A More Expansive Truth
"Blessed are the apostates, for they seek a more expansive truth."
Apostasy is the act of renouncing or abandoning one’s religious faith, political beliefs, or loyalties. I want to talk about a certain kind of apostasy that is faithful to God. I will call it loyal apostasy. To be sure, if you are a loyal apostate and abandon a religious faith shared by others, they will feel like you've abandoned the faith and also them. This hurts. But you are loyal to something inside yourself, yet more than yourself, which I will call the wideness of Truth. The wideness of Truth includes more than the conventional religion can hold, and it beckons each and all into the wideness. It is this wideness, this expansiveness, this love, that beckons you. Process theologians call it God.
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The loyal apostate is more receptive to the call of truth, feeling it within her mind and heart, than to the call of the conventional religion into which she was born or that she embraced earlier in her life. The truth to which she feels called is more expansive, more honest, and more in harmony with the way things truly are, or seem to her, given the best of her lights. She wants to be honest.
Her apostasy—the renunciation of her conventional religion—takes time and does not come easily. She finds herself torn between competing claims repeatedly. She does not wish to abandon the community she loves or harm those who would be hurt by her apostasy. Consequently, she remains silent. She is a quiet, loyal apostate. She continues to be a part of her community, but it is not easy. She sometimes feels hypocritical. People assume she believes that they believe, but she doesn't. It would be even more hypocritical to hide from the more expansive truth to which she feels called.
She takes solace in an idea she learns from process theology: that the very soul of the universe, God, is present in us and to us as the call of Truth—with an uppercase 'T'. The Truth is not something we possess or claim to own. It always transcends any concept of truth we possess, be it scientific, religious, philosophical, or aesthetic. Truth is always more than our concept of truth, and yet it calls us.
We can be loyal to Truth, say process theologians, by being open to visions more expansive than those that have characterized our past. Sometimes, the process of being open is painful because the conventional truths that have shaped our lives, and that we have embraced, have power over us. We have multiple voices in our head: the call of Truth and the calls of convention. Being a loyal apostate is always risky, because you know you may be wrong. Still, you must be true to the best of your lights, and thus loyal to Truth.
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Religion, at its best, is a home for loyal apostasy. It never absolutizes itself, purporting to possess a final vision. It is perpetually on the journey towards a more expansive vision. When conventional religions function as sanctuaries fostering openness to the call of expansive vision, there is no necessity for renunciation. They encompass a spirit of process, of openness, of questioning within their cultural atmosphere. They are companions to the doubters. The loyal apostate has found her spiritual home.
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The need in our time, not only in conventional religion but also in ideological politics and unthinking nationalism, is for loyal apostasy. It is for people who feel called by a more expansive vision that is good for all, and not just good for themselves or their tribe. The philosopher Whitehead calls it world loyalty. World loyalists need to have the courage to be apostates, and perhaps not so quiet about it. Here apostasy is not simply about personal spirituality, it is about the future of the the world. The courage requires faith in something more truthful and generous, more life-nourishing. We may or may not call it God. We may call it Love or Justice or Hope or Grace. But we must renounce the smaller visions: those that make us and others more self-centered and self-serving. This means that we must renounce partisan politics as well as partisan religion, partisan nationalism as well as partisan faith.
The grace to be a loyal apostate, to embrace world loyalty over partisan loyalty and tribalism, is a gift from heaven, however named. Process philosophers speak of this gift as the freshness of God's calling in the midst of life. The loyal apostate hears the freshness of the calling. She commits herself to perpetual apostasy, to always relinquishing and renouncing small visions, including her own, which function as gods in their own right, and get in the way of a more expansive, honest, and loving outlook on life. Her life is in process. She is saved, again and again, by the grace of apostasy.
- Jay McDaniel
*
The loyal apostate is more receptive to the call of truth, feeling it within her mind and heart, than to the call of the conventional religion into which she was born or that she embraced earlier in her life. The truth to which she feels called is more expansive, more honest, and more in harmony with the way things truly are, or seem to her, given the best of her lights. She wants to be honest.
Her apostasy—the renunciation of her conventional religion—takes time and does not come easily. She finds herself torn between competing claims repeatedly. She does not wish to abandon the community she loves or harm those who would be hurt by her apostasy. Consequently, she remains silent. She is a quiet, loyal apostate. She continues to be a part of her community, but it is not easy. She sometimes feels hypocritical. People assume she believes that they believe, but she doesn't. It would be even more hypocritical to hide from the more expansive truth to which she feels called.
She takes solace in an idea she learns from process theology: that the very soul of the universe, God, is present in us and to us as the call of Truth—with an uppercase 'T'. The Truth is not something we possess or claim to own. It always transcends any concept of truth we possess, be it scientific, religious, philosophical, or aesthetic. Truth is always more than our concept of truth, and yet it calls us.
We can be loyal to Truth, say process theologians, by being open to visions more expansive than those that have characterized our past. Sometimes, the process of being open is painful because the conventional truths that have shaped our lives, and that we have embraced, have power over us. We have multiple voices in our head: the call of Truth and the calls of convention. Being a loyal apostate is always risky, because you know you may be wrong. Still, you must be true to the best of your lights, and thus loyal to Truth.
*
Religion, at its best, is a home for loyal apostasy. It never absolutizes itself, purporting to possess a final vision. It is perpetually on the journey towards a more expansive vision. When conventional religions function as sanctuaries fostering openness to the call of expansive vision, there is no necessity for renunciation. They encompass a spirit of process, of openness, of questioning within their cultural atmosphere. They are companions to the doubters. The loyal apostate has found her spiritual home.
*
The need in our time, not only in conventional religion but also in ideological politics and unthinking nationalism, is for loyal apostasy. It is for people who feel called by a more expansive vision that is good for all, and not just good for themselves or their tribe. The philosopher Whitehead calls it world loyalty. World loyalists need to have the courage to be apostates, and perhaps not so quiet about it. Here apostasy is not simply about personal spirituality, it is about the future of the the world. The courage requires faith in something more truthful and generous, more life-nourishing. We may or may not call it God. We may call it Love or Justice or Hope or Grace. But we must renounce the smaller visions: those that make us and others more self-centered and self-serving. This means that we must renounce partisan politics as well as partisan religion, partisan nationalism as well as partisan faith.
The grace to be a loyal apostate, to embrace world loyalty over partisan loyalty and tribalism, is a gift from heaven, however named. Process philosophers speak of this gift as the freshness of God's calling in the midst of life. The loyal apostate hears the freshness of the calling. She commits herself to perpetual apostasy, to always relinquishing and renouncing small visions, including her own, which function as gods in their own right, and get in the way of a more expansive, honest, and loving outlook on life. Her life is in process. She is saved, again and again, by the grace of apostasy.
- Jay McDaniel
