Bringing God down to Earth
‘Perhaps fifteen minutes to start a revolution is both ambitious and irrational, but that is not surprising, because what I want to share today is felt as much as thought and experienced rather than imagined. I have a short time to put pieces of a jigsaw together and to create a picture that I want you to respond to with an open mind. The strange thing is that in my head you don’t have a short time to respond but decades. In fact anything up to one hundred and fifty years, as I will explain.
Central to my message is change and development; I want to call it evolution. The focus is on both the evolution of the nature and existence of God and the evolution of organised religion. To do this I want a broad brush approach that makes a clear connection between theology and psychology. I am also looking to make a more contemporary connection between religion and spirituality. I need to point out that in terms of organised religion I am largely talking about the Anglican Church.
I have made the point that this is personal, very personal. It is about me, my experience, my psyche. So just a brief thumbnail sketch about my background. I was brought up in an actively Christian family. I want to share a very early childhood memory: ‘We kneel at the side of the bed (of course most often I was in my bed), our prayers are finished and said, we wait a moment or two, to hear what God wants us to do.’ Back came the frequent answer: ‘Be nicer to your sister, stop teasing her so much.’ It took me decades before I grasped the psychological significance of God, my conscience and guilt.
When I was eleven and my father was forty, he stopped working in the aviation industry as a planning engineer and trained for the priesthood. I lived on a housing estate on the outskirts of Bristol where my father was curate. I have strong memories of attending church with my family and of developing a faith. Long story, much shorter; I trained as a religious education teacher, moved into pastoral care and imagined my career very much as a vocation. I am also a counsellor.
Back in the sixties my teaching went through a revolution, changing from Bible-centred to child-centred. I became interested in The Honest to God debate and much of the demythologising of the New Testament. As my ideas about God started to evolve, I gave myself the title of ‘Existentialist Christian’. But then I became increasingly frustrated by the apparent slowness of the Church of England to embrace change and to reflect more on modern issues of faith and doctrine. I spent many many years in the wilderness not attending church but always dwelling on the potential significance of having some faith.
About four years ago I returned to church and with my wife attended a beautiful medieval town church in Dorset with a very inclusive and pastorally-centred priest. It was of interest to me that I attended the early morning Eucharist with the very familiar rhythms and phrases and the dramatic performance of sharing the body and blood of Jesus. Using the ancient Book of Common Prayer resonated so very deeply and profoundly, even though the liturgy contained so much that I do not agree with. It became again a period of personal reflection, spiritual awareness and in many ways a therapeutic realignment.
Next came an invitation to become a member of a development group looking at a big reordering, not only of heating, lighting, sound and access but at the future ministry and mission of the church. Yes, of course we considered removing most of the pews – who wouldn’t? But I also saw the imagery of the group standing at the open doors of the church looking out and wondering how to introduce what the church has on offer to those who just do not see or feel any relevance.
So it happened; I knew the church would die when those few of us who currently attend are dead and we are not replaced. So for many different reasons I set out to save the Church. I have evolved into a ‘Conceptual Christian’. The existence of God, the nature of God, belief in God are not binary issues. Any discussion about God and any claims about either God’s existence or God’s non-existence are as a result of human concepts. Humankind has over the millennia turned theological debate into a series of claims and counter claims. But they are all concepts from our minds.
Two contemporary examples linking how different concepts of God give us different ideas about the nature of God, both happening within the last few weeks. First: a gay woman who attends an Evangelical church was told that if she didn’t agree to having conversion therapy, she would go to hell and suffer punishment. God thinks homosexuality is wrong? Very recently the Methodist Church voted in favour of gay marriages. God approves?
I want the Anglican Church to survive. I believe passionately that we must not throw out the baby (God) with the bath water. The Anglican Church could eventually become more inclusive and accept a very broad, different and conceptual view of God. Like so many SOF Network members you will have your own nuanced interpretation of God. But belief in God is much more than either he exists or he does not.
For me saying ‘God’ is a metaphor is helpful and opens up rather than closes down any discussion. I am happy to enlarge, but God is around me and yet deeply within me. I have a friend who treats the words God and supernatural as best avoided and prefers to talk about different paths leading to unity or oneness or wholeness, but who also recognises the possibility of a higher energy. Another friend has shared with me the phrase, ‘Inhabit the mystery’, which I really like.
I mentioned evolution at the start. One hundred and fifty years ago in 1871 Darwin published The Descent of Man. It was controversial and had a bearing on theological views. In the same year Charles Voysey had his benefice removed because he preached sermons critical of the Thirty Nine Articles of Religion. He also published a book entitled The Sling and the Stone, that challenged the orthodoxy of the day. Charles Voysey established the Theist Church.
This year is 2021 and considering the evolution of the Christian religion over the past one hundred and fifty years I have only time to ask the following questions. Where is Satan? What form do angels take? Did Jesus descend into Hell? Can you explain the return of Jesus? Or what do you think happened to the body of Jesus? What words would you use to describe the Holy Spirit? But what about the year 2171 which is one hundred and fifty years from now? What I want to happen – and what I believe is possible – is that a hundred and fifty years from now, the evolution of God and of organised religion will include the following:
- There will be a more general acceptance of the idea of God existing as a concept.
- Christianity as understood by the Anglican Church will become recognised as more personal and bespoke, rather than a directed and dictated top-down faith.
- Congregations repeating together Creeds such as the Nicene Creed, will be replaced by periods of directed individual prayer or meditation.
- The emphasis will be on a new breadth and depth of inclusivity and interpretation.
- The Articles of Religion will be withdrawn or replaced to suit twenty first century thinking.
- There will be very few, if any, exceptions to define a Christian faith.
- When God is mentioned there will be little or no anthropomorphic words or images. Similarly there will not be any gender assignment.
- There would still be some centralised, shared, common occasions, but consideration will be given to all forms of set worship and the sacraments, in terms of language and content.
- The Bible will be used, but readings will be contextualised relating to the culture and time they were written.
- Priests will be trained in understanding the potential psychological needs of those attending.
- A strong emphasis will be made on making connections within the community with those people of no faith.
What about Jesus?
In my view of the future, Jesus remains central and therefore very important. For me Jesus is an historical person but above all is one hundred percent man. I hesitate saying this, but he is in reality, fundamentally no different from me. So part of my thoughts about future evolution will include stressing the humanity of Jesus rather than his divinity. Of course there are further discussions to be had concerning the concepts we hold around miracles, the virgin birth and the resurrection. It is, more than anything else, the teachings of Jesus that we must hold on to in developing ideas of compassion, forgiveness and love. I suggest the dualism of sin and redemption through atonement will also evolve during the coming century and a half.
In my arrogant quest to save the Church of England, I have recently become frustrated, disappointed, angry and yet enlightened. For example, I studied and reflected on the attitude and treatment of women throughout the history of the Church. Specifically I read and studied everything we know and can understand about Mary Magdalene. Things could have been so very different. Of course the Church of England remains deafeningly anachronistic.
Bringing things together, I invite all of you who have listened to me at Conference or read this piece to reflect on the evolution of the nature and existence of God and organised religion, backwards and forwards one hundred and fifty years. What has been, what is and what might be. Ask yourself this question: would an increase in the number of people with a ‘God shaped concept’ in their lives be a good thing, or not?
Recommended reading: The Meaning of Mary Magdalene by Cynthia Bourgeaut; Mary Magdalene Revealed by Meggan Watterson; The Psychology of Religion by Kate M Loewenthal.
Paul Vittle is a retired Headteacher and Counsellor attending church in Dorset.