[Oe List ...] 4/18/91, Progressing Spirit: Matthew Fox: Review of: Science and Spiritual Practices by Rupert Sheldrake; Brian McClaren; Spong revisited

[Jann McGuire]

Thank you Ellen.The old guy still packs an intellectual punch.

Jann McGuire
D.Min., University of Creation Spirituality

On Thu, Apr 18, 2019 at 6:40 AM Ellie Stock via OE <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net>
wrote:

>
>
> Science and Spirituality need each other. This has always been the case—
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> Review of: Science and Spiritual
> Practices by Rupert Sheldrake
>
> <https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=25b4a3bebb&e=db34daa597>
> Essay by Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox
> April 18, 2019
> Science and Spirituality need each other.  This has always been the
> case—from Aristotle (who concludes his classic work on Physics with
> positing an Unmoved Mover) to Aquinas (who fought the fundamentalists of
> his day about the value of bringing science, namely Aristotle, and the
> scientific method of his day, namely scholasticism, into the world of
> faith).  With the torture and murder of Giordanno Bruno at the stake in the
> Jubilee year in Rome in 1600, and with the threats of the Inquisition
> against Galileo Galilei a decade or two later, there has been a painful
> rupture between science and religion, psyche and cosmos, in the West for
> over 400 years. This divorce has been devastating for the Earth and for
> humanity which is so divided, so violent in its investments in war and
> weapons and so at war with itself as well as with the Earth.
> But now something new is afoot.  It is primed not only by the deep trouble
> humanity finds itself in amidst the unprecedented extinction spasm
> occurring around the planet due to climate change and the rest, but also
> there is a movement within science away from the arrogance of reductionism
> and anthropocentrism and probing of deeper questions and explorations into
> consciousness and mind expansion, intuition, creativity and happiness.
> Science is beginning to explore these deeper qualities of existence and
> move beyond self-made boundaries about the quantifiable being the only
> reality.
> On religion’s part, in some places at least, there is a movement to put
> spirituality or experience ahead of structure and dogma and theological
> righteousness and to reconnect justice—eco, gender, economic, racial,
> social—with the basic teaching of love and compassion.  Also there is an
> effort to step out of its own narcissism (Pope Francis’ word) in questions
> like “Am I saved?”  “Do I live forever?” and to integrate the search for
> the truth about nature as the revelatory source that it is.  (Aquinas:
> “Revelation comes in two volumes: Nature and the Bible.”)
> Creation Spirituality is such a movement within religion and integral to
> it is a quest for scientific understanding for as Aquinas put it 750 years
> ago, “a mistake about creation results in a mistake about God.”  Or as
> Hildegard of Bingen put it 100 years previously, “all science comes from
> God.”  Fundamentalists of course are not yet on board with a yearning for
> scientific truth but maybe there are signs that among the present
> generation, some of that resistance may melt (along with the ice sheets of
> Greenland and Antarctica and the glaciers occurring all around the world).
> If there is a glimmer of hope around religion’s waking up to science (and
> Pope Francis’ environmental encyclical “Laudato Si” is a solid effort), a
> book like biologist Rupert Sheldrake’s new book, *Science and Spiritual
> Practices* might contribute meaningfully to religion’s wake-up.  And
> science’s.  Hopefully both will happen since time is rapidly running out
> for our species and for the planet as we know it and for countless other
> species threatened by earth’s demise.  (In the interest of transparency I
> should confess that I am a friend of Rupert Sheldrake and have written two
> books with him, *Natural Grace* and *The Physics of Angels)*.
