Reading through works on Buddhism by 19th century Unitarians and their liberal religious kin is a humbling exercise. Their hermeneutical tunnel vision is at times painful to behold, particularly because it raises obvious doubts about our own understandings. The only consolation can be that in the modern academy we at least attempt a [...]
The post-bellum period in 19th century America saw the rise of several important strands of religious liberalism. For Unitarian-Universalists, the most significant is the Free Religious Association, largely founded and run by Unitarians. It was a fascinating experiment with total freedom in religion, one that was not entirely successful.
Every association is [...]
Conrad Wright’s 1970 collection of essays The Liberal Christians is a classic of American church history, especially for those of us who work on the more liberal streams of the tradition. Wright is a major historian of Unitarianism in particular, and it is with the Unitarians that The Liberal Christians is concerned. Perhaps [...]
From James Pike it’s now time to take a look at Thomas Merton, a convert to Roman Catholicism who, strangely enough, ended up creating a sort of liberal Catholicism from inside a monastic cell in Kentucky. Perhaps it is significant that his journey to Catholicism took him through many other religious bodies, including liberal [...]
Yesterday’s brief discussion of You and the New Morality pointed out some ways in which Bishop James Pike’s concerns and approach to religion differ from those of Leary and his fellows, who were explored in previous posts. The contrast between these two camps continues with Pike’s book If This Be Heresy. Unlike the [...]
James Pike was a famous religious liberal of the mid-20th century and the Bishop of California for the Episcopal Church in the 1960s. With Pike we have entered a different realm of religion than that we explored with Leary, Dass, and Ginsberg. While each of them had views and experiences particular to themselves [...]
Many religiously significant visions and experiences take place during moments of heightened emotion and energy, but few commentators would be as frank as Allen Ginsberg in admitting that their defining spiritual breakthrough occurred while masturbating. Abandoned by his lover Neal Cassady, left behind by friends William Burroughs (Mexico), Jack Kerouac (Long Island), and Herbert [...]
Here’s one more counter-culture revolutionary for us to ponder. Allen Ginsberg, like Timothy Leary and Ram Dass, seems on paper to have many of the qualities we associate with liberal religion. To some, the main problem with these fellows is their use of psychedelic drugs to stimulate or enhance religious experiences. For [...]
This is the second and final post on Ram Dass. The Only Dance There Is is comprised of edited transcripts of two talks Ram Dass gave in the mid-1970s before audiences of health care professionals and scientists (as well as a large number of hippie and general public attendees). The topics covered include [...]
UU minister Tim Jensen, The Eclectic Cleric, offered in the comments one of his sermons as a follow-up to the recent posts on Timothy Leary (and, happily, with a connection to the current posts on Ram Dass). Check out this interesting link to read more about Leary’s background and evolution: The Most Dangerous Man [...]
