 가운데 의지할 곳 없던 전남의 민초들은 증산교 치성에 열을 올리고 있었다. 그러다 지도자 강증산이 사망하고, 신도들은 크게 방황하며 증산의 재림만을 간절히 기원했다. 때마침 박중빈이 대각大覺하여 새로운 사상적 지도자로 우뚝 서자, 그를 증산과 동일시하는 분위기가 형성된다. 그러나 박중빈은 그의 사상과 증산교의 교리를 확실히 구분했다. 증산교의 신비주의에서 탈피하고 생활 속에서 깨닫는 도를 설파하고자 했던 것이다. ‘증산’이라는 호를 한글로 풀어 쓰면 ‘시루산’이 되는데, 박중빈은 스스로를 ‘시루가 아니라 솥단지에서 살았던 사람’이라 하여 ‘솥에 산’을 한자로 음사音寫한 ‘소태산’을 자신의 호로 삼았다.
시루는 솥에 잠시 거는 것이고, 솥은 밥을 짓기 위해 매일 써야 하는 것이다. 시루로 찌는 떡은 잔치를, 솥으로 짓는 밥은 일상을 의미한다. 소태산이 자신의 정체성을 이 ‘솥’으로 표상했다는 것은 당대 그 누구보다 진리에 통달해 있었음에도, ‘일상생활 속에서 누구나 얻을 수 있는 깨우침’의 추구를 가장 중요한 단초로 삼았던 그의 사상을 압축하여 보여준다. 그는 제자들에게 어떠한 기행과 이적도 기록으로 남기지 말 것을 당부함으로써, 한사코 신격화되고 숭앙되는 존재가 되지 않으려 했다. 그런 소태산을 ‘솥에서 난 성자’라 명명해볼 수 있지 않을까. 그리고 그 보편성의 힘이 이렇듯 원불교를 세기를 넘어, 세계로 뻗어나가는 ‘산 종교’가 되도록 이끌어준 것이 아닐까.

소태산이 깨달음을 얻는 과정을 따라 읽는 것은, 온몸으로 가시덤불을 헤쳐나가는 한 인간의 너덜너덜해진 살갗을 지켜보는 일과 같다. 어려서부터 사고의 폭과 깊이가 남달랐던 그는 일곱 살 무렵 이성이나 감각으로 감지되지 않는 세계의 실체를 알고 싶다는 마음을 굳게 먹고 구도의 여정을 시작했다. 직접 산신을 만나려고 기도도 드려보고, 자신을 이끌어줄 스승과 만나고자 각처를 헤매기도 했지만, 청년기에 접어들면서 결국 직접 입정삼매에 들어 스스로 깨쳐야만 한다고 느끼게 된다.
김형수는 그후 소태산이 겪는 고행을 읽는 이가 피부로 느낄 수 있게끔 묘사한다. 소태산은 수행에 들자 혼몽과 망각을 반복하고 헛말을 하기도 하며, 장에 가는 길에 명상을 시작해 한나절을 길에 우뚝 선 채 보내기도 한다. 정신의 고투가 육신을 파괴하여 병색이 완연한 폐인처럼 보였다. 그러다 1916년 음력 3월 26일, 더이상 어떤 일이 일어나기를 기대하지 않게 되었을 때, 그 “완전한 긍정적 상태”에서 소태산은 그를 둘러싼 모든 것이 새로운 시각으로 바라보이는 경험을 한다. 아주 먼 곳에서 구해야 한다고 여겼던 깨달음이 사실은 일체만물에, 자신의 주변에, 그리고 자기 안에 이미 자리하고 있었던 것이다. 그 무엇의 영향도 받지 않고 홀로 진리를 깨친 뒤 여러 경전을 구해 읽어보니 그 결이 『금강경』과 같기에, 소태산은 석가모니를 자신의 종교적 연원으로 정하게 되었다.

대각 이후 종교적 지도자로서 소태산의 행보는 사뭇 독특하다. 제자들을 모아서는 수련을 하는 게 아니라 간척사업을 시작하더니, 그렇게 얻은 곡식으로 정신 수양보다 굶주림을 먼저 해결했다. 그는 이렇게 민중의 ‘존재의 건강성’부터 회복시킴으로써 그들의 마음을 얻었다. 일제의 압박이 극심해지던 시기에는 ‘조선의 간디’로 불리며 민족의 정신적 뿌리 역할을 하던 자신으로 인해 교단 전체가 수모를 당하리라 예견했다. 소태산은 결국 일제에 저항하는 대신 병을 얻어 열반함으로써 일본을 안심시키고 원불교를 ‘황도불교화’의 위험에서 구해냈다.
허위와 허식에 얽매이지 않고, 오로지 그가 얻은 진리로써 온 세상을 구제하려는 일념으로 살다 간 소태산. 그는 생의 마지막 순간까지 세계의 본질을 놓치지 않으려 했던 듯하다. 중요한 것은 진리를 담는 그릇의 외관이 아니라 그 뜻을 상대방이 가장 잘 깨달을 수 있는 방식으로 전하는 것이며, 조선과 일본의 갈등처럼 보이는 충돌 양상도 크게 바라보면 관계에 해害를 끼치는 자와 이利를 더하는 자가 있을 뿐이었다. 눈에는 보이지 않지만 불변하는 세상의 이치를 그는 한눈에 꿰고 있었다. 열반의 순간에도, 그에겐 생과 사 또한 ‘상태의 변화’일 뿐 서로 다르지 않은 것으로 보였으리라. 소태산의 육신이 소멸함으로써 『소태산 평전』도 끝을 맺게 되지만, 이 거대한 사상가는 세계의 일부로서 여전히 이곳에 존재하고 있을 것만 같다. 접기


평점
분포

8.5



부처님 오신 날- 솥에서 난 성자, 박중빈



원불교 창시자라고 할 수 있다. 원불교 대종사 소태산 박중빈. 어렸을 때 이름은 박진섭, 그 다음 이름은 박처화, 그 다음이 박중빈. 오랜 구도 끝에 진리를 발견한 사람. 발견에 그치지 않고 사람들에게 알린 사람.




하지만 그가 살던 시대는 일제시대. 민족이 억압을 받던 시대. 민중을 구원한다는 의미가 무엇이었을까? 민족 구원? 아니다. 민족이라는 한계를 정하면 안 되는 것이었다. 그래서 그는 식민지 조선의 독립을 원하지만, 독립운동에 투신하지 않는다. 조선인, 일본인, 그리고 세계인을 구원하려는 목표를 세운다. 이것이 종교다. 특정 집단에 국한되지 않는. 지금은 특정 집단에 국한되어 다른 집단을 배제하고 있지만, 종교의 처음이 그랬을까?




배제가 아니라 포용 아니었던가. 누구나 나와 같은 존재라는 인식. 그래서 함께 살아가고자 하는 노력. 나만이 진리를 깨우치는 것이 아니라 다 같이 깨우치는 세상. 그렇다고 진리를 깨우치기 위해서 강제를 하는 것이 아니라 스스로 깨닫도록 이끌어주는 과정. 이것이 종교의 본질이다.




소태산! 한자어로 살필 필요가 없다고 한다. 당시에는 한자를 많이 쓰던 시대였고, 호(號)라든지 자(字)라든지 본명 외에 다른 이름을 쓰는 경우가 많았는데, 주로 한자를 썼으니, 박중빈 역시 자신의 호를 한자로 음차했다고 할 수 있다.




이를 '솥에 산'이라고 부른다. 솥을 생각한다. 솥이 무엇인가. 하나의 존재가 다른 존재로 바뀌는 공간 아닌가. 그렇게 바뀌기 위해서는 그냥 그대로 있어서는 안 된다. 열기와 습기 등을 견뎌내야 한다. 그것을 견뎌내면 다른 존재로 바뀌게 된다. 그것을 하는 존재가 바로 솥이다.




쌀과 물을 넣고 끓이면 밥이 되듯이 솥은 하나의 세상에서 다른 세상을 보여주는 역할을 한다고 할 수 있다. 그러니 '솥에 산'이라는 이름에는 이미 다른 존재로 변한 자신을 말해주고 있으며, 나만이 아니라 다른 사람들도 변하게 한다는, 함께한다는 의미가 담겨 있다고 할 수 있다.




또 솥에는 어떤 존재들이 들어갈까? 소위 귀하다고 할 수 있는 존재들이 들어갈까? 아니다. 솥에는 우리가 주변에서 흔히 만날 수 있는, 얻을 수 있는 존재들이 들어간다. 그냥 보통 존재들. 그것들이 솥에 들어가서 우리들을 살게 해주는 존재가 되어 나온다. 그렇다고 솥에 보통 것들, 귀하지 않은 것들만 들어가느냐 하면 그것도 아니다. 솥에는 귀한 존재들도 들어간다. 당시 귀하던 고기도 솥에 들어가 삶아지지 않던가. 그러면 다른 음식이 되어 나온다.




즉 '솥에 산'에는 바로 이런 의미가 있다. 약한 하층민들만을 위한 것이 아니라, 특권층도 포함한 모두를 아우르는 진리. 그것을 설파하고 함께하겠다는 의미가 들어있다고 볼 수 있다.




이런 의미에 맞게 소태산은 약한 사람들이 더 힘들어지지 않는 삶을 살게 한다. 간척사업을 해서 식량난을 해결하고 자금을 확보하려든지, 당시 가장 약한 층에 속했던 여성들도 동등한 대우를 받고, 동등한 활동을 하게 한다든지, 일제 순사 출신까지도 포용을 하며, 일본인인 경찰 고위 관료조차도 함께하려고 하는 모습을 보인다.




여기에 다양한 종교를 아우른다. 진리의 길은 다르지 않기 때문이다. 다른 종교 사람을 배척하지도 않고 그렇다고 끌어들이려고 하지도 않는다. 스스로 자신의 길을 찾도록 할 뿐이다. 그 사람이 스스로 깨치지 못하면 그것은 소용없는 일이라는 것을 제자들에게도 강조한다.




지금 자신들의 종교를 강요하는 경우도 있는데, 이것이 얼마나 잘못된 일인지를 소태산의 모습을 통해서 볼 수 있다.