> Sheldrake’s newest book is a giant step forward.  Drawing on his last
> book, *Science Set Free, *(which I called in a review “the most important
> book in the last ten years”[1]
> <https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=b027aec35a&e=db34daa597>)
> he again challenges scientists to face up to the “hard problem” in the
> philosophy of mind which is that of consciousness.  How can consciousness
> be strictly “in the brain” as materialistic dogma insists?  Materialists,
> Sheldrake points out in his introduction, “start from the assumption that
> everything is made of unconscious matter, including human brains.” (p. 16)
> Then how does consciousness emerge in brains?  Even though the practice of
> religion is in steep decline in Europe “spiritual *experiences* are
> surprisingly common, even among those who describe themselves as
> non-religious.”  One study asked British people, “Have you ever experienced
> a presence or power, whether you call it God or not, which is different
> from your everyday self?”  In 1978 36 % said yes; in 1987, 48%; and in
> 2000, over 75% said yes.  In America, a Gallup poll asked if people had
> ever had “a religious or mystical experience” and in 1962 22% said yes; in
> 1994, 33%; in 2009, 49%. (16f)
> Now some of these statistics may just belie the fact that today
> spirituality is more easy for people to talk about, but they also
> demonstrate that, even though religious affiliation is on the decline,
> spiritual experiences are not.  Spiritual practices are happening outside
> “traditional religious frameworks.”  A good example is yoga practices that
> reach millions in the West.  These practices, says Sheldrake, “fill a need
> that atheism cannot satisfy.” (17)
> Beginning around the turn of the millennium science began to investigate
> spiritual practices and their effects on humans.  The University of
> Wisconsin is famous for its hooking Buddhist monks up to scientific gadgets
> to test what goes on in the brain of a person in meditation.  Literally
> thousands of research studies now exist and what is their general
> consensus?  Sheldrake summarizes the findings this way: “The results
> generally show that religious and spiritual practices confer benefits that
> include better physical and mental health, less proneness to depression and
> greater longevity.” (20).  In addition, people lacking the kind of
> practices he lays out in the book are “unhappier, unhealthier and more
> depressed.  Militant atheism should come with a health warning,” he
> proposes.  (204)  Thus, Sheldrake concludes that “the old-fashioned
> opposition between science and religion is a false dichotomy.  Open-minded
> scientific studies enhance our understanding of spiritual and religious
> practices.” (20)
> Two dimensions of this book on spiritual practices particularly stand out
> to me.  First is that Sheldrake is not afraid to speak in the first person,
> in fact he confesses in his Preface that he has participated himself in all
> of the practices.  It is refreshing to see the “I” word throughout this
> book.  So few scientists seem willing to let go of the objectivity dogma to
> admit actual participation in life and its deepest searches.  Sheldrake is
> not one of these people.  In fact, in his chapter on Pilgrimage he tells a
> moving story of relating to his godson this way.  Instead of giving a
> birthday object as a gift, he began giving a birthday experience each year,
> and each year he and his teen age godson would take a pilgrimage together.
> Great things happened.
> Second is that Sheldrake, while not ignoring the East (where he lived as a
> young scientist and began his journey out of atheism and met a mentor in
> the wonderful Benedictine monk Bede Griffiths), focuses his book primarily
> on his own tradition, namely western religious practices.  Why not?  He is
> a westerner after all and he and his wife Jill Purce (who plays an
> important role in the chapter on chant and song since she is an important
> practitioner and teacher of both) are practicing Christians in the Anglican
> tradition.
> This is especially important because so many Westerners are so mystically
> illiterate that they do not have a clue that the West has also developed
> spiritual practices over the centuries both within its monastic traditions
> and outside them.  One might credit Sheldrake for following Carl Jung’s
> warning when he said Westerners should not be pirates thieving wisdom from
> foreign shores as if our own culture was an error outlived.  And also
> credit Sheldrake for paying more than the usual pious lip service to the
> advice of the Dalai Lama who encourages Westerners not to become Buddhist
> but to explore more deeply one’s own spiritual traditions.  Rupert does
> that.
