New Religions and the Theological Imagination in America

Three: What Does It Mean to Be Human? Views of Human Nature in the New Religions

THREE What Does It Mean to Be Human? Views of Human Nature in the New Religions The alternative concepts of deity and of ultimate reality set forth in the previous chapter give rise to another set of questions that stir the theological imagination to speculate about the possibilities, the limitations, and the obligations of men and women as we live out our lives on earth. How must we understand ourselves, according to these six religious movements, in relation to ultimate reality, however defined? What is the stuff of which we are made? Are we both spirit and matter? Spirit alone? Merely matter? What are our obligations as human beings? What are the aspects of our very nature that we must acknowledge in order to fulfill those obligations? What is at stake if we don't? Mormonism, Unificationism, Christian Science, Scientology, Theosophy , and New Age thought offer views of human origins and responsibilities that differ substantially from each other in specific detail. But, as the discussion unfolds, it becomes apparent that overriding doctrinal differences and a century and a half of American cultural development are a set of common negations and affirmations that are directed by the new religions at both the established religions and the secular culture. This is not to say that the differences among the new religions really make no difference . That such is not the case will be demonstrated in chapter five. But the following areas of agreement emerge in spite of the differences. We are not, the new religions say to the established traditions, particularly Christianity, totally sinful creatures, dependent for our being on a transcendent God who, however loving or merciful, could as likely terminate our existence as not. Neither, they say to the secular culture, are we merely biological entities, headed only toward our own deaths, helpless in the face of social and historical forces, biological urges, and psychological motivations of which we are for the most part unaware. Out of these denials emerges a set of affirmations. First, no matter to 46 NEW RELIGIONS AND THE THEOLOGICAL IMAGINATION IN AMERICA what extent the importance of the physical body figures in a particular system , the new religions conclude that, ultimately, we are spiritual beings who have either within ourselves or available to us access to the divine. Second, we are necessary, not contingent beings; we cannot not exist. Third, our lives are purposeful, not meaningless. We have tasks to accom·· plish as human persons, and we are not on this earth by chance or for reasons that cannot be fathomed. Life may have its ambiguities, but it is not merely incomprehensible mystery. Even Scientology, which consistently describes life as a game, never suggests that the odds are so much against us that we cannot ever win the game. Fourth, the new religions see men and women as morally free agents. We are not coerced into nor are we obstructed from accomplishing the tasks that are ours. These four characteristics add up to what theologians refer to as a very high doctrine of human nature. In fact, much of the theological critique of the new religions has been focused on an apparent inability to accept limitations in human nature and an attempt at deification of the human person. But, to conclude that these religions put forth unrealistic doctrines of human nature which fail to acknowledge life's great difficulties and tragedies as most people experience them is to miss a theme that is even more dominant than optimism about human potential in the new religions: namely, that we are the ones who are responsible for our own salvation or enlightenment. No matter what help is available or in what form it comes--new revelations, new scriptures, technologies, spirit guides--they go just so far. Finally, we must save ourselves and each other and even the planet. The insistence on human responsibility ties in with the previous chapter 's emphasis on the new religions' attempts to dissociate God or ultimate reality from any connection with the origins of evil. God is not the cause of evil in the new religions and God will not rescue humanity, in the traditional sense, from evil. As the new religions understand it, humankind is not saved by grace alone nor by scripture alone nor by prayers of petition but by our own efforts. There is help available to us, but the difference will be made by what we do and how we think. MORMONS AND UNIFICATIONISTS: PARTICIPANTS IN A PLAN...