엄혹한 일제시대, 어떤 사람들은 소태산이 더 적극적으로 독립운동에 적극적으로 나서기를 바랐을지도 모른다. 3.1운동 당시 제자들의 태도에서도 그 점을 발견할 수 있다. 하지만 소태산은 적극적으로 나서지 않는다. 때가 오지 않았다는 판단도 있고, 종교를 민족의 한계로 국한시키려 하지 않았기 때문일지도 있다.




이런 소태산의 모습에서 예수나 부처의 모습을 발견한다. 이들 역시 민족적 요구와 진리 추구 사이에서 민족의 입장에 서라는 요청을 받지 않았던가. 하지만 민족의 경계 내에 머무르지 않았기 때문에 세계적인 종교로 설 수 있지 않았을까.




즉, 종교는 경계를 나누는 것이 아니라 경계를 허무는 것이기 때문에, 민족이라는 경계를 나눌 수 없었기 때문인지도 모른다. 지금 당장은 핍박을 받고 있지만, 핍박하는 사람들이 다른 민족 전체는 아니니, 다른 민족의 성원들과 함께 그러한 억압을 떨쳐내고 진리의 길에 들어서려고 하지 않았을까.




솥은 자신에게 들어온 존재들을 가리지 않는다. 그 각각 다른 존재들이 솥 안에서 하나가 된다. 여럿이 하나가 되는 일, 내가 어거지로 말한다면 그것이 바로 만법귀일(萬法歸一)이다. 소태산은 그런 일을 하려고 했다. 그렇다면 하나가 된 법은 어디로 갈까? 일귀하처(一歸何處)라고 묻는다고 한다.




어디로 가긴. 다시 만법(萬法)으로 가지. 그 만법은 예전과 같은 만법이 아닌 변한 만법. 즉 만이지만 하나인 존재가 되는 것이다. 솥에서 다른 존재로 하나가 된 존재는 다시 여럿에게로 돌아간다. 여럿에게로 돌아가는 하나. 그 만법과 하나가 바로 원이다. 일원이다. 돌고돈다.




하여 원불교의 상징이 원이다. 돌고 돎. 엄혹한 시대를 살았던 소태산 박중빈. 그가 당시 사람들에게 남겼던 진리의 길. 그것은 희망의 길이자 행복의 길이었을 것이다. 솥 속에서 다른 존재로 변한 사람들은 자신이 걸어왔던 길과는 다른 길을 걸을 수밖에 없다. 그것이 소태산이 우리에게 보여준 진리의 길일 것이다.




참 여러 생각을 하게 하는 평전이었는데, 지금 우리 사회의 모습에서 만법귀일이 아니라 만법이 만법으로, 경계를 허무는 것이 아니라 오히려 경계를 만들고 더 높고 튼튼하게 쌓고 있지는 않은가 하는 생각을 한다.




나와 다른 너는 몰아내야 할 존재가 아니라 함께해야 할 존재라는 것. 솥에서 하나가 되기 위해서는 뜨거운 열기를 함께 견뎌내야 한다는 것, 그래서 다른 존재로 거듭나기 위해서는 그 뜨거움을 피할 수 없다는 사실을 알고 서로가 서로를 안아야 하지 않을까 하는 생각을 한다. 그것이 소태산의 사상이기도 하지 않을까 하는 생각을 하고.




종교를 떠나서 한 사람의 일생을, 고민을, 그가 한 실천을 알아가는 과정 자체로 이 책은 큰 의미를 지닌다. 많은 사람이 읽으면 좋을 책이다.




부처님 오신 날. 소태산 그의 사상과 실천을 생각한다.
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인문책시렁 177 소태산 평전



숲노래 책읽기 2021.5.2.

인문책시렁 177




《소태산 평전》

김형수

문학동네

2016.6.1.







《소태산 평전》(김형수, 문학동네, 2016)을 익산에 있는 마을책집을 나들이하면서 장만했고, 찬찬히 읽다가 한숨을 쉬었습니다. 이러고서 한참 덮다가 다시 펼쳤는데, ‘평전이라는 책을 이렇게 써야 하나’ 싶어 아리송했고, ‘평전’ 이름이 붙은 책을 왜 읽기 꺼려했는지 새삼스레 떠오릅니다.




소태산이라고 하는 이름인 분을 책·글·누리집(위키백과)을 바탕으로 둘레 여러 사람한테서 들은 말을 바탕으로 글(평전)을 짜면 이렇게 되는구나 싶어요. 아니, 소태산이라는 분이 아닌 다른 사람을 놓고도 ‘평전’을 쓴다면 이런 얼개가 될 테지요.




누구 이야기이든 그이가 스스로 남긴 글이 아니면 모두 ‘남이 바라보면서 쓰는 글’입니다. 어느 누가 쓰든 자취글(평전)입니다. 높여야 할 글도 낮춰야 할 글도 아닙니다만, 자취글을 쓸 적에는 ‘높여야 할 만한 훌륭한 길을 걸은 사람’ 이야기를 쓰기 마련이니, 글쓴이는 으레 이 대목에서 걸려 ‘차분하게(객관적) 쓰겠다(표현)’며 머리를 싸매지요. 이러면서 자꾸 추임새를 곁들이는데, 《소태산 평전》은 내내 추임새에 휩쓸리다가 정작 ‘소태산이라는 이름으로 익산이라는 고장에서 새빛을 열려고 한 발자국’을 들려주는 책 구실하고는 한참 동떨어진 곳까지 나아갔구나 싶어요.




이럴 때에는 차라리 ‘평전 아닌 소설’을 쓰면 좋겠습니다. 국도 찌개도 아닌, 그냥 맹물을 마시는 길이 훨씬 나을 테니까요.




ㅅㄴㄹ




인간에게는 저마다 타고난 심판의 본능이 숨어 있다. 주모는 처화의 어느 구석에서 성자의 냄새를 맡을 수 있었을까? 그무렵 인접 주민들 중에는 성자에 대한 악담을 지어내는 예도 없지 않았다. (25쪽)




소태산이 태어난 해를 딱히 특별한 때였다고 말할 사람은 없다. 위키백과도 거리낌없이 단정짓는다. ‘1891년은 목요일로 시작하는 평년이다.’ (85쪽)




어린 날의 박진섭이 무슨 생각을 하면서 살았는지 아는 사람은 없었다. 이웃들은 박진섭이 서당에 다녔지만 공부를 잘했던 게 아니라고 말한다. 오히려 천자문도 못 외우던 축에 끼어 주목할 것이라곤 없는 아이 같은 인상을 얻게 되었다. 당대 교육의 한계였다. (108쪽)




한번 돈 버는 요령을 터득한 사람이 그것을 버리고 다시 가난한 자리로 돌아가는 모습을 난 본 적이 없다. 그런 엄청난 풍경은 동서고금의 성자들에게서도 보기 힘든 일이다. (177쪽)




익산은 정신사적 내력이 심오한 땅이었다. 잡풀이 우거지고 황량한 빈터만 남아 있지만, 저 옛날 최고의 예술가와 과학자들이 모여 백제의 중흥을 이룰 대역사를 도모하던 곳이다. (342쪽)












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소태산 평전



원불교 교조인 소태산을 시대와 역사속에서 새롭게 조명함으로써 종교가 문학과 만날 수 있는 가능성을 열어준 평전이다.

어둡고 암울했던 시대, 물질이 개벽되니 정신을 개벽하자고 하면서 세계의 본질에 닿기 위해 삶과 구도를 일체화시킨 진정한 이 시대의 거룩한 성자 소태산.

이 책은 소태산이 암울한 시대를 아프고 용기있게 그대로 통과하면서 진리와 삶을 어떻게 지켜내는지를 감동적으로 전달하고 있다.

소태산 스승에 대한 제자들의 한결같고 소박한 신심에 감동이 오고 제자들을 챙기는 소태산의 구수한 전라도 사투리는 살아있는 소태산을 그대로 느끼기에 충분하다.
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솥에서 난 성자



소태산 박중빈 대종사는 스러져가는 조선 말과 일제 강점기에 이땅을 출생지로 탄생하여 스승없이 홀로 구도- 고행- 대각을 이루고 앞으로의 세계 인류 구원을 위해 법을 편 원불교의 교조인데 저자인 김형수님은 원불교 교도가 아닌 한 시인이요, 소설가로서 이런 성자의 평전을 펴냈다는 것에 경외심을 보낸다.

나의 경외심의 첫번째는 종교적 객관자의 눈으로 소태산을 그려냄으로써 이땅에서 난 성자의 진면목을 편견이나 집착없이 써 낸 것이요,

두번째는, 시대적으로나 국가적으로 가히 암흑의 시기라고 할 조선 말과 일제 강점기 속에 이루어진 출생- 구도- 고행- 대각- 민중을 각성 지도한 역정들이었기에 그 역사적 자료들이 거의 뭍혀버렸고, 그나마 있다 해도그야말로 민믿한 생명력 없는 평면적인 자료들에 작가는 한국사의 사실적 리얼리즘을 그 바탕에 깔아 이 평전에 생명력을 불어넣었다 해도 과언이 아닌 점이요,

세번째는 당연히 그럴 수 밖에 없는 인류의 성자로서의 소태산 대종사를 본인으로서는 다 그려낼 수가 없음을 미리 바탕에 깔고서 이 평전을 써내려 간 작가의 솔직함과 겸허함에 경외심을 보내는 바이다.






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오늘 읽기 2021.5.10. 소태산 평전



숲노래 오늘책

오늘 읽기 2021.5.10.




《소태산 평전》

김형수 글, 문학동네, 2016.6.1.







