Marginal Christianity

3. If we live in a religionless world we better be about the business of “Losing Our Religion” (REM) . This is DB’s third word to us. His corollary might be the Mets’ former star relief pitcher Tug McGraw’s famous slogan during a pennant chase in 1973, “Ya Gotta Believe!” Religion, which infected DB’s German Church infected as well much of the American church he was aware of. For him, religion consisted of -a metaphysically dualistic world in which the immaterial, inner realm, the spiritual, the eternal, the otherworldly, was superior to the material and the goal of human longing. -an individualistic orientation which privileges the other-worldly fate of the individual soul. -a part of a person’s life rather the whole. -belief in a “god of the gaps,” one who only comes into play where we cannot take care of ourselves (for example, death and guilt). -a focus on the performance of the right things, religiously and morally, that keep God pleased with us. -a...

"God does not become a religion, so that man (sic) participates in him by corresponding religious thoughts and feelings. God does not become a law, so that man (sic) participates in him through obedience to a law. God does not become an ideal, so that man (sic) achieves community with him through constant striving. He humbles himself and takes upon himself the eternal death of the godless and the godforsaken, so that all the godless and the godforsaken can experience communion with him." — Jürgen Moltmann, The Crucified God , 276. No religion, no moralism, no idealism, in short, no human way to God. Bonhoeffer called for a “religionless” Christianity. Moltmann answers that call here. Only God can make his way to us and through us to the world around us. And the good news is God has done just that! -Not through the highest and holiest -Not through the best and most admirable -Not through the hardest working and most sincere Instead of offering a wa...

by Mervyn Nicholson Red  Tory , that is.  The famous author and religious writer, C. S. Lewis, is revered by right-wing conservatives as a saint, their trophy intellectual, but ironically, he was not “conservative,” not in their way.  He was not  right wing.  He was a “Red Tory”, a political type unfamiliar in the U.S.  Almost everything he says about capitalism is negative.  Given his rather liberal views on divorce, birth control, and homosexuality, he was not a recognizable “social conservative”.  Above all, he rejected right-wing political and economic ideology.  In Mere Christianity , Lewis bluntly states that “a Christian society would be what we now call Leftist.” OK, Lewis was certifiably conservative in terms of religion. But not exactly.  He was a middle-of-the-road Anglican—he was not  “conservative” in the current sense meaning “Evangelical” or fundamentalist—treating the Bible as “literal” or as magi...

By James K.A. Smith November 23 at 6:00 AM Thanksgiving has always been one of the high holy days of American civil religion. Its rituals are surprisingly widespread — pilgrimages home through packed airports; gatherings of family and friends (and attendant tensions that are the stuff of Hollywood rom-coms); the dining room altar on which the turkey is supped, then a long day of drifting in and out of consciousness while hours and hours of football flicker in our darkening dens. Our Thanksgiving traditions reflect the country’s mix of secularization and religious fervor — what theologian William Cavanaugh calls “migrations of the holy.” In a secular age, our religious impulses aren’t diminished; they just find new devotions: consumption, the self, the nation. Now, the NFL — in all its popularity and current controversy — sets the script for our Thanksgiving Day litany. It gives us something to worship. Of course, the typical symbols and traditions of Thanksgiving h...

SEPTEMBER 22, 2017 BY  TIM SUTTLE    0 COMMENTS      The most powerful religion in the Western world is no longer Christianity. It is economics. It can actually be quite instructive to consider economics not as a science or sociology but as a religion, complete with doctrines, priests, and constant references to faith. So says John Rapley in  his essay  from  The Guardian  last July. “Think about it.  Economics  offers a comprehensive doctrine with a moral code promising adherents salvation in this world; an ideology so compelling that the faithful remake whole societies to conform to its demands. It has its gnostics, mystics and magicians who conjure money out of thin air, using spells such as “derivative” or “structured investment vehicle” … it has its prophets, reformists, moralists and above all, its high priests who uphold orthodoxy in the face of heresy.” If the economy is the new rel...

By Arthur E. Farnsley II | December 7, 2016 Supporters cheer as Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump attends a campaign rally in Sarasota, Fla., on Nov. 7, 2016. Photo courtesy of Reuters/Carlo Allegri *Editors: This photo may only be republished with RNS-FARNSLEY-OPED, originally published on Dec. 7, 2016. (RNS) Students in my college classes start out thinking religious identity and behavior are primarily about ideas. When I ask them about differences between Catholics and Methodists, they respond with differences in beliefs: the pope, contraception and transubstantiation. These theological differences are real, of course, but I learned long ago that ideas do not create religious identity: They follow from it. My students imagine we pick from a large menu of ideological options and then make decisions about which membership best fits our own ideas. It does not take long to convince them this “decision” model is badly incomplete. We never start from a...

By JAMES FALLOWS DEC. 10, 2014                  Photo Credit Edel Rodriguez           Just after finishing Karen Armstrong’s new book, I happened to hear a discussion on television about the latest outbreak of violence in the Middle East. “We have to hope that this disagreement stays on the political level, rather than becoming a religious dispute,” one of the experts said. “Political differences can be resolved. Religious ones cannot.”   “Fields of Blood” can be thought of as a long, wide-ranging and overall quite effective rebuttal to the outlook expressed in that comment. “In the West, the idea that religion is inherently violent is now taken for granted and seems self-evident,” Armstrong says on the book’s first page. It follows that the main hope for peace is to keep fa...

http://nblo.gs/11R7mL If you want to critique organized religion, it helps to know what you’re talking about. by Matthew Facciani   I’m an atheist who engages in secular activism and is active within the atheist community. I’m also doing doctoral work in the cognitive science of religion, and I’m sad to see so many atheists who have misguided and ignorant views about religion. Here are five things I wish more atheists knew. 1. Religion is not the sole cause of violence. This view, endorsed by well-known atheists such as Sam Harris and Bill Maher , is often justified by referencing terrorist acts done in the name of Islam. But blaming religion for violence prevents us from seeing all that drives violent behavior, including social, psychological, and political factors. Atheists who think religion causes violence could use an education in social identity theory and the process of radicalization . The process of how one’s beliefs (whether they are religious...