The Urban Mystic

Recently I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about where I’m heading in life and what I’m doing that’s meaningful. I’ve been bored with the work I’m doing and felt the itch for something meaningful but not been ready to scratch it till now. After a good long period of thinking and reflecting I’ve realised that there are two real options: 1) take on a normal 9am to 5pm job that is more interesting and satisfying; 2) pick up on my sense of calling again and more actively put into practice what I want to do.

The Urban Mystic is my new website aimed at promoting intimacy with Godde and advertising my services and activities.

continuity, discontinuity and faithfulness

A recent synchroblog around church as missional got me thinking a bit around how both continuity and discontinuity can be faithful and unfaithful.

With Christianity there isn’t just a single point of departure or reference point. To be Christian is to point back to the historical Jesus as well as forward to the return of Jesus the Risen LORD as well as the relationship with Godde in the present through the Holy Spirit.

During the Reformation a Catholic recognised that the institution he was a part of had carefully laid a set of tracks from the historical Jesus to where they were at. He also recognised that at some point they’d gone off course. Though they were laying tracks moving away from the historical Jesus they weren’t laying tracks headed toward the return of the Risen LORD. There was continuity but there continuity was unfaithful.

Oddly enough, discontinuity can be faithful. There are any number of churches built without historical continuity that pick up from their historical present the line between the historical Jesus of the past and the returning LORD of the future.

In terms of present-continuous experience an individual or group can be unfaithful if they’re not connecting with Godde in the present. One can point back historically and point forward eschatologically but if one is not rooted in relationship with Godde in the present then one is also not being faithful.

I guess the challenge for the emerging church to develop each tangent responsibly.

On Experiencing Godde

There is a parallel between ordinary and spiritual experience. Just as we choose to enter into an adventure sport, or choose to go to a movie, or choose to see a counsellor so too do we choose to enter into a spiritual experience. All such experiences begin with a choice, involve some kind of planning, and then require us to change from one kind of life experience into another.
Our choice, preparation and willingness to enter into the experience will consequently affect what we take away from it.

Here I’m going to comment a bit on the human side to experiencing Godde, i.e. about what we do with that desire, how we go about fulfilling that expectation and understanding a bit more about where we go about doing so.

Challenging a myth about mysticism

We are averse to speaking clearly and directly about many things and spiritual experience is one such topic. It is not then surprising that myths develop and are perpetuated whether they are true or not. There are a number of myths related to mysticism and I want to briefly comment on the relationship of mysticism to religion, largely through referencing a particular editor’s work I’m reading at the moment.

Modernisation and the spread of deism

With modernisation those in the West experienced a move away from theism, which was at least open to experiencing Godde, toward deism, which believes that Godde is no longer present and hence suspicious of any claims to such effect. A number of years back the trend was to leave the religions of the West, which were devoid of personal experience, to find a religion, usually Eastern or later New Age, which offered personal experience as support for alternative beliefs. The rest of the world has by now either modernised or is in the process of modernising. With it there comes the displacement of religion and the spread of deism into non-Western religions. Now we can readily find religious beliefs disconnected from personal experience in every part of the world. Were we used to find Christians looking for a real experience of Godde, whatever that may be, we now find Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims and Primal Religions, such as African Traditional Religion, following the same course.

beyond enriched poverty

The relationship between religion and experience is a complicated one to get our head around and I make a sincere bow of respect to anyone who has attempted doing so … *bow * … Some would say that there is no relationship between religion and personal experience, i.e. that religious people believe in dogmas but don’t experience what they talk about. This is true when you see or hear people pointing back to the experience(s) of others, contained in sacred texts and sacred stories, but aren’t able to tell any such stories themselves. If we only remember the experience(s) but aren’t able to have such experience ourselves then surely we’re spiritually impoverished? For many there is a rich and vibrant relationship between their belief(s) and their experience(s).

When it comes to religion, spirituality and experience there is often a strong relationship between “revelation” and “commitment,” at least close to the point in time when someone personally commits themselves to one faith group or another. Here the idea of “revelation” and “personal revelation” come into the picture. And so I’d like to briefly comment on “revelation” and “mysticism”.

De-Gendering God, En-Gendering Godde

This is a sequel to my post on Recapturing the Feminine in God: Does God Have a Penis? This post stems from the call for a formulated statement from various sources, the online and face-to-face dialogues with people around my usage of “S/He” and “Godde” as opposed to “He” and “God” with reference to the deity behind early Judaism and Christianity. I’ve taken the title from a friend’s suggestion.

I should add that this is version 1.0 and I’ll like modify it after feedback

Confessions of a heretic

I’ve often spoken (not necessarily written but I’m getting there more and more) about the development of a new expression of Christianity, a new architecture shaped by current conversations and historical developments. This suggestion is often met with raised eyebrows and questions and equally often with accusations of heresy.

The above pic is a selection from a webcomic, the Order of the Stick, which offers a profound insight into religion and religious people. You really must read it to give it sufficient justice. It is profoundly insightful.

Life!!!

I’ve been a little quiet recently on postings. Bev and I have been going through the final stages of pregnancy together. Believe me that husbands also go through pregnancy! On Monday 7th April Jethro arrived via Caesarean at 2pm!

A Theory on Spiritual Dialogue

I’ve had a number of face-to-face dialogues with people based on two of my previous posts, expanding our language and concept of Godde to include the feminine and my suggestion to include wisdoms for living and contributions from African, Eastern and Western spirituality. It would seem to me that moving on requires posting some thoughts on spiritual and religious dialogue. This is important for the sake of clarity as its important that we understand the various points of departure different people dialogue from. I’m putting forward some thoughts related to spiritual dialogue, in part based on what’s stewed in my noggin and in part based on my experience dialoguing with people of faith over the years.