A TRANSFORMATIONAL RELIGION by John R. Lickorish In his plea for the institutionalisation of radical theology (SOF Magazine, Summer 1990, p.8), Martin Roberts makes the intriguing observation that, "when we clear the muddy waters of church history and dogma what we see reflected is our own face." But there is more to it than that. For if we trace these "muddy waters" to their fountain head in the New Testament, we find a swirling stream of thought, described in great detail in Dunn's "Unity and Diversity in the N.T.". Indeed, it is a valuable exercise to draw a 'flow diagram' of Dunn's findings and use it as a chart in navigating this turbulent stream. We shall then find there are two main currents of thought discernable within this eddying torrent.
One is the apocalyptic, judgemental, authoritarian stream, emerging with St. Paul and reflected in current literature by Graham Shaw's "The Cost of Authority". This eventually became the orthodox stream of Christian thought, expressed in the credal confessions of a triumphalist, expansionist, imperial Church, which cherishes the image of Christ the King, who one day will destroy the wicked and establish his kingdom of righteousness. Thatis the stream in which is mirrored our own face, for it reflects the longing for security, our feelings of helplessness and dependency, as well as our desire to be 'on the winning side'. It is the religion of theological realism, the institutionalised, hierarchically structured form of Christianity we know so well.
The other stream of thought is of a quite different nature and although it occasionally becomes lost in the sands of time, it emerges ever and anon to renew and rebuke the religious life of its day. It originated in a set of stories and sayings, traditionally attributed to Jesus of Nazareth. These sayings and some of the shorter stories are almost certainly poems and therefore have retained their original forms, largely uncontaminated by the literary mass in which they are embedded. They consist of images, provocative sayings and symbolic expressions, which stimulate our thinking about human relationships and show us the kind of people we m071 become, rather than the people we actually are. They may be regarded as the basis of a Transformational Religion, whose purpose PAGE 6 AUTUMN 1990 SEA OF FAITH MAGAZINE is to effect a radical change in human behaviour, not its apocalyptic destruction.
Such a religion cannot be reduced to a tidy system, any more than human behaviour can itself be neatly docketed. It is based on a brotherly-sisterly set of relationships, has many affinities with present day psychotherapy and its terminology can (where necessary) be easily transposed into that of modern psychology. It is a religion of the spirit, rather than that of a person.
In so far as it needs to be 'organised', it can utilise a system of sideways-communication to form a network of small groups and individuals, perhaps on the Quaker model.
A Transformational Religion is obviously totally different from the traditional, authoritarian church. It regards religion as being the to tahrs,00nse to life and the field of its operation is the whole complex of human relationships. Moreover, a transformational model of religion makes no exclusive claims, but welcomes the co-operation of other systems with the same basic aims. It could, it seems to me, form the basis for the development of a corporate expression of radical theology.
JOHN R. LICKORISH lives in Norwich. He is a retired NHS clinical psychologist and former Methodist minister.