누리수다를 폈다. ‘누리수다’라는 새말을 지었다. 이런 말을 쓰는 사람이 있으려나? ‘인터넷 강의’나 ‘화상 강의’나 ‘줌 강의’를 나타낼 우리말이다. 누리그물을 열어 수다(얘기)를 펴기에 ‘누리수다(누리얘기)’이다. ‘누리’는 ‘누르다(누렇다)’하고 말밑이 같다. ‘누렇다 = 흙 = 땅’하고 얽히는 낱말이다. ‘누리 = 별(지구) + 터(세상·세계)’를 가리키는 얼개이기도 하고, ‘우주’를 가리키기까지 한다. ‘누리꾼·누리집·누리글월’처럼 ‘인터넷’을 나타내는 자리에서도 알맞게 쓸 만하다. 우리말로 써야 좋다고 여기지 않는다. 쉽고 수수하게 우리말로 새롭게 엮어서 쓰면, 우리 생각이 차츰 자란다. 생각에 날개를 달고서 홀가분하게 피어난다. 《소태산 평전》을 읽고서 왜 아쉬웠나 하고 누가 묻는다. 글쓴이가 글치레에 글멋에 글꾸밈에 글허울에 지나치게 갇혀서 아쉽다고 대꾸한다. 쉽고 수수하게 나아가면 될 텐데. ‘소태산’이라는 이름을 쓴 어느 분이 걸어간 길이란 ‘치레·멋·꾸밈·허울’이 아니라 ‘들꽃사랑(민중계몽)’이라고 느낀다. 들꽃이란 마음이 되어 들꽃하고 동무하면서 들꽃이 되려고 한 사람이 남긴 자취를 글로 써서 책으로 엮으려 한다면, 이 책에 담을 우리말이란 ‘들꽃빛’이 나야겠지. ㅅㄴㄹ








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The quest to understand consciousness | Antonio Damasio

The quest to understand consciousness | Antonio Damasio

https://youtu.be/LMrzdk_YnYY?si=9p5jSJ33rIKHXDKb

TED

587,902 views  Dec 20, 2011

http://www.ted.com 

Key moments

==

Transcript

==

Transcript

Search in video

I'm here to talk about

the wonder and the mystery

of conscious minds.

The wonder is about the fact

that we all woke up this morning

and we had with it

the amazing return of our conscious mind.

We recovered minds with a complete sense of self

and a complete sense of our own existence,

yet we hardly ever pause to consider this wonder.

We should, in fact,

because without having this possibility of conscious minds,

we would have no knowledge whatsoever

about our humanity;

we would have no knowledge whatsoever about the world.

We would have no pains, but also no joys.

We would have no access to love

or to the ability to create.

And of course, Scott Fitzgerald said famously

that "he who invented consciousness

would have a lot to be blamed for."

But he also forgot

that without consciousness,

he would have no access to true happiness

and even the possibility of transcendence.

So much for the wonder, now for the mystery.

This is a mystery

that has really been extremely hard to elucidate.

All the way back into early philosophy

and certainly throughout the history of neuroscience,

this has been one mystery

that has always resisted elucidation,

has got major controversies.

And there are actually many people

that think we should not even touch it;

we should just leave it alone, it's not to be solved.

I don't believe that,

and I think the situation is changing.

It would be ridiculous to claim

that we know how we make consciousness

in our brains,

but we certainly can begin

to approach the question,

and we can begin to see the shape of a solution.

And one more wonder to celebrate

is the fact that we have imaging technologies

that now allow us to go inside the human brain

and be able to do, for example,

what you're seeing right now.

These are images that come from Hanna Damasio's lab,

and which show you, in a living brain,

the reconstruction of that brain.

And this is a person who is alive.

This is not a person

that is being studied at autopsy.

And even more --

and this is something that one can be really amazed about --

is what I'm going to show you next,

which is going underneath the surface of the brain

and actually looking in the living brain

at real connections, real pathways.

So all of those colored lines

correspond to bunches of axons,

the fibers that join cell bodies

to synapses.

And I'm sorry to disappoint you, they don't come in color.

But at any rate, they are there.

The colors are codes for the direction,

from whether it is back to front

or vice versa.

At any rate, what is consciousness?

What is a conscious mind?

And we could take a very simple view

and say, well, it is that which we lose

when we fall into deep sleep without dreams,

or when we go under anesthesia,

and it is what we regain

when we recover from sleep

or from anesthesia.

But what is exactly that stuff that we lose under anesthesia,

or when we are in deep, dreamless sleep?

Well first of all,

it is a mind,

which is a flow of mental images.

And of course consider images

that can be sensory patterns,

visual, such as you're having right now

in relation to the stage and me,

or auditory images,

as you are having now in relation to my words.

That flow of mental images

is mind.

But there is something else

that we are all experiencing in this room.

We are not passive exhibitors

of visual or auditory

or tactile images.

We have selves.

We have a Me

that is automatically present

in our minds right now.

We own our minds.

And we have a sense that it's everyone of us

that is experiencing this --

not the person who is sitting next to you.

So in order to have a conscious mind,

you have a self within the conscious mind.

So a conscious mind is a mind with a self in it.

The self introduces the subjective perspective in the mind,

and we are only fully conscious

when self comes to mind.

So what we need to know to even address this mystery

is, number one, how are minds are put together in the brain,

and, number two, how selves are constructed.

Now the first part, the first problem,

is relatively easy -- it's not easy at all --

but it is something that has been approached gradually in neuroscience.

And it's quite clear that, in order to make minds,

we need to construct neural maps.

So imagine a grid, like the one I'm showing you right now,

and now imagine, within that grid,

that two-dimensional sheet,

imagine neurons.

And picture, if you will,

a billboard, a digital billboard,

where you have elements

that can be either lit or not.

And depending on how you create the pattern

of lighting or not lighting,

the digital elements,

or, for that matter, the neurons in the sheet,

you're going to be able to construct a map.

This, of course, is a visual map that I'm showing you,

but this applies to any kind of map --

auditory, for example, in relation to sound frequencies,

or to the maps that we construct with our skin

in relation to an object that we palpate.

Now to bring home the point

of how close it is --

the relationship between the grid of neurons

and the topographical arrangement

of the activity of the neurons

and our mental experience --

I'm going to tell you a personal story.

So if I cover my left eye --

I'm talking about me personally, not all of you --

if I cover my left eye,

I look at the grid -- pretty much like the one I'm showing you.

Everything is nice and fine and perpendicular.

But sometime ago, I discovered

that if I cover my left eye,

instead what I get is this.

I look at the grid and I see a warping

at the edge of my central-left field.

Very odd -- I've analyzed this for a while.

But sometime ago,

through the help of an opthamologist colleague of mine,

Carmen Puliafito,

who developed a laser scanner of the retina,

I found out the the following.

If I scan my retina

through the horizontal plane that you see there in the little corner,

what I get is the following.

On the right side, my retina is perfectly symmetrical.

You see the going down towards the fovea

where the optic nerve begins.

But on my left retina there is a bump,

which is marked there by the red arrow.

And it corresponds to a little cyst

that is located below.

And that is exactly what causes

the warping of my visual image.

So just think of this:

you have a grid of neurons,

and now you have a plane mechanical change

in the position of the grid,

and you get a warping of your mental experience.

So this is how close

your mental experience

and the activity of the neurons in the retina,

which is a part of the brain located in the eyeball,

or, for that matter, a sheet of visual cortex.

So from the retina

you go onto visual cortex.

And of course, the brain adds on

a lot of information

to what is going on

in the signals that come from the retina.

And in that image there,

you see a variety of islands

of what I call image-making regions in the brain.

You have the green for example,

that corresponds to tactile information,

or the blue that corresponds to auditory information.

And something else that happens

is that those image-making regions

where you have the plotting

of all these neural maps,

can then provide signals

to this ocean of purple that you see around,

which is the association cortex,

where you can make records of what went on

in those islands of image-making.

And the great beauty

is that you can then go from memory,

out of those association cortices,

and produce back images

in the very same regions that have perception.

So think about how wonderfully convenient and lazy

the brain is.

So it provides certain areas

for perception and image-making.

And those are exactly the same

that are going to be used for image-making

when we recall information.

So far the mystery of the conscious mind

is diminishing a little bit

because we have a general sense

of how we make these images.

But what about the self?

The self is really the elusive problem.

And for a long time,

people did not even want to touch it,

because they'd say,

"How can you have this reference point, this stability,

that is required to maintain

the continuity of selves day after day?"

And I thought about a solution to this problem.

It's the following.

We generate brain maps

of the body's interior

and use them as the reference for all other maps.

So let me tell you just a little bit about how I came to this.

I came to this because,

if you're going to have a reference that we know as self --

the Me, the I

in our own processing --

we need to have something that is stable,

something that does not deviate much

from day to day.

Well it so happens that we have a singular body.

We have one body, not two, not three.

And so that is a beginning.

There is just one reference point, which is the body.

But then, of course, the body has many parts,

and things grow at different rates,

and they have different sizes and different people;

however, not so with the interior.

The things that have to do

with what is known as our internal milieu --

for example, the whole management

of the chemistries within our body

are, in fact, extremely maintained

day after day

for one very good reason.

If you deviate too much

in the parameters

that are close to the midline

of that life-permitting survival range,

you go into disease or death.

So we have an in-built system

within our own lives

that ensures some kind of continuity.

I like to call it an almost infinite sameness from day to day.

Because if you don't have that sameness, physiologically,

you're going to be sick or you're going to die.

So that's one more element for this continuity.

And the final thing

is that there is a very tight coupling

between the regulation of our body within the brain

and the body itself,

unlike any other coupling.

So for example, I'm making images of you,

but there's no physiological bond

between the images I have of you as an audience

and my brain.

However, there is a close, permanently maintained bond

between the body regulating parts of my brain

and my own body.

So here's how it looks. Look at the region there.

There is the brain stem in between the cerebral cortex

and the spinal cord.

And it is within that region

that I'm going to highlight now

that we have this housing

of all the life-regulation devices

of the body.

This is so specific that, for example,

if you look at the part that is covered in red

in the upper part of the brain stem,

if you damage that as a result of a stroke, for example,

what you get is coma

or vegetative state,

which is a state, of course,

in which your mind disappears,

your consciousness disappears.

What happens then actually

is that you lose the grounding of the self,

you have no longer access to any feeling of your own existence,

and, in fact, there can be images going on,

being formed in the cerebral cortex,

except you don't know they're there.

You have, in effect, lost consciousness

when you have damage to that red section of the brain stem.

But if you consider the green part of the brain stem,

nothing like that happens.

It is that specific.

So in that green component of the brain stem,

if you damage it, and often it happens,

what you get is complete paralysis,

but your conscious mind is maintained.

You feel, you know, you have a fully conscious mind

that you can report very indirectly.

This is a horrific condition. You don't want to see it.

And people are, in fact, imprisoned

within their own bodies,

but they do have a mind.

There was a very interesting film,

one of the rare good films done

about a situation like this,

by Julian Schnabel some years ago

about a patient that was in that condition.

