THE PREVIOUS POST IN THIS SERIES began by emphasizing that the two spiritualities we have been discussing exist in each of us, and in every part of our culture.
It's also important to remember that there is no group or movement which is completely one or the other.
For example, many very religious people go to church on Sunday, sing hymns and perform rituals that are steeped in the tradition of priests and kings, yet operate, in real life, mostly out of the worldview and values and practices of the emerging spirituality.
On the other hand, many who consider themselves modern, democratic, and even anti-religious, still function primarily within a hierarchical worldview, with hierarchical values and habits.
Most of us live with both at the same time.
It's a helpful exercise to sort out for ourselves which practices belong to the world-view of priests and kings, and which are part of the emerging world-view.
The last post focused on belief, a common practice for those who subscribe to a priest/king spirituality.
Belief, when viewed as a spiritual practice, is not a measure of knowledge, but a moral act, which actually gains it's significance from the lack of evidence. There is no virtue in believing that which one has seen proven.
The virtue, the spiritual significance of the act, consists in believing in spite of the lack of proof.
Belief, in this sense, is rooted in the value of obedience.
The emerging spirituality does not practice this sort of belief as a spiritual discipline. It does, however, practice a discipline which could be considered the exact opposite: Skepticism.
Skepticism, in this spiritual sense, also differs from the normal uses of the word:
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Skepticism doesn't mean questioning everything all the time, but rather questioning the basis of a belief before accepting it, and being open to new questions as they emerge.
It's almost the exact opposite of belief, as defined above, since belief is almost always based on the word of some authority: a church, a priest, a book, a tradition.
It was precisely through skepticism that most scientific knowledge has been accumulated by those who refused to believe something just because the church, the king, the tradition, or Aristotle said so.
Instead, they invented ways to test and measure, to probe reality and discover evidence which could throw light on a question. -
Skepticism, in this spiritual sense, applies as much to my own beliefs as it does to others.
In ordinary usage a person who is skeptical is usually skeptical of an idea or belief someone else holds, but skepticism, as it appears in the emerging spirituality, is focused even more on ones own beliefs and ideas.
It includes not just a willingness, even an eagerness, to examine ones own stance critically, but also a desire to be open to criticisms coming from others, if they are based in solid reason and evidence.
In the realm of science, this is the reason that science is so often right, and also why science is always changing as new evidence is found, or new ways of looking at the evidence reveal problems. -
Skepticism, like belief, is a moral act. It is rooted in the value of truth (with a small "t").
Those who operate out of the emerging spirituality often see the inability to question ones own beliefs as a character flaw, a failure to care sufficiently about truth, a disconnection from reality, or a lack of personal honesty and integrity.
Next time, how these disciplines work themselves out in practice...
