Religionless Religion: Beyond Belief to Understanding
Have you ever wondered why we hear so much talk about religion in America but see so little evidence of compassion and justice in the society we have made? Clyde Brown’s new book, Religionless Religion, finds altruistic values expressed in Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and other religious traditions of the world and then explores how they came to be obscured in the development of Christianity. By focusing on the heart of those values–a relationship to the Infinite, selflessness, and compassionate treatment of others in society–Brown shows how vital and truly universal they are, yet profoundly absent in American life today. Clyde Brown’s study is thought-provoking, cogently written, and I highly recommend it.
In his gem of a final chapter, Brown deftly sketches the economic and political devastation wrought by the rise of capitalism unfettered by the restraints of true religious values. Brown shows how universal altruistic values view the unlimited pursuit of self-interest without regard to social justice as dangerous to individual and community alike. How different is the philosophy of Ayn Rand for whom “‘selfishness is a virtue, altruism a vice,’ thus reversing once and for all the traditional Judeo-Christian values.” Among Rand’s devotees was Alan Greenspan, who “as an economist, went on to become the Head of the Federal Reserve and had much influence over our economic policy for many years.” Brown’s modest observation makes it agonizingly clear that those beliefs have enormous consequences, as ordinary citizens and especially the poor, continue to reap the economic devastation that advocates of greed have sown. The universal religious values Brown espouses clearly matter deeply in a healthy society.
What accounts for Christianity’s distortion of universal religious values? Clyde Brown sees that the earliest Jesus movement expressed them fully, as did related movements in its ancient environment, such as those of Essenes, Gnostics, and Platonists. But as contemporary scholars of early Christian history point out, some traits of the earliest Christian communities eventually became lost. Much early Christian writing was forbidden or destroyed as Christianity grew into an “ism.”
Like Joseph Campbell and Northrop Frye, Brown observes archetypal patterns across religious traditions. He looks to Taoist writings, Krishnamurti, and many other observers to describe a universal human condition–the human tendency to become so self-absorbed that we become separated from what is ultimate. Religious traditions of the world also describe deliverance from a divine source–such as the myth of a savior that rescues humanity from evil, which for Brown means particularly the evil of self. When read with a proper understanding of symbolic meaning, the Hebrew Bible and the Christian New Testament address the same universal struggle of the spirit, according to Brown. He contends that as Christianity became the religion of an empire, Christian faith had to do more with believing particular statements as literal fact and less with a story that triggers mystical transformation of self and compassionate action, a momentous change indeed.
Key universal values did not disappear as Christian culture changed–they continued to be admirably expressed in monasticism, which at its best, was “the kind of loving, sharing and simple life that Jesus advocated.” They continue to be found in the work of philosophers as well: Karl Marx’s expressions of social justice for the greater good, for example, can be well understood as secular religion advocating a kind of religious behavior. John Dewey also is shown to advocate what Brown calls “religionless religion,” expressing universal religious values like compassion and justice without the overlay of any specifically religious tradition.
What I love about Religionless Religion is the author’s passion for dispassionate exploration of difficult questions. Clyde Brown’s approach to religion is properly critical and appreciative. His thoughtful study and wisdom make him a reliable guide as he capably examines his diverse sources: from early Christian authors like Clement of Alexandria to contemporary theologians like John Shelby Spong; from ancient philosophers like Plotinus to Hegel and Feuerbach. Brown pronounces no simple solutions to the human predicament, but in the end his book does take an optimistic turn, as he looks into the future with Teilhard de Chardin toward a breakthrough in human consciousness that will lead humans to finally realize and live the ultimate values of religious faith.
Jon B. Daniels, M.T.S Harvard Divinity School, Ph.D. Claremont Graduate School
RELIGIONLESS RELIGION
Clyde Edward Brown
Universe, Inc. New York, 2009
From reading the paragraph on the back cover about the author I had not anticipated the high quality research and writing that I found from beginning to end in his book. Brown’s main point is relatively simple to state, but throughout the book he presents extensive support that brings his thesis to life in an enjoyable and convincing manner.