So now I'm going to show you a picture.

I promise not to say anything about this,

except this is to frighten you.

It's just to tell you

that in that red section of the brain stem,

there are, to make it simple,

all those little squares that correspond to modules

that actually make brain maps

of different aspects of our interior,

different aspects of our body.

They are exquisitely topographic

and they are exquisitely interconnected

in a recursive pattern.

And it is out of this and out of this tight coupling

between the brain stem and the body

that I believe -- and I could be wrong,

but I don't think I am --

that you generate this mapping of the body

that provides the grounding for the self

and that comes in the form of feelings --

primordial feelings, by the way.

So what is the picture that we get here?

Look at "cerebral cortex," look at "brain stem,"

look at "body,"

and you get the picture of the interconnectivity

in which you have the brain stem providing the grounding for the self

in a very tight interconnection with the body.

And you have the cerebral cortex

providing the great spectacle of our minds

with the profusion of images

that are, in fact, the contents of our minds

and that we normally pay most attention to,

as we should, because that's really

the film that is rolling in our minds.

But look at the arrows.

They're not there for looks.

They're there because there's this very close interaction.

You cannot have a conscious mind

if you don't have the interaction

between cerebral cortex and brain stem.

You cannot have a conscious mind

if you don't have the interaction

between the brain stem and the body.

Another thing that is interesting

is that the brain stem that we have

is shared with a variety of other species.

So throughout vertebrates,

the design of the brain stem is very similar to ours,

which is one of the reasons why I think

those other species have conscious minds like we do.

Except that they're not as rich as ours,

because they don't have a cerebral cortex like we do.

That's where the difference is.

And I strongly disagree with the idea

that consciousness should be considered

as the great product of the cerebral cortex.

Only the wealth of our minds is,

not the very fact that we have a self

that we can refer

to our own existence,

and that we have any sense of person.

Now there are three levels of self to consider --

the proto, the core and the autobiographical.

The first two are shared

with many, many other species,

and they are really coming out

largely of the brain stem

and whatever there is of cortex in those species.

It's the autobiographical self

which some species have, I think.

Cetaceans and primates have also

an autobiographical self to a certain degree.

And everybody's dogs at home

have an autobiographical self to a certain degree.

But the novelty is here.

The autobiographical self is built

on the basis of past memories

and memories of the plans that we have made;

it's the lived past and the anticipated future.

And the autobiographical self

has prompted extended memory, reasoning,

imagination, creativity and language.

And out of that came the instruments of culture --

religions, justice,

trade, the arts, science, technology.

And it is within that culture

that we really can get --

and this is the novelty --

something that is not entirely set by our biology.

It is developed in the cultures.

It developed in collectives of human beings.

And this is, of course, the culture

where we have developed something that I like to call

socio-cultural regulation.

And finally, you could rightly ask,

why care about this?

Why care if it is the brain stem or the cerebral cortex

and how this is made?

Three reasons. First, curiosity.

Primates are extremely curious --

and humans most of all.

And if we are interested, for example,

in the fact that anti-gravity

is pulling galaxies away from the Earth,

why should we not be interested in what is going on

inside of human beings?

Second, understanding society and culture.

We should look

at how society and culture

in this socio-cultural regulation

are a work in progress.

And finally, medicine.

Let's not forget that some of the worst diseases

of humankind

are diseases such as depression,

Alzheimer's disease, drug addiction.

Think of strokes that can devastate your mind

or render you unconscious.

You have no prayer

of treating those diseases effectively

and in a non-serendipitous way

if you do not know how this works.

So that's a very good reason

beyond curiosity

to justify what we're doing,

and to justify having some interest in what is going on in our brains.

Thank you for your attention.

(Applause)

===

===

2025 Backhouse Lecture with FWCC General Secretary Tim Gee

2025 Backhouse Lecture with FWCC General Secretary Tim Gee

https://youtu.be/noXJtu7ZKnM?si=LpcqZE53fXtMMqDn

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Quakers Australia

213 views  Jul 7, 2025  MELBOURNE

===

The 2025 Backhouse Lecture was given by Tim Gee, FWCC General Secretary. The lecture, is entitled 

“The seed is in all: A journey through the Quaker world”

This lecture explored Tim’s personal faith journey while offering insights into the common threads and rich diversity that exist among Friends worldwide, before sharing his perspective on the future of Quakerism.

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Transcript

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Transcript

G who is the general secretary of friends world committee for consultation

FWCC the overarching organization for friends

worldwide. The lecture entitled The Seed is in All:

A Journey Through the Quaker World, will explore Tim's personal faith journey

while offering insights into the common threads and rich diversity that exist

among friends worldwide before sharing his perspective on the future of Quakerism.

But first, I'd like to say a few words about the back house lecture itself.

Uh before introducing Tim, this is one of a series of annual

lectures which began in 1964 when Australia Yearly Meeting of the

Religious Society of Friends was first established. The lecture is named after James Bouse

who together with his companion George Washington Walker uh walked or traveled

throughout the Australian colonies from 1832 to 1838. and they did walk. They

walked large distances to meet people in remote locations.

They were English Quakers who came to Australia with a particular concern for social justice

having connections to social reform movements in uh the early colonies as

well as in Britain. Back House and Walker planned to record their observations and make

recommendations for positive change where needed.

Detailed observations were made of all the prisons and institutions visited by

Back House and Walker. Their reports submitted to local as well

as British authorities made recommendations for legislative reform,

many of which led to improvements in the health and well-being of convicts,

Aboriginal people, and the general population.

As a naturalist and botonist, James Backhouse is remembered also for his

detailed accounts of native vegetation which were later published.

James Beckhouse was welcomed by isolated communities and friends throughout the colonies.

He shared with all his concern for social justice and encouraged others in their faith.

A number of Quaker meetings began as a result of his work of of their their

visit. And about our lecturer Tim G previously worked for Britain

Yearly Meeting, Christian Aid, Amnesty International. He's written four books, Counterpower,

Making Change Happen in 2011. You can't evict an idea. What can we

learn from Occupied 2012? Why I am a pacifist 2018.

Open for liberation, an activist reads the Bible, 2022.

He contributes regularly to various publications and has been a voice for Quakers on the BBC.

He lives near Oxford, England with his wife and daughter. I think that Tim's lecture will

introduce himself far better than I could. I met Tim at the well plenary

meeting of friends in Johannesburg, a very friendly gathering of the wide

diversity of Quakers from around the world exploring the meetings and

implications of the concept Ubuntu which resonates with Christian teaching

and with Quaker testimonies. One thing we shared was the love of

singing and there was great joy in the singing of that meeting particularly at

the African Quakers. Those of you who know Abel Sabono from Burundi or any of our Bundian friends

will recognize that joy. Tim, we welcome you warmly here and we

look forward to hearing about your journey and what you have to say about Quakers internationally.

And I'll leave a silence and then would you like to start when you like

I began preparing this lecture two years ago on my goodbye visit to the Woodbrook

Quaker Study Center in England. As for many friends in Britain and

beyond, it's a place that's given me a sense of connection with my family history and the wider family of friends.

It also played a major role in in the development of the type of Quakerism

that helped form my spiritual worldview.

And my favorite place there was the library where you could go looking for one thing and end up finding 10 others.

It hosted the journals of the eminent and not so eminent Quakers in whose footsteps we each follow.

And in those books, some of them hundreds of years old, it' be common to find handwritten annotations from the

likes of the Round Trees or the Cadburies who'd helped found Woodbrook in the first place.

Now, I was there to look for some of the works of James Back House, after whom this lecture is named. Without much

searching, I found what I was looking for. the narrative of his visit to Australia because that is a big fat old

volume, very easy to find. And something that I value about that is

he clearly valued every interaction that he had with every person, with every

plant, with every animal, and he wrote it down.

I have to admit though I preferred the edited version um which was edited by uh

his sister. Perhaps all of us know by experience that sometimes people who

have got a lot to say need a good editor.

Actually I've brought this is the copy from Woodbrook that I was given afterwards. Um and I'm going to give

this to the Silver WEL library.

Now, the second thing that I noticed in both of those accounts was the way that

back house and others saw scripture in almost everything. And they could reach for it so easily. And that's consistent

with the types of Quakerism that are growing fastest today, for example, in East Africa or in South America.

Now, for those of us who live in increasingly secular countries, usually

the friends who practice the silent, unprogrammed forms of worship, there's often not that sort of biblical literacy

anymore. Instead, we might more readily seek inspiration from Quaker tradition

or even from sources which on the face of it might not seem religious at all, such as poetry or art or nature.

And I see these two strands becoming increasingly divergent. The one primarily referencing scripture and the

other principally finding inspiration from elsewhere. And in the course of this this lecture, I would like to play

a part in bringing those back together aided of course by the spirit which

connects all things. And in continuation of the Quaker method

of sharing testimony from personal experience, I'm going to share something about my faith journey. um then try to

paint a picture of the international community of friends before sharing some predictions about where we might be

heading. But first, I want to share what I was feeling as I sat down to write. After

reading Back House's narrative for a while, I stopped and I sat and I looked

up and I looked around me. Then I looked inwards. There I was in Woodbrook

Library, soon to close its doors for the last time, surrounded by the works of

all of our predecessors. And I was feeling grateful to them, but also acknowledging that the writers of

most of those books have gone. It's important, very important to say that Woodbrook lives on as an online first

learning charity, reaching many people in many more countries than they could when they were largely connected to a

building. But at that point it still fence felt symbolic that Woodbrook

Quaker Study Center, the bricks and mortar symbol of liberal Quakerism would

soon be gone too. I felt a need to recognize that the things or the people

or the places that we think would always be there, safest houses won't always be

there. And now it's us, it's you. It's me. It's all of us here. It's everyone online.

It's down to us to work out how to interpret and remix and reimagine

Quakerism for our and the next generation's needs.

And then I thought about my work with the Friends World Committee for Consultation, which connects Quakers in about 100 countries. And through that, I

can see that Quakerism worldwide is energetic. It's dynamic, international, diverse. It's making change for peace.

And it's also growing. In my lifetime, it's not because of me, but in my lifetime, the number of Quakers in the

world has doubled from around 200,000 when I was a child to about 400,000

today. So, please hold that encouragement with you. To which I would like to add that I

feel profoundly positive about the society of friends. We will have a

future for as long as God has a purpose for us. And for as long as friends seek

to unite our lives with that purpose. And so I began to write.

