Narrative in systems of religion

Contemporary Review, Feb, 2004 by Keith Suter

But I do admit that religion can create an element of superiority over other religions. Religious people distinguish themselves from others by their beliefs and assume that they have all the answers to the fundamental questions of life. The problem gets worse when this feeling of superiority becomes a desire to force the 'truth' on others (such as the Christian crusades in the Islamic world almost a thousand years ago) and to convert others forcibly. Such actions are now regretted by Christians. The history of this violence lingers in the collective Islamic memory.

A Universal Narrative?

Narrative is very important for each religion. It helps convey meaning to the followers and makes the religion's answers more 'accessible'. Religion is, after all, dealing with fundamental questions and so there is always a risk of the 'answers' containing complexity and jargon that will confuse followers. Human stories are more interesting than an arid study of theology. Children learn about religions through role models and other stories--rather than theory.

Can humankind begin afresh with a universal narrative? Is it possible to create a new religious narrative that will unite humankind with a set of truths that will appeal to all people and so reduce the risk of 'religious warfare'?

The answer is not clear but on balance I suggest that a new universal narrative cannot be created. Here are three different scenarios to illustrate this claim.

1. 'A new spiritual search is underway in Western countries'

The Christian church is in decline in the Western world. For example, in the UK (the home of Methodism) there are now more Muslims than Methodists and the much larger Methodist church in the US has been closing down a building at the rate of one a week for the past two decades.

But there is a new spiritual search underway in these countries. Alongside the decline in organized Christianity in Western countries, there is a new search for meaning. The Baby Boomers (people born between 1946 and 1966--the largest single age cohort in Western history) are now in their middle age. For most of them, life has not turned out quite as well as they expected. In the 1960s, they were going to change the world--and instead the world has changed them. They may have wealth but they may also now be unemployed, separated (they are the most divorced generation in history) and alienated from their children. What went wrong? They are looking for answers to their spiritual problems. They cannot find the answers to the basic questions of life in the established religions. Therefore, they are not returning to churches (and not going into Judaism or Islam).

Perhaps a new religion can be created that will omit Jesus. It will be a New Age worship of God without the attention to Jesus and without all the intermediation of the church. This seems fanciful but it has been done once already. The Protestants have largely removed the Catholic attention to Mary from their approach to Christianity. Mary has largely disappeared from Protestantism. Perhaps the next step will be to remove Jesus?