I have often thought that for generations Christians have stood on a bridge between the shrouded past and a dim prospect of the human community to survive its own defeats and excesses (i.e. the various Crusades or Intifadas, the Inquisition, the Reign of Terror, the Holocaust, the bombing of Dresden, the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki).
In my lifetime, creationists in our society want the proponents of the theory of evolution to take a backseat to traditional beliefs about origin of the human race and want the science curriculum degraded to a religious posturing. Modernism means we have arrived at the understanding that neither science nor religion has always been the servant of progress in the human community.
The firm belief I espouse is that recognizing and fostering true progress is a spiritual activity that requires education, political involvement, and values commitment. Degrading the role of science or religion is not ultimately consistent with mutual progress for humankind.
An active modernism means embracing a better future for ourselves and our children through the progress afforded by science married to spiritual values. This is our ultimate task of values clarification (i.e. you do not build more nuclear plants when you lack the means physical or political to safely store nuclear waste).
The metaphor that works for me is the pilgrimage. I am reminded of Geoffrey Chaucer's Caunterbury Tales about pilgrims on the way to the tomb of Thomas a Becket. They were fellow travelers who just happened to spend time on the road and in roadside inns telling self-revelatory stories to curb one another's character excesses and flaws. Saints and sinners, we learn from the Tales sometimes by ribald humor, are all in this together.
For me, the devotion of the pilgrimage is only relevant if it is transformative and leads to the pursuit of outcomes that lead the observer to conclude that God is Love.
Last spring while reading Iberia by James Mitchener, I came across the legends associated with James the Greater (to the Spanish Santiago) and his missionary journey to convert Iberia to Christianity. (The Epistle of Saint James is attributed to this saint and apostle as well.) Today as for generations past, pilgrims travel to northwest Spain to venerate this saint and seek his intercession.
The legendary stories of James in Iberia on an apostolic journey remain without factual or historical basis. The devotion of the pilgrims to his shrine is real. The devotion I would foster is that we all journey together towards human progress.
In my lifetime, creationists in our society want the proponents of the theory of evolution to take a backseat to traditional beliefs about origin of the human race and want the science curriculum degraded to a religious posturing. Modernism means we have arrived at the understanding that neither science nor religion has always been the servant of progress in the human community.
The firm belief I espouse is that recognizing and fostering true progress is a spiritual activity that requires education, political involvement, and values commitment. Degrading the role of science or religion is not ultimately consistent with mutual progress for humankind.
An active modernism means embracing a better future for ourselves and our children through the progress afforded by science married to spiritual values. This is our ultimate task of values clarification (i.e. you do not build more nuclear plants when you lack the means physical or political to safely store nuclear waste).
The metaphor that works for me is the pilgrimage. I am reminded of Geoffrey Chaucer's Caunterbury Tales about pilgrims on the way to the tomb of Thomas a Becket. They were fellow travelers who just happened to spend time on the road and in roadside inns telling self-revelatory stories to curb one another's character excesses and flaws. Saints and sinners, we learn from the Tales sometimes by ribald humor, are all in this together.
For me, the devotion of the pilgrimage is only relevant if it is transformative and leads to the pursuit of outcomes that lead the observer to conclude that God is Love.
Last spring while reading Iberia by James Mitchener, I came across the legends associated with James the Greater (to the Spanish Santiago) and his missionary journey to convert Iberia to Christianity. (The Epistle of Saint James is attributed to this saint and apostle as well.) Today as for generations past, pilgrims travel to northwest Spain to venerate this saint and seek his intercession.
The legendary stories of James in Iberia on an apostolic journey remain without factual or historical basis. The devotion of the pilgrims to his shrine is real. The devotion I would foster is that we all journey together towards human progress.
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