![]({"https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41LHT2hh9cL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg":[225,346],"https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41LHT2hh9cL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg":[324,499]})
An alternate sub-title for this book could be: "Leaving Supernatural Beliefs Behind." Caught in the Pulpit should be widely read for the issues it raises about the roles of the clergy and the future of churches in an increasingly secular, pluralistic society. Its major value is in stimulating the kinds of conversations that need to be ongoing among believers, non-believers, atheists, humanists, Christians, adherents of the world's religions, and all those who care about creating a humane world for all peoples. The authors describe many kinds of faith and unfaith, focusing on both 1) clergy who struggle to maintain their integrity in institutions that are changing and who are supported by their members even when their understandings differ; and 2) churches that are evolving in a cultural context that no longer provides a "sacred canopy" to support their world views. (Full disclosure: I was "Rick," one of the original five "subjects" in the study in 2010; I was an "outlier" who never felt "caught").
Neither clergy nor religious communities have a clear blueprint for how to adapt. The authors prescribe strong doses of honesty, but they do not provide many positive or practical suggestions for moving beyond the ancient "atheist versus theist" debates, or how churches as social institutions might be helped to change. But they do give an inside glimpse into some of the problems that must be confronted if religious communities and their leaders are to evolve into cultural movements capable of continuing to contribute to creative human transformation and ecological flourishing.
Dennett and LaScola persuasively describe the discomfort of clergy who can no longer affirm "acceptable" orthodoxy. They also consider the potential evolutionary extinction of churches. They wonder whether removing supernatural elements from beliefs about God, the Bible, Jesus, creeds, and doctrines might help churches evolve into more relevant social movements in our increasingly secular scientific culture.
While the purpose of the study was to raise questions, I wish they could have done more to identify already existing non-supernatural ways to interpret and re-construct religions that honor the humane values that non-believers and believers alike can affirm. Some theologians, biblical scholars, church bodies, and progressive clergy are contributing to these efforts of reimagining, drawing on the core historical principle of many churches: "reformed and always reforming."
Yet the authors are correct in their assessment that while many liberal and evangelical churches have made significant contributions to ethical discourse, social justice, human rights, and equality for gays, women, and racial/ethnic communities, most of them have not updated their statements of faith to reflect our modern scientific world view (which, it must be admitted, has itself not been free from violence, war, repression and bloody conflict). Finally, the book leaves open the question of whether the churches will evolve or die. That may be partly up to courageous clergy like those in this study, to the religious communities which formed them, and to whether there can be cooperation between them and the emerging communities of humanists and freethinkers that are evolving alongside them.
-Mark Rutledge
- Paperback: 280 pages
- Publisher: Congruity (December 17, 2013)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0615927904
- ISBN-13: 978-0615927909
- Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.7 x 8.5 inches
- Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces
- Average Customer Review: 95 customer reviews
-
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#2,061,867 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1166 in Atheism (Books)
- #787 in Clergy
Would you like to tell us about a lower price?
If you are a seller for this product, would you like to suggest updates through seller support?
If you are a seller for this product, would you like to suggest updates through seller support?
