2023/08/03

Universalism - Wikipedia

Universalism - Wikipedia

Universalism

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For other uses, see Universalism (disambiguation).
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Beliefs
Apocatastasis
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Trinitarian universalism
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Churches and groups
Unitarian Universalism
International Council of
Unitarians and Universalists
Primitive Baptist Universalists
Universalist Church of America
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History
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Other religions
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Universalism is the philosophical and theological concept that some ideas have universal application or applicability.

A belief in one fundamental truth is another important tenet in universalism. The living truth is seen as more far-reaching than the national, cultural, or religious boundaries or interpretations of that one truth. As the Rig Veda states, "Truth is one; sages call it by various names."[1] A community that calls itself universalist may emphasize the universal principles of most religions, and accept others in an inclusive manner.

In the modern context, Universalism can also mean the Western pursuit of unification of all human beings across geographic and other boundaries under Western values, or the application of really universal or universalist constructs, such as human rights or international law.[2][3]

Universalism has had an influence on modern-day Hinduism, in turn influencing modern Western spirituality.[4]

Christian universalism refers to the idea that every human will eventually receive salvation in a religious or spiritual sense, a concept also referred to as universal reconciliation.[5]

Philosophy[edit]

Universality[edit]

Main article: Universality (philosophy)

In philosophy, universality is the notion that universal facts can be discovered and is therefore understood as being in opposition to relativism and nominalism.[6]

Moral universalism[edit]

Main articles: Moral universalism and Moral particularism

Moral universalism (also called moral objectivism or universal morality) is the meta-ethical position that some system of ethics applies universally. That system is inclusive of all individuals,[7] regardless of culture, race, sex, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, or any other distinguishing feature.[8] Moral universalism is opposed to moral nihilism and moral relativism. However, not all forms of moral universalism are absolutist, nor do they necessarily value monism. Many forms of universalism, such as utilitarianism, are non-absolutist. Other forms such as those theorized by Isaiah Berlin, may value pluralist ideals.

Religion[edit]

Baháʼí Faith[edit]

A white column with ornate designs carved into it, including a Star of David
Symbols of many religions on a pillar of the Baháʼí House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois
Main articles: Baháʼí Faith and the unity of humanity, Baháʼí Faith and the unity of religion, and Progressive revelation (Baháʼí)

In the teachings of the Baháʼí Faith, a single God has sent all the historic founders of the world religions in a process of progressive revelation. As a result, the major world religions are seen as divine in origin and are continuous in their purpose. In this view, there is unity among the founders of world religions, but each revelation brings a more advanced set of teachings in human history and none are syncretic.[9] In addition, the Baháʼí teachings acknowledge that in every country and every people God has always revealed the divine purpose via messengers and prophets, masters and sages since time immemorial.[10][11]

Within this universal view, the unity of humanity is one of the central teachings of the Baháʼí Faith.[12] The Baháʼí teachings state that since all humans have been created in the image of God, God does not make any distinction between people with regard to race, colour or religion.[13]: 138  Thus, because all humans have been created equal, they all require equal opportunities and treatment.[12] Hence the Baháʼí view promotes the unity of humanity, and that people's vision should be world-embracing and that people should love the whole world rather than just their nation.[13]: 138 

The teaching, however, does not equate unity with uniformity; instead the Baháʼí writings advocate the principle of unity in diversity where the variety in the human race is valued.[13]: 139  Operating on a worldwide basis this cooperative view of the peoples and nations of the planet culminates in a vision of the practicality of the progression in world affairs towards, and the inevitability of, world peace.[14]

Buddhism[edit]

The term Universalism has been applied to different aspects of Buddhist thought by different modern authors.

The idea of universal salvation is key to the Mahayana school of Buddhism.[15][16] A common feature of Mahayana Buddhism is the idea that all living beings have Buddha nature and thus all beings can aspire to become bodhisattvas, beings who are on the path to Buddhahood.[16] This capacity is seen as something that all beings in the universe have.[17][18] This idea has been termed "bodhisattva universalism" by the Buddhist studies scholar Jan Nattier.[19]

The idea of universal Buddha nature has been interpreted in various ways in Buddhism, from the idea that all living beings have Buddha nature and thus can become Buddhas to the idea that because all beings have Buddha nature, all beings will definitely become Buddhas.[18] Some forms of East Asian Mahayana Buddhism even extended the Buddha nature theory to plants and insentient phenomena. Some thinkers (such as Kukai) even promote the idea that the entire universe is the Buddha's body.[18][20]

The Lotus Sutra, an influential Mahayana scripture, is often seen as promoting the universality of Buddhahood, the Buddha's teaching as well as the equality of all living beings.[21][22] Mahayana Buddhism also promotes a universal compassion towards all sentient beings and sees all beings as equally deserving of compassion.[23][24] The doctrine of the One Vehicle (which states that all Buddhist paths lead to Buddhahood) is also often seen as a universalist doctrine.[17]

Adherents to Pure Land Buddhism point to Amitabha Buddha as a Universal Savior. According to the Pure Land Sutras (scriptures), before becoming a Buddha Amitabha vowed that he would save all beings and according to some Pure Land authors, all beings will be eventually saved through the work of Amida Buddha. As such, Pure Land Buddhism is often seen as an expression of a Buddhist universalism that compares to Christian universalism.[16] This comparison has also been commented on by Christian theologians like Karl Barth.[16]

Chinese Buddhism developed a form of Buddhist universalism which saw Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism as different aspects of a single universal truth.[25]

In Western Buddhism, the term Universalism may also refer to an nonsectarian and eclectic form of Buddhism which emphasizes ecumenism among the different Buddhism schools.[26] American clergyman Julius A. Goldwater was one Buddhist figure who promoted a modern kind of Buddhist Universalism. For Goldwater, Buddhism transcends local contexts and culture, and his practice grew increasingly eclectic over time. Goldwater established the nonsectarian Buddhist Brotherhood of America which focused on ecumenical and nonsectarian Buddhism while also drawing on Protestant vocabulary and ideas.[27]

The desire to develop a more universalist and nonsectarian form of Buddhism was also shared by some modernist Japanese Buddhist authors, including the influential D.T. Suzuki.[28]

Christianity[edit]

Main article: Christian universalism

The fundamental idea of Christian universalism is universal reconciliation – that all humans will ultimately receive salvation and be reconciled to God. They will eventually enter God's kingdom in Heaven, through the grace and works of the Lord Jesus Christ.[29] Christian universalists hold that an everlasting hell does not exist (though most believe there is a temporary hell of some kind), and that unending torment was not what Jesus taught. They point to historical evidence showing that many early fathers of the church were universalists[30] and attribute the origin of the idea of hell as eternal punishment to mistranslation. They also appeal to many texts of Scripture to argue that the concept of eternal hell is not biblically or historically supported either in Judaism or early Christianity.[31]

Universalists cite numerous biblical passages which reference the salvation of all beings (such as Jesus' words in John 12:31-32, and Paul's words in Romans 5:18-19).[32] In addition, they argue that an eternal hell is both unjust and contrary to the nature and attributes of a loving God.[33][34][35]

The beliefs of Christian universalism are generally compatible with the essentials of Christianity, as they do not contradict any of the central affirmations summarized in the Nicene Creed.[36] More specifically, universalists often emphasize the following teachings:

  • God is the loving Parent of all people (see Love of God).
  • Jesus Christ reveals the nature and character of God, and is the spiritual leader of humankind.
  • Humankind is created with an immortal soul, which death can not end—or a mortal soul that shall be resurrected and preserved by God. A soul which God will not wholly destroy.[37]
  • Sin has negative consequences for the sinner either in this life or the afterlife. All of God's punishments for sin are corrective and remedial. None of such punishments will last forever, or result in the permanent destruction of a soul. Some Christian universalists believe in the idea of a Purgatorial Hell, or a temporary place of purification that some must undergo before their entrance into Heaven.[38]

