Evolutionary Religion Defined The explorations on this website suggest a strong connection between religion and an evolutionary cosmology. That is, in order to think meaningfully about religion in the 21st century, we need to recognize that we live in a universe that evolves. One can debate the specific mechanism of evolution (traditional Darwinism, Neo-Darwinism, even contemporary non-materialist interpretations such as that of Teilhard de Chardin), but the reality of the process of evolution (both biological and cultural) is assumed here as a necessary component of our understanding of religion and its possible future expressions. In a sense, then, like many contemporary explorations into religion from a non-traditional point of departure, we are working from the perspective of what is sometimes called evolutionary religion. But here is the problem with “evolutionary religion”: there is no clear definition of what it means! Hence, before proceeding further, in this post we hope to at least partially clarify what is meant by evolutionary religion. Immediately, however, we run into a challenge: there are two quite different ways in which “evolutionary religion” is being defined and used. Those two different definitions are for the most part compatible but, as we hope to clarify below, one definition tends to restrict itself to a descriptive function, while the other moves beyond empirical description to suggest that evolution itself has a spiritual dimension. The first definition sees religion as the product of the evolutionary process; the second definition sees the evolutionary process itself as an actual manifestation of Spirit, meaning that in the broadest sense, evolution is a spiritual phenomenon. In an effort to sort out and clarify this distinction, we will differentiate these two basic interpretations of evolutionary religion as weak/descriptive evolutionary religion and strong/spiritual evolutionary religion. “Weak” and “strong” are not used here in evaluative, critical terms to suggest a difference in qualitative value. Rather, the terms are used with reference to the intended scope of the two definitions, as should become clearer below. Weak/Descriptive Evolutionary Religion Weak, or descriptive, evolutionary religion asserts that religion changes or evolves over time, generally in the direction of a fuller understanding or sense of Spirit, and this evolutionary quality of religion is understood to be the product of an evolutionary process (biological and cultural) that has produced conscious beings which have the capacity to perceive (however dimly and imperfectly) the existence of a spiritual dimension to the Cosmos. Evolutionary religion of the weak/descriptive sort does not negate the possibility of discrete acts of divine revelation such as those which form the basis for most traditional religions, but it does suggest that belief in such events is not necessary to be a religious believer. Weak/descriptive evolutionary religion is a naturalistic account of religion with a twist: whereas as naturalism is usually equated with materialism or physicalism, weak evolutionary religion suggests that the “natural” process of evolution in the Cosmos has resulted in at least one species (humans – and perhaps more elsewhere in the Universe) which has developed the capacity to sense or intuit that the totality of the “natural” world includes more than just the dimension of matter/time/space/energy: the totality of the Cosmos includes Spirit, and this is known (again, quite dimly) not through a discrete top-down act of divine revelation in the past but rather through our evolved human capacity to perceive the spiritual dimension of the Cosmos. Weak/descriptive evolutionary religion is exemplified by the recent work of contemporary philosopher J.L. Schellenberg, both in his more strictly philosophical works and in a shorter work accessible to the general reader, Evolutionary Religion. Schellenberg situates the ever-changing nature of religion in the context of a fully informed temporal contextualization, which is to say, a recognition that the human species is at a very early stage of its historical existence, and as such should be seen as an “immature’ species which has only begun to penetrate the nature of Spirit. As humanity matures, our understanding of Spirit will expand, and religion will change – perhaps in rather dramatic fashion. But even though Schellenberg asserts that religion is the product of an evolving and progressive understanding of Spirit, he does not characterize the evolutionary process itself as a spiritual one. Strong/Spiritual Evolutionary Religion By contrast, strong/spiritual evolutionary religion does not hesitate to describe the evolutionary process as a spiritual process which is somehow driven by a spiritual force toward a spiritual goal. There are several examples of strong/spiritual evolutionary religion, but three of the most notable ones are found in the works of Teilhard de Chardin, Aurobindo, and Ken Wilber. We will touch on all three in future posts, but for now, just to provide a stronger sense of what strong/spiritual evolutionary religion is all about, let’s take a brief look at Teilhard Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) was a French priest and paleontologist. In many ways, Teilhard was a paradox, as evidenced for instance in how