Since my last entry in March, I have been studying the subjects of religious authority, differences between religion and spirituality, and related issues.
Recently, I read Duane R. Bidwell's book, When One Religion Isn't Enough (c) 2018.
Professor Bidwell teaches at a California seminary and is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church, USA; he is also a practicing Buddhist. In the book, he discusses people who practice more than one religion -- what he calls "religious multiplicity."
I first became aware of this practice when I read The Jewel in the Lotus some years ago: Jewish folk who also practice and identify as Buddhists, known as "JuBu's" are discussed at length.
In his book, Bidwell doesn't make a sharp distinction between religion and spirituality; He does provide the following contrast:
" I think of religion as the formal structures and practices that shape a community's relationship to Mystery and to the world...Spirituality expresses a person's way of relating to Mystery through rituals, prayers, physical movements and postures, spiritual disciplines, beliefs, values...and other ways of connecting to the sacred...while figuring out the meaning of life." [p. 5]
What really grabbed my attention is found later in the book where he writes:
" From my perspective, most people of faith are spiritually fluid to one degree or another; they commit to one religion in name but incorporate many religions in practice." [p.33, my emphasis]
Later on he refers to such people as "spiritual nomads, people who consciously ignore boundaries between religious territories to find shelter, nourishment and meaning in fertile landscapes, familiar or not." [p. 38]
Bidwell seems to compare these "spiritual nomads" with what have come to be called SBNRs --those who claim to be "Spiritual But Not Religious." He writes:
"SBNRs reject religious exclusivism, dogmatism, judgment...(and) advocate internal spiritual authority." [p. 41]
After leaving the Southern Baptist Convention, I joined a congregational (UCC) church and some years later joined a Unitarian Universalist congregation. With increasing distaste for denominationalism, after a time, I began to see myself relating to the SBNR classification. However, this, too, was a bad fit, as I don't like labels, and never thought of myself as being very religious or spiritual. But I do have a keen interest in the development of my spirituality, and gladly acknowledge that I am, indeed, "spiritually fluid." And with this comes the acknowledgement that I am responsible for my own beliefs and admission that I am my own authority.
Which brings me to the subject of religious/spiritual authority. (To be continued...)