In 1899 the Universalist General Convention, later called the Universalist Church of America, adopted the Five Principles: the belief in God, Jesus Christ, the immortality of the human soul, the reality of sin and universal reconciliation.[39]

History[edit]

Main article: History of Christian universalism

Universalist writers such as George T. Knight have claimed that Universalism was a widely held view among theologians in Early Christianity.[40] These included such important figures such as Alexandrian scholar Origen as well as Clement of Alexandria, a Christian theologian.[40] Origen and Clement both included the existence of a non-eternal Hell in their teachings. Hell was remedial, in that it was a place one went to purge one's sins before entering into Heaven.[41]

The first undisputed documentations of Christian universalist ideas occurred in 17th-century England and 18th-century Europe as well as in colonial America. Between 1648-1697 English activist Gerrard Winstanley, writer Richard Coppin, and dissenter Jane Leade, each taught that God would grant all human beings salvation. The same teachings were later spread throughout 18th-century France and America by George de Benneville. People who taught this doctrine in America would later become known as the Universalist Church of America.[42] The first Universalist Church in America was founded by John Murray (minister).[43]

The Greek term apocatastasis came to be related by some to the beliefs of Christian universalism, but central to the doctrine was the restitution, or restoration of all sinful beings to God, and to His state of blessedness. In early Patristics, usage of the term is distinct.

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Universalist theology[edit]

Universalist theology is grounded in history, scripture, and assumptions about the nature of God. That All Shall Be Saved (2019) by Orthodox Christian theologian David Bentley Hart contains arguments from all three areas but with a focus on arguments from the nature of God. Thomas Whittemore wrote the book 100 Scriptural Proofs that Jesus Christ Will Save All Mankind[44] quoting both Old and New Testament verses which support the Universalist viewpoint.

Some Bible verses he cites and are cited by other Christian universalists are:

  1. Luke 3:6: "And all people will see God's salvation." (NIV)
  2. John 17:2: "since thou hast given him power over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom thou hast given him." (RSV)
  3. 1 Corinthians 15:22:[45] "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive." (ESV)
  4. 2 Peter 3:9: "The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance." (ESV)
  5. 1 Timothy 2:3–6:[45] "This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for ALL men—the testimony given in its proper time." (NIV)
  6. 1 John 2:2: "He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world." (NIV)
  7. 1 Timothy 4:10:[45] "For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe." (ESV)
  8. Romans 5:18: "Then as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one man's act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all men." (RSV)
  9. Romans 11:32:[45] "For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all." (NIV)

Questions of Biblical Translation[edit]

Christian universalists point towards the mistranslations of the Greek word αιών (literally "age," but often assumed to mean "eternity") and its adjectival form αἰώνιος (usually assumed to mean "eternal" or "everlasting"), as giving rise to the idea of an endless hell and the idea that some people will never be saved.[31][46][47] For example, Revelation 14:11 says "the smoke of their torment goes up εἰς αἰῶνας αἰώνων" which most literally means "until ages of ages" but is often paraphrased in translations as "forever and ever."[48]

This Greek word is the origin of the modern English word eon, which refers to a period of time or an epoch/age.

The 19th century theologian Marvin Vincent wrote about the word aion, and the supposed connotations of "eternal" or "temporal":

Aion, transliterated aeon, is a period of longer or shorter duration, having a beginning and an end, and complete in itself. [...] Neither the noun nor the adjective, in themselves, carry the sense of endless or everlasting."[49]

A number of scholars have argued that, in some cases, the adjective may not indicate duration at all, but may instead have a qualitative meaning.[50] For instance, Dr. David Bentley Hart translates Matthew 25:46 as "And these will go to the chastening of that Age, but the just to the life of that Age."[51] In this reading, Jesus is not necessarily indicating how long the life and punishment last, but instead what kind the life and punishment are—they are "of the age [to come]" rather than being earthly life or punishment. Dr. Thomas Talbott writes:

[The writers of the New Testament] therefore came to employ the term aiōnios as an eschatological term, one that functioned as a handy reference to the realities of the age to come. In that way they managed to combine the more literal sense of "that which pertains to an age" with the more religious sense of "that which manifests the presence of God in a special way."[52]

Dr. Ken Vincent writes that "When it (aion) was translated into Latin Vulgate, 'aion' became 'aeternam' which means 'eternal'.[31] Likewise, Dr. Ilaria Ramelli explains:

The mistranslation and misinterpretation of αἰώνιος as "eternal" (already in Latin, where both αἰώνιος and ἀΐδιος are rendered aeternus and their fundamental semantic difference is blurred) certainly contributed a great deal to the rise of the doctrine of "eternal damnation" and of the "eternity of hell."[53]

Among the English translations that do not render αἰώνιος as "eternal" or "everlasting" are Young’s Literal Translation (“age-during”), the Weymouth New Testament ("of the ages”), the Concordant Literal Version ("eonian"), Rotherham's Emphasized Bible ("age-abiding"), Hart's New Testament ("of that Age"), and more.[54]

Catholicism[edit]

The first use of the term "Catholic Church" (literally meaning "universal church") was by the church father Saint Ignatius of Antioch in his Letter to the Smyrnaeans (circa 100 AD).[55]

The Catholic church believes that God judges everyone based only on their moral acts,[56] that no one should be subject to human misery,[57] that everyone is equal in dignity yet distinct in individuality before God,[58] that no one should be discriminated against because of their sin or concupiscence,[59] and that apart from coercion[60] God exhausts every means to save mankind from evil: original holiness being intended for everyone,[61] the irrevocable Old Testament covenants,[62][63] each religion being a share in the truth,[64] elements of sanctification in non-Catholic Christian communities,[64] the good people of every religion and nation,[65] everyone being called to baptism and confession,[66][67] and Purgatory, suffrages, and indulgences for the dead.[68][67] The church believes that everyone is predestined to Heaven,[69] that no one is predestined to Hell,[68] that everyone is redeemed by Christ's Passion,[70] that no one is excluded from the church except by sin,[67] and that everyone can either love God by loving others unto going to Heaven or reject God by sin unto going to Hell.[71][72] The church believes that God's predestination takes everything into account,[70] and that his providence brings out of evil a greater good,[60] as evidenced, the church believes, by the Passion of Christ being all at once predestined by God,[70] foretold in Scripture,[70] necessitated by original sin,[73] authored by everyone who sins,[70] caused by Christ's executioners,[70] and freely planned and undergone by Christ.[70] The church believes that everyone who goes to Heaven joins the church,[68][74] and that from the beginning God intended Israel to be the beginning of the church,[65] wherein God would unite all persons to each other and to God.[75] The church believes that Heaven and Hell are eternal.[68]

Hinduism[edit]

Author David Frawley says that Hinduism has a "background universalism" and its teachings contain a "universal relevance."[76] Hinduism is also naturally religiously pluralistic.[77] A well-known Rig Vedic hymn says: "Truth is One, though the sages know it variously."[78] Similarly, in the Bhagavad Gītā (4:11), God, manifesting as an incarnation, states: "As people approach me, so I receive them. All paths lead to me."[79] The Hindu religion has no theological difficulties in accepting degrees of truth in other religions. Hinduism emphasizes that everyone actually worships the same God, whether one knows it or not.[80]

While Hinduism has an openness and tolerance towards other religions, it also has a wide range of diversity within it.[81] There are considered to be six orthodox Hindu schools of philosophy/theology,[82] as well as multiple unorthodox or "heterodox" traditions called darshanas.[83]

Hindu universalism[edit]

Main articles: Neo-Vedanta and Hindu reform movements

Hindu universalism, also called Neo-Vedanta[84] and neo-Hinduism,[85] is a modern interpretation of Hinduism which developed in response to western colonialism and orientalism. It denotes the ideology that all religions are true and therefore worthy of toleration and respect.[86]

