Religion and World Community

HIS is the cardinal principle which must underlie the writing of the history of religion in our day or the laying of the groundwork for world community, whether one starts as a Christian, a Buddhist, a Moslem, or a secularist. If deeper perspectives and richer meanings do emerge in man's search for the conditions of a spiritually satisfy'ing life--in traditional religious language, if God is the God of history and the God of man's experience--then we go to all human experience and not just to the past, our past, to discover more about those inclusive principles of meaning in the light of which fragmentary or tribal meanings are seen in proper perspective and are transcended. There is a pressing need in our generation for more people in our educational and religious institutions who are willing to apply this kind of method to the writing and teaching of history at all levels of human concern-economic, political, social, religious. If the term "dialectical" had not become attached to a contemporary trend in theology which is a long distance from being truly dialectical or continuously critical of all conclusions or working assumptions, the term would appropriately describe this present approach. The basic working assumption is that all hypotheses are held subject to change and regarded as exploratory tools, to be replaced when they fail to fulfil their function. Just as a flashlight is of use only to the extent that it throws light on the area to be explored, the working hypothesis of the radical explorer-historian is regarded as significant only to the extent that it throws light on an ever-enlarging, cohering pattern of mankind's experiences. This approach seeks to apply the historical method in as thorough-going a way as possible, even while taking account of the observer's subjectivity. It seeks to avoid the dangerous satisfaction of affirming something to be valid for all history just because it has played an important part in "our" history. At the traditional religious level, it refuses to resort to theological special pleading based upon the prior assumption that only the Bible (or only the Koran) is witness to the sole special revelation God has made to the human race. Thus it seeks to take all of history seriously. James B. Pratt illustrates this kind of approach in his book, Can We Keep the Faith?, where he explores the question of the nature of the Christian religion. Christianity is neither the teachings of Jesus nor the teachings about him, for "Christianity does not consist in teachings at all. It includes teachings but it is something very much bigger, very much more alive than any teachings or doctrines can be." In this respect Christianity is in the same category as all the other great historical religions, none of which can be defined in creedal terms. "Regarded historically Christianity is a movement in the spiritual life of the race. It is a great spiritual stream taking its rise back in the first century of our era, and flowing on down the centuries into our own times." Change, growth, adaptation, have always been characteristic of it. If it is to live, it must keep on changing and growing. Convictions and beliefs are included within it, but "to identify it with any given creed would be a fatal misunderstanding of its true nature."' This kind of approach obviously seeks to avoid the danger of overrating the past. Past, present, and future are to be seen in continuity. The significance of the present is its capacity to transcend the past and move into * Graduate School of Religion, University of Southern California.