07-03-2008, 02:10 AM
Sovereignty of Thought:
Yes, You Can Think for Yourself
Amongst many religions today there seems to be an unspoken implication that the individual is incapable of determining religious truth for him or herself. A blogger online recently wrote the following:
I have always struggled with the issue of sola scriptura. Since Sacred Scripture does not interpret itself, it either boils down to an authority, either the Church or me. How can I as a fallible sinful creature interpret correctly? How would I know if I am even remotely correct? There are way too many denominations claiming Truth. Yet, they contradict each other on pivotal doctrines such as baptism, the Eucharist and justification. Who is right? How can they know with any ounce of certainty? How can they all claim their held beliefs are Holy Spirit led?
There is, within this writing, the impression that we as humans do not have the ability to determine Truth and that someone/something else must do the work for us. For Roman Catholics the Church is the determiner of what is, and what is not, “Truth”. For evangelical Protestants the Bible is all that is necessary. For cults a single individual determines truth. For liberals and relativists truth is irrelevant. And so it goes. In every case we come back to this issue. Now the blogger above starts with other impressions I vehemently disagree with-the idea of Sacred Scripture as being the only, or even primary, search of truth, the notion that baptism, Eucharist and justification are “pivotal doctrines”, or, basically, the entire premise upon which this statement is based. However, I believe that the majority of this dilemma is tied into the notion that the individual is not fit to determine truth.
Respectfully I disagree with this proposition altogether. I believe that the only Absolute Truth is God-and everything, every aspect of creation, is relative to God in varying degrees. The Bible is not “truth” with a capital ‘T’, nor is Christianity, nor is any other religion. God alone is Truth. Truth is an objective that can be perceived and experienced only through subjective lenses-and there are many lenses in humanity. Currently there are about 6 billion of them. God is generally speaking not available for direct observation, so we are all forced to look for God in our own ways. The liberal religious tradition has long believed that individuals possess everything within ourselves to know God, and to discern truth, absent any outside sources. Our sources of internal authority include:
• Reason, otherwise as our intellect or our mind. The mainstream Unitarian tradition and Deism are known for their devotion to reason.
• Emotion, otherwise known as our heart. Love and compassion are the virtues most associated with this, as is our conscience.
• Our spiritual sense, what Quakers call the Inner Light, the element which has inspired mysticism throughout the ages, including our very own Transcendentalism. While often tied into emotion it is in fact something different.
There are also outside sources of authority beyond religion that can be trusted. Nature, aka the Universe, aka Creation, is God’s universal revelation to us. Our own life experiences are experiences we can look to. Science (including medicine, psychology and the like) are sources of truth, as our human creative expression (the arts). Philosophy and theology reveal truth. All the religions, spiritual traditions, cultures, many sacred scriptures, and many prophets/religious teachers have touched the Face of God and are revealing his truth. With our God-given ability to think, reason, love, know right-from-wrong, and to directly experience God’s presence we our responsible as individuals to seek truth and explore these different sources. In exploring the religions common themes emerge-similar spiritual practices, morality all snaking back to the Golden Rule, and overlapping teachings to name but a few. These outside sources are all touching God, for God is working through all. In primitive ancient cultures we can find God hiding behind masks, when we look at Allah, Brahman and the Great Spirit it becomes apparent we are looking at different sides of God: That which cannot be named.
In order to have a true relationship we must find the understanding that works best for us. There are many ways to worship, many ways to “image” God, and many ways in which we may know the Immortal One. It is my belief that seemingly contradictory truths may often not be as contradictory as we think…opposites may not be so opposite after all. There is too much in common amongst the major religions to be dismissed. It is the exceptions, not the rule, which should be cause for concern. As in the old Hindu story we are but blind men groping the elephant, and none of us possess the truth as fully as we would like. True Unitarian Universalism demands a profound respect for Holy Mystery, that which is beyond our knowledge, and a great deal of humility in admitting that we do not know nearly as much as we would like. So yes, we must think for ourselves, we must come to our own understandings. Do not look to any one outside source, look within (deeply within), measure that which you know and experience against your heart and mind, look for patterns, seek the wisdom of the ages, and trust in God above all else. Do not rely on others. You are God’s child, and you, with everyone around you, has the ability to know the One who created you, who gave birth to your spirit. Do not rely on others-you have the ability to seek and to find. Do it.