It is a modern interpretation that aims to present Hinduism as a "homogenized ideal of Hinduism"[87] with Advaita Vedanta as its central doctrine.[88] For example, it presents that:

... an imagined "integral unity" that was probably little more than an "imagined" view of the religious life that pertained only to a cultural elite and that empirically speaking had very little reality "on the ground," as it were, throughout the centuries of cultural development in the South Asian region.[89]

Hinduism embraces universalism by conceiving the whole world as a single family that deifies the one truth, and therefore it accepts all forms of beliefs and dismisses labels of distinct religions which would imply a division of identity.[90][91][92][self-published source]

This modernised re-interpretation has become a broad current in Indian culture,[88][93] extending far beyond the Dashanami Sampradaya, the Advaita Vedanta Sampradaya founded by Adi Shankara. An early exponent of Hindu Universalism was Ram Mohan Roy, who established the Brahmo Samaj.[94] Hindu Universalism was popularised in the 20th century in both India and the west by Vivekananda[95][88] and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan.[88] Veneration for all other religions was articulated by Gandhi:

After long study and experience, I have come to the conclusion that [1] all religions are true; [2] all religions have some error in them; [3] all religions are almost as dear to me as my own Hinduism, in as much as all human beings should be as dear to one as one's own close relatives. My own veneration for other faiths is the same as that for my own faith; therefore no thought of conversion is possible.[96]

Western orientalists played an important role in this popularisation, regarding Vedanta to be the "central theology of Hinduism".[88] Oriental scholarship portrayed Hinduism as a "single world religion",[88] and denigrated the heterogeneousity of Hindu beliefs and practices as 'distortions' of the basic teachings of Vedanta.[97]

Islam[edit]

Further information: Ummah, Divisions of the world in Islam, People of the Book, Dhimmi, and Dawah

Islam recognizes to a certain extent the validity of the Abrahamic religions, the Quran identifying Jews, Christians, and "Sabi'un" (usually taken as a reference to the Mandaeans) as "people of the Book" (ahl al-kitab). Later Islamic theologians expanded this definition to include Zoroastrians, and later even Hindus, as the early Islamic empire brought many people professing these religions under its dominion, but the Qur'an explicitly identifies only Jews, Christians, and Sabians as People of the Book.[98][need quotation to verify], [99][failed verification], [100][failed verification] The relation between Islam and universalism has assumed crucial importance in the context of political Islam or Islamism, particularly in reference to Sayyid Qutb, a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood movement, and one of the key contemporary philosophers of Islam.[101]

There are several views within Islam with respect to Universalism. According to the most inclusive teachings all peoples of the book have a chance of salvation. For example, Surah 2:62 states:

Indeed, the believers, Jews, Christians, and Sabians—whoever ˹truly˺ believes in Allah and the Last Day and does good will have their reward with their Lord. And there will be no fear for them, nor will they grieve.

— Surah Al-Baqara 2:62

However, the most exclusive teachings disagree. For example, Surah 9:5 states:

But once the Sacred Months have passed, kill the polytheists ˹who violated their treaties˺ wherever you find them, capture them, besiege them, and lie in wait for them on every way. But if they repent, perform prayers, and pay alms-tax, then set them free. Indeed, Allah is All-Forgiving, Most Merciful.

— Surah At-Tawbah 9:5

The interpretation of all of these passages are hotly contested amongst various schools of thought and branches of Islam as is the doctrine of abrogation (naskh) which is used to determine which verses take precedence, based on reconstructed chronology, with later verses superseding earlier ones. The ahadith also play a major role in this, and different schools of thought assign different weightings and rulings of authenticity to different hadith, with the four schools of Sunni thought accepting the Six Authentic Collections, generally along with the Muwatta Imam Malik. Depending on the level of acceptance of rejection of certain traditions, the interpretation of the Koran can be changed immensely, from the Qur'anists who reject the ahadith, to the ahl al-hadith, who hold the entirety of the traditional collections in great reverence.

Some Islamic scholars[102][103] view the world as bipartite, consisting of the House of Islam, that is, where people live under the Sharia;[103] and the House of War, that is, where the people do not live under Sharia, which must be proselytized[103][104][105] using whatever resources available, including, in some traditionalist and conservative interpretations,[106] the use of violence, as holy struggle in the path of God,[100][106][107] to either convert its inhabitants to Islam, or to rule them under the Shariah (cf. dhimmi).[108]

Judaism[edit]

Main article: Jewish views on religious pluralism
See also: Noahidism
Sefer Torah at old Glockengasse Synagogue (reconstruction), Cologne

Judaism teaches that God chose the Jewish people to be in a unique covenant with God, and one of their beliefs is that Jewish people were charged by the Torah with a specific mission—to be a light unto the nations, and to exemplify the covenant with God as described in the Torah to other nations. This view does not preclude a belief that God also has a relationship with other peoples—rather, Judaism holds that God had entered into a covenant with all humanity as Noachides, and that Jews and non-Jews alike have a relationship with God, as well as being universal in the sense that it is open to all mankind.[109]

Modern Jews such as Emmanuel Levinas advocate a universalist mindset that is performed through particularist behavior.[110] An on-line organization, the Jewish Spiritual Leaders Institute founded and led by Steven Blane, who calls himself an "American Jewish Universalist Rabbi", believes in a more inclusive version of Jewish Universalism, stating that "God equally chose all nations to be lights unto the world, and we have much to learn and share with each other. We can only accomplish Tikkun Olam by our unconditional acceptance of each other's peaceful doctrines."[111]

Manichaeism[edit]

Main article: Manichaeism

Manichaeism, like Christian Gnosticism and Zurvanism, was arguably in some ways inherently universalist.[112][page needed] Yet in other respects, it was quite contrary to universalistic principles, holding instead to an eternal dualism.[113]

Sikhism[edit]

In Sikhism, all the religions of the world are compared to rivers flowing into a single ocean. Although the Sikh gurus did not agree with the practices of fasting, idolatry and pilgrimage during their times, they stressed that all religions should be tolerated. The Sikh scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib, contains the writings of not just the Sikh guru themselves, but the writings of several Hindu and Muslim saints, known as the Bhagats.

The very first word of the Sikh scripture is "Ik", followed by "Omkar". This literally means that there is only one god, and that one is wholesome, inclusive of the whole universe. It further goes on to state that all of creation, and all energy is part of this primordial being. As such, it is described in scripture over and over again, that all that occurs is part of the divine will, and as such, has to be accepted. It occurs for a reason, even if it is beyond the grasp of one person to understand.

Although Sikhism does not teach that men are created as an image of God, it states that the essence of the One is to be found throughout all of its creation.[114] As was said by Yogi Bhajan, the man who is credited with having brought Sikhism to the West:

If you can't see God in all, you can't see God at all.

— Sri Singh Sahib, Yogi Bhajan[115]

The First Sikh Guru, Guru Nanak said himself:

There is no Hindu, there is no Muslim".[116][117]

By this, Guru Nanak meant that there is no real "religion" in God's eyes. Unlike many of the major world religions, Sikhism does not have missionaries, instead it believes men have the freedom to find their own path to salvation.

Unitarian Universalism[edit]

Main article: Unitarian Universalism
Sign on a UU church in Rochester, Minnesota, United States

Unitarian Universalism (UU) is a theologically liberal religion characterized by a "free and responsible search for truth and meaning".[118] Unitarian Universalists do not share a creed; rather, they are unified by their shared search for spiritual growth and by the understanding that an individual's theology is a result of that search and not a result of obedience to an authoritarian requirement. Unitarian Universalists draw from all major world religions[119] and many different theological sources and have a wide range of beliefs and practices.

