10-25-2007, 12:53 AM
In this paper published for the "Journal of Liberal Religion" the author argues that though Christianity may not be "necessary" it can be "sufficient" for the basis of a liberal religion and that Unitarian Universalists should consider it.
http://meadville.edu/journal/2001_hinkle_2_2.pdf
Some key passages:
"Perhaps we have just not yet fully outgrown the Christian tradition of our past, but will soon come truly to treat it as just one of many
sources of religious truth....I find such an expectation implicit in much Unitarian Universalist writing and culture, but cannot help
believe that such a hope is shortsighted, the consequence of lingering exuberance over an escape from Christian necessity. Nor is such a hope universal, as evidenced by the recent resurgence of explicitly Christian practice among some Unitarian Universalists. These movements signal, I suggest, a more widespread and pervasive reluctance to let go altogether of the Christian tradition."
"Liberalism should permit us a confidence in the ultimate coherence of human religiousness, an optimism that other cultures and faiths are at heart compatible with our own, sharing a deep connection that points to a shared human condition and purpose, and to a real awareness of
transcendence. This optimism can extend as well to an implicit expectation of future unity and partnership among traditions and cultures, one that is ultimately not Christian or Unitarian or Buddhist, but that has grown beyond any of these."
"It is a characteristic error of modernity to view Christianity as a coherent whole, a single dogma, and so to ignore the huge internal diversity, the almost unimaginable breadth available within the
Christian tradition. From Gregory of Nyssa, to Soren Kierkegaard, to Gustavo Guttierez, there is more than enough challenging, inspiring, and true material within Christianity to occupy some two thousand monkeys for two thousand years. There is certainly more than enough for contemporary Unitarian Universalism."
"The challenge, then, is to preserve the essential character of individual awareness of God, personal piety if you like, while making full use of our voluntary religious associations. A purely individual commitment to
Christianity, or to any religious path, is difficult to conceive. Schleiermacher described Jesus as such a religious genius, an individual fully aware of God in his own person, but even here Schleiermacher insists on the crucial role of the community of disciples to transmit the testimony that would allow others to recognize their own experiences
of absolute dependence."
"But the Christian tradition, including of course our own Unitarian and Universalist ancestors, can be sufficient, I claim, if engaged critically and respectfully, if combined with liberal confidence in the human access to the divine, and if lived within a righteous community of fellow travelers."
http://meadville.edu/journal/2001_hinkle_2_2.pdf
Some key passages:
"Perhaps we have just not yet fully outgrown the Christian tradition of our past, but will soon come truly to treat it as just one of many
sources of religious truth....I find such an expectation implicit in much Unitarian Universalist writing and culture, but cannot help
believe that such a hope is shortsighted, the consequence of lingering exuberance over an escape from Christian necessity. Nor is such a hope universal, as evidenced by the recent resurgence of explicitly Christian practice among some Unitarian Universalists. These movements signal, I suggest, a more widespread and pervasive reluctance to let go altogether of the Christian tradition."
"Liberalism should permit us a confidence in the ultimate coherence of human religiousness, an optimism that other cultures and faiths are at heart compatible with our own, sharing a deep connection that points to a shared human condition and purpose, and to a real awareness of
transcendence. This optimism can extend as well to an implicit expectation of future unity and partnership among traditions and cultures, one that is ultimately not Christian or Unitarian or Buddhist, but that has grown beyond any of these."
"It is a characteristic error of modernity to view Christianity as a coherent whole, a single dogma, and so to ignore the huge internal diversity, the almost unimaginable breadth available within the
Christian tradition. From Gregory of Nyssa, to Soren Kierkegaard, to Gustavo Guttierez, there is more than enough challenging, inspiring, and true material within Christianity to occupy some two thousand monkeys for two thousand years. There is certainly more than enough for contemporary Unitarian Universalism."
"The challenge, then, is to preserve the essential character of individual awareness of God, personal piety if you like, while making full use of our voluntary religious associations. A purely individual commitment to
Christianity, or to any religious path, is difficult to conceive. Schleiermacher described Jesus as such a religious genius, an individual fully aware of God in his own person, but even here Schleiermacher insists on the crucial role of the community of disciples to transmit the testimony that would allow others to recognize their own experiences
of absolute dependence."
"But the Christian tradition, including of course our own Unitarian and Universalist ancestors, can be sufficient, I claim, if engaged critically and respectfully, if combined with liberal confidence in the human access to the divine, and if lived within a righteous community of fellow travelers."