by friendofbill » December 10th, 2008, 3:28 pm
Thanks for your thoughtful responses, JRosemary. It's "cool" to be able to discuss differences of opinion without anyone getting bent out of shape because the opinions are ... different.
As I understand it, you are asking (paraphrased by me)
(1) Does doctrine define religion?,
(2) Does ritual really unite believers?
(3) In the event that I had to abandon my denomination, would I still be a Christian though out of touch with a corporate fellowship?
Hm.
(1) I seriously doubt that religion can exist without doctrine. Even an atheist has a set of doctrines: "There is no God" is a doctrine, and in my opinion (I have atheist friends who disagree strongly) that makes atheism a religion -- It is a stance concerning the existence of God. Judaism likewise takes a stance, i.e., there is a God and He spoke to Moses, and to the prophets. Individual Jews may be non-religious, and identify with Judaism only as an accident of birth or lineage, as does my dear friend Mitch ... but where is such a person different from an atheist? Either way, there is a doctrine: either "there is a God" or "it doesn't matter whether there is a God or not, so I behave as if there were not." I am not positing "doctrine," obviously, as necessarily a set of statements formalized by a council or synod. Ask anyone what he believe about God and you will hear his doctrine.
So in that sense, the distinction between "religion" and "spirituality" could be said to be a non-issue. If indeed we are, as I believe, spirit embodied in flesh, then everything is spiritual, nothing excepted, not even atheism; it is not a matter of "are you spiritual" but of "what do you do with your spirituality?" So I am not unaware that my distinction between "religion" and "spirituality" is a semantic convenience and is open to dispute. BTW, I came by this distinction largely through understanding the works of Eric Butterworth, who makes the distinction between the "religion of Jesus" (His teachings and commands) and "the religion about Jesus," all the stuff that developed in terms of fellowship, worship and the like after his resurrection. The religion OF Jesus cannot be set aside by a Christian: the religion about Jesus can.
(2) Does ritual really unite believers? I think so, at least it does unite those who believe in God in one way or another. Are not Jews united through the common experience of Bar Mitzvah, and the reading of Torah in the Sabbath assembly? These "rituals" are Jewish, period, and are not practiced by Christians, Mormon, Hindus or anyone else. Likewise, the Eucharist (Holy Communion) is practiced by Christians only, never by Jews or Muslims or Buddhists. It is part of the "religion OF Jesus" and thus unites all believers in Jesus. Regardless of the outward form in which the eucharist is administered, or whether the elements are bread and wine or crackers and grape juice, the words "This is my body" and "This is my blood" identify the participant as a Christian.
But suppose one could not receive the eucharist? Suppose a Jew was separated from any contact with the Torah and denied the right to undergo Bar Mitzvah? The rituals still exist "in spirit" and still serve as uniting factors. Just as Catholicism teaches that one may experience a "baptism of intent" when no water is present, so also one may identify with Bar Mitzvah or with the eucharist in spirit. In my own way of thinking, I am a member of the "communion of saints," the "extended fellowship," consisting not only of my fellow congregation members at St. Paul's, but also of the myriad saints who have gone ahead of me, so that we are, as the letter to the Hebrews states it, "surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses." I cannot be out of fellowship, even if I am not in the presence of other Christians in the flesh. When He says, "This is my body," He says it to the entire assembly living and dead.
(3) By saying" the religion may have to go" I am saying only that the outward observances may have to go, or may be subject to change; i.e., the "religion about Jesus." The religion OF Jesus cannot (for me) change or go, or I would no longer be a Christian at all, but merely a rudderless ship on a tempestuous sea. I've been that route and don't care to try it again.
I have the uncomfortable feeling I have not really addressed your questions head on, perhaps because I have not yet understood them. I'm not trying to be evasive, really. We may be entangled in "word definition confusion." Or maybe I'm just dense. But I do enjoy this discussion!
Pax Domini
Art