While having its origins in Christianity, UU is no longer a Christian church. As of 2006, fewer than about 20% of Unitarian Universalists identified themselves as Christian.[120] Contemporary Unitarian Universalism espouses a pluralist approach to religious belief, whereby members may describe themselves as humanist, agnostic, deist, atheist, pagan, Christian, monotheist, pantheist, polytheist, or assume no label at all.

The Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) was formed in 1961, a consolidation of the American Unitarian Association, established in 1825, and the Universalist Church of America,[121] established in 1866. It is headquartered in Boston, and mainly serves churches in the United States. The Canadian Unitarian Council became an independent body in 2002.[122]

Zoroastrianism[edit]

Faravahar (or Ferohar), one of the primary symbols of Zoroastrianism, believed to be the depiction of a Fravashi (guardian spirit)
Main article: Zoroastrianism

Some varieties of Zoroastrian (such as Zurvanism) are universalistic in application to all races, but not necessarily universalist in the sense of universal salvation.[123][failed verification]

Views of the Latter Day Saint Movement[edit]

See also: Universalism and the Latter Day Saint movement

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Harmony of Religions | Vedanta Society of Southern California".
  2. ^ Nations, United. "Are Human Rights Universal?". United Nations. Retrieved 2021-04-17.
  3. ^ Benhabib, Seyla (2007). "Another Universalism: On the Unity and Diversity of Human Rights". Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association. 81 (2): 7–32. ISSN 0065-972X. JSTOR 27653991.
  4. ^ King 2002.
  5. ^ Otis Ainsworth Skinner (1807-1861), A Series of Sermons in Defense of the Doctrine of Universal Salvation, Page 209, It is not part of mainline Christian doctrine either Catholic or Protestant. "Repentance is a means by which all men are brought into the enjoyment of religion, and we do expect any man will be saved while he continues in sin. However, Unitarian Universalism holds a universal salvation, because is, "we expect all men will repent."
  6. ^ Bonnett, A. (2005). Anti-Racism. Routledge.
  7. ^ Kemerling, Garth (November 12, 2011). "A Dictionary of Philosophical Terms and Names". Philosophy Pages. According to Immanuel Kant and Richard Mervyn Hare...moral imperatives must be regarded as equally binding on everyone.
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Sources[edit]

Further reading[edit]

  • Ankerl, Guy (2000). Global communication without universal civilization. Vol. 1: Coexisting contemporary civilizations: Arabo-Muslim, Bharati, Chinese, and Western. Geneva, Switzerland: INU Press. ISBN 9782881550041.
  • Palmquist, Stephen (2000), "Chapter eight: Christianity as the Universal religion", in Palmquist, Stephen (ed.), Kant's critical religion, Aldershot, Hants, England Burlington, Vermont: Ashgate, ISBN 9780754613336. Online.
  • Scott, Joan W. (2005), "French Universalism in the nineties", in Friedman, Marilyn (ed.), Women and citizenship, Studies in Feminist Philosophy, Oxford New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 35–51, ISBN 9780195175356.

External links[edit]

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Approaches to Interfaith Dialogue — Interfaith Photovoice

Approaches to Interfaith Dialogue — Interfaith Photovoice



Approaches to Interfaith Dialogue



By William L. Sachs, Ph.D.

Interreligious Dialogue in 20th Century America

Although the meaning of “interreligious dialogue” seems abundantly clear, its meaning has shifted significantly since the mid-twentieth century. In the past, this dialogue referred to formal occasions at which senior religious scholars and leaders discussed areas of difference and potential agreements between different traditions. Typically, such “dialogue” occurred in formal assemblies, including such gatherings as the World Council of Churches.

Historically, dialogue surrounding religious difference usually took place between those in the same religion . Formal gatherings and the elaborate statements that resulted helped to unite branches of the Christian tradition, for example. For much of the twentieth century, the ecumenical movement embodied interreligious dialogue. Important points of understanding between Lutherans and Episcopalians, for example, drew these churches together in forms of mutual recognition. Formal expressions of respect advanced cooperation between religious institutions.

So long as the religious spectrum of the United States was predominantly Christian, “dialogue” was narrowly defined, and the meetings were led by senior scholars and administrators who spoke on behalf of their institutions. However, in the latter part of the twentieth century, the size and influence of religious denominations began a steady decline. The so-called “mainstream” churches that once seemed to embody American religious life were severely affected. They had developed institutional structures that mimicked the form of twentieth-century corporate life. With support from their regional structures and local congregations, denominational headquarters sought to manage religious life by setting standards and providing resources. Representatives who gathered for dialogue could presume they spoke for clearly defined religious groups.

Two historic developments reshaped the meaning of dialogue and how it would occur. Unity and coherence among religious institutions began to falter. Conflicts over civil rights for African-American persons and over the roles of women in religious life generated forms of activism that secured historic advances and highlighted inequities in institutional power structures. A “culture war” embroiled religious life in divisions between liberals and conservatives, the latter including the growth of fundamentalism. At times, the issues at stake seemed subsumed by conflicting forms of activism, with religious institutional coherence suffering as a result.

Religious Pluralism

At the same time, North American religious life gained unprecedented variety and diversity. Once characterized as “Protestant, Catholic, Jew” (Herberg 1955), religious pluralism became prevalent with the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act (also known as the Hart-Celler Act) in 1965, which opened the United States to immigrants from non-western countries who brought their faith with them. Whereas only the largest metropolitan populations included a range of religions in the past, today religious diversity is evident across all regions of the United States. By the beginning of the twenty-first century, the variety of American religious life included significant numbers of Asian religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism. Their large numbers and spread across North America made their presence visible at the local level in many communities for the first time.

The notable case, certainly in public awareness, is the growth of Islam in the United States. The Pew Research Center reported in 2017 that the Muslim population of the United States had reached 3.45 million, approximately one percent of the national figure. Pew found that three-quarters of American Muslims are immigrants or the children of immigrants. The number is not large (1.1 percent of the U.S. population), but the rate of growth by immigration is notable: since 2011, “Muslim population has continued to grow at a rate of roughly 100,000 per year, driven both by higher fertility rates among Muslim Americans as well as the continued migration of Muslims to the U.S.” (Mohamed 2018:n.p.). Pew also notes the high educational level of American Muslims and the high proportion of youth among the Muslim population. It is also striking that diversity of race, ethnicity, and religious practice attends American Muslim communities. The global distinction between Sunni and Shia is extended, for example, by Black Muslims, a subgroup of African-American origin in the US. Islam in America is characterized by encounters between peoples of differing national identities and cultural backgrounds, making the organization of local Muslim life challenging. Though many Muslims gather along ethnic lines, some Islamic mosques bridge members’ cultural differences in pursuit of their shared religious practices and pursuits.

For Christians, the shrinkage of religious institutions and the rise of religious pluralism could be interpreted as decline. The conflicts that confounded denominational life, especially as fundamentalist and sectarian groups arose, seemed to decrease Christianity’s role in American life. By the early twenty-first century, the Christian percentage of the population had fallen to roughly 70 percent (Pew Research Center 2015). Further challenge to all religious groups was the fact that more than 20 percent of all Americans professed no religious affiliation. Still, in 2017 nearly 90 percent of the US population continued to profess belief in god or a higher power as they understood it (Pew Research Center 2018).

Interreligious Dialogue Today

“Interreligious dialogue” now relies on the initiative of local leaders who summon their congregation or religious group toward engagement with people of different faiths in their vicinity. In this setting, the meaning of “interreligious dialogue” has shifted to launching forms of practical initiative and patterns of cooperation. People of different faiths can recognize their common stake in the life of their neighborhood, city, and region. With this recognition, dialogue becomes experiential and intentional. It requires a mixture of reflection and action in ways that create fresh social bonds. And in some cases, like the programs of Grand Rapids based Kaufman Institute, interfaith small groups are organized to create opportunities for friendships around shared interests in movies, food, knitting, and contemplative practices.

