Can a Religion Grow Up?

Religions Can Grow Up

Patrick Buchanan, columnist for the Washington Times, comments on how for a long time we humans have been killing people who are deemed heretics and a danger to religious faith.

This reminds me of a theory I have toyed with for some time now.

Thesis: Religions develop in stages similar to the psycho-social development we experience as individuals.

You know what I mean. We are born into the world screaming day and night for our needs to be met by others. As babies we cared not whether Mom or Dad had gotten enough sleep or were healthy enough to tend to us. “I want what I want when I want it!” Of course, a tiny person does not understand what he or she is doing—excusable behavior for an infant, no question.

Then we began the process of civilizing. Say please and thank you. Share. Wait your turn. And we did so—but grudgingly and of necessity. Parents had carrots and sticks as incentives. So we began to mind our manners—but only to advance our own agenda. When we could achieve our goals by cheating, kicking, or throwing tantrums, we usually did so.

Then we got some size and some savvy. Craft and guile can triumph over the gullible most every time. So as teens we expressed our insecurity and ambition by being clever, clandestine, and even brutal when necessary. We made fun of those who were different. We plotted the downfall of our perceived rivals. We used superior brawn or wit to prove to ourselves that we were “special”—in other words, superior to those who did not join our agenda.

Hopefully, when we became adults, we began “to put away childish things.” We genuinely cared for others. We respected their opinions and their backgrounds. We offered our persuasive talents with respect, hoping that those whom we thought needed some of our wisdom and guidance would come to it by grasping new insights and embracing a better way of their own free will rather than by manipulation or coercion. This process is still going on in those of us who have become healthy adults—virtue is ever an unfinished project. But hopefully we are aware of our failures and working on our own weaknesses of soul. We have become self-critical—able to look at the inconsistencies and immaturities that we need to overcome. Change is coming from within.

I think this same development can be found—imperfectly to be sure—in the “soul writ large” as Plato would say. That is, in the maturation of movements—in this case, religious movements.

Today many have abandoned religion as irrelevant, unnecessary and possibly malevolent. And there is plenty in religious history to support such an attitude. However, I cannot bring myself to this position. While we all have some kind of spiritual experience that is personal and inner, religion is a group expression of spiritual experiences that we have in common with others. So religion cannot help but be with us always. Its similar to, say, a sports club. People who like hunting or fishing or baseball or golf are going to find each other and enhance their experience in a group venture. That’s what religion does. And that’s why religions will always have a degree of dissonance within their general harmony.

I take as my examples the so-called monotheistic religions. With Abraham this worldview got its initial impetus. The religion we now know as Judaism in its beginnings was very immature—the grumblings of the newly freed Egyptian slaves under Moses is well known. As it gained strength it went through its teenage years—full of chaos and turmoil, such as in the biblical book of Judges. In its early adulthood, flexing newly developed muscles, it grew by conquest until it was almost a super-power in the Mid-east under David and Solomon. Advancing in age and declining in vigor, Judaism gradually developed into a mature faith that renounced violence and is now a presence for good in nations around the world. When have we heard recently of Jews killing heretics who defect to Christianity, Islam, or atheism? Judaism grew up—a 2000 year process that ended about 70 AD.

What about Christianity?

In the early years of the Christian era Christians throve on persecution and the enthusiasm of a powerful spiritual experience they referred to as the filling of the Holy Spirit. A powerful inner impulse impelled them to spread their faith largely among the poor and outcast.

Soon after being recognized as a new religion (being cut off from its roots in Judaism) the Christian religion soon became bogged down in heated debates about dogma. Heretics were banished. Divisions arose.

In the first 1000 years major pitched battles split the churches into East and West—Byzantium and Rome and lesser sects scattered to places as remote as central China (Nestorians).

Flush with power and full of fears, the adolescent church launched Crusades against outside threats and invented inquisitions against dissenters within its ranks.

The first evidence of critical self-analysis came in the Reformation. Building on the renaissance awakening, theologians began to become self-critical. Reforms followed. But the reforms often led to violence—the 100 Years War in Europe as an example.

In the last couple of centuries Christianity has now entered a mature phase. There have been notable examples of repentance in the confession of “the sins of its youth.” Reconciliation is being sought between former rival factions—Rome and the Eastern Orthodox; Catholics and Protestants.

When was the last time official Christian leaders called for death to those who hold different theologies? When last have we seen the message of Jesus imposed at the point of a sword or gun? Christianity as a religion has finally entered adulthood, seeking to draw others by compassionate good works for the orphan, the oppressed, and the disadvantaged around the world, not by armed coercion. But it took a thousand years.

What about Islam?

From its beginning in the 7th century, Islam followed its founder in spreading the faith. As any newly-born ideology, Islam grew as a vigorous and healthy child grows. Muhammad organized armies and quickly conquered neighboring tribes on the Arabian peninsula. Within a century, Muslim armies “converted” diverse peoples at the point of the sword. Given three choices (embrace Islam, become subjugated to an Islamic state as second-class citizens, or be killed), people from Egypt to Persia were swallowed up by the invincible armies of the Prophet.

As Islam expanded there arose wars between various sects and factions. Islam entered its adolescence—each sect in Islam insisting on its correctness, with little evidence of a self-critical spirit. Some voices of tolerance are now being heard. But the struggles within Islam, such as between those who support Sharia law and more secular Muslims continues. There are those who champion the idea that there is to be “no compulsion in religion.” While there are others who believe that to question Islam, much less reject it by conversion to another faith, is blasphemy and deserving of death.

When is the last time you heard of someone being killed or physically punished because they defected from Islam? Or were critical of the words of the Prophet? Or questioned some teaching of the Quran? Unfortunately there are countless current examples.

Islam is entering its adolescence—a time when it will hopefully begin to look at itself critically, when it will admit the wrongs it has done, when it will give up coercion and seek forgiveness from those it has oppressed and wronged. Islam need not give up its claim to be the world’s only true religion. But in order to mature it must question its dogma. It must become more humble—and certainly it must become non-violent.

Just as for an individual, there is no time when one can say, “I am a perfectly mature person,” so there will never be a perfectly mature religion. But some faiths have advanced along the path to maturity more than others. Unfortunately Islam often presents itself to the world as an intolerant faith that would rather destroy its critics rather than try to learn from them. It is somewhere between the tantrum stage of the mid-adolescent and the young adult just opening to a wider world. Islam could learn from the mistakes of its older brothers—Judaism and Christianity and come to terms with its history of theocratic conquest.

One can only hope that just as we grow up individually (though some childishness persists in all of us), so the religions of the world will grow in self-examination and self-reformation.

As the writer of Hebrews urged the early Christians: “let us go on to maturity…”