My story begins in Britain, which is the Quaker community in which I grew up, the yearly meeting I'm a member of. And

recently, as part of Quaker Week, one of the asks was to share words that might help encourage families uh to try out a

Quaker meeting for the first time or indeed to stay. And I didn't find that

hard because I loved growing up as a Quaker. I feel immensely grateful to

have been a child in the Quaker community. It helped me give a basis to try and navigate the world. Now, if you

know me well, um you might not be surprised to know that as a child I was diagnosed as hyperactive or with ADHD.

That's what it's usually called today. But thanks to fairly regular Quaker meetings for worship, I can sit still.

I'm comfortable with silence. I enjoy it and I probably fidget with my phone more than I should, but probably more of most

of us probably do that. But I'd like to think that I'm not entirely dependent on fidgeting thanks to that childhood

foundation of learning to value space and stillness.

I also grew up knowing people who were committed to peace and to justice, often

making change against the odds after sticking at it for decades. and they would usually be very modest about it uh

and tell stories about Quaker change makers of the past who inspired them.

But no matter what a friend's age was or what they'd achieved, they treated me as

an equal, which felt unusual and empowering. So, I learned to treat adults and

authority figures with respect, but not with difference. And that has sometimes

got me into trouble. Um because there are some people in positions of power that think that respect and difference

are the same thing. But there it is. That's my version. A modern equivalent

of those early friends who refused to take off their hats for the king.

And that was very different to school. Not only with the teachers, but also with the other students. There was a lot

of pressure to conform, to wear a certain kind of clothes, eaten certain kind of foods, even have a certain color

of hair. If you didn't fit in, you'd be bullied. And if you stood up to the bullies, you got in the firing line. So,

I didn't like school. But I got through it partly thanks to Quaker youth events

at weekends and in the holidays, which were a complete contrast. They were joyful, safe spaces where we could

explore and experiment with our identities and our beliefs, knowing that we we would be welcomed and we would be

loved just the same. What I didn't have at that point was

very much religious language to interpret this. In my mom's Quaker school, the head of religious education

believed that if you instruct children in the Bible, they will later form a childlike picture of it, which will have

to be unlearned later on in life. So, better then to explore and model good

values illustrated by Bible stories here and there. So then when people find

their way to scripture, they'll appreciate it first time around. So that's pretty much what happened for me.

And today I recognize the presence of God in every good experience then and now. But that's not how I would have put

it at the time. Today too, I have a very positive relationship with the Bible and

with Jesus, manifested as the inward light and guide. And this language is of

some surprise to my previous self, but also to some of my friends who did indeed reject a religious worldview

early on. And I almost rejected it, too. Some of the Christians I met at school,

for example, said things that just didn't feel right or sound right. Like they said things like that my parents

were going to hell because they were divorced, or that I was going to hell because I hadn't had water sprinkled on my head when I was a baby. and that that

would be the case however good life I lived. And unsurprisingly, I found that

utterly repellent. And then a Christian prime minister of

the United Kingdom joined a Christian president of the United States and indeed a Christian prime minister of

Australia in ordering the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq leading to hundreds

of thousands of deaths. And I thought Christians have very strange priorities.

But I didn't switch off from faith. Quakers were solid in their opposition

to those wars. And through that movement, I learned that when you know that something isn't right deep in your

heart, then that still small voice needs to be listened to.

So I studied politics with an international focus in the hope that understanding the systems through which

violence is perpetrated might equip me to do something about it and I was very impressed with Thomas Payne's uh books

on humans right human rights and I carried on there to his book on religion the age of reason it's a very wellargued

book including a memorable section on the meaning of direct religious experience in which he declares that

while he would never dispute or deny someone else's revelations. Nobody should be obliged to believe such

reports unless they happen to them. And built into my enjoyment of this passage

was a fairly complacent assumption that God wasn't going to speak to me. Well, you can guess what happened next.

A few few years later, in the middle of a meeting for worship in Philadelphia,

something changed. I recognized the flow of love and light

flowing through me and flowing through all people's hearts in the world. And

that was an ecstatic experience. I literally quakd.

It wasn't a revelation in words, but it did make religious words start making sense.

Like 1 John 4:8, God is love. or indeed

George Fox's moment of revelation. I saw that there was an infinite ocean of

light in that and in that I saw the infinite love of

God and I went home and I applied for membership. And thanks to a prompt from

a gentle and wise elder in my meeting, I also started engaging with the Bible more seriously, beginning with the

Epistle of James, which I'll come back to later.

Now, because this convincement experience took place away from my home country, since then I've thought of my

Quakerism as international rather than bounded by national borders, even if my

local meeting was and still is in Britain. And a decade later, when many

meetings started going online, um especially thanks to pandemic restrictions, I started taking part in

Quaker meetings in other parts of the world from my sofa. first in Europe, then in North America, Latin America,

uh, East Africa, eventually reaching here, Asia, West, Pacific.

And it's not hard to see that some of the worship styles in global Quakerism are very different. Compare the singing

and dancing and threehour services in Kenya with the mostly silent gatherings in Britain and Australia and other parts

of the world. But I was welcomed. I was welcomed everywhere. And I wasn't

quizzed about my beliefs. I wasn't tested on whether I knew the words to the songs. I was warmly and meaningfully

welcomed like a long-lost family member. More than anything else, I believe that this kind of welcome is key to our

flourishing. And now I work for the Friends world committee for consultation which brings

people together from these different kinds of worshiing. And however we worship, I'm always reminded of Jesus's

words in Matthew. Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the

midst of them. And I could speak for a long time about the varieties of religious experience in

Quakerism, which is almost infinite, endlessly fascinating, and gives plenty to think about in all the complexity and

nuance, but I'm not going to dwell on them too much. Instead, I'd like to

speak about the things we have in common, which are relatively few, but as such are pleasingly simple.

One is a direct unmediated relationship with the divine, although the words the

meanings that people attach to the word divine do vary greatly. Another is our

shared history. And a third is our work for justice and peace, which takes place

differently in different places, but everywhere I've been, Quakers are working for justice and peace. There are

probably other things, too, but they're more subtle. For example, meeting houses and friends churches are usually simple.

Never seen one covered in gold from the outside. Now, after I wrote this, I discovered

that there is a meeting house in Belgium that has some gold wallpaper. So,

it turns out that there's an exception to every Quaker rule. Um, people tend to dress uh relatively

simply. There's the whole Quaker language of clarks and monthly meetings, which is beautifully familiar around the

world. Women being in leadership is just normal and accepted which is different from some of our Christian neighbors for

whom this is either still disallowed or it's still relatively new. And amongst Quaker men there's something I recognize

too which is managing to be male without being macho.

Um then there's the differences which are difference which are glorious. Um so

at the friend's church in Bjamburura in Bundi, one of the largest uh in the world, up to nine choirs sing together

on the Sunday morning. Um at another church in Bundi on the site of a friend's school, the voices were so full

when I went there that I thought I saw the walls shaking. And this is a major

contrast to silent meetings without doubt. But inwardly there's also an extraordinary connection because when I

sing with Quakers who sing, I feel the same strong divine connection that I

feel in a still and silent meeting for worship. So our connections are from the inside out.

Now other things that seem like differences uh are in fact similar. So on one

occasion uh oh on on some occasions in fact in Kenya I've been asked to give a sermon. Now I've never been asked to do

that in an unprogrammed meeting but I have been asked to give prepared ministry. I'm giving some right now. Um

so the process of preparation for both of these is very similar. Um and friends

who are used to unprogrammed Quaker meeting for worship that's the silent type sometimes express concern that a

church with a pastor might not be fully participative. And I would respond that when I've taken part in friends church

services, many different groups have a go at the front. Perhaps the children might do a skit, the teenagers might do

a dance, various people would share testimonies, women of men of all ages will speak.

That's more than can be said for a lot of unprogrammed meetings for worship. And on a day like World Quaker Day in a

friend's church, this might all happen at once. or on ordinary days there might be a rotation with different uh groups

leading the services each week. So let's put to bed the idea that programmed

services can't be participative. Now on the other hand, a friend accustomed to

programmed worship might express a concern that the lack of many prepared words in unprogrammed Quakerism might

lead to a rather vague or nebulous theology. Well, theology literally means

the study of God. Silent worship is a way of experiencing God within and among

us without many words. Words can point us towards God, but they can also distort or distract, especially if they

become legalistic or stoaltified. So, silent worship Quakers do do

theology. A gathered meeting for worship is a process of encounter with the divine, of studying the divine with the

heart. You could call this a kind of silent theology.

um through which we can reach what my granny called a kind of wordless knowing. So, it's good people are

concerned about each other and we're asking questions. It's also good that there are answers to those questions uh

and we can learn from one another. A wordless knowing is a profound and wonderful thing. A largely silent

theology is not sustainable as we've always known. From the start, friends

have sought words to communicate our faith. The words have changed over time and in different places, but I hold

faith that the divine experience at the heart of it remains the same.

That was the easy bit because I've mentioned some of our differences like forms of worship, but these are probably

the easier ones. With a shared theology, variations in worship styles are fairly

easy to stomach and they're often more a matter of preference than underlying values. But some of our differences are

harder. And I've been asked by the lecture committee to talk about these two. So amid all of this talk of unity,

it's important to say that some of our differences are significant.

But in this divided, polarized world, surely being cordial with and curious

about people we might disagree with is part of the practice of peace. Our

global faith community gives us opportunity to hone those skills.

I'm going to mention two, sexual diversity and approaches to the Bible.

Quaker takes on sexual diversity vary widely around the world and it's

important not to characterize all people from a particular country or particular yearly meeting as having a unified view.

There are nuances and differences on these questions within countries and yearly meetings. Nevertheless, official

teaching and books of faith and practice in some countries very much embrace LGBTQI plus affirming Christianity

whereas others very much don't. Um, at the most recent world plenary meeting,

we acknowledge together that sexual discrimination and disunityity over sexual orientation continue to hold us

back. On some level, I hope that the process of meeting with one another and building

connections in the things that we do have in common while speaking from experience about the things that we

don't does make a difference on some level. But this is a slow process.