There is a clear basis for interfaith initiative in both Christian and Muslim traditions. It may seem surprising to some that not merely acceptance but engagement with other faiths proves intrinsic to Islam, as Zeyneb Sayilgan maintains. She grants that a recent Pew survey finds “the overwhelming majority” of the world’s Muslims “believes that Islam is the only true religion leading to eternal salvation” (Sayilgan 2016:20). She also acknowledges that “a marginal but vocal minority” of the world’s Muslims rejects other faiths and even intends them harm. But the weight of Islamic tradition is on respectful “engagement” (Sayilgan 2016:23). Qur’an 5:48 celebrates religious difference as god’s creation. In Muslim eyes other traditions may be incomplete, yet those traditions and their followers are to be respected. As the prophet lived among people of other faiths, so Muslims are enjoined to build bonds, which Sayilgan interprets as dialogical and social. People of “the book” (i.e., the Abrahamic faiths) are referenced in the Qur’an and so are especially welcomed. Indeed, Jesus is identified as a prophet in the Qur’an.

The attacks of September 11, 2001 forced many American Muslims to consider their approach to civic life and interfaith relations. It also brought sharp controversy surrounding the proposed Islamic center near Ground Zero in New York City and resistance to building other mosques in some American communities. Additionally, conversations about shariah continue to provoke heated religious and political debates, particularly among the most politically conservative Americans. In the midst of these tensions however, we also see an increased commitment to dialogue and cooperation; these national controversies have sparked new expressions of local interfaith activism.

Sayilgan’s colleague, Robert Heaney (2016), notes that Christianity is a missionary religion, which manifests across a spectrum of humanitarian and conversionist projects. The centrality of Jesus Christ and the Trinitarian basis of faith both define Christianity’s uniqueness and present obstacles to finding common ground with Islam—Muslims perceive the Christian construction of a triune god as polytheism, for example. But as an Abrahamic faith rooted in a creator god, in love of neighbor, and in compassion, Christians also have a profound basis for respectful engagement. “Mission” readily becomes “proclamation,” or living the faith in dialogue and in action without the intention of proselytism (Heaney 2016:12). “Mission” also translates into forms of service which seek the common good amid pluralism without diminishing the commitments of one’s neighbors to differing faiths. For both Muslims and Christians, in practice, there are ways to strike a balance between affirmation of one’s own faith and constructive engagement with persons who profess another faith.

Photovoice opens such a door. Different sorts of challenges attend contextual rather than institutional dialogue. To gain shared vision of their community, and to address it constructively, people of different religious traditions require a means of coming together, that is, an easily grasped rationale for being introduced and seeking to work together. Common purpose requires common vision. Photovoice provides a readily understood means of exploring shared affirmation of the place where they live for people whose lives otherwise are defined by difference.

Works Cited

Heaney, Robert S. 2016. “A Christian Rationale for Interfaith Engagement.” Pp. 3–19 in Faithful Neighbors: Christian-Muslim Vision & Practice, edited by R.S. Heaney, Z. Sayilgan, and C. Haymes. New York: Morehouse.

Herberg, Will. 1955. Protestant – Catholic – Jew: An Essay in American Religious Sociology. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Mohamed, Besheer. 2018. “New Estimates Show US Muslim Population Continues to Grow.” Pew Research Center. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/01/03/new -estimates-show-u-s-muslim-population-continues-to-grow/, retrieved 30 June 2018.

Pew Research Center. 2015. “America's Changing Religious Landscape.” http://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/americas-changing-religious-landscape/, retrieved 29 June 2018.

Pew Research Center. 2018. “When Americans Say They Believe in God, What Do They Mean?” http://www.pewforum.org/2018/04/25/when-americans-say-they-believe -in-God-what-do-they-mean/, retrieved 27 June 2018.

Sayilgan, Zeyneb. 2016. “A Muslim Rationale for Interfaith Engagement.” Pp. 20–36 in Faithful Neighbors: Christian-Muslim Vision & Practice, edited by R.S. Heaney, Z. Sayilgan, and C. Haymes. New York: Morehouse.

Acknowledgements

The material above is an edited version of a section of “Through One Another’s Lenses: Photovoice and Interfaith Dialogue” by Roman R. Williams, William L. Sachs, Catherine Holtmann, Elena G. van Stee, Kaitlyn Eekhoff, Michael Bos, and Ammar Amonette. It appears in the Annual Review of the Sociology of Religion, Volume 10: Interreligious Dialogue: From Religion to Geopolitics, edited by Giuseppe Giordan and Andrew P. Lynch, and published by Brill (Leiden, The Netherlands). We are grateful to the Louisville Institute for the Collaborative Inquiry Team grant that supports this project and to the Kaufman Interfaith Institute for its local partnership and funding.
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2023/08/02

Unity School of Christianity (criticism)

Unity School of Christianity

https://www.leaderu.com/



Unity School of Christianity

Russ Wise

  • The Unity School of Christianity is a classic new age cult. 
  • It has the appearance of being Christian; however, it holds pantheistic or new age beliefs at its core. 
  • Unity was founded by Charles and Myrtle Fillmore in 1889, and was later incorporated as a church in 1903 by the Unity Society of Practical Christianity in Kansas City. 
  • Unity is best known by its publication The Daily Word, used by many who are unaware of its doctrinal positions.

History

The Unity School of Christianity began as a quest for physical healing by its co-founder, Mary Caroline Page, known as Myrtle, the wife of Charles Fillmore. Even before their marriage in March of 1881 Myrtle had already developed an eclectic theology. Charles had a background in Hinduism, Buddhism, Rosicrucianism, and Theosophy.

They became students of metaphysics and after taking some forty or more courses Myrtle developed what was to become known as Practical Christianity. Myrtle became a practitioner of "mental healing."

A spiritual breakthrough came for Myrtle in 1886 when she attended a meeting lead by Dr. E.B. Weeks, a noted metaphysician. Dr. Weeks made a statement that would change Myrtle's understanding of herself and set her on a new course of spiritual development. Myrtle was in a state of mental and physical illness and had come to a point where she was not helped by either medicine or physicians. Dr. Weeks's statement that day brought her the healing she sought. She cherished each word of the phrase "I am a child of God and therefore I do not inherit sickness."

Myrtle believed that she had discovered a great "spiritual truth" regarding healing, i.e., by repeating this phrase as a positive affirmation she would be healed. She began to offer her services to others and soon developed a following of those seeking divine healing.

The Fillmores were students of Phineas Parkhurst Quimby, a mental healer and metaphysician. Myrtle was also a follower of Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, who was likewise influenced by Quimby. Unity, therefore, was birthed by the Fillmores, but its roots go back to directly to Mary Baker Eddy and both directly and indirectly to Phineas Quimby.

According to Charles Fillmore the name Unity was adopted in 1895, denoting that Unity was devoted to the spiritualization of all humanity and took the best from all religions. He said the following regarding the eclectic belief system of Unity:

We have studied many isms, many cults. People of every religion under the sun claim that we either belong to them or have borrowed the best part of our teaching from them. We have borrowed the best from all religions, that is the reason we are called Unity. . . . Unity is not a sect, not a separation of people into an exclusive group of know-it-alls. Unity is the Truth that is taught in all religions, simplified. . .so that anyone can understand and apply it. Students of Unity do not find it necessary to sever their church affiliations.

Thus many Christians adopt Unity's teachings and bring those back into their churches, not identifying their "new" teachings as Unity's and thereby compromising the doctrinal integrity of the church.

Unity Doctrine and Theology

God

God is not a personality but a spiritual energy "force" or principle of love. Charles Fillmore in his book, Jesus Christ Heals, says that "God is not loving. God is love . . . from which is drawn forth all feeling, sympathy, emotion, and all that goes to make up the joys of existence."

