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The Gladness Project
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Not getting out as much?
Frederic Buechner is famous for saying that your calling in life is to find that place where the gladness of your heart meets the hungers of the world. For some of us, not getting out as much can be a time when we take time to find the gladness so that, in time, we can better meet the hungers of the world. This gladness is not just a means to an end. It is an end in itself. Here gladness be shorthand for attention, creativity, gratitude, faith, kindness, listening, imagination, joy, playfulness, silence, and a sense of mystery. Gladness is what I mean by reverence in the remarks below; it is the entire range of qualities that form a spiritual alphabet for humanity. Is there theological warrant for this? Yes there is. After all, the very Soul of the universe is in personal gladness and our finding of it. At least so process theologians believe. We believe that God is a spirit of creative transformation in the world seeking the well-being of each and all. This spirit is in our healing actions in the world, including our peace-and-justice-making. Buy the spirit is also in the depths of our hearts as we grow emotionally and spiritually. God is in our gladness. Not getting out as much? May it be a time of growth into gladness. |
The Reverence Project
as a response to social distancing
“Social distancing does not come easily to extroverts like you,” says a friend of mind. “We introverts may have an edge.”
I think she’s right. In truth, I may be in the middle between extravert and introvert. I, too, need time away from people after I'm around them too much. I, too, need to take a nap after too much peopling. Still she has a good point. There's something that troubles me when I hear the very phrase "social distancing." It seems, well, unloving. I'm always wanting to reach out in some way.
Nor does social distancing come easily to those of us influenced by open and relational (process) theologies, whether we are extraverts or introverts or somewhere in between. We may be Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Pagan, or Spiritual Independents. One or another, our theologies call us to reach out to others, not to withdraw from them. Indeed, sometimes we speak of our own movement as process-relational theology or open and relational theology. In the language of the spiritual alphabet offered below, “C” is for Connection and "L" is for love; and we're all about loving connections. Indeed we may have a tendency to equate loving connections with actions outside the home and with helping to create a better world,, forgetting that they begin with family life.
“Social distancing does not come easily to extroverts like you,” says a friend of mind. “We introverts may have an edge.”
I think she’s right. In truth, I may be in the middle between extravert and introvert. I, too, need time away from people after I'm around them too much. I, too, need to take a nap after too much peopling. Still she has a good point. There's something that troubles me when I hear the very phrase "social distancing." It seems, well, unloving. I'm always wanting to reach out in some way.
Nor does social distancing come easily to those of us influenced by open and relational (process) theologies, whether we are extraverts or introverts or somewhere in between. We may be Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Pagan, or Spiritual Independents. One or another, our theologies call us to reach out to others, not to withdraw from them. Indeed, sometimes we speak of our own movement as process-relational theology or open and relational theology. In the language of the spiritual alphabet offered below, “C” is for Connection and "L" is for love; and we're all about loving connections. Indeed we may have a tendency to equate loving connections with actions outside the home and with helping to create a better world,, forgetting that they begin with family life.
Of course, when we distance ourselves from others, we do so for connectional reasons. Social distancing can be a form of love, too. We love others by not putting them at risk. Moreover, we need to be connected with ourselves as well. In the spiritual alphabet there is certainly space for self-respect and self-affirmation, for protecting yourself from disease. “Y” is for You.
Still, it can seem strange to distance ourselves. A question emerges: How might we practice process theology in an age of social distancing?
First things first. We need to be strong advocates for people who haven't the luxury of such distancing: health care workers, store clerks, delivery drivers, nursing home assistants, homeless people, single parents with two jobs. If we are forced to stay at home, we best remember that, in some ways, we are the lucky ones and that we live in a society where so many of them are struggling just to make ends meet, risking their health along the way. "J" is for justice.
The Reverence Project
As we advocate for justice in whatever ways are available to us, we can simultaneously use the time we have to reclaim our lives and reconsider our priorities. This is much more than thinking about values. It is allowing qualities of heart and mind to well up within us that help us become our better selves. We can, for example, use the time we have as a kind of spiritual retreat: a Lenten practice, Christians might way. I suggest we focus on reverence and try to practice reverence in all that we do. "R" is for reverence.