If it's any consolation, we are in much the same position as almost, in fact, I

think all uh other Christian world communions who also struggle with this. Um, and I think this can help us humble

ourselves to know that we are actually not that different from our Christian

brothers and sisters in this regard. And of course, we consider Quakerism to be

special, but we're not so special as to found a way through on this one, except

to handle the conversation with civility and with respect as much as possible.

And it's even more humbling to consider that the Quaker takes on sexuality around the world tend to be pretty much

in line with or perhaps only a little ahead of social attitudes more generally

in those countries. That opens the possibility that our respective positions are not necessarily

a product of scriptural ex exedice or direct revelation and much more a simple

product of the cultures that we're in. And I realize that in some ways this is quite a troubling idea and I realize

it's unlikely to please anyone. Um but as a means to understanding one another,

I think it can be helpful. And the committee asked me to asked me

to finish this sent this section with a succinct reflection and I wish I could.

The truth is it remains an unresolved, uncomfortable, untidy tension in the

world community of France just as it is in the world community as a whole. And I hope you will join me in prayer that God

will lead us in a way through.

Now a second set of differences relates to approaches to the Bible and to theism more generally. Um, these are the modern

manifestations of some of the major historic splits that have centered on disputes about the primacy of scripture

against the primacy of experiencing the Holy Spirit. Is the Bible the literal

word of God or is the word that powerful but inexpressable spirit that was in the

beginning for which words will always be inadequate? And back in 1678, Robert Berkeley

characterized the Bible as a faithful historical account of the actings of God's people, a prophetical account of

several things whereof some are already passed and some are yet to come, and a full and ample account of all the chief

principles of the doctrine of Christ. He then famously added that it is a

declaration of the fountain but not the fountain itself and a secondary rule

subordinate to the spirit from which they have all their excellency and certainty.

And over the years different Quaker groupings in different places have emphasized different parts of this standpoint leading to the extraordinary

st extraordinary spectrum that we have today. From some friends holding that the Bible is the only source of truth

through to a midpoint in which the Bible is a companion to contemplation right through to the other extreme where the

Bible is a book of off-putting God language or even an instrument of oppression best left alone.

And there are still friends today who, as Barkley suggested, see scripture not

as a rule book, but a way of understanding how God and humanity have engaged through history and who study

and cherish the Bible because of that. Now this um if you this lecture is

dedicated to my my friend my former line manager late Clark of FWCC Simon Lamb

and his very last email to me he said that his one request for this lecture

was to include friends who hold the position that I've just shared. So there we go. I've now fulfilled the

last request that Simon made to me. Now I've had different views at

different times and as such I have an empathy for the different perspectives. At one point if I'd have come across the

word non-theist I would have described myself as one. Although I think I've never quite been an atheist because I

always held open the possibility of God. Through reading the Bible though, I moved to a place where I led I felt led

to write a book about the scriptures as a tool of liberation. From the perspective of working for an

FW for FWCC, an organization that seeks to bring friends together from different cultures, traditions, and countries, I

find myself harboring a deep desire for shared Bible study to help us understand

one another across our differences, as well as to connect with the words that helped inspire Quakerism in the first

place. and so rediscover the radicalism of our forebears.

Now, I mentioned that my doorway to the Bible was the Epistle of James, which I'd like to talk about now. And I'm

reliably informed by the Quaker theologian Mark Russ that based on the written evidence that we have from early

friends. Uh the reason that we are known as we are is in part because of the use

of the word friend in the epistle of James. And there are some more reasons that friends might be drawn to this part

of the Bible. Quakers in our origins sought to be the early church revived. Well, James was the earliest leader of

the church following the earthly life of Jesus. Others call Quakerism New Testament Christianity done well. Well,

it's possible that James was the earliest text of the New Testament to be written. He also definitely existed.

Many liberal friends take an interest in the types of questions raised by the historical critical approaches to the Bible, like asking which figures and

stories can be verified by historical sources. And though scholars, there's a whole industry of questioning almost any

ancient text, and that's a good thing to do. James shows up in so many that there's absolutely no reason to doubt

that he existed. He's mentioned in the Gospels, the Acts, the letters of Paul. He's lettered in the work he's mentioned

in the works of Josephus, Usabius, and Hegypus. And from these sources, we know

that he was a vegetarian. He was a tea totler. Um,

he sound apparently had very long hair. He I'm not saying all Quakers are like this, but I could imagine him turning up

in a Quaker meeting. Um, he's also literally Jesus's brother. And

given that Jesus didn't leave behind any texts that we know of, the words of his brother who knew him all his life can

help bring us closer. The fact that James letter so closely echoes Jesus's

words as reported in the Gospels, especially the sermon on the mount helps

give weight to the historic historicity of both. And both speak strongly about

peace and justice. Yet, the Epistle of James has often been

marginalized, overlooked, or ignored over the centuries, largely because of the ways that his message was

inconvenient to some other forms of theology. Well, in my experience,

Quakers love being inconvenient, especially if that helps pursue the

cause of peace and justice. And we also have an empathy for the marginalized. So, here's yet another reason to engage.

In James, we find a theology of action, perhaps even of activism, in which he says that faith by itself, if it does

not result in action, is dead. I will show you my faith by my deeds. Faith without deeds is worthless. And then

again, faith without deeds is dead. And that religion that God accepts is to look after orphans and widows in their

distress. That instead of taking um instead of talking all the time, we should be doers of the word. And in

different translations, the resonations, the resonances with Quaker terms are extraordinary. Um, as I mentioned

before, James uses the word friend, saying we become a friend of God by what we do. And that friendship with the

world, meaning the unjust systems of the world, is enmity with God. In some translations, gatherings for worship are

described as meetings. And part of it sounds like advice for an unprogrammed

meeting, like the guidance to bridle the tongue, be quick to listen, slow to speak, and to welcome with meekness the

implanted word. You know, I think it was the first time

I went to Africa and I I just loved I loved the music. I I felt God's presence

very strongly. Um, and I traveled to lots of different Quaker

communities and I kind of feel like in a perpetual state of culture shock because I moved from country to country. So when

I came back from Africa and I sat down in a Quaker meeting in in um in Oxford

and it was entirely silent all the way through

and instead of really enjoying it, I was kind of feeling antsy. I was like, "Oh no, why hasn't anyone spoken?" kind of why hasn't Holy Spirit moved us? Have we

failed? you know, kind of getting in a bit of a tears

and then someone stood up at the end and they said they started talking about um

the work that the meeting was doing with asylum seekers in the city. Those were the first words that were spoken and I

thought I think James would be okay with this.

Nowadays, English-speaking friends often speak at the spices. Simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality, and

sustainability. Or well, the S is disputed. Um, but again, it's there.

Simplicity. A whole chapter of James is a warning to rich oppressors. Peace.

James reaffirms the commandment not to kill. Integrity. This is where we get the line much quoted by friends. Let

your yay be yay. And your There we go.

Community. Oh, for friends online that was let your yay be yay and your nay be nay. Uh community. Uh James reminds us

to love our neighbor. Equality. He says that all should be treated equally in our meetings regardless of wealth or

poverty. Finally, sustainability or stewardship. James gives us a warning against greed which can lead to war and

destruction. And also like his brother Jesus, James says nothing at all about

same-sex relationships. And unlike his contemporary and occasional rival Paul, he says nothing that could be

misconstrued as support for slavery or gender inequality.

So once I'd read it a few times, I started noticing how many of the widely cited quotes from Quaker tradition in

turn cite the Epistle of James. For example, George Fox's famous claim to live in the virtue of that life and

power that takes away the occasion of all wars speaks in the very same sentence about what he calls James'

doctrine that wars arise from greed in the heart. In Margaret Fel's

articulation of the peace testimony, she cites the epistle of James to explain why Quakers don't sway oaths, why

Quakers don't fight without weapons, and why Quakers treat to uh seek to treat people as equals. She then goes on to

say that the only ground and cause of Quaker's sufferings is because friends

obeyed the command of Christ and observed the teaching of James. John Wman caution to the rich echoes James in

its title because the final chapter of James' epistle is usually headed a

warning to the rich. And the alternate title of John Wman's essay is a plea for

the poor. And I don't know if Wulman would have been aware of this. Um, but there is a connection here too because

the followers of James were called the Ebianites which in English translates as the poor. Clearly then whether we know

it or not there has been a resonance over time with those early Quaken writings that channel James. And that

got me interested in whether friends quoted James anymore than any other

comparable New Testament letter. And so there's a wonderful resource at erm college called the um the Quaker Bible

Index and I counted up references from George Fox and others using Erg's Quaker

Bible Index. So what do you think? Do you think George Fox quoted it more than other

epistles or not? The answer to my disappointment was no,

he didn't. And I spent quite a long time doing that.

But then I revisited Barklay's apology and deep within that Barklay says that

even in his time other churches including Catholics and Protestants were

restricting the reading of James whilst Quakers assured by the Holy Spirit

embraced it as a full and equal part of scripture. It follows then that in so

doing Quakers developed in some ways that were distinctive and even if early friends didn't cite James more than

other parts of the Bible is likely they did read it more than some of their Christian contemporaries.

Now I mentioned before that the epistle is inconvenient to some other forms of theology and it's worth pausing here to

consider why this might have been. James's unmistakable condemnation of inequality and war was inconvenient for

those types of Christianity that quite liked inequality and war. His instruction that rich men not be given

special seats didn't really sit well with Christians that liked giving people special seats.

And he says the rich will be humbled. The rich will disappear. The rich will wither away.

And James's role as the leader of the more Jewish branch of early Christianity was inconvenient for the Roman church

when it was trying to distance itself from Judaism. You know, the origins of Christian

anti-semitism run deep and run early. I think one of the good ways that we can

help help redress the balance is by engaging

with what often gets called the most Jewish book of the New Testament.

Now, James's bold, rather stark, and repeated statements about faith and works were inconvenient for Martin

Luther, who argued for justification by faith alone. Now, this wasn't inconvenient for Barkley, who said that

faith and works could go together. Um, yes. And then the big one, the very

existence of James as Jesus's brother was very inconvenient to any church that

promulgated the doctrine of Mary's perpetual virginity for reasons that I don't think I need to explain.

So, it might have been marginalized and tucked in towards the end, but the book of James is there. It's in our Bibles.

