This is a review of a book that I have enjoyed very much. I hope after reading this you will seek it out to read, also. There is much we need to understand. RKH+
Let the Earth Keep Silence
Fundamentalism
vs. Contemplation?
Contemplative Christians, Jews, and
Muslims have more in common with each other than with the fundamentalists who
share their respective faiths.
By Carl McColman,
April 24, 2012
In his book Peace
Be With You: Monastic Wisdom for a Terror-Filled World, Orthodox Christian
author David Carlson explores how contemplative spirituality might offer a way
of responding to the ever-present danger of terrorism and war in today's world.
Haunted by the
aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, Carlson devoted a sabbatical to visiting a
variety of both Orthodox and Catholic monasteries throughout North America,
interviewing nuns, monks, and other spiritual seekers about how to discern a
truly Christian response to political violence.
Toward the end
of the book, he offers a fascinating insight based on a conversation with a
monk called Brother Stravros: "the antidote to the absolute certainty
fostered by fundamentalism is contemplation. . . . A respect for mystery, not
absolute certainty, is the mark of the person who 'thinks with the
heart.'" Carlson goes on to declare that "contemplation is a foreign
and suspect spiritual activity in fundamentalist circles. And that means that
contemplative Christianity, Judaism and Islam and fundamentalist Christianity,
Judaism and Islam lead to two very different attitudes toward violence and
vengeance."
Carlson here is
using the word fundamentalist not in its historical sense of a Christian who
embraces pre-modern evangelical beliefs, but in its more general, broad sense,
referring to any kind of aggressively intolerant religiosity—as Wikipedia puts
it, "the demand for a strict adherence to specific theological doctrines .
. . combined with a vigorous attack on outside threats to their religious
culture." With this definition in mind, it's easy to envision this
dichotomy: fundamentalism is the quest for (or belief in the attainment of)
"absolute certainty" as a religious or theological stance, while
contemplation is grounded in a "respect for mystery" which implies
faith, rather than certainty, as its defining character.
Clearly, not all
terrorists are religious fundamentalists; nor are all fundamentalists violent.
But violence with ties to religious belief—from the Israel-Palestine conflict,
to the troubles of Northern Ireland, to abortion clinic bombings, to 9/11—all
seem to arise from a religiosity anchored in a sense of certainty: "We are
right, you are wrong; we are conformed to the will of God, and you are not.
Therefore we have a moral obligation to deal with you."
By contrast,
contemplation—the "respect for Mystery"—tends to prefer silence to
debate, humility to certainty, and a preference for asking questions over
dispensing answers. Because of this, contemplatives ask questions and counsel
restraint that fundamentalists—even within the same faith -- may well find
troubling.
It's certainly
no secret that Christian fundamentalists disavow contemplation. Websites like
Lighthouse Trails Research and Apprising Ministries have built their entire
mission around attacking Christian contemplation from a theologically
conservative (read: fundamentalist) perspective. Carlson comments on
"al-Qaeda's fierce hatred of the mystical tradition of Sufism in Islam,"
and I have heard Jewish Kabbalists speak about how their tradition is viewed
with suspicion by other segments of the Jewish community.
It seems that
contemplative Christians, Jews, and Muslims have more in common with each other
than with the fundamentalists who share their respective faiths! But where the
contemplatives seem eager to embrace interfaith dialogue and understanding, the
fundamentalists often harbor overt or veiled hostility toward those whose faith
is different from their own.
Fundamentalism
may indeed be the enemy of contemplation, but ironically, it is a one-way
conflict. This reminds me of the charming poem "Outwitted," by the
American poet Edwin Markham:
He drew a circle
that shut me out -
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit
to win:
We drew a circle that took him in.
I am not
suggesting that contemplatives have no criticism of fundamentalism. Certainly
no one likes to be attacked, even verbally. But to contemplatives,
fundamentalists are not adversaries but rather persons at a different stage in
their spiritual life.
From James
Fowler to Clare W. Graves to Ken Wilber, numerous psychologists, theologians
and philosophers have theorized on how spirituality appears to evolve over the
course of a normal human life span. Such theories often suggest that the need
for certainty can unfold into a more nuanced faith that embraces paradox,
mystery, and unknowing—often accompanied by a deepening commitment to
compassion and tolerance.
Fundamentalism,
therefore, represents a kind of spiritual "arrested development" that
seems to plague individuals or even entire communities. For contemplatives,
this means that fundamentalism is not a threat that must be defeated, but
rather an existential malady that needs a cure. This is not to say that
boundaries are unimportant—clearly limits are necessary, particularly where
violence is concerned. But the wisdom of Jesus's "turn the other
cheek" applies here. Only by meeting the fear and hostility of
fundamentalism with the understanding compassion of contemplation, can we ever
hope for healing—whether on a personal or planetary level.
Carl McColman is
a Lay Cistercian, a blogger (www.anamchara.com)
and the author of The Big Book of
Christian Mysticism.
From Patheos:
Progressive Christian
