RELIGION
Religious Commitment
I am a religious person. I attend worship at my local church in Berkeley, California, St. John’s Presbyterian Church. I pray often. I have many friends who are both religious and non-religious. I understand and experience my world as more than an empirical reality. I experience moments of transcendence when my everyday world is left behind and another reality is felt. This is what I call a sense of an ultimate reality. This reality gives me perspective and greater meaning in my life. I am informed by the stories and witnesses in the Christian tradition, through sacred texts and personal accounts. Yet I am not a Biblical literalist, nor do I have complete certainty in my faith. I often have doubt and skepticism. I am a pilgrim on life’s way. I am also edified and inspired by other religious traditions, e.g. Buddhist, Muslim, or Hindu.
My journey has been a long and uneven one. I began my journey from a home that had attending church as the norm. My Mother taught me in Sunday school. I was active in church youth groups. I went to summer church camps. I read my Bible often. My grandparents were founders of their immigrant churches in St. Louis. My relatives were missionaries in Latin America. I formed religious study groups in college. I studied to be a minister after college. I worked at the World Council of Churches in Geneva Switzerland. I was a theologian in graduate school. I founded a religious journal. My understanding of my tradition deepened. I understood how religiously inspired and informed people helped to craft and interpret the tradition. I came to understand that the stories and practices of my tradition were formed by humans over centuries, not through miracles and revelation but by “divine inspiration.” I now had an adult faith. “Primary naiveté”(childlike faith) gave away to “secondary naiveté” (adult faith). The stories of my tradition were now understood “symbolically” not literally. This standpoint gave me a way to be intellectually informed and emotionally engaged.
I do understand the important reality of my youthful faith and the journey and where I am today. I experience both the emotional and intellectual side of my faith, not as contradictory but as one whole. I do long for a simple faith, but I have found this is not possible. I find an essential humility in living a both/and, not an either/or life, primary and secondary naiveté.
I tell my story to be as honest as possible and to engage in the stories of others.
Read my related reflection, "Confessions of a Tamed but Renewed Idealist."
Read about The Forum: The Future of Liberal Christianity, St. John’s Presbyterian Church, Berkeley, California, June 2, 2024.