> Sheldrake presents seven practices in seven chapters and a concluding
> chapter.  He treats the practices both from the perspective of experience
> and scientific understanding by bringing in studies of the effects of each
> practice.  The practices are laid out in the Table of Contents of the book
> as follows: 1. Meditation 2. Gratitude 3. Reconnecting with the
> more-than-human word 4. Plants 5. Rituals 6. Singing, chanting and the
> power of music 7. Pilgrimages and Holy Places.  He also promises a
> follow-up book which will consider other practices.  That book is now
> available from England or on Amazon but not yet from an America publisher.
> It is called *Ways To Go Beyond and Why They Work.*
> This first book, *Science and Spiritual Practices,* is a breakthrough.
> It is a promise and sign of hope in a dire time, an apocalyptic time, but a
> potentially revelatory time also (the word apocalypse from Greek can also
> be translated as “revelation” after all).  Is it true that the modern age
> of antagonism between science and religion, psyche and cosmos, can be
> healed?  Is it true that this is happening right now?  That spiritual
> experience is available to believers and unbelievers alike?  Read this
> important book and find out for yourself.
> I have previously endorsed this book in a brief form and I repeat that
> endorsement here for it summarizes some of the richness and excitement and
> readability of the text.  “I love this book!  For its clarity, its
> first-person stories and applications, its science and experientially based
> facts, its timeliness, its humor, its blunt questions and challenges put to
> the guardians of die-hard scientific materialism, its breadth of topics and
> depth of insights historical, philosophical, religious and spiritual.
> Few living scientists have the courage and the chops to ask the questions
> Rupert does, research them, and deliver answers in language all can
> understand.  Be prepared as you read this book for an exciting and
> free-ranging ride, a sort of scientific pilgrimage journeying into
> spiritual practices and how they have benefited and can benefit humanity.”
> There is much despair in the air these days both among the general public
> and among scientific groups I have met with.  If “hope is a verb with the
> sleeves rolled up” as eco-philosopher David Orr puts it, then part of the
> rolling up of our sleeves that needs doing today, part of the necessary
> work of our time, is *inner work*.  We cannot accomplish all that needs
> to happen and all that needs to give birth to out of anger or
> action/reaction response alone.  We also must do the inner work.
> Sheldrake’s book assists us to understand why the ancient practices of our
> ancestors were not in vain and were not foolish but have a solid meaning
> behind them that even science can appreciate anew.  Now there is no excuse
> for not “rolling up our sleeves” and doing our work—both inner and
> outer–and blending the two.[2]
> <https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=2f9cd0c795&e=db34daa597>
> ~ Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox
>
> Read online here
> <https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=b854630aa5&e=db34daa597>
>
>
> *About the Author Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox* holds a doctorate in spirituality
> from the Institut Catholique de Paris and has authored 35 books on
> spirituality and contemporary culture that have been translated into 71
> languages. Fox has devoted 45 years to developing and teaching the
> tradition of Creation Spirituality
> <https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=17ac55ba76&e=db34daa597> and
> in doing so has reinvented forms of education and worship. His work is
> inclusive of today’s science and world spiritual traditions and has
> awakened millions to the much neglected earth-based mystical tradition of
> the West. He has helped to rediscover Hildegard of Bingen, Meister Eckhart,
> Thomas Aquinas. Recent books include The Lotus & The Rose: Conversations
> on Tibetan Buddhism and Mystical Christianity
> <https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=425d3dc16a&e=db34daa597> with
> Lama Tsomo; Naming the Unnameable: 89 Wonderful and Useful Names for
> God…Including the God Without a Name
> <https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=98e250115c&e=db34daa597>;
> new paperback version of Stations of the Cosmic Christ
> <https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=0c40737f7d&e=db34daa597> with
> Bishop Marc Andrus.  A Special Eckhart at Erfurt
> <https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=1b9c75858d&e=db34daa597> workshop
> in June, 2019.
>
> ------------------------------
> [1]
> <https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=784292ecc4&e=db34daa597> Matthew
> Fox, “Rupert Sheldrake’s The Science Delusion: The Most Important Book of
> the Decade?”  See my website, www.matthewfox.org.
