Other Religions: A Conclusion
Devoted readers may remember that one of my projects for this last year was looking into other religions. I had two goals: to better understand what attracts people to different religions, and to see if there was anything out there that suited me better than Christianity.
The answer to the second question, at this point, is no. I didn't do a great amount of attending services and whatnot, but I talked to a few people and took a couple classes and nothing leaped out at me.
Buddhism was the most appealing. I attended a couple of classes with a local Buddhist group and appreciated their practical focus and easygoing attitude. I like how Buddhism adapts to the needs of specific cultures, and its recognition that people are on different journeys, and what works for some people doesn't work for others. Regrettably, I found meditation extremely difficult and entirely ineffective. Perhaps I can be a Buddhist in my next life.
Judaism was very interesting, but also not my cup of tea. I doesn't help that many of my greatest difficulties with Christianity stem from the Hebrew Scriptures. Also, Jewish services are conducted largely in Hebrew, which I'm not particularly interested in learning.
I didn't look too deeply into Islam, but I learned three things that turned me off: Islam in general takes a very fundamentalist view of scripture, the Qur'an focuses on Hell much more than the Bible, and Islam is essentially political. It could never work out between us.
So the bad news is I haven't found anything I can really, whole-heartedly belong to. The good news is I'm becoming increasingly comfortable with who I am. I don't feel the need to fit into any specific category. I don't need to be a Christian or a Muslim or an Atheist or whatever. There are things about Christianity that resonate with me, and things that don't. There are aspects of other religions or worldviews or philosophies that seem meaningful or true to me, and I want to incorporate them into my beliefs and practices. I suppose I'm a Christian in the sense that I'm a member of a Christian community, and Jesus is probably the central figure in my worldview, but I don't have a desire to impose any specific boundaries around my spiritual or intellectual or moral life. I'm a pilgrim.
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5 comments:
so you rejected other religions because, well, they're hard? Pardon my cynicism but that seems silly. Looking for truth, rather than "suitablity" in religion seems like a better plan to me. However, your concluding statements suggest you already know that.
No, I haven't rejected anything because it's hard. I was looking for a religion that was suitable in the sense of seeming meaningful and true to me. I don't have much faith in my ability to grasp some kind of transcendent, objective truth, if that's what you're suggesting.
Fair enough.., my apologies then.
No worries.
Somewhere buried in John lies a verse that comments that "the work of God is to believe in the one he has sent". When I first gave this idea a lot of thought, it striked me how I had never really considered belief to be much of any sort of work, but I have come to realize that belief is a struggle.
I have been a little hesitant to check into other religions myself, for fear that I may actually find something very appealing. (and out of laziness) Because of this, I admire your struggle in quest for belief, and a place that you can wholly fit.
I think though that becoming more comfortable with oneself lies actually in opposition to knowing oneself. Much of the early church leadership and scholars believed in a 'dark night of the soul' in which a person really gained a sense of who he was, and arrived at a deeper sense of purpose and clarity in belief. I think that your search for meaning will lead you along the right paths.
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