Such a thoughtful piece. I drifted away from organized religion as a young adult and funnily enough the gateways to my becoming interested in it again were some of the "spiritual" experiences you described — time alone in nature, meditation, etc. Getting interested in the ideas of Carl Jung also helped put me in the kind of headspace where I could be receptive to religious thought, understanding not everything true and good is defined as such solely by "facts and logic." I think if more churches embraced the difficult questions at the heart of religion, more people would seek them out as spaces to come to a better understanding of God and would become more faithful than they would be had they just been handed answers. I think this relates to your primary/secondary experience idea.
I so totally agree with you, Bishop Hazelwood! We in the Lutheran Church and in White mainline Protestantism in general have been making it all about church, and not God, for decades! Its so much a part of our church culture that I wasn’t even aware of that fact until 5 years ago when I started visiting churches - mostly Black evangelical/pentecostal - where the primary emphasis is on experiencing the awesome power and love of the living God! And because of that, the church is not just a chaotic human organization, but a powerful spiritual reality with the capacity to change individual lives - and through those lives to change the world!
Well researched piece I greatly enjoyed. I wonder how Kierkegaard fits into all of this. In many ways he understood the existential as the spiritual, a necessary awakening process which then can bring us back to religious tradition. The problem with primary religious experiences is also when people lack a philosophy to articulate and integrate them. So I wonder if both is needed in the end, the spiritual / religious awakening of the spirit embodied in us but also a religious narrative to bind it back to. This also holds the vulnerability of the spiritual but not religious that “leaders” can channel this free floating spiritual energy for their ideologies.
Such a thoughtful piece. I drifted away from organized religion as a young adult and funnily enough the gateways to my becoming interested in it again were some of the "spiritual" experiences you described — time alone in nature, meditation, etc. Getting interested in the ideas of Carl Jung also helped put me in the kind of headspace where I could be receptive to religious thought, understanding not everything true and good is defined as such solely by "facts and logic." I think if more churches embraced the difficult questions at the heart of religion, more people would seek them out as spaces to come to a better understanding of God and would become more faithful than they would be had they just been handed answers. I think this relates to your primary/secondary experience idea.
I so totally agree with you, Bishop Hazelwood! We in the Lutheran Church and in White mainline Protestantism in general have been making it all about church, and not God, for decades! Its so much a part of our church culture that I wasn’t even aware of that fact until 5 years ago when I started visiting churches - mostly Black evangelical/pentecostal - where the primary emphasis is on experiencing the awesome power and love of the living God! And because of that, the church is not just a chaotic human organization, but a powerful spiritual reality with the capacity to change individual lives - and through those lives to change the world!
Thank you so much for sharing!!!
A piece that needed to be written with words that needed to be said.
Well researched piece I greatly enjoyed. I wonder how Kierkegaard fits into all of this. In many ways he understood the existential as the spiritual, a necessary awakening process which then can bring us back to religious tradition. The problem with primary religious experiences is also when people lack a philosophy to articulate and integrate them. So I wonder if both is needed in the end, the spiritual / religious awakening of the spirit embodied in us but also a religious narrative to bind it back to. This also holds the vulnerability of the spiritual but not religious that “leaders” can channel this free floating spiritual energy for their ideologies.
Oh, and btw, I'm preaching on this and quoting you on Sunday! :D