Brown holds that few modern Christians are equipped to read the available literature from our faith’s past with the mind-set required to grasp the original meanings. While we have the advantages that come from scientific thinking, we also have the limitations that come from reading the material as literal truth. But he also makes plain that many of the early readers of the religious literature were, likewise misled by failing to plumb the deep spiritual meanings of much allegorical and mythical material. The results of such misunderstanding are widespread and often very destructive.
In Chapter 1, Brown lists some of the many stories of the great violence done with the support of scripture that tells of the battle of the God chosen righteous against the condemned evil doers, leading up to or during the final days of our present world. Quoting Bishop John Shelby Spong, he states that the “literal reading of biblical passages, as well as sacred scriptures of other traditions has ‘left a trail of pain, horror, blood and death.’ He says, ‘More people have been killed in the history of the world in conflicts over and about religion than any other single factor’”.
He relates how the origin and growth of our United States also included examples of the justification of our slaughter of the “savages” supported by the “biblical doctrine of election that formed our national myth that we had been chosen by God as a people to be a beacon of light that will bring liberty to the world”. Brown goes on, quoting presidents Wilson, Reagan, and both Bush’s in statements that clearly use the same kind of “chosen people” concept that has brought such death and misery to the Jews.
In one of the simplest and clearest statements of what he himself believes, he quotes Paul Tillich in his The Dynamics of Faith, that “God is a symbol of God” “That which is the true ultimate transcends the realm of finite reality infinitely” and therefore “no finite reality can express it directly and properly. Religiously speaking, God transcends his own name.”
A feature which quickly becomes apparent and is evident throughout the entire book is Brown’s copious use of pertinent documentation to back-up his main message. I’ve seldom read books with such abundant references from both ancient and modern sources.
What he is most of all offering the reader is the premeise that prior to our Christian era what we call “religion” was primarily perceived through the “mind set” that predominated at the time: one in which stories were used to express the fundamental and universal concerns of humans; issue of life and death; origins and end time; forces of nature that acted upon humans; and, meaning in life. Analogies, myths, allegories, stories told around the fireside, along with dancing and primitive music, these were the tools available to the race of humans, from time immemorial.
But another tool began developing in human culture, and it both added to and came into conflict with the mythical approach to “truth”. That was the use of language to express what was thought to be the “literal truth”, the one and only “real truth”.
Brown describes some of the history of that conflict in the period beginning mostly in the 3rd and 4th centuries when literalism began taking hold among those who found myth and allegory too fuzzy and incomprehensible. “Literalists” grews in numbers and in power, becoming the “orthodox”. Along with their success came an authoritarian structure that contributed still more to their power and that enabled them to suppress their “heretical” opponents, destroying much of the evidences of their very existence. Brown makes clear the high price that has been paid for the loss of our ability to understand and learn from myth and our choice, instead, of organized and authoritarian religion to spoon feed to us our spiritual wisdom.
In his concluding chapter, The Real Realists, he takes what I found to be a surprising tack, though one very much on the mind of contemporary America; the issue of the religious and philosophical basis of our capitalist system of economics. As is his custom, he quotes many examples to express his view that much of the motivation behind early communism came from the desire to replace the selfish and greedy new capitalism, where the common man was considered nothing more than cogs in the machinery that produced wealth with a more humane, just and compassionate one which truly cared for the worker and the lower classes.
He makes clear that it is not merely a matter of economic systems, but is much more deeply a spiritual question of our fundamental values.
I’m not quite clear on the question of the audience who will most likely find Brown’s book of interest. I’m quite sure that all who take the time to read it all, though they may feel the need to re-read some portions, as did I, will find it a rich treasure of interesting religious history. I look forward to further writing from the author.
Dean G. Watt, Reviewer