Last year was the first year for Unity Institute's annual conference on theology, spirituality, metaphysics, and religious studies. Unity ministers, religious scholars, and some graduate students presented scholarly papers on a range of themes. I wasn't able to attend last year due to lack of funds (since I'm way out here in SoCal), but the paper I wrote with intentions of attending will be published in the Unity Institute Journal of Theology, which is in the process of getting up and running with both online and hard-copy versions. The first Lyceum was enough of a success that the Institute will be holding another Lyceum conference this year from September 30 - October 3 with the theme - "Science and Religion: An Evolving Dialogue."The Lyceum conference is a benchmark for the Unity movement, for it represents a definite move toward greater participation in critical theological discussion in a wider context beyond the New Thought paradigm. This is not to say that Unity has never advocated the use of the intellect or rationality in spiritual matters, because it certainly has. However, it is to say that, up to now, Unity has tended to emphasize the intuitive over the intellectual faculty of the human person.
We in Unity possess a fairly mature and refined concept of ministry; a spiritually deep understanding and practice of prayer (which is evinced through the Daily Word pamphlet and the well-established Silent Unity prayer ministry, among other things); a global network of autonomous churches, prayer ministries, and study groups where people cultivate personal and communal spiritual growth; a history embracing mystical thought that can be traced back through the Transcendentalists (e.g. Emerson and Thoreau) and American Pragmatism (e.g. W. James) to such controversial figures as Eckhart, John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, Hildegard of Bingen, Pelagius, Bernard of Clairvaux, and Clement and Origen of Alexandria; and an impressive array of prayer techniques ranging from centering and affirmative prayer to visualization and silent meditation. The problem we have in Unity is that most Unity students, ministers, and even some instructors wouldn't know the important historical references I just mentioned and probably wouldn't know how to even begin to theologically assess what these people said or critically reflect on what this means for them in their present context.
Unity's rich and textured spiritual practice needs to be matched by the intellectual rigor of critical theology. Unity people (especially leadership in the movement such as ministers, instructors, licensed teachers, etc.) must begin to set aside the easy, often feel-good, reading of pop-psychology and spiritual self-help books and take up a volume of Barth, Tillich, Rahner, Moltmann, Cobb, Gutierrez, Fiorenza, or Reuther. Exposing oneself to great thinkers such as these allows one to begin to think critically and theologically about one's faith, spirituality, and practice. In his Systematic Theology, Tillich states, " Theology is the methodical interpretation of the contents of the Christian faith." (ST 1951, 15). The work of theology is to state the kerygma (proclamation of truth) and critically re-interpret this truth contextually from generation to generation. Theology is making the truth-claims of faith reasonable and understandable for the religious community. This theological practice of using the intellect and the past tradition to critically and methodically reflect on faith convictions discerned through mystical revelation or intuition is unfortunately something Unity has not really done.
However, the good news (no pun intended) is that the Lyceum conference is a mark of a change in attitude among some Unity people. For, as its creative founder, Rev. Thomas Shepherd, has alluded to in his blog, Unity's Lyceum is intended to be a forum for Unity to start to engage in critical scholarly discourse with the wider theological community. I trust that this is the beginning of a wonderful and exciting evolution in Unity, and I'm delighted to participate in its furtherance.
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