Comments on: Possibilities for Post-Christian Worship, pt. 1

By: Kevin

Kevin — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 05:03:02 +0000

We worship the religion of LOVE, as defined by Paul of Tarsus in his first letter to the Corinthians, 13th chapter.

I think if you asked Jesus of Nazareth himself, he’d agree that he’s not God.

That was a construct in the 4th century, proposed by Constantine to keep the Roman Empire going. The Spring Fertility holiday became the Birth of God in Human Form. Christianity, as defined by Fundamentalism is just neo-paganism.

I am an old school Emersonian Transcendentalist and I believe there’s a spark of the divine in us and certain in the sublime.

But we need to go deeper. We need to go beyond post-modernism, which has held us back. We need to go back to faith, hope, grace, and charity…the greatest of these is LOVE.

The Democratic process, run amok, is what has kept UUism running in place since the Civil Rights Movement.

By: Open the Doors » How should “post-Christians” do welcome?

Open the Doors » How should “post-Christians” do welcome? — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 00:18:11 +0000

[...] Dan Harper suggests we define “post-Christian” as what Christians would say isn’t Christian anymore but what folks of other religions would see as Christian anyway. Along that line, he’s working on a series on what our being post-Christian means for how we do worship. [...]

By: Administrator

Administrator — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 23:30:28 +0000

Peacebang — Thanks for the comment. You’re right — the term “post-Christian” is not going to be widely understood or embraced. Perhaps the hardest thing is that when you say “post-Christian” you suddenly realize that you’re are a lot more Christian than we may feel comfortable with.

Once again, I feel I should point out that I’m not writing only for Unitarian Universalists, and I am certainly not writing for all Unitarian Universalists — I’m writing for congregations which think of themselves as post-Christian, regardless of what ostensible denomination they may be in.

By: PeaceBang

PeaceBang — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 06:13:16 +0000

Given that contemporary UUs have to make a special effort (eg, plan separate Communion services, opportunities for prayer outside the congregation’s Sunday service, etc.) to engage in Christian life and practice, I think it’s fair to say that we’re post-Christian, although I doubt that that term will ever be widely embraced or understood by the typical UU. You’ve provided a good start here, Dan. Thanks.

By: Administrator

Administrator — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 03:58:48 +0000

Jeff — Interesting point about Ethical Culture maybe being “post-Jewish”. However, I would not call humanists anything but humanists. Humanism, to me, is a theological position (or perhaps better to say, philosophical position on religion). But I’m trying to talk about post-Christian as a functional descriptor for congregations where the existence of a deity/deities cannot be assumed; and functional in the sense of congregations which have come out of the Christian tradition.

Kim and Jeff — Yup — when I grew up as a Unitarian Universalist, I didn’t think of myself as a Christian. I think that may be a defining characteristic for post-Christian individuals, that we don’t think of ourselves as Christian or not Christian, it’s just not a category that we pay much attention to. Remember, though, my discussion is really about post-Christian congregations, not about post-Christian individuals (which would require an entirely different essay, one which I’m not prepared to write right now).

By: kim

kim — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 07:12:55 +0000

Just to echo what Jeff Wilson said, when I was growing up UU, I never thought of myself as
Christian.

By: Jeff Wilson

Jeff Wilson — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 04:06:48 +0000

To me the kicker is that Greeley specifically used the words “Unitarians” and “Universalists” and spoke of them in the present tense, but never used “Unitarian-Universalists.” But I agree that the quote makes your point, so the debate is kinda moot.

On Ethical Culture: I think the best way to characterize it is as post-Jewish. Felix Adler, the founder, was a Jew, and Ethical Culture has always drawn very disproportionately from former Jews. I wonder whether we might call Humanists post-Unitarians, since the movement more or less emerged directly out of Unitarian circles and was a continuation of the same thrust Unitarianism had reached over the course of the 19th century? Just brainstorming here.

Here’s another personal comment on UUism as post-Christian: when I was growing up UU the Christian kids had no trouble distinguishing me as clearly not a Christian. And as a UU kid I never once thought of myself as Christian–the Christians were other kids in my class, like the Jewish kids, etc.

Looking forward to the rest of the series!