Fillmore goes on to say, "God does not love anybody or anything. God is the love in everybody and everything. God exercises none of His attributes except through the inner consciousness of the universe and man." In other words, God is not a personal being but an energy or force that expresses itself as a pantheistic love that permeates all things.

H. Emilie Cady attempts to reconcile the seemingly incongruous possibility that God can be both personal and impersonal by her statement:

To the individual consciousness God takes on personality, but as the creative underlying cause of all things, He is principle, impersonal; as expressed in each individual, He becomes personal to that one personal, loving, all-forgiving Father-Mother.

It's obvious that Unity's understanding of who God is has fallen victim to its own syncretism. Unity, while attempting to identify itself as being biblical, has offered too much on the "altar of tolerance" and, thereby, has prostituted itself on the bed of other gods.

Donald Curtis, former minister at Unity Church of Dallas and author of several Unity books, has this to say about God: "Every one of us has planted within him a God-seed, and the business of life is to see that this seed grows, unfolds, and expresses in our world."

Curtis goes on to say, "As this seed unfolds through the development of the Christ consciousness, we fulfill our highest objective in this world."

The ultimate goal of those who follow Unity teaching is to recognize their "oneness" with the "Force," thereby realizing their true self, the God-Self. The god of Unity is an adaptation of Hindu belief regarding the divine. God is a part of His creation. God is in all things.

Jesus the Christ

Unity also holds an unbiblical view of Jesus. Donald Curtis agrees with Unity theology in that he believes that Jesus the man is fundamentally different from Jesus the Christ. Curtis says, "Christ is the universal principle of love and wisdom. Christ is the only Son of God, but this only Son of God lives in each one of us."

Curtis makes a primary deviation from biblical understanding in that he holds the position that Jesus is man and that Christ is divine consciousness. He states, "Let us prepare ourself so that the Christ may be born in our own consciousness!" In other words, our spirituality is based on the discovery that the Christ is inherently within each one of us regardless of our personal beliefs or affiliations.

Curtis continues: "When we say 'Jesus the Christ,' we must realize that Jesus represents man and Christ represents God in man." Unity distorts Christ as the Messiah and renders Him as a "universal principle of love" that resides in all of humanity simply waiting to be discovered through self-consciousness.

Unity, along with other New Age belief systems, espouses a mental and spiritual 'transformation' that will raise our consciousness. According to Curtis "there are levels of development through which we grow toward full Christ-consciousness when we are truly transformed, fully reborn."

The pantheistic nature of Unity is expressed in Curtis' declaration that "we let our self be ruled by the Christ within. We let the Christ teaching unfold in and through us in this great new age. We know that this Christ principle indwells every individual, no matter what his religious beliefs may be. . . . We give thanks for the realization of the mystical Christ, for the Christ consciousness alive in our life."

Unified Man

According to Donald Curtis, man's primary purpose is to recognize that he is divine. He states: "There is another teaching, however a higher teaching. It is that man has always existed as part of God, and that this God-self, which is the living Essence of everything, individualizes itself in man."

Curtis goes on to say that "within each of us there is a great, wise, and beautiful Being. This is what we really are--the living Essence of everything. We are evolving constantly. We have self- consciousness; now we must develop God-consciousness, a sense of universal unity. And we must endeavor to manifest this God- consciousness in our world to solve our apparent differences through love and understanding."

Unity teaches evolution, both physical and mental or spiritual. It teaches that mankind evolves toward Godhood and that this collective God-consciousness will be man's solution to all his problems. This teaching elevates mankind to divinity, a position that is far from biblical teaching.

In his book The Way of the Christ, Curtis says that "man is human, but he is first of all divine." He adds that "as we recognize and identify with the Christ within, we become one with the universal Self-God."

This is nothing more than Hindu philosophy dressed in Western garb: everything is a part of God and God encompasses all that is, whether it be animate or inanimate. This idea, pantheism, is widely held in the East and is being imported to the United States via every means available to man.

Salvation

H. Emilie Cady in her book, Lessons in Truth, says that "man originally lived consciously in the spiritual part of himself. He fell by descending in his consciousness to the external or more material part of himself." In other words, the fall of man was from the spiritual realm to the physical and this fall has caused him to suffer spiritual amnesia. Therefore man's dilemma is to reclaim his place in the spiritual realm through right thinking.

Unity teaches that as man discovers his innate divinity he continues to raise his consciousness until he becomes fully God- realized. Once man has achieved this state of understanding he recognizes that he is in perfect oneness with God and is not in need of redemption but that he is indeed the divine.

The unbiblical position regarding salvation held by Unity is clearly seen in the Unity publication, The Way to Salvation. This pamphlet states that "Jesus Christ was not meant to be slain as a substitute for man; that is, to atone vicariously for him. Each person must achieve at-one-ment with God, by letting the Christ Spirit within him resurrect his soul into Christ perfection."

Curtis says that "more than ever, we need to become quiet and focus upon the inner. We need to be still and to know that the presence within is God." When one becomes fully aware of this divine presence salvation is realized because the individual no longer has a sense of lostness.

Reincarnation

Unity teaches that the individual lives a number of lifetimes within one existence. Dr. Donald Curtis of the Unity Church of Dallas writes that "it isn't so important that we make it in this particular lifetime, as it is to realize that we do make it, because there is only one lifetime and it goes on forever."

Article 22 of the Unity Statement of Faith states, "we believe that the dissolution of spirit, soul and body, caused by death, is annulled by rebirth of the same spirit and soul in another body here on earth. We believe the repeated incarnations of man to be a merciful provision of our loving Father to the end that all may have opportunity to attain immortality through regeneration, as did Jesus."

Charles Fillmore rejected the standard understanding of reincarnation as described by the Hindu or the Buddhist. He could not accept their respective teachings regarding the Law of Karma or the Transmigration of the soul. For him reincarnation was a much more simple way for God to offer man a second chance at perfection.

This teaching of reincarnation is perhaps the most destructive of all the false teachings of Unity. The belief in reincarnation undercuts the primary tenets of the gospel. One would have to deny the deity of our Lord, His physical resurrection, and His Second Coming to accept the error of Charles and Myrtle Fillmore.

Reincarnation undercuts Christian doctrine in three ways. First, it assumes that God is impersonal and is therefore unknowable. Second, reincarnation denigrates the Atonement of Christ, and third, it denies the fact that Jesus physically resurrected from the dead. We need to look at each of these more closely.

The Bible does not offer any evidence to support these assumptions. On the contrary, the Bible clearly teaches that God is a personal Being and that He is knowable. Isaiah 43:25 and Jeremiah 31:20 tell us that God remembers; Exodus 3:12 and Matthew 3:17 say that God speaks; Genesis 1:1 and 6:5 along with Exodus 2:24 say that God sees, hears and creates. Elsewhere the Bible tells us that God is a personal Spirit (John 4:24 and Hebrews 1:3). Since God is a personal Being, He has a will (Matthew 6:10, Hebrews 10:7-9 and 1 John 2:17). Because God has an expressed will, He will also judge His creation (Ezekiel 18:30 and 34:20, and also 2 Corinthians 5:10).

Unity attempts to denigrate the Atonement of Christ in order to build a better case for reincarnation; however, the Atonement delivers man from the cyclical concept of rebirth. Reincarnation does not offer us either peace or hope. The Atonement offers us peace because we do not have to rely on our own righteousness, and it offers us hope because of what Jesus did on the cross. Jesus has dealt with our sin on the cross and our response is to simply accept His work on our behalf.

Likewise, Unity cannot accept a physical resurrection for our Lord. Unity holds that the disciples expected Jesus to be reincarnated, not resurrected. The biblical claims that Jesus rose physically, appeared to and was recognized by many, was physically touched by some, and ate fish with others are troublesome and must be explained away or spiritualized into meaninglessness if Unity is to seem plausible. (See Luke 24:16 and 31.)

