Reaching Back to the Future

A couple of Saturdays ago Malcolm and I heard Jerry Wright, a Jungian analyst and Presbyterian Minister speak on Celtic Spirituality and Jungian Psychology. It was exciting to hear about how some people in the "church" are trying to incorporate lost Celtic traditions.

Jerry spoke of the resurgence of an eco-spirituality that was part of the fabric of everyday life in Celtic culture; and an awareness of the interconnectedness of the physical and spiritual realms. It was a bit surreal to think that some of what is considered "progressive" thought today is really a reaching back to our pre-Roman roots.

Last week Phyllis Tickle, the Christian editor and writer who has documented the Emergent Church movement was in town, she too made reference to the "church" reaching back. However her reach seemed to be more recent--pre-Reformation.

In any case, I came away from these back-to-back Saturdays of sitting in hard chairs with a sense that perhaps the upheavals many of us in Christian churches feel today are more about healing and integrating that which has been lost, and less about splitting apart.

Could it be that the Christian, and for that matter human, family is birthing a new way of integrating the more feminine dimensions (eco-spirituality, non-dualism, radical imminence of God) of itself with the masculine dimensions which have dominated the last 1600 years? A psychologically healthy human is able to balance and appreciate both his or her masculine and feminine attributes. At best, one does not dominate the other. I guess it isn't a far stretch to imagine that balance as critical for the church family and the human family as well.

Could it be that the uncomfortable upheaval being felt in virtually all of the major Christian denominations is a reaching back for pre-denominational relations?

A mere mortal in the pews, I am not qualified to answer either of these important theological questions. However, I do feel a sense of hope rather than dread. Hope that we can find a way to chart a new course which honors the concerns of those who like things "just the way they are" and the needs of those who have found spiritual nourishment lacking in the traditional church experience. Hope that in our perceived sense of coming apart we will find wholeness. A wholeness that accepts the sacredness of all of God's children. How radical is that?