Beliefs

So this post is a week late. I was used to reading and writing about Cunningham, which was light enough that I could get through a chapter and write about it in a day. This is not the case with ChristoPaganism: An Inclusive Path. I hadn’t counted on this fact, so here we are. Because of that and other things happening right now, I’m going to go ahead and say that Thursday posts will be on an “as they come to me” basis, rather than trying to get one out every week. Hopefully I’ll get more into the groove of things and get to a steady posting schedule that includes the discussion posts, but we’ll see. Also, with my attempts to go to church, I have to push the Sunday study posts back a few hours to allow me to potentially work on them after church.

In any case, the first chapter of this book is largely about beliefs, the definition of them, and how they work. This is an important thing to understand before going into a discussion on interspirituality or blended paths, so I’m very glad they went here. They give the definition of a belief as “an idea that you hold to be true,” which I rather like. This is not just in relation to religious or spiritual beliefs, but all beliefs. They act as a filter for us, often causing us to reject anything that doesn’t match with our beliefs and latch onto things that do. Because our beliefs shape our interactions with the world, they shape the institutions and organizations that we create.

Beliefs often group together into interlocking systems, with each working together to support the system as a whole. The book provides the United States as an institution based upon a belief system, namely that outlined in the US Constitution. They have a diagram that shows how different beliefs and values as based upon the Constitution, leading towards other values and institutions (police departments, congress, etc.).

We interact with these sorts of systems on a regular basis, simply by going about our everyday lives. Examples that they give are those found in churches, at work, with family, and different friend groups. Sometimes these systems conflict, and yet we are usually able to manage them.

Note that this definition does not conflate beliefs with facts. A belief is something that we hold to be true. The belief has no power in and of itself, only the power that we give to it. Because of this, beliefs are constructions. They can be very solid ones, based upon repeated unbiased experiments and observations, but they are still constructions. When a person is aware of that fact, it allows them to have more control over their beliefs. Since our beliefs shape the choices we make and the changes we make in the world, we can choose ones that will lead to the world we want. The process of changing our beliefs can be difficult and painful, but may ultimately be worthwhile.

The book also adds that some belief systems discourage people from examining it too closely, from questioning. They hold some beliefs to be above question or the responsibility of others. However, the fact remains that the individual in question is still affected by this belief. Whether they claim responsibility or not, they are the ones carrying out actions in response to this belief. While I believe that there are plenty of cases where we can’t hold an individual fully responsible for the actions they took as a result of their beliefs, those are the exception, rather than the rule.

The book claims that in paganism, an individual is responsible for their own beliefs, and would not be expected to embrace a belief without fully examining it and coming to their own conclusions. They suggest that a pagan is more free to pick and choose their beliefs. This is a generalization, and I think is evidence of the general neopagan perspective in this book. There are some pagan religions that do require very specific beliefs from their adherents. If you don’t hold those beliefs, you simply cannot be a member of the religion.

Now that we have a better handle on what a belief is, we can focus more on interspirituality. Interspirituality has become much more common as of late. There have always been blended religions, though the Higginbothams claim that people are only just now becoming aware of this. They say that this is because an awareness like that requires a certain level of spiritual development and grounding. I disagree. Religious syncretism has been around for as long as multiple religions have been interacting, and I doubt that they were unaware of it. They suggest that somehow people have intrinsically changed. It’s an appealing idea in its way, that we are better and smarter than those who came before. I just don’t buy it. People are people, and I don’t think they’ve really changed at their core. Our cultural values might have changed, along with our technology, but I don’t think we’re more spiritually developed than our ancestors.

Interspirituality works, in part, because there are some things that we all share. The Higginbothams provide examples like the law of gravity and the day/night cycle. There are some things that are simply a part of living in this universe, and religions often try to address these shared aspects of life. They might do it in different ways, but they do connect us all.

The book also includes an extensive series of journal activities and questions. For this chapter, most of these are just a sort of spiritual inventory. There are basic questions on deities, important beliefs, etc. They are all geared towards taking stock of your current beliefs and the belief systems you encounter on a regular basis.

When answering the questions, I found a few themes that popped up repeatedly. First, I place a lot of emphasis on the individual. I acknowledge that everyone is different, with different needs and wants. Some people need a religion with strict emphasis on some rules, while others don’t need that to be addressed at all, and do better with more freedom in that area. A second major theme was respect, which actually ties in with the first. I put a lot of value in respect for the individual, deities, other belief systems, etc. My one caveat is that you don’t disrespect or harm anyone in your practice, and then we’re good.

As I said, most of the questions were fairly standard, but there was one that gave me a moment to pause, because it phrased things in a way that I’d never really thought of before. “What is the purpose of spirituality in your life, what do you want it to accomplish for you, and how do you order your life around it?” I often think about what I get from my spirituality, but only rarely do I think of what I want to get from it. I never thought about it having a purpose, but simply as a way to show respect to my deities. And really, that is a large part of it. It’s an interesting question, and one that I think is worth considering, no matter what form your spirituality takes.

There might be a new post on Thursday. Hard to say at this point.