> [2]
> <https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=e2db7d99be&e=db34daa597> See
> Matthew Fox, *The Reinvention of Work* (San Francisco:
> HarperSanFrancisco, 1994).
> Question & Answer
> *Q: By Lonnie*
> *How to talk to Fundamentalist Evangelicals? I grew up as one but like to
> ask questions and realize you are all on the right track. I along with my
> wife attend an Evangelical church nearly every Sunday and wonder the best
> ways to talk about science, global warming, the age of the earth,
> evolution, biblical errors and so on, of which Evangelicals seem so
> terrified.*
>
> *A: By Brian D. McLaren*
>
> <https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=188618c674&e=db34daa597>
> Dear Lonnie,
> Many Evangelicals are so 100% bought in to the whole package they have
> been given -  original sin, penal substitutionary atonement, biblical
> inerrancy, young earth creationism, denial of climate change, unwillingness
> to hear the arguments for LGBTQ equality, support for Donald Trump - that
> if you challenge them, they'll feel attacked and respond defensively or
> simply start avoiding you. When people become defensive, they tend to
> double down on what they're defending and identify themselves even more
> closely with it, so any attempts to argue can actually cause people to
> become more resistant to different ways of thinking.
> I think of Jesus' words about being wise as serpents and innocent as
> doves, meaning that we have to be completely non-aggressive (doves) but
> also look for the tiniest opening (serpents) to get the seed of a new
> message through their defenses. Here are four suggestions:
> 1. You can wait for someone to say something you find false, unhelpful, or
> offensive. Then, rather than arguing back, just say, "Wow. I see that
> differently." They'll likely ask why, and rather than arguing (especially
> in public, which almost guarantees a defensive reaction), I'd recommend you
> say - with pleasantness and kindness, "I'd rather not go into it now. For
> now I just wanted you to know that I see it differently. If you're curious
> sometime in the future, I'll be glad to share why in private." There's
> great power in a non-directive, non-aggressive statement (I see that
> differently), and a great gift in differing without needing to convince.
> 2. You can share your perspectives in a way that makes it easy for others
> to differ, while always remaining positive, emphasizing not just what
> you're against, but what you're for. You might say, "I'm pretty sure that I
> hold a minority opinion on this, but I find the creation story in Genesis
> much richer when read as a poem that conveys meaning instead of a
> scientific or historical account." You're not asking anyone to agree with
> you (I hold a minority opinion), and you're focusing not on their fault
> (interpreting literally) but on what you have found meaningful (reading
> poetically).
> 3. You can share books or other recommendations. Most Evangelicals won’t
> be ready for Jack Spong or even Marcus Borg, but they might listen to
> Rachel Held Evans or Pete Enns or Brian Zahnd, or perhaps even some of my
> books. There are some tremendous podcasts out there to recommend too,
> geared especially for questioning Evangelicals. Pete Enns’ “The Bible for
> Normal People” and Tripp Fuller’s “Homebrewed Christianity” and Jen
> Hatmaker’s “For the Love” are among my favorites.
>
> 4. Whenever possible, tell your story. Don't say, "You're a homophobic
> bigot" or "You're so Islamophobic!" Instead, say, "You know, I used to see
> things the way you do. But then, a lifelong friend confided to me that he
> was gay...." Or, "I often hear the opinion of Muslims that you just
> expressed, but I should tell you about my friends Mustafa and Zaid. We met
> two years ago ..." When you share your story, you're adding data to their
> data bank that they can process later on their own.
>
> Soren Kierkegaard said that "the apostle" (the person who carries a
> message of good news) must be like a midwife. Midwives know that no mother
> wants to give birth in public. Similarly, people generally prefer to give
> birth to a new opinion in private. So we offer what we can in public, but
> then withdraw so that people can process and "go through labor" on their
> own.
