This is a section of my article on Content and Process in Spirituality:
The dialogue of the Samaritan Woman is mostly at the level of Content (“You have no bucket”; “Give me this water so that I may never be thirsty”). His dialogue is mostly at the level of Process (“If you knew the gift of God…”; “The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life”.) By the end of the meeting she has undergone a transformation and the new Reciprocal Roles could be described as –
He : Self-revealing (“I am he, the one who is speaking to you”)
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She : Known/open to the Spirit (“He told me everything I have ever
done.” )
As Bateson pointed out, the dialogue has moved from being about thirst, water and ethnic/social issues – to being about ‘you and me’ – the relationship itself. There could be no movement or transformation at the level of Content, but at the level of Process the relationship becomes meaningful and open to change. The Relational Self is responsive at this level; this is where you can push it and it will move. Content acts as a carrier for the real activity, which is the Process. The Relational Self can only be recognized and engaged by moving to the level of Process.
My thesis is that if Religion is only about Content (dogma; whose in and whose out; hierarchy; authority), - it has lost its way. As David Tacey says in his analysis of the Spirituality Revolution:
Religion imposes the ‘big story’ of theology upon our experience... It does not allow for the true radicality of the spirit… Religion is rejected, not because a person does not believe, but because he or she is not believed.
Tacey 2004
However, I think that the fairly obvious distinction between Institution and personal experience is the tip of this iceberg. Recognizing the difference is one thing – learning to inhabit the Process level of oneself-in-relation to the Spirit is another!
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Thursday, July 3, 2008
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