A couple of weeks ago I was asked to be part of a panel discussing 'Religion in the 21st Century' at Club O in Mongkok, Kowloon. it was such a great thing to think about for me, in the middle of my first year of interfaith studies i will underdoubtedly feature it in the future.
here are some contexts to get us framed as it were:
Religion in the West seems to be declining if not dying. The Church of england in Uk for instance seems to be in decline. recent church attendence figures i saw were 2%, not sure if this is true but it could be.
There is an unspoken dismissal of religion being at best a historical irrelevance, at worst an active contributor to social problems. To be religious in other words is very unfashionable especially if you are young.
Materialism is also beginning to die you can see the dissatisfaction and the palpable feeling that it does not provide enough meaning. Recent happiness studies showing a slight difference in happiness between the poor of Calcutta and Americans are an example of this.
Our society has major addictions to media, alcohol, drugs, fashion, shopping and things that take us out of ourselves, out of communiion with nature and our inner nature.
We live in a time where there is no social or cultural pressure to be religious, mostly people choose religion out of their free will. So they will tend to find what works for them. In other words there is consumer choice.
The internet as well as our society allows for more choice in knowledge.
Writing this in Hong Kong i am aware that this is a West centric blog, perhaps because of the amount of time I am spending in London on my interfaith studies. THis could be sympomatic of a Christian society and i think it mainly is but that it also has relevance for islamic, Hindu and Buddhistic cultures which will become more pronounced as globalisation creates a material culture over a religious one.
It seems that the actual encounter between religion and people is not fulfilling in the way it was for centuries. Yet there is a spiritual hunger and a desire for more spiritual life. Alternative spritual faiths number followers in millions i guess now in Western countries. But religion still plays an important role in the key stages of life - births, weddings, crisis and deaths.
My premise is that religion may be dying but spiritual life is increasing and the desire for new, immediate, bodily, emotional and meaningful spiritual practices. If life is a process of death and rebirth as the hindu scriptures point out, then this is yet another cycle seeing religions as a body.
Personally the interfaith training is giving me an appreciation of religions and of the social role they perform, of the stability they provide, of the default setting of service to all, of the higher truths inherent in their sacred scripture.
The journey of our time will be to marry this light, dynamic and active spiritual seeking which is loosely connected with the new age movement and is avowedly secular with religion, to marry the two in a way which is authentic, true and mutually relevant. Its already happening and from that place a religious movement will emerge in form which will I hope reflect that spirit.
You can see it already in places like Taize, Findhorn, Auroville as well as in the interfaith movement.
it will need humility about our own movements shadow sides, honesty to articulate our truth, courage to see that there is more than what we think is the truth, willingness to build bridges with people of other faith.
How will this look? A friend on my training described a small Christian group she goes to but who probably wouldn't go to a church. Its a small group which meets in a circle and also has time to share how they are doing. In other words the priestly and power castes aren't present, its laity led, innerly focussed with some time for meditation, scripture and for singing. simple, moving and stripped of too many cultural associations.
So religion in our century could be one of a spiritual rennaisance, where we meet our inner selves with friends on the path, because that is the fundamental need, what the Buddhists call Sangha = the spiritual community to support one another.
So the answer is a bit vague but its clear something is coming, if it were too precise then a new sacred cow would be born, the answer is I guess will be a religion of meeting spirit and ourselves in a meaningful way. Choice will eventually make those ways that work come to the top.
i will try to develop these themes but for now let me know what you think and we'll see what evolves.
Peter
