Nothing is more confusing than the American spiritual landscape. The average bookstore shelf is a good illustration. Books on spirituality shade off into self-help, transcendentalism, and tarot cards.
Historically, we have always been a nation of seekers. But the ease and breadth of publication has created a world in which we are surrounded by a welter of possible spiritualities.
For people whose work-a-day world is devoted to other efforts, the question is, “How do I evaluate the spiritualities and guidance on offer?”
One way is to ask three questions (which I hope to explore over the next three days).
Critical Question One: WHERE DID THE IDEA COME FROM?
One of the most basic questions we can ask is where an idea came from. The origin of an idea may tell us something about the operative assumptions behind it and the larger system of thought into which it fits.
It’s not about deciding on the validity of ideas based solely upon where they came from. As one of my professors noted when I was in college, “all truth is God’s truth.”
Nor am I suggesting that where an idea originates tells us everything about its emerging value. Just as words have an etiology, but may come to mean something very different, so ideas can acquire new meaning.
For example, some people believe that sex is a bad thing and acceptable only because it is the one way in which you can bring children into the world. That way of thinking is based, in turn, on the conviction that human bodies are, by definition, nothing more than an obstacle to spiritual growth. If were spiritual enough, we would simply ignore our physical needs.
That way of looking at things derives from an ancient philosophy called Gnosticism and other ancient Greek philosophies. The Gnostics believed that the body is evil and the spirit is good. Minimize the physical and you get a person who is fundamentally better.
That is not what either Judaism or Christianity believes. Creation — sex included — is a good thing and a gift from God, when used properly and in a disciplined fashion. The origin of the idea that it is not, tells you something about the larger spiritual perspective at work.
That all created things are fundamentally good as gifts from God, often become muddled in humanity’s ability to distort or pervert them from their original intended purpose, continues to be one of humankind’s greatest failures.
This is a fabulous question: Where does a spiritual idea come from? A vision, a dream, a payer, a sudden realization come to us as epiphanies, as gifts of perception. As Christians, we attribute them to a divine source (although we may analyze them psychologically) for they provide us with a way of seeing, living–even organizing our days. I had a dream of a friend who recently died. That very night, I dreamed that she was swinging on a swing as a young girl in a playground, on a roof, and from a telephone wire. She was giggling, joyful, and wonderfully liberated. This image helped enormously with my grief and connected with the drawing of the resurrection on the front of the worship leaflet a few days later. I once had the shock of climbing over a hill from a dreary parking lot and finding myself looking down from a cliff. I was surprised to see children playing happily on the beach. I saw a fog coming in from the ocean and heard a bell ringing from a buoy out at sea. It was as mystical a scene as one from Eliot’s tree full of children in Burnt Norton. I had crossed over a threshold of time and ordinary experience. What is the source of these experiences? I see them through the lens of belief. I see experiences like these as “icons” that provide a glimpse into another reality. Source? a divine one connecting imagination, scripture, and word that helps us to see what is surprising and joyously mysterious about our lives. We are shaped by these experiences and when we conflate them with the Gospel story of suffering, hope, and resurrection, we find a deeper layer of truth that guides our way.
Elizabeth, thanks! The description of your dream reminds us all of how important it is to remain open to the various ways in which God communicates with us. For those of us who have had formal theological preparation, it is sometimes very easy to lapse — unthinkingly — into a world that can only imagine connecting with God through the written and spoken word.
Since I believe God created all things I believe ideas come from Him. Of course, the devil can deceive us as well as we deceive ourselves. But is not deception allowed by God to teach us even more truth? According to John 14:26 the Holy Ghost will teach us all things and I think the completeness of this statement ties into ideas. We have questions and in the learning process acquire ideas. We have doubts and learn faith which gives us knowledge (ideas). The Lord is not limited in how He chooses to speak to us. As Fred wrote: “all truth is God’s truth.” Yes! consider Jesus spoke of Himself as being Truth. I don’t believe God’s way is for truth to be harsh but communicated with love. So even if we are reproved, which may hurt for awhile, we are benefited as Christians by an opportunity to amend ourselves. The very idea that we have an idea of God and a relationship with Jesus is awesome! What can compare?