It's on our meeting house tables. It's on our bookshelves. It's on our lecterns. It's ready to be re-imbraced.

And for Bible- based friends in church with churches with pastors and programmed worship, this is a Bible book

that could help explain why some friends are as they are. And for unprogrammed friends, especially friends who perhaps

might feel hesitant about expressing themselves with the aid of scripture, it could be a great starting point for

doing so. So, if there's one thing that you do after listening today,

I'd like to invite you to open the Bible at the Epistle of James and see what you get from it.

Now, something I've always loved about Quakers is the idea that we're always on

a journey together, and each conversation along the way can help change our ideas about the world.

To converge doesn't mean to stay in the same place. And I found myself on a perpetual

journey. And along the way, I've discovered a newfound appreciation for some aspects of Christian practice that

weren't a major part of my Quaker upbringing. Um, and I'm not saying that all the kinds of Quakerism need to

remerge or that our mission should be to seek a kind of spiritual midpoint between the different traditions. I

don't think that's possible and I don't think that's desirable. What I do hope, especially in this age of global

internet and communication, is that we could learn a lot more from one another across countries, cultures, and Quaker

traditions. For my part, I will do what I can to support FWCC to facilitate that. And I know that Adrien Gil Morgan

is in the room. He looks after the Asia West Pacific section, and I know that he's committed to that as well.

We could also adapt and adopt practices that are working elsewhere and understand them as authentically Quaker

even if they are different from the ways that we are familiar with. So for

example, originally from the USA, the alternatives to violence project is huge in East Africa thanks to sharing and

learning across borders. I still find I love and I need the peace

of an unprogrammed, largely silent Quaker meeting in my life. At the same time, the spirit that I've felt in

Africa and elsewhere remains with me, too. And even if my voice isn't up to much, my soul cries out to sing. And I

enjoyed having a hand in the most recent version of the World Quaker song book. Um, and in contemplative moments, I

found myself setting uh Bible verse verses to folk tunes in my journal. Um,

and I'm going to be sharing some of those in a workshop in a couple of days or if you're watching online, they're

going to be in the back of the printed version.

You know, before coming here, someone told me, "Oh, you'll never get Australian Quakers singing."

And I thought, "Well, that sounds like a challenge."

Now, partly thanks to time spent with Quakers in the majority world, spoken prayer is now a part of my life in a way

it didn't used to be. And even if not so well as back house and his peers, I find myself ready to reach for scripture in

the everyday whilst also reaching for the inexpressable spirit. And in the process, I feel something happening in

me. It feels new and it feels renewing. Yet, it connects me with something much

older and indeed which is older than time.

So I'll say again, Quakers will have a future for as long as God has a purpose

for us and for as long as we unite with that purpose. Right now we are growing.

In fact, there are probably more Quakers alive today than at any point in

history. And one of the questions I'm asked most often in places where our numbers are

decreasing is what we can learn from places where they are growing. And recently I had the pleasure of being

part of a service in Nairobi welcoming some of the 500 new Quakers coming into

membership that day.

Now Nairobi yearly meeting is one of about 30 yearly meetings in Kenya.

And what they do is they have a two-part course uh that people do before they become

members. So, you know, if someone comes and they're interested, you can send someone on the course. It's just this really good on-ramp.

And friends, it was such a joyful occasion. It was long. It was 5 hours long, but it was joyful

because we were celebrating the hard work and the faithful commitment made by so many people. And people danced into

meeting like this. And we clapped and we sang to them and to one another and to God. And by my presence, I was able to

affirm to these friends that they were not only entering a local meeting or a monthly meeting or a yearly meeting,

they were joining a world family of friends.

So, I'm really glad to be able to relay the joy of that occasion here and say, "Friends, we've got something to learn."

Oh, and I can't I can't can't help but compare it with the moment that I learned that my Quaker membership had

been confirmed. I was sitting in my bedroom looking at a letter in the post

on my own. My first response was a profound sense of anti-limax.

You know, I I at that point I was moving meetings anyway because I was moving house and I I went to I I I basically

went to complain to the elder of my new meeting, another wise gentle elder of few words who said, "Well, Tim, we

didn't let you in under false pretenses

because Quakerism isn't all mountaintop moments. Sometimes we need to do ordinary routine things and that's what

enables us to experience this wonderful thing that happens together.

But still, yeah, I can't help compare the Kenyon system of offering a free course ahead of membership to the

liberal Quaker assumption that people will just absorb Quakerism by coming to meetings, sitting in silence, and

chatting to people afterwards when we know that in fact many people don't absorb Quakerism and they remain

attenders forever. or alternatively form a view of Quakerism shaped by the luck or the bad luck of who they happen to

talking be talking to that day. And I'm convinced that Quakers in Kenya have something good going on which is ripe

for adaptation and for adoption elsewhere. And Kenya might not even be where Quaker

numbers are growing fastest. They might be growing faster elsewhere in East Africa. I asked a friend in Bundi why he

thought the faith was growing so much there and what friends in other countries could learn from that. And without missing a beat, he replied that

firstly, Quakers are democratic, which is relatively unusual for a church, and Quakers in Bundy do actually have a

voting system. It's very interesting, but I'm not going to get into it here. But he also said that when you become a

Quaker, your life gets better. Well, that is a different case for

Quakerism to what I'd heard before. Is your life better for being a Quaker?

I hope it is. Mine is, and that was the case before I accepted this job. I can

think of several times that Society of Friends was there to catch me when I could easily have fallen down.

I think we could be more forthcoming about the ways that our lives are better because of friends.

There are various ways we could do that, but it simply begins by thinking trying to say out loud how being part of

Quakerism has made each of our lives better.

Now the predictions. Um, this lecture is printed. Um, one of the

dangers of that is it's not like a blog where you can go back and edit it. But I'm going to feel the fear and do it

anyway and make some predictions for where we're headed. I'm going to keep these relatively short because the more

I say, the more likely I am to be wrong.

First of all, the Quaker center of gravity has already moved to the global south which is likely to be formalized

in the coming decades. As mainstream Quakerism is increasingly understood as

global south quakerism, global north quakerism uh will be increasingly shaped

by it. Secondly, online connections will become a bigger part of our lives including our

faith lives. As they do, the distinctions between the traditions contained by place-based yearly meetings

will continue to be blurred as online intervisitation becomes more straightforward.

Thirdly, English will no longer be the default language of international Quakerism, nor

the principal language that Quaker texts are written in, ready for translation. I think we'll see a lot more translation

of Quaker texts into English, for example, and increased language equality in the way that we work.

Fourthly, I think the current era of liberal

quakerism will pass. And by that, I don't mean that we'll die out. What I mean is that by a perpetual

process of change, what we currently call liberal quakerism will change. And

there have always been different eras of Quakerism. The current one, liberal Quakerism, it's been around for about a

century, just over that. And it's very different now to how it was when it began. And I think it's helpful to begin

contemplating now how you might like the next era to look and what you can do to

help build it. Now I've had some time to contemplate this

and I want to share some hopes. The first hope is it will be youthful.

So there was a a study published in Britain recently mirrored by a very similar study in the United States

showing a statistically significant four-fold increase in church attendance

amongst people aged 18 to 25. So there's a new interest in religion and in

Christianity amongst people of that age group and anecdotally

I'm hearing that happening within Quakerism. Now my second hope is it will be

diverse. Um I was at Britain meeting a a few weeks ago. Now I've got kind of used

to being one of the younger people at Britain meeting and I'd kind of started to assume that that was going to always

be the case.

And it wasn't. There were many people, probably hundreds of people, maybe a

small number of hundreds, but there were many people who were younger than me and

were new to Quakerism. And when I spoke to some of those people, I heard stories

of people who had been marginalized either by other faith groups or in wider

society and had found a home in Quakerism. and they were so delighted

and being with a Quaker who's so delighted to be a Quaker to have found it is a wonderful thing.

So my second hope is that the next era of Quakerism will be diverse.

My third hope is it will be convergent. Now the word convergent Quakerism has been around for a little while. Um but

some of you may have seen the Sworthmore lecture that was given at um Britain Yearly Meeting. Now I've actually got a

copy of it here. It wasn't printed anywhere except Otto in New Zealand. So

this is the one copy of this in this country. Um

now uh in it Emily Province um read

more than 30 English language books of faith and practice around the world including this we can say and she found

92 things that we could possibly say together. 92

areas of common ground that she sh she she phrased as 92 minutes. Now earlier

in this lecture I s thought that there were three

that means that between us we have 95 thesis for a new era of convergent quakerism.

Now fourth um I hope it'll involve more singing.

There's also an opportunity um if you want to be inviting more people into your meeting but you just need a nudge

to do so. The theme of World Quaker Day this year is love your neighbor and it's all about giving people an experience of

Quakerism. So, uh there's some posters on the Clark's table. There it is for friends

online. You can get it from the FWCC website. That's going to be on the 5th of October.

So those are some predictions, some hopes and an opportunity.

Now the lecture committee also asked me to suggest some queries to aid reflection and I'm grateful for the

encouragement to do so and would like to offer the following. Number one, what does it mean to you to be part of a

world family of friends? Number two, how do you welcome newcomers

in your meeting? Could anything be improved? Number three, do you think the Epistle

of James could help facilitate understanding across different forms of Quakerism?

Number four, are there insights or practices from Quakers in other parts of the world that you would like to be part

of your faith life? And number five, how is your life better

for being a Quaker?

I'm coming towards the conclusion. I started writing this lecture two years

ago in Woodbrook Library and the body of it on a long long train journey to Hungary to visit friends there. And I

finished it in January 2025 against the background of unfolding events in the

United States mirrored in different ways in many countries of the world.

Friends, in a world where environmental breakdown, war, misinformation,

loneliness, and unfairness seem to dominate, I am convinced that our

message of simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality, and sustainability

is needed more than ever. Even when things seem overwhelming or

unfamiliar, we can hold faith that the truths we have long held dear are the

antidote to many of the problems of the world.

And I don't think that Quakers will fix all these problems. But I do believe deep in my heart that whatever positive

change comes will need to include indeed be led by a collective inward change

which falls outside the current bounds of social science.

Political parties won't do this. NOS's won't do this. The media won't do this.