By reverence I have in mind six qualities of heart and mind:
I borrow these six categories from Spirituality and Practice. Click here and you’ll find a list of practices that can enrich our capacities for reverence in each of these areas. And click here to find an overview of their impressive project: The Reverence Project. These two paragraphs from Spirituality and Practice offer a key to how they understand reverence:
Reverence is the spiritual path of radical respect, courtesy, civility, manners, awe, and amazement. It arises from a grand mystery: The sacred is in, with, above, and under the ten thousand things of our everyday world…Reverence is a way of seeing, being, and acting in life. It was lauded in the ancient cultures of Greece and China, and it remains a central value in indigenous communities everywhere. The religious traditions call for reverence when they affirm that everywhere you turn you see the face of God.”
Developing a Daily Practice
What is important is that we allow the reverence to grow in our hearts and minds with help from daily practices. If we are open and relational (process) thinkers, we can understand this growth as a form of renewal and creative transformation. A process in which divine breathing is at work, in a healing and whole-making way, in our lives.
This daily practice may already be built into our lives through our religious affiliation. If we are Muslim we can practice prayer five times a day in a serious, thoughtful way; and if we are Jewish or Christian we can do something of the same. We can build periods of daily prayer into our lives. If we are Buddhist, we can build meditation into our daily lives in a serious way. We can commit ourselves to two periods a day of meditation.
On the question of what to do, I always turn to Spirituality and Practice. For my part, I know of no other source that offers so many practical tips for concrete practices. Their practices include films and photography and music as well as simple things to do at home alone. A word of advice: if you search their site, you may find yourself overwhelmed with the options. I suggest that you not spend too much time being overwhelmed; just choose a couple that make sense to you and stick to them for a time, even if they seem unnatural at first.
You might even undertake your daily practice in cooperation with some others with whom you interact online. Call them reverence groups if you will. The e-courses offered by Spirituality and Practice offer an opportunity for this, with learning and practice circles made readily available. But you can do the same in your own way with a creative use of email and social media.
But is it really process theology?
Yes, it is. It is process theology if we think of theology as a way of living and not just a worldview. It is process theology if we think that the holy One to whom process theology points is actually at work in the world and in the human heart. It is process theology if we think that a universe of mutual becoming includes the becoming of our own hearts and souls. It is process theology if we think that attitudes and emotions (subjective aims and subjective forms) are essential to a life well-lived. It is process theology if we believe, as Whitehead did, that human experience originates, moment by moment, with what he calls the withness of the body, which means that bodily practices (including diet and daily prayer and exercise) can be part of the spiritual life. It is process theology if we believe that every moment of experience contains the entire universe, which means that we meet the universe itself, including other people and the more than human world, when we become more aware of our own inner lives. It is process theology if we recognize that connections themselves are not limited to spatial-temporal relations with the ‘outside’ world, as discerned in sense experience, but can also include forms of feeling that emerge in silence and solitude, awe and wonder, gratitude and, yes, a sense of being connected with all that becomes. It is process theology if we recognize that silence and wonder and awe are themselves forms of relatedness and, for that matter, modes of cognition. It is process theology if we recognize that ecological civilizations cannot emerge in the world without whole people who are capable of helping build and sustain them. It is process theology if we understand spirituality itself as embodied wisdom and emotional intelligence in community with others. In these senses, and I am sure many more, it really is process theology. Or better, the practice of process theology, albeit more than a mere application of ideas. It is process theology as a way of living in which, so I suggest, reverence is essential.
Still, it can seem strange to distance ourselves. A question emerges: How might we practice process theology in an age of social distancing?
First things first. We need to be strong advocates for people who haven't the luxury of such distancing: health care workers, store clerks, delivery drivers, nursing home assistants, homeless people, single parents with two jobs. If we are forced to stay at home, we best remember that, in some ways, we are the lucky ones and that we live in a society where so many of them are struggling just to make ends meet, risking their health along the way. "J" is for justice.
