[Springboard] {Spam?} Re: Some Reflections

Tue Dec 4 00:22:52 EST 2007

John,

As usual, your writing is very much on target and thought provoking.? Yes, a spritual, scientifically credible world-view resonates with me.? When Spong was here a couple weeks ago,?giving his lectures, demythologizing traditional Christianity, he was covering very familiar ground, but I did not go away energized with new understanding.? I love your anecdote about the nine interactive windows being juggled at the same time by a youngster who probably sees nothing remarkable in that, and probably knows a few of his friends who routinely juggle twelve.

The same new world-view that might excite this young person might not excite those in our generation or even be understood by us.? I know you have read about the amazing discoveries made by the Hubble telescope, including what appears to be a huge space with absolutely nothing in it, and it is a billion light years in diameter, or that??is what it looked like a billion years ago when the light started in our direction.? On the micro level, cellular biology continues to unravel unimagined complexity in the cell, etc, etc.? Science and technology are moving so fast and are increasingly incomprehensible, that it is no wonder some are finding solace in "the old-time religion".? That was identified as a contradiction/trend in Junaluska.

Thanks for your continued and valued erudition.

Don

But we mustn't simply use it to justify our own work on the Other World. That may still serve as a springboard, but it's a bit too subjective; we need to get at its ontological basis. Maybe there is a way to talk about the two dimensions of life without getting into the "supernatural." It would be momentous (literally) to produce a world view that was scientifically credible and accounted for the dimension of depth that religious poetry expresses. Tillich never quite accomplished that, though he tried. Maybe we could give it a go. Then we have a chance to address lives, i.e. to expose the existential gap between reality and ourselves.

There seems to be a faint jingling in the distance. Anyone else hear it?

-----Original Message-----
From: jlepps at pc.jaring.my <jlepps at pc.jaring.my>
To: Springboard Dialogue <springboard at wedgeblade.net>
Sent: Mon, 3 Dec 2007 1:35 pm
Subject: [Springboard] Some Reflections

Dear Colleagues:

It was good to "be with you" via Skype at Junaluska. Sorry not to have gotten these reflections in prior to the meeting, but maybe they're not too late.

Reflections for Springboard

The question from the Springboard group was, "What's laying a claim on us personally regarding the future?" and it's a good question that deserves serious consideration. First answers are usually the most reliable in terms of revealing ones inner consciousness, but I have to admit that not much came to mind.

Of course I could name the numerous clients that are literally badgering us to facilitate for them and to teach them facilitation skills. Something is clearly going on that has not gone on before. Is it really getting through that the role of facilitation is important if groups are to work together successfully? Somehow that particular trend is welcome and something I've worked on for many years. But these days it doesn't ring my bells. Ann is handling that with skill and panache, and I am more than willing to help and to participate where possible. It's fun to facilitate and to see groups come alive. I seem at this moment, however, to be in the mode of "handing over" this particular mission.

?Then I could name the online graduate courses I am teaching. There is plenty to do there, both in the sense of learning and teaching. And, of course, using the computer to do increasingly complex tasks is fun. "Meeting" students places me in touch with a huge variety of personalities and life-events without having to actually meet people f-2-f. Courses need tweaking and polishing to get them "right" and students need a bit of personal guidance from time to time that I find gratifying to provide.? It's good work and it makes a contribution. Still, the bells don't ring.

?Writing is still a hobby that I enjoy. The last thing I wrote that was pretty good was a witness in June entitled "Sometimes a Hug" about confronting (my) death. There are now 8 bound volumes of my writings in KL that need to be sorted by topic and put into publishable form. But since they are more like journal entries and reflections on experiences, it's hard to see any publishable value. Going through them would be a great memory trip, but I don't yet see their futuric thrust. My interior glockenspiel remains undisturbed.

?There are groups that are important, worthy, and a joy to work with: IAF, the Denver ICA team, and the KL conference committee. I've played a helpful (minor) role in 2 of the three. But even the best of groups has dynamics that bring out the "been there, done that" interior response. Somehow the prospect of getting seriously involved in making things happen effectively in a group keeps my chimes thoroughly muffled.

?I have been able in the past to discern the "mood of the times" with some accuracy, and that's a role I don't mind continuing. But analysis is not strategy and what to do with the insights that emerge is not something about which I have much expertise. But here are a few insights: Authentic spirituality comes in the midst of intensified knowing and doing. Any other approach is off target. We've often said that the great gift of the OE was doing theology first -- knowing the religious basis on which everything else must be built. We first built a complex mental model and then did a series of social demonstrations. And throughout those efforts, continual reflection on the spirit yielded wonders.

?So maybe one task of Springboard now is clarification of current theology. The times are not now the 60s. And the immediate issue may not be the existential one, though that's what will eventually have to be addressed. But suppose we're back to a time of ontology. Suppose the insights of quantum physics and string theory have so disrupted the common worldview that even the idea "God" is unintelligible. It's more likely that the technology springing from physics has created the change rather than the actual theoretical physics about which most of us remain blissfully unaware. There's also this younger generation and their technological expertise that embodies a new type of consciousness. One presenter at the IAF Europe conference mentioned that his son often had nine interactive screens open at the same time on his computer and was carrying out interactions with each of the nine simultaneously. That's a type of consciousness that is more foreign to my way of thinking than the mindsets of Malaysians. It's not just chaos theory and fancy physics that's creating the new context: it's technology that is providing a new consciousness. 

?People aren't against religion; they're more like Tony Blair's press secretary's response when asked about Tony's church habits: "We're not into God." If you base it on church attendance, you could also say I'm "not into God," at least in the ways of organized religion. But I am deeply committed to the proposition that life is 2-dimensional, and at the dimension of depth reside those realities spoken of in religious poetry. Looking at the perversions that fundamentalists have inflicted on religion in the past decade, it is no wonder that sensitive and responsive people often give religion a miss. But that's to view life as one-dimensional. As Niebuhr once said, life has two dimensions, and whenever either one is negated, something goes seriously wrong. Maybe the starting point for our work on theology might be "Towards a New Otherworldliness" from H. Richard Niebuhr's 1942 article. But we mustn't simply use it to justify our own work on the Other World. That may still serve as a springboard, but it's a bit too subjective; we need to get at its ontological basis. Maybe there is a way to talk about the two dimensions of life without getting into the "supernatural." It would be momentous (literally) to produce a world view that was scientifically credible and accounted for the dimension of depth that religious poetry expresses. Tillich never quite accomplished that, though he tried. Maybe we could give it a go. Then we have a chance to address lives, i.e. to expose the existential gap between reality and ourselves.

There seems to be a faint jingling in the distance. Anyone else hear it?

?
Now here are a few thoughts about bells. What rings my bells is not necessarily the primary value to determine how I spend my time. For me the bells indicate an emerging concern that I would like to pursue, but it is not necessarily a priority unless it is related to practical needs. So the identification of primary societal contradictions at a deep level may be the task before us now that will disclose the necessary deeds. 

??????????????????????????????????? --John Epps 3 December 2007

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