Conclusion

The Unity School of Christianity is recognized as a cult because it exhibits several cultic characteristics. One such characteristic is syncretism. Syncretism is the attempt to combine or reconcile differing beliefs, usually by taking the most attractive features from several sources and combining them into a something new. Unity has taken what some would call "the best qualities" of various religious view points and combined them into a new and more acceptable faith.

Another characteristic of cults that is true of Unity is the denial of the biblical doctrine of salvation by faith in Christ's person and His finished work on the cross. In Unity, salvation comes by recognizing our inherent divinity and our oneness with God.

Unity is, in my opinion, the most deceptive of the cultic groups that use the word Christian in their name. Unity's distinction is that the follower of its teaching is encouraged to remain in his respective church home whether it be Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, or whatever. The followers of Unity considers their denominational affiliation as a mission field where they can subtly disseminate their ideas.

I recall that when I first became a believer and was attending a Methodist church, there was a particular woman in the church who often greeted me with the phrase, "Greetings to your higher self." It was a peculiar way to greet someone, yet I never asked her what she meant by it. It was several years later when I became a student of the cults that I understood the significance of her greeting. She was a follower of Unity's teachings, that each of us has the divine residing within us and that the higher self is God.

According to Charles Fillmore, Unity is the blending of various religions and belief systems into one unified system of thought. The Fillmores introduced beliefs into their system that had been commonplace in Eastern religions and occult practices.

The Fillmores introduced a pantheistic view of God to their followers and saw God as being both male and female. God is seen as an energy or force that resides in all things both animate and inanimate. Likewise God is seen as being impersonal and a part of His creation.

Jesus is a principle of "love" that brings oneness to all things. This Christ principle is present within each one of us and ultimately unifies us in a salvation experience.

Unity teaches that man's primary problem is that he has spiritual amnesia and needs to reconnect with his destiny. He needs to regain the realization that he is evolving toward divinity.

  • Salvation, according to Unity, comes by recognizing one's divine nature. 
  • Unity does not recognize the Atonement of Christ but rather 
  • seeks what Eastern mystics refer to as at-one-ment or realizing oneness with the divine on a spiritual level.

Since Unity does not recognize the work of Christ on the cross (the Atonement), but rather accepts evolution as a positive ingredient in man's spirituality, it is only logical that they embrace reincarnation as a valid system for spiritual enlightenment. As you can see, then Unity is not based on biblical teaching. To the contrary, it is heavily influenced by Eastern thought and belief. Unity is a classic New Age cult and is not Christian in any aspect of its doctrine or teaching.

© 1995 Probe Ministries


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The Soul of Christianity by Huston Smith - Ebook | Scribd

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The Soul of Christianity: Restoring the Great Tradition


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"I have tried to describe a Christianity which is fully compatible with everything we now know, and to indicate why Christians feel privileged to give their lives to it."
—Huston Smith

In his most personal and passionate book on the spiritual life, renowned author, scholar, and teacher of world religions Huston Smith turns to his own life-long religion, Christianity. With stories and personal anecdotes, Smith not only presents the basic beliefs and essential teachings of Christianity, but argues why religious belief matters in today's secular world.

Though there is a wide variety of contemporary interpretations of Christianity—some of them conflicting—Smith cuts through these to describe Christianity's "Great Tradition," the common faith of the first millennium of believers, which is the trunk of the tree from which Christianity's many branches, twigs, and leaves have grown. This is not the exclusivist Christianity of strict fundamentalists, nor the liberal, watered-down Christianity practiced by many contemporary churchgoers. In exposing biblical literalism as unworkable as well as enumerating the mistakes of modern secularists, Smith presents the very soul of a real and substantive faith, one still relevant and worth believing in.

Smith rails against the hijacked Christianity of politicians who exploit it for their own needs. He decries the exercise of business that widens the gap between rich and poor, and fears education has lost its sense of direction. For Smith, the media has become a business that sensationalizes news rather than broadening our understanding, and art and music have become commercial and shocking rather than enlightening. Smith reserves his harshest condemnation, however, for secular modernity, which has stemmed from the misreading of science—the mistake of assuming that "absence of evidence" of a scientific nature is "evidence of absence." These mistakes have all but banished faith in transcendence and the Divine from mainstream culture and pushed it to the margins.

Though the situation is grave, these modern misapprehensions can be corrected, says Smith, by reexamining the great tradition of Christianity's first millennium and reaping the lessons it holds for us today. This fresh examination of the Christian worldview, its history, and its major branches provides the deepest, most authentic vision of Christianity—one that is both tolerant and substantial, traditional and relevant.


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Huston Smith


Huston Smith is internationally known and revered as the premier teacher of world religions. He is the focus of a five-part PBS television series with Bill Moyers and has taught at Washington University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Syracuse University, and the University of California at Berkeley. The recipient of twelve honorary degrees, Smith's fifteen books include his bestselling The World's Religions, Why Religion Matters, and his autobiography, Tales of Wonder.Read more



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‘Oranîmes’ – Susan Slyomovics’ interview with Pierre Claverie – Pieds-Noirs

‘Oranîmes’ – Susan Slyomovics’ interview with Pierre Claverie – Pieds-Noirs

Published by  Fiona Barclay at  January 17, 2020Categories Tags 

‘Oranîmes’ - Susan Slyomovics’ interview with Pierre Claverie
Susan Slyomovics is Distinguished Professor in Anthropology at UCLA. She spent the autumn semester of 2019 in Marseille, researching a book on the afterlives of French colonial monuments. During this time she also reflected on previous time spent in both Nîmes and in Oran, urban centres linked by the presence of Notre-Dame de Santa Cruz. Here, she kindly shares details of her interactions with Pierre Claverie, the Bishop of Oran:


Between June 1990 and June 1992, I managed to spend as much time as possible in Oran on six successive Algerian cultural visas. Much of the time I stayed in the hostel attached to the Cathedral of Sainte-Marie, the seat of the diocese of Oran in El Maqqari (ex-St. Eugène). I owe my housing and much more to Pierre Claverie, who was the Bishop of Oran from 1981 until his assassination from a bomb placed near his car in 1996 that also took the life of his chauffeur, Mohamed Bouchikhi.

I can still hear his voice, literally, because I tape-recorded an initial interview and I continue to follow his writings. It took me decades to listen to him again and not without tears. I had given him my first draft in French of my 1995 article on the pilgrimage of the Virgin of Santa Cruz of Oran in Nîmes.* He had spoken to me of growing up in a « colonial bubble » (bulle coloniale), a topic he wrote about in letters to his family.** I had asked him about the « pied-noir » culture of Nîmes, since we both participated in the pilgrimage of the Virgin of Santa Cruz in the early 1990s during a time when attendance had peaked at over 100,000 pilgrims. The interview below has been edited and includes French transcription and my English translation. Since it occurred in Oran, the terms « here » (ici) and « there » (là-bas), as the pied-noir community usually deploys them, are reversed. Not « là-bas » for somewhere south over the Mediterranean Sea, but rather ici is « here » rooted in the space of Algeria.

‘Oranîmes’ – Susan Slyomovics’ interview with Pierre Claverie
Notre-Dame de Santa Cruz, Nîmes: Facing the war memorial, the Sanctuary space still not built up, 1991

‘Oranîmes’ – Susan Slyomovics’ interview with Pierre Claverie
Notre-Dame de Santa Cruz, Nîmes; Facing the landscaped Sanctuary, 2019

‘Oranîmes’ – Susan Slyomovics’ interview with Pierre Claverie
New structures to welcome pilgrims

Père Claverie : 
[It is very difficult to evaluate this pied-noir culture and how it is expressed. It is not a question that I asked myself […] It is no longer important for me here, it becomes so again when I am immersed in this universe which is mine and at the same time not mine. I feel certain affinities and I especially feel the immense suffering of people who did not understand anything, who suffered something even if they were violent actors in this drama, but who were completely alongside the real issues. What was happening to a generation of people who were in their thirties at the time of independence who are now sixty and who keep the same completely aberrant discourse about what they experienced, no notion of history not even a notion of cultural difference, since they erased them from their landscape. They do not accept when it is integrated, that is part of their conception of the world, for me it remains completely the colonial bubble that I knew in my childhood and which is not yet defeated, it hurts me to see people like that.]