The Reverence Project
As we advocate for justice in whatever ways are available to us, we can simultaneously use the time we have to reclaim our lives and reconsider our priorities. This is much more than thinking about values. It is allowing qualities of heart and mind to well up within us that help us become our better selves. We can, for example, use the time we have as a kind of spiritual retreat: a Lenten practice, Christians might way. I suggest we focus on reverence and try to practice reverence in all that we do. "R" is for reverence.
By reverence I have in mind six qualities of heart and mind:
- reverence for God (higher power, deeper source)
- reverence for self,
- reverence for others,
- reverence for nature,
- reverence for animals and plants,
- reverence for things
I borrow these six categories from Spirituality and Practice. Click here and you’ll find a list of practices that can enrich our capacities for reverence in each of these areas. And click here to find an overview of their impressive project: The Reverence Project. These two paragraphs from Spirituality and Practice offer a key to how they understand reverence:
Reverence is the spiritual path of radical respect, courtesy, civility, manners, awe, and amazement. It arises from a grand mystery: The sacred is in, with, above, and under the ten thousand things of our everyday world…Reverence is a way of seeing, being, and acting in life. It was lauded in the ancient cultures of Greece and China, and it remains a central value in indigenous communities everywhere. The religious traditions call for reverence when they affirm that everywhere you turn you see the face of God.”
Developing a Daily Practice
What is important is that we allow the reverence to grow in our hearts and minds with help from daily practices. If we are open and relational (process) thinkers, we can understand this growth as a form of renewal and creative transformation. A process in which divine breathing is at work, in a healing and whole-making way, in our lives.
This daily practice may already be built into our lives through our religious affiliation. If we are Muslim we can practice prayer five times a day in a serious, thoughtful way; and if we are Jewish or Christian we can do something of the same. We can build periods of daily prayer into our lives. If we are Buddhist, we can build meditation into our daily lives in a serious way. We can commit ourselves to two periods a day of meditation.
On the question of what to do, I always turn to Spirituality and Practice. For my part, I know of no other source that offers so many practical tips for concrete practices. Their practices include films and photography and music as well as simple things to do at home alone. A word of advice: if you search their site, you may find yourself overwhelmed with the options. I suggest that you not spend too much time being overwhelmed; just choose a couple that make sense to you and stick to them for a time, even if they seem unnatural at first.
You might even undertake your daily practice in cooperation with some others with whom you interact online. Call them reverence groups if you will. The e-courses offered by Spirituality and Practice offer an opportunity for this, with learning and practice circles made readily available. But you can do the same in your own way with a creative use of email and social media.
But is it really process theology?
Yes, it is. It is process theology if we think of theology as a way of living and not just a worldview. It is process theology if we think that the holy One to whom process theology points is actually at work in the world and in the human heart. It is process theology if we think that a universe of mutual becoming includes the becoming of our own hearts and souls. It is process theology if we think that attitudes and emotions (subjective aims and subjective forms) are essential to a life well-lived. It is process theology if we believe, as Whitehead did, that human experience originates, moment by moment, with what he calls the withness of the body, which means that bodily practices (including diet and daily prayer and exercise) can be part of the spiritual life. It is process theology if we believe that every moment of experience contains the entire universe, which means that we meet the universe itself, including other people and the more than human world, when we become more aware of our own inner lives. It is process theology if we recognize that connections themselves are not limited to spatial-temporal relations with the ‘outside’ world, as discerned in sense experience, but can also include forms of feeling that emerge in silence and solitude, awe and wonder, gratitude and, yes, a sense of being connected with all that becomes. It is process theology if we recognize that silence and wonder and awe are themselves forms of relatedness and, for that matter, modes of cognition. It is process theology if we recognize that ecological civilizations cannot emerge in the world without whole people who are capable of helping build and sustain them. It is process theology if we understand spirituality itself as embodied wisdom and emotional intelligence in community with others. In these senses, and I am sure many more, it really is process theology. Or better, the practice of process theology, albeit more than a mere application of ideas. It is process theology as a way of living in which, so I suggest, reverence is essential.