he remained a faithful ordained Catholic priest throughout his life while building a successful secular career as a paleontologist, all the while developing an evolution-based theology that reflected such a radical departure from traditional Christian dogma that he was forbidden to publish or teach by the Catholic Church. Only after his death were Teilhard’s extensive writings on an evolutionary interpretation of religion transformed from mimeographed sheets secretly shared among a largely hidden but growing community of sympathizers to mainstream publication and both widespread acclaim and harsh criticism (by both traditional Christians and materialist scientists). The foundation of Teilhard’s thought is the acceptance of an evolutionary cosmology: the starting point of Teilhard’s theology and the theme that runs through every page is the recognition that we live in a Universe that has evolved over a period of close to 14 billion years. Teilhard may have remained a committed Catholic, but his writings contain scant references to Bible passages or church dogma. Where references to Bible passages and Christian dogma are found, they are often in the context of a cosmicized interpretation that traditional Christians are not likely to recognize. Teilhard believed that an honest, empirical, rational examination of evolution, free from any sectarian religious prejudice, demonstrated that there is an orderliness, or teleology, to the process. Specifically, over long periods of time (and with periods of regression), evolution eventually produces increased levels of complexity in the Universe (from simple particles to elements to compounds to unicellular life forms to multi-cellular life forms to, eventually, entities with sufficient complexity for something new to emerge in the Universe: consciousness, thought, subjectivity, interiority). In the human species this evolved consciousness includes an awareness of the non-physical, or spiritual dimension of the Cosmos. In a sense, in humanity, the Cosmos awakens and becomes conscious of itself. Religion is the product of humanity’s attempts to make sense of this awakening sense of Spirit. Teilhard saw no evidence to suggest that this evolutionary process (which he called the law of complexity/consciousness) would cease with the emergence of the human species, and suggested that evolution will continue in the direction of increasingly complex entities with increasingly expansive consciousness, culminating in what he called (some would argue rather ambiguously and mysteriously) the Omega Point (bear with me here: Omega Point is perhaps the fuzziest piece of Teilhard’s thought, so we will need to wait until a later post to tackle it). Teilhard believed that we can’t explain either the orderly, progressive nature of evolution, or the emergence of a non-physical reality (consciousness) from matter, in purely materialist terms. For Teilhard, the explanation requires acknowledgment of a Spirt which initiates, drives, and is the goal of the process: God – although a God that might not look very familiar to traditional theists. Remarkably, while Teilhard was developing his evolutionary theology, the one-time anti-British Indian revolutionary, Aurobindo Ghose, developed a remarkably similar model of evolutionary spirituality, apparently without knowledge of Teilhard’s similar and near-simultaneous work. More recently, the prolific but controversial transpersonal/integral thinker Ken Wilber has proposed his own evolutionary spirituality model, largely free from any sectarian connection to an existing religious tradition (unlike Teilhard who, at least nominally, remained a Roman Catholic Christian, and Aurobindo, whose evolutionary vision was rooted in the Hindu Vedanta tradition). Differences between these three (and other) proponents of a strong version of evolutionary spirituality are many, but Teilhard, Aurobindo, Wilber, and other strong spiritual evolutionaries all agree that evolution and religion are entirely compatible, and that the evolutionary process itself is the result of the gradual emergence of Spirit in the Cosmos. Religion is not about faith in an event of supernatural revelation in the past, but rather about recognition of the ongoing and ever-expanding presence of Spirit in the Cosmos, culminating for the moment, at least in our little corner of the Universe, in a species that has achieved the epistemological capacity to intuitively sense the presence of Spirit. Going Forward As we explore evolutionary religion in future posts, we will always do so from at least a weak/descriptive angle, and at times we will explore various expressions of the strong/spiritual evolutionary religion model. In all cases, we will be examining religion from the point of view that in order for religion to remain credible to a fully informed 21st century sensibility, it must be accepted as something that, like consciousness, evolves over time. We have arrived at a key point of transition from the traditional static Axial Age religions of the past to a post-Axial form of evolutionary religion whose contours have barely begun to emerge, leading to a situation of considerable confusion and uncertainty for those who reject the religions of the past but do not see any viable alternatives emerging. But they will emerge.
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