Susan:  [Because maybe they think you have the same opinions and that you stayed here?]

Père Claverie: 
[That's it. For my part, I always try in my public speeches to emphasize the fact that there are Christians here and that it is important that there should be. The Christian presence is not only French and it is normal for Christians to live outside their Christian circle, these are the ideas that I develop.]

The significance of Ascension and Assumption

Père Claverie instructed me that Catholic teaching distinguishes between the Ascension of Jesus and the Assumption of Mary, while the pilgrimage of the Virgin of Santa Cruz of Oran is conducted in the name of the Ascension of Mary, a confusion and conflation of holy figures and doctrines. In 1950, Pope Pius XII issued a dogma of faith explicitly defining the doctrine of assumption in Munificentissimus Deus of November 1, 1950.*** This doctrine of Mary's Assumption clarifies that Jesus lifted Mary up to heaven:
Mary's body had been assumed into heaven along with her soul. … [Article 25] … out of filial love for his mother, Jesus Christ has willed that she be assumed into heaven. They base the strength of their proofs on the incomparable dignity of her divine motherhood and of all those prerogatives which follow from it. These include her exalted holiness, entirely surpassing the sanctity of all men and of the angels, the intimate union of Mary with her Son, and the affection of preeminent love which the Son has for his most worthy Mother.”
In contrast, the Ascension of Jesus refers to Jesus raising himself up while the Assumption of Mary is because Jesus raised her up. These doctrinal distinctions influence dates of the pilgrimage in the church calendar because Assumption and Ascension are held on different days. In other words, the Ascension of Jesus was transformed into the Ascension of Mary for the Catholic community originally in Oran and then brought with them to Nîmes. In a sense, this places the Nîmes pilgrimage as practised by the repatriates (rapatriés) from Oran, Algeria out of step with church doctrine, certainly since 1950, as for example in article 45 of the same 1950 doctrine of assumption:
Hence if anyone, which God forbid, should dare wilfully to deny or to call into doubt that which we have defined, let him know that he has fallen away completely from the divine and Catholic Faith.
As I report in my recent article, during Père Claverie’s tenure as Bishop of Oran from 1981-1996, this misalignment of Mary with Ascension Day instead of Assumption Day was “rectified in the 1980s by the Catholic Church of Algeria. Instead, the Virgin Mary was integrated into the local Oran diocesan masses that fell on Pentecost. In every way, the church in Algeria has undergone organizational, affective and spiritual transformations from triumphal colonialism to a church of witness and Muslim–Christian attempts at dialogue.”+
During the interview, Père Claverie speculated about changes to the Nîmes pilgrimage, some of which have in fact occurred after his untimely death. He believed that local church politics intended a slow eventual ‘integration’ of the repatriate community into the Catholic parishes of Nîmes. The pilgrimage of the Virgin of Santa Cruz as it existed in the 1980s and the 1990s was certain to be altered, if not diminished for the next generations. Already in addition to the Ascension Day pilgrimage held on May 29-30, 2019, the Sanctuary also celebrated the Assumption of the Virgin which took place on August 15, 2019 and included inhabitants of Nîmes with no attachments to Algeria. There have been even more transformations. As a result of security concerns, pilgrimages for several years have been confined to the actual perimeter of the Sanctuary guarded by a visible police presence. This means that the surrounding streets no longer host secular events. Given that pilgrim numbers have plummeted to approximately 8,000 in 2018 and 5,000 in 2019, what remains of the festive crowds, food stands, memorabilia, merchants, music, association meetings and reunions was easily moved within the Sanctuary grounds. Finally, anthropologist Dionigi Albera has documented the growth in the population surrounding the Nîmes Sanctuary, in particular the replacement of pieds-noirs by an influx of residents of Maghrebi Muslim background such that a new mosque was erected down the street from the Sanctuary of the Virgin Mary.++

‘Oranîmes’ – Susan Slyomovics’ interview with Pierre Claverie
Mosque of Al-Khalil
In our interview, Père Claverie returned to the early days of the original pilgrimage in Oran. Within the European settler colonial population in nineteenth-century Oran, there were cleavages between the French clergy and the predominantly Spanish worshippers that even their shared Catholic faith could not mask. These differences were reflected in the two statues of the Virgin Mary that reside on Mount Murdjajo : the Virgin on top of the Basilica made from the same mould as the Virgin Mary of Fourvières in Lyon and the smaller Spanish wooden statue of the Virgin Mary in the lower grotto that actually launched the first pilgrimage :

Père Claverie:


[This was a difficult event to interpret at its origin. It is the continuation which is important and a continuation was desired by the pieds-noirs to establish in Oran a place of non-Algerian authenticity : We are here, we carry with us our faith, our almost divine legitimacy over this territory and this statue which is here is a Spanish Virgin. I'm talking about the Virgin of the miracle, where we meet precisely all the opposition and recuperation about the entire popular religious legitimacy which is Spanish and which derives its symbols, its religious practice from Spain with the pilgrimage, like chickpeas in the shoes and all that was really characteristic. And on the other side, the hierarchy of the church which wanted to perpetuate this pilgrimage, gave it French legitimacy with all the opposition that ran throughout the colonial period between the Spanish church and the French church and the French state which required the French church to make French the Spanish church and the Spanish population. So the recuperation by Our Lady of Fourvière of Lyon is weighty. It is also the legitimacy of the state that almost imposed itself on the popular legitimacy. It remained a popular manifestation and they resettled in France with their Spanish symbol, because when you look at all that there is in the surrounding sanctuary.]

By 'all that there is', Père Claverie was referencing the astounding accretion of statues and associated religious artifacts brought or donated to Nîmes drawn from churches throughout the three former French Algerian provinces of Oran, Algiers, and Constantine as well as replicas fabricated locally to replace those remaining objects that the pieds-noirs left behind in Algeria. Such complex movements of statues, church bells, war memorials, and archives are the subject of my next book project.

NOTES
* Susan Slyomovics, “Algeria Elsewhere: The Pilgrimage of the Virgin of Santa Cruz in Oran, Algeria and Nimes, France,” in Folklore Interpreted: Essays in Honor of Alan Dundes, edited by Regina Bendix and Rosemary Levy Zumwalt, 337-354 (New York: Garland Press, 1995).
** Pierre Claverie, Là où se posent les vraies questions: Lettres familiales 1975-1981 (Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf, 2012).
*** The apostolic constitution is available on the Vatican website at http://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/en/apost_constitutions/documents/hf_p-xii_apc_19501101_munificentissimus-deus.html
+ Susan Slyomovics, “The Virgin Mary of Algeria: French Mediterraneans En Miroir.” Special issue: Remapping Mediterranean Anthropology, edited by Naor Ben-Yehoyada, Heath Cabot, and Paul A. Silverstein, History and Anthropology, in press for printed copy. Online pre-publication link: https://doi.org/10.1080/02757206.2019.1684912
++ Dionigi Albera and Jean-François Robert, La Vierge d’Oran et la Mosqué d’Abraham. DVD. Directed by Dionigi Albera and Jean-François Robert (Aix-en-Provence: IDEMEC, 2009); and Dionigi Albera,“The Virgin Mary, the Sanctuary and the Mosque: Interfaith Coexistence at a Pilgrimage Centre,” in Gender, Nation and Religion in European Pilgrimage, edited by Catrien Notermans, 193–208 (London: Routledge, 2012).

Susan Slomovics
Marseille, December 2019
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