“We live in a time of widespread uncertainty about the future of Christianity. If you have ever felt conflicted about the religion’s history of violence, prejudice, and domination — know that you are not alone.
“Considering the unprecedented crises our world faces, we urgently need to find a new way of being in the world together that bridges our differences and embodies the reality that all life is sacred and connected.
“In that spirit, the Center for Action and Contemplation invites you to join us for a virtual discussion on the current state and future of the Christian religion, featuring CAC faculty members Brian D. McLaren, Barbara Holmes, James Finley, and Richard Rohr.
“Watch LIVE on Tuesday, August 23 from 10:30am – 12:30pm PT on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGl7yqYC35s
“The Center for Action and Contemplation (CAC) is an educational nonprofit introducing seekers to the contemplative Christian path of transformation.”
Source: Centre for Action and Contemplation
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Let’s admit it: western Christianity’s history is at best mixed, if not checkered by “violence, prejudice, and domination.” At this critical juncture of human history, we need to ask ourselves crucial questions that open up new possibilities for the future. Otherwise, we run the real risk of repeating the worst of the past in the guise of modern gadgetry but on a larger, more destructive scale.
A contemplative and mystical critique comes timely and salient in these times. I warned the senior management of my university about the coming confluence of crises in 2016. No one took me seriously. Now we’re living through that confluence and the worse is yet to come. Our young people need far more than learning how to make a living, for the ground we stand on is quaking and disintegrating on a tectonic scale, beyond what we can see. We cannot assume the future world of work will be a continuation of the past. Our entire lives will be upended. No. They need to learn how to make a life, first and foremost. Work is only a small part of that life.
Our hope must never be in the visible or thinkable, least of all in economic growth and money—the tools of our worldly god mammon. Hope is only to be found in the unseen, unconditioned, unborn, undying, unoriginated, unconstructed, and unimaginable. Our education needs to lead our young beyond themselves and their world as they know it. And from that groundless ground, to re-emerge in creative insight and intuition to design and sculpt a new world, together in inclusive and dynamic plurality.
Perhaps that’s why I’m deemed ‘dangerous’ by the powers that be.