They might all play their part. Understanding and promoting this inward change is the realm of faith. And some

people call it the voice of the conscience. In religious terms, it's the light of Christ.

And in my work, I see evidence day by day that the light shines in the dark

and the darkness has not overcome it. This will continue to be the case for as

long as friends live up to the measure of the light given to us and also support others to do so. And I don't

believe that the light faithfully followed can lead people to willfully and knowingly commit acts of harm.

I do believe that it will lead us and could lead everyone to love God and love

our neighbor. Ultimately, this principle, which Jesus said summed up all of God's teaching, has within it

what we and what humanity as a whole need.

And I'm sure we've all noticed with deep concern the way that powerful figures

are cloaking their violent acts in the language of religion,

even whilst using language designed to make us hate our neighbors. friends,

someone needs to stand up and say, "This is not the way of Christ."

And it's our role to do so.

All the evidence shows there are thousands, possibly millions of people

waiting to be reached, sensing a profound inward spirituality, but searching for a community to help them

understand it. Please let them find us rather than

being attracted to wolves in sheep's clothing.

The world needs what Quakers have to offer. Not for our survival as a society of friends, but for the survival of the

values that we promote and for the better world that they lead to.

Quakerism is a precious patch of ground in the landscape of faith. sometimes a place of

refuge and a place which deserves to be nurtured and known for welcoming people

and for speaking truth to power. That begins with channeling the energy

of our forebears and friends around the world means getting out there and telling people we're here, you're

welcome. And to paraphrase George Fox's final words before he died, that the

spirit of God, the seed of Christ is in all and is over all

with friends can find it. So yeah, some things change. Change is

happening all the time, but the insights at the heart of our faith do not.

When I started writing this talk in the Woodbrook Library, the first words I wrote at the top of my page were from

Margaret Fel. It's with those words that I'd like to finish.

The truth is one and the same always, though ages and generations pass away.

And as one generation goes and another comes, yet the word and the power and

the spirit of the living God endures forever. And it's the ch the same and

never changes. The truth is one and the same always

the wages and generations pass away.

And as one generation goes and another comes,

yet the word and power and the spirit of the living God endures.

forever and is the same and never changes.

Many thanks, Tim, for your inspirational lecture.

You've generously revealed yourself to us, telling something of your youth,

pacifism, and your strong faith. I I appreciate I'm sure many of us do

your description of the diversity of the Quaker world. Some of us might be surprised that we

who worship in a unprogrammed manner are a min a very small minority.

We've got lots of common with program Quakers, but there are differences too. And you've asked us how can we bridge

those differences?

Could what you said about the welcoming of newcomers in Central Africa suggest ways in we might in which we might

prepare prospective members and attenders? Please not a 5-hour meeting though.

you've you've sort of hinted at the importance of outreach for sure of

getting um of course as we've been talking about a lot about um attracting

more young people um but you also have talked about James

the gospel of James epistle of James and Bible reading and I for one will be

reading that epistle um both as a way of getting back into

the Bible. Um Peter Bennett uh was a wonderful advocate of the Bible. He had

Bible study with us in Melbourne and it was very very powerful

and but also because you've you've said that James is something that all Quakers should read. That's we we need to

understand our faith through that epistle.

and of course singing. I I love that bit and loved your song and those words of

Margaret Felm. So, um we've got a further opportunity

to that we in the room here have an opportunity to talk about these matters

more with Tim tomorrow at 400 p.m. And I'll certainly be interested in

exploring more about your prediction of a big change for liberal Quakerism. I

wonder what's going to happen there. Lots to chew on. And thanks to all for joining us for

this lecture and uh we can close with a period of silence.

Um can I uh mention to people online that you now have an opportunity to

leave us and to join breakout groups for discussion.

===

Tim Gee, FWCC(세계 퀘이커 협의회) 사무총장은 이 강연에서 자신의 신앙 여정을 소개하며, 전 세계 퀘이커 공동체의 공통점과 다양성을 탐색하고 퀘이커 신앙의 미래를 조망한다. 그는 강연을 호주의 James Backhouse의 역사적 여정을 되새기며 시작하고, 자신이 그 기록에서 받은 영감에 대해 말한다. Woodbrooke 퀘이커 연구 센터에서 강연 준비를 시작했으며, 센터의 폐쇄가 자유주의 퀘이커의 변화와 도전을 상징한다고 본다.

Gee는 영국 퀘이커 공동체에서 성장하며 ADHD 진단을 받았지만 정기적인 침묵 예배를 통해 집중력과 내면의 평화를 익혔다고 회상한다. 그는 성경과 예수에 대해 점차 긍정적인 관계를 형성하게 되었고, 특히 필라델피아에서의 신비 체험을 통해 "빛과 사랑의 흐름"을 느꼈다고 말한다. 이 경험이 퀘이커 운동에 적극 참여하게 된 계기가 되었다.

그는 이후 세계 각지의 퀘이커 예배에 온라인으로 참여하면서 다양한 예배 스타일과 환대 문화를 경험했다. 특히 아프리카의 퀘이커 공동체에서의 역동적이고 음악 중심적인 예배와의 접촉이 강한 인상을 남겼다고 전한다. 그는 프로그램 예배와 비프로그램(침묵) 예배 사이의 오해를 줄이고, 두 전통 모두에서 참여성과 신학적 깊이가 있음을 설명한다.

Gee는 세계 퀘이커 공동체 내에서 가장 어려운 분열 주제 두 가지, 즉 성적 다양성(LGBTQI+)과 성경에 대한 접근 차이를 언급한다. 이 문제들은 지역 문화적 차이와 연결되어 있으며, 아직 해결되지 않은 긴장으로 남아 있다고 강조한다. 그는 이러한 다양성 속에서도 상호 존중과 대화를 통한 이해가 가능하다고 믿는다.

강연의 후반부에서는 야고보서(Epistle of James)에 대한 특별한 애정을 드러낸다. 그는 야고보서가 초기 퀘이커들에게 깊은 영향을 주었고, 신앙과 행동의 결합, 평화, 정의, 공동체, 단순성 등의 가치가 이 서신서에 잘 담겨 있다고 말한다. 예배의 형태나 신학적 언어는 달라도, 이 서신이 전하는 실천 중심의 신앙이 퀘이커 전통의 핵심임을 강조한다.

끝으로 Gee는 퀘이커 운동의 미래에 대한 예측과 희망을 제시한다. 그는 퀘이커 중심이 이미 글로벌 사우스로 이동했으며, 온라인 연결이 예배의 경계를 흐리게 만들고, 영어가 국제 퀘이커 언어의 중심에서 벗어날 것으로 본다. 새로운 시대의 퀘이커 운동은 젊고, 다양하며, 수렴적(convergent)이기를 희망한다. 그리고 퀘이커 전통이 단지 살아남는 것이 아니라, 인류의 내면적 변화와 세계의 치유에 기여하길 바란다고 말하며 강연을 마무리한다.

행동이 먼저이고 뇌는 그다음 변한다: 신경과학적 탐구

행동이 먼저이고 뇌는 그다음 변한다: 신경과학적 탐구

1. 출력(행동)이 입력(감각)보다 중요한 이유

신경과학에서는 뇌의 주요 역할이 행동을 생성하는 것

이라고 봅니다. 유명한 뇌과학자 다니엘 월퍼트

(Danie Wopert)는 “뇌가 존재하는 유일한 이유는 복

잡하고 적응적인 **움직임(행동)**을 만들어내는 것이

다. 기억, 인지, 감각 처리도 모두 행동을 위한 것”이라

고까지 말했습니다 . 실제로 일부 동물은 움직임이

필요 없게 되면 뇌를 퇴화시키기도 합니다. 예를 들어

멍게와 같은 생물은 유생일 때는 뇌를 이용해 헤엄쳐

다니다가 바위에 정착하면 뇌를 소화시켜 없애버립니

다. 이는 뇌가 결국 “출력 장치”, 즉 행동을 위한 기관

임을 극단적으로 보여줍니다.

또한 능동적 행동이 감각 발달에 필수적이라는 고전적

실험이 있습니다. 1963년 헬드(Hed)와 하인(Hein)의

**“새끼 고양이 실험”**에서, 두 새끼 고양이를 회전식

틀에

게 했습니다(수동적 고양이). 두 마리는 동일한 시각

자극을 받았지만, 스스로 움직인 고양이만 사물을 보

고 거리감을 판단하는 정상적인 시각운동 기능을 습득

했고, 바구니에 담겨 행동이 제한된 고양이는 같은 입

력을 보고도 깊이 지각 등 능력이 발달하지 못했습니

다 . 이 실험은 행동(출력)이 먼저 일어나야 뇌가 감

각 입력을 제대로 해석하고 발달한다는 것을 보여줍니

다. 결국 단순히 입력을 받아들이는 것만으로는 뇌가

제대로 배우지 못하고, 뇌는 능동적인 출력, 행동을 통

해서야 적절히 변화한다는 근거가 마련되었습니다.

2. 반복 행동과 신경회로 강화 (시냅스 가소성과 장기

강화)

반복되는 행동은 뇌의 신경회로를 실제로 변화시키고

강화합니다. 뇌세포(뉴런)들은 함께 자주 활성화될수

록 연결이 강해지는데, 이를 잘 표현한 말이 캐나다 심

리학자 도널드 헵(Donad Hebb)의 **“함께 발화하는

뉴런은 함께 연결된다”**는 법칙입니다 . 이는 반복

학습으로 특정 뉴런들이 동시에 활성화되면 그 연결

시냅스가 점점 강해져서, 이후에는 한 뉴런의 활성만

으로도 연쇄적 활동(기억이나 기술 실행 등)이 쉽게 일

어난다는 원리입니다. 이러한 **시냅스 가소성

(synaptic pasticity)**의 대표적 기전이 **장기강화

(LTP, Long-Term Potentiation)**입니다. LTP는 뉴

런 간 시냅스 연결이 빈번한 활성화로 더 강력해지는

현상을 가리키며, 뇌가 경험에 반응하여 변화하는 학

습과 기억의 세포 수준 메커니즘으로 여겨집니다 .

다시 말해, 반복적 자극을 받은 시냅스는 더 많은 신경

전달물질을 분비하거나 수용체를 늘리는 등 변화가 생

겨 다음 번에는 더 쉽게 흥분하게 됩니다 .