> ~ Brian D. McLaren
>
> Read and share online here
> <https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=c880f7b6f0&e=db34daa597>
>
>
> *About the Author Brian D. McLaren* is an author, speaker, activist, and
> public theologian. A former college English teacher and pastor, he is a
> passionate advocate for “a new kind of Christianity” – just, generous, and
> working with people of all faiths for the common good. He is an Auburn
> Senior Fellow and a leader in the Convergence Network, through which he is
> developing an innovative training/mentoring program for pastors, church
> planters, and lay leaders called Convergence Leadership Project. He works
> closely with the Center for Progressive Renewal/Convergence, the Wild Goose
> Festival and the Fair Food Program‘s Faith Working Group. His most recent
> joint project is an illustrated children’s book (for all ages) called *Cory
> and the Seventh Story
> <https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=eaa3034d4c&e=db34daa597>*.
> Other recent books include: *The Great Spiritual Migration
> <https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=954e6d7530&e=db34daa597>*
> , *We Make the Road by Walking*
> <https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=b59fe4a1be&e=db34daa597>,
> and *Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road?*
> <https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=a8b1fb9897&e=db34daa597> (Christian
> Identity in a Multi-Faith World).
> Brian has been active in networking and mentoring church planters and
> pastors since the mid 1980’s, and has assisted in the development of
> several new churches. He is a popular conference speaker and a frequent
> guest lecturer for denominational and ecumenical leadership gatherings –
> across the US and Canada, Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. He has
> written for or contributed interviews to many periodicals, including
> Leadership, Sojourners, Tikkun, Worship Leader, and Conversations.
> A frequent guest on television, radio, and news media programs, he has
> appeared on All Things Considered, Larry King Live, Nightline, On Being,
> and Religion and Ethics Newsweekly. His work has also been covered in Time,
> New York Times, Christianity Today, Christian Century, the Washington Post,
> Huffington Post, CNN.com, and many other print and online media.
> Brian is married to Grace, and they have four adult children and five
> grandchildren. His personal interests include wildlife and ecology, fly
> fishing and kayaking, music and songwriting, and literature.
> *Please continue to send us your feedback
> <https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=ff3fe79fca&e=db34daa597>*…
> we are listening. We aim to give voice to many different perspectives that
> are relevant and inspiring along this spiritually progressing path. We are
> not here to tell you what to believe or how to act. We are here to support
> your journey, to share and learn together.
>
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>
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> Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited
> The Substitutionary Death of Jesus on the Cross
> Alone Brings Salvation: Part One
> Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong
> May 30, 2007
>
> It is hard in our generation to put into a single sentence the substance
> of the Third Fundamental that traditional Christians, at the beginning of
> the 20th century, said was essential to the Christian faith. Officially, it
> is referred to as “The doctrine of the substitutionary atonement through
> God’s grace and human faith.” Those words communicate almost nothing today.
> From generation to generation its meaning has been carried for Protestant
> Christians in the popular mantra, “Jesus died for my sins,” while in
> Catholic Christianity it finds expression in talk about “the sacrifice of
> the mass” or in references to the cleansing power of Jesus being received
> sacramentally. These expressions employ the language of what the church has
> typically called: “the doctrine of the substitutionary atonement.”
> Over the next three weeks in this column, I intend to examine this
> familiar Christian idea that I regard today as a completely bankrupt way of
> understanding the Christian faith. In my opinion these atonement ideas have
> succeeded primarily in turning God into a child-abusing heavenly parent.
> They have also turned Jesus into being the ultimate, perhaps even the
> masochistic, victim of a sadistic father God. Furthermore when literalized,
> these ideas have turned ordinary Christians into people burdened by the
> weight of guilt that at best is immobilizing and at worst serves to create
> a religious justification for their own abuse of others. It had been
> primarily responsible, I believe, for the levels of anger that have
> infected Christian history, finding expression in the burning of heretics,
> anti-Semitism, religious wars, religious persecution, the Crusades and in
> the rampant homophobia that embraces so much of the Christian Church today.
> Click here to read full essay.
> <https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=2b2323bf5a&e=db34daa597>
> ~  John Shelby Spong
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