Table of Contents | INTRODUCTION: "The Journey Begins" Rationale. While I was searching for a strategy to initiate my web site as well as some provocative way to pique the curiosity of those who might be interested in intriguing new possibilities to express faith and meaning, I stumbled on exactly what I needed. I read a startling assessment by Thomas C. Fox that grabbed my attention! He is the publisher of the National Catholic Reporter and was describing an annual meeting of "Call to Action," a Catholic group calling for reform of the Roman Church. He said that attending the meeting wasn't unlike going for a flu shot. "There's a sting in it but the result is to gain a year of immunity against personal discouragement." That's exactlly what I desire for my web site! I am yearning for the sting of a radical way of interpreting the faith to provide encouragement for anyone who seeks light for life's dark riddle as well as an inoculation against much received religion. Traditional orthodoxy is "sick unto death" and I am offering the power of a new vision to heal. Yes, that sounds grandiose. Yes, it seems like pompous rhetoric. Yes, it promises far more than I can deliver. But I have taken on other tasks that exceeded my gifts. All I have is this restless yearning to point! That's all that I can do. So, join me on this journey and I'll point out the sights and "inns" and "rooms" along the way. On our "sacred journey" the itinerary will take us to some "inn." We will sojourn there until every "room" has been entered. Like those at the Antique Road Show, we will evaluate all that we see as we "pause to be refreshed." If there is reason to linger, we shall do so. Many of us will bypass the more predictable "rooms" so that we can enter the "room to question." We have little energy or interest in the traditional answers. We even question whether we want to continue on a "sacred" journey. But, with an insatiable curiosity, we want to wander around this "room to question" to determine whether the "questions" in this room ever intersect with our experience. So stay as long as you wish. Add your questions to the decor. Nail your theses to this Wittenburg door. Challenge the docent for any explanation or interpretation you desire. If the "answers" aren't satisfying, maybe some one else will do the supplying. Then our "sacred journey" will continue. Whenever our trek takes us to the "rare holy place" where I "glimpsed the mystery," we will pitch a tent, listen to any of my musings that pique your interest, examine what I have seen, determine whether my eyesight is correct or needs correcting and move on whenever we wish. Maybe even in the direction of what I claim to have sighted. If not, we'll gather together, tell our "stories," break bread and continue our "sacred journey" as traveling companions along the way. You are welcome to join this band of pilgrims. There is "room in the inn" for any who wish to explore the future with us! The banquet hall is still ahead. I am past my allotted three score and ten already so I'm moving on! At "God's table of grace" the menu is a sumptuous feast of love, acceptance, forgiveness and joy. On the Way. In 1981 I enrolled in the Divinity School of Harvard University. I had been appointed a Merrill Fellow and was eager to pursue my interest in the area of "faith development" that James E. Fowler described in his books Stages of Faith and Life Maps. Moreover, I had read some of Piaget's studies of children and I wanted to explore the questions related to human development. My religious tradition was rooted in cerebral belief, not visceral faith (an affair of the head and not the heart), and it seemed to be deficient as a way of maturing and growing in relational ways. My intent was to study with Lawrence Kohlberg in the broader field of developmental psychology. Because he was on leave I chose an offering by Robert Kegan called "The Transformation of the Self." Later, he published those lectures under the title of The Evolving Self. His thesis was that human development proceeds along a consistent path at a persistent pace. His argument took the shape of a biological metaphor. At other times it was a metaphor taken from mathematics as he referred to the human journey as a "helix." Human development, he contended, proceeded without an abrupt crisis as one simply emerges from embeddedness in a holding environment. A "cognitive dissonance" wasn't essential. His insights were compelling even if he diverged from the arguments of his mentor and colleagues. For example, Erik Erikson's Childhood and Society contends that a specific developmental task characterizes each stage of maturation and must be accomplished BEFORE the succeeding stage of growth is possible. So I concluded Kegan's perspective was flawed because he either ignored or rejected the balancing corrective of a more realistic understanding of human nature. Maybe an abrupt crisis wasn't esssential but my personal growth has usually been precipitated by this missing dimension of his vision of growth and development. I write this because my human developmental journey has traversed rocky terrain, endured bizarre detours and encountered unexpected and strange deadends. It was seldom a bracing jog toward the light of a shimmering dawn or a bus trip toward the alluring sun. Indeed, to use a different image, more often than not, it has been a voyage through the raging, angry billows of a storm, not unfurling a sail on a serene and blissful sea. And my "sacred journey" has been equally threatening because I continue to explore turf some consider unorthodox or maybe even heretical. I have surveyed theological changes and shifts as dangerous as the ancient disruptions of the tectonic plates that thrust the craggy alpine peaks skyward. For example, I have been aware of the revolutionary impact of the Jesus Seminar for more than a decade. Yet, my careful and deliberate consideration of their work is only now being accessed and assessed. It has had a jarring impact on me. But absolutely liberating. Again, Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry have convinced me that the Copernican world view has collapsed because the vision of people like Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking has eroded its foundations and underpinnings. More than that, the "mythology of Christianity" appropriate for that geo-centric world view doesn't convey meaning in this present age. A cosmo-centric perspective is essential to give shape to "the mythology of Christianity" that is being revised, replaced and articulated in a creative and exciting fashion. I shall describe my encounter with those new insights when the story of my "perpetual journey to an unreachable destination" becomes relevant and appropriate to the musings on this web site. Therefore, having raised the obligatory red flag about what is ahead, I invite you to join me on a journey. The journey will proceed at a leisurely pace, pausing whenever a desire claims us, enter any "inn" or "house" along the way and loiter in any "room" where curiosity is stoked. Perilous travel? Yes! Dangerous? Yes! Our itinerary won't avoid the places or precipices less venturesome souls are determined to bypass. Some of your most cherished notions are going to be challenged, maybe even shattered. But I promise it is ever so exciting. I have survived and even thrived. So can you. The choice of "journey" as the interpretive metaphor is both existential and deliberate. It emerged from my struggle to re-imagine my vision of the Christian life. What Walter Brueggemann, in his book Theology of the Old Testament: Testimony, Dispute, Advocacy, called "diminishment" (even "the end of old dichotomies" of "history and nature" to be replaced by "place and promise") has enabled me to articulate my personal experience. But the articulation of my "sacred journey" required the corrective dialectic that Brueggemann designates as "place and promise." Motivation and energy for the trek are essential components for the maintenance of my vision. You will note information about Brueggemann's book on this page. Therefore, we shall indeed pause along the way at many a "place" (or "inn") to find nourishment, to refuel and to examine the "promise" in any "room." More than that, any detour that "promises" an oasis for temporary shelter when the hazards and storms of our journey threaten to overwhelm us will be on our itinerary. Sojourners pause whenever curiosity beckons. Discoveries can be made when we least expect them. Pauses to Refresh. I have chosen the metaphor of an "inn" to express or "house" my musings about "place." God's "inn" or "house" has many "rooms" in which to express my convictions and to invite dialogue. For example, I have written about the crucial need for a relational vision of the Great Mystery in "The God Room." I have written about liberating Jesus from the mythical matrix by which he has been framed by traditional dogma in "The Jesus Room." I have written about "the new cosmology" that is cosmo-centric rather than geo-centric and anthropo-centric in "The Planetarium." Moreover, I have chosen issues that concern other people in "Room to Question." Indeed, there is "room" for those who aren't comfortable in a holy place. The wounded don't want to return to the scene where pain was inflicted. Even a perfunctory acquaintance with history makes this feeling of some people credible as well as understandable. All three of the enduring Abrahamic faiths are monotheistic and, therefore, potentially violent as Regina Schwartz contends in The Curse of Cain: The Violent Legacy of Monotheism. Maybe we need to move to the "Room to Question" so that our dialogue can be civil, devoid of dogmatic, authoritarian pronouncements and "in una voce viva," not "in una voce forte." One thing more. I invite the musings of others (as well as any surfer who reads this) to express their views. Some of these will be posted in "The Guest Room." Send them to me at BobSueSand@aol.com for consideration. An Invitation. I hope that these reflections that I have summarized will provide occasion for you to reconsider what it means to be a follower of Jesus in a time when the "final answers" of supernatural theism are no longer satisfying or credible. The truth is that such a perspective raises more questions than it provides explanations. Moreover, I hope that the metaphor of "journey" won't be upsetting. But I am convinced that the trek is existential, not eschatological. The joy is in the journey, not the destination. There is another desire. It isn't my intent to upset or offend or shock or alienate anyone. I am prepared for the possibility that my present vision of the faith may scandalize some even as it is jarring to others. But, however, I am ever more strongly committed to that "alternative social vision" or Empire of God to which Jesus keeps pointing. It is a vision of unfailing justice and full inclusion and authentic freedom and unutterable love and astounding forgiveness and sheer grace. Some of those who read what I have written will conclude that I have stepped beyond the boundary of the faith. This isn't what I have experienced. I have been touched by God in a way that has so changed and renewed my faith that I feel brand new or, if you prefer, born again. I have opinions and perspectives about many things. Yet, I haven't set down the final word on any of these reflections. I reserve the right to change my mind, to elaborate on any perspective that needs to be clarified, to chase any rabbit unfortunate enough to stray into my or Mr. McGregor's garden and to redesign what furniture I have placed in any of the "rooms!" So I welcome you to my web site and invite you to browse, linger and investigate. Argue with these convictions. They are provisional. I will be upset only when you choose to scoff at or ignore these musings. Offer your perspective if you wish. I have already posted some editorial comments from others in "The Guest Room." One is by Joan Chittister; it is an astounding opinion about the Amish murders. Consideration will be given to posting dissenting opinions. Set down your own rebuttal and send it to me (BobSueSand@aol.com). Return to visit anytime. I can assure you that other thoughts, reflections and musings will make their way to this web site. In fact, the segment entitled On the Road Again contains recent reflections on many subjects. There is an opinion piece on "impeaching Bush" and another on Bush's strategy of a "surge" of 21,500 additional troops, a strategy that will only make matters worse. Check it out. My intent is to post new entries on a continuing basis |