Clayton’s Emergings

 I am excited to be able to write that the Ford Foundation has just awarded us $100,000 for a major program aimed at renewing theological reflection in the mainline churches and seminaries.  Marjorie Suchocki and I will be co-running the grant.  The exact title is “Rekindling Theological Reflection: Transformative Thought for Progressive Action.”  Among other activities, the grant involves three major conferences, all to take place in Claremont during 2009:

      • a meeting of leading theologians from around the country March 12^th-14^th;

• a meeting of leading executives from all the mainline denominations May 18^th-20^th;

• a meeting of seminary and divinity school presidents and academic deans from across the U.S. September 24^th-26^th.

 Our goal over the coming three years is ambitious.  We are seeking to form a broad alliance between theologians, seminary administrators, and church leaders and to rekindle the sense of a shared religious vision.  Of course there are theological movements, and significant work is being done.  But this work has not yet translated into a passionate sense of shared mission in the mainline churches comparable to what one finds among conservative Christians today.

 The kind of theological reflection that once motivated transformative action in the more liberal churches is now in crisis.  Studies show that religious believers still feel that they “ought to do something.”  But the organic connection between theology and action, between seminary and pew, has been lost.  The forms of reflection that once produced this kind of thought have fallen into disuse.  The progressive movement within American religion needs to have theoretical underpinning; it needs vision.  But — for reasons that we hope the grant will uncover — the ideologies and habits of mind that once produced a powerful sense of unity have been obscured.

Theology in the liberal wing of American religion is fundamentally pluralistic.  Here one is accustomed to using multiple models and telling multiple religious stories, utilizing sociological and cultural critiques as well as historical sources in formulating faith as the ground of action.  We are optimistic that a well-structured program can rekindle the kind of theology models that reach beyond seminary classrooms and that express the shared convictions of Christians who don’t consider themselves evangelical.

We are fortunate to be working with a Steering Committee of brilliant theologians and religious leaders.  Working with Marjorie and me are:

 • Victor Anderson (Vanderbilt)

• Joseph Bracken (Xavier)

• Ignacio Castuera (Trinity United MethodistChurch in Pomona)

• Gary Dorrien (Union in New York)

• Dwight Hopkins (University of Chicago)

• Catherine Keller (Drew)

• Ted Vial (Iliff)

 In addition to the research and publications that the grant will sponsor, we will also organize three major consultations in 2009:

 (a) March 12^th-14^th:  a meeting of leading theologians from across the U.S. to discuss the crisis in theology and how to rekindle forms of reflection that motivate transformative action.  We plan to discuss the symptoms of the crisis, its causes (historical, intellectual, social and political), and the potential solutions — the steps we can take to do something about it;

 (b) May 18^th-20^th:  a summit meeting of the leaders of the major mainline denominations to discuss the crisis in theological education and how to effectively relaunch such programs both for clergy and for laypersons.  Each denomination will send 4-6 of its top executives and the leaders of its programs in theological education;

 (c) September 24^th-26^th:  following the summit meeting, a major consultation to disseminate the results, to which the presidents and academic deans from all the major seminaries and divinity schools in the United States will be invited.  Here we will present the results to the people who actually have the power to put them into practice.  Our goal is to inspire them to action.

 In the past, progressive religion in America was able to move fluidly from theological models to transformative action, and from praxis in the world to new and richer theological models.  We believe it is possible again to rekindle the organic interplay of religious thought and action.  Renewing the sense of shared identity and mission should also have significant impact on local congregations, denominations, and a variety of progressive Christian networks.

Fans of the subtle philosophy spoofs by Marty Python shouldn’t miss this great "news report" on the opening of a football game.  It seems the player who was supposed to call the toss was suddenly struck by existential Angst.  He realized that, if the most important moments of life are dependent on the outcome of random processes such as the toss of a coin, life itself must be absurd.  How could anything at all have meaning?

Pre-Game Coin Toss Makes Jacksonville Jaguars Realize Randomness Of Life

Adventures in the Spirit:  God, World, Divine Action was just published two days ago, and the first copy just arrived on my desk.  Even when you’ve worked for years on a book, even when you’ve worked through the text countless times, it’s still exciting to hold the final product in your hand.  “Here it is,” you think, “the very best I am able to write on this topic.”

Adventures in the Spirit feels significant for another reason as well.  It’s not just a passing statement on a topic that caught my interest for a short while.  It is the culmination of the integrative project that has occupied much of my attention over the last 15 years.

Years ago, researching and writing The Problem of God in Modern Thought taught me that modern philosophy points in the direction of panentheism.  Later, working on the philosophy of science, evolutionary biology, and the mind-body problem revealed that emergent complexity was becoming a common framework, even a new paradigm, across the sciences today.  Gradually I realized that theological reflection could and should be transformed by these back-to-back revolutions in philosophy and in science.  More specifically, the combination of the two frameworks suggests a rather specific hypothesis about God’s relationship to the world:  emergent panentheism.  Adventures in the Spirit is the fullest statement so far of this model of God, this new hypothesis in theology.

The word “hypothesis” suggests the third defining feature of the book.  The widespread view, reflected again and again in the blogosphere, is that one can either respect the religious traditions or reflect reasonably about religion.  Tertium non datur — there is no third option.  But I have always believed that this “forced dilemma” is mistaken.  And the more I travel and speak with intelligent persons who believe in a God — mostly Christians, but also Jews and Muslims — the more I become convinced that reasonable belief is not only possible but actual.  Adventures in the Spirit offers a way of thinking about God as well as a way of being religious that is dialogical, open to criticism, exploratory — and yet, at the same time, also imbued with respect for the religious traditions themselves.

The publication of this book is significant for one final reason, which incidentally is the same reason that leads me to post this blog.  I have become convinced that it is crucial to begin writing for a broader audience.  It’s time to give up the rarified prose, the subtle references of academic theology, in favor of a more open and accessible form of writing.  Adventures in the Spirit is still a demanding book.  The next book will be a different kind of publication (the working title is Beyond the Religion Wars: The Path from Reduction to Reenchantment), and the one after it as well.  This may irritate academic theologians and there may be backlash.  Still, it seems increasingly urgent to fundamentally shift that way I write.  Thus in some ways Adventures in the Spirit is the end of one era and the beginning of the next.

One always sends a child out into the world with fear and trepidation:  how will it fare?  Will it be understood?  An author has the same feeling about a newborn book:  will it be understood?  Will it be helpful?  I wish this young one Godspeed …