religion

The Modern Search

FIRST ENCOUNTER

You learn from your university’s newspaper that your campus will be hosting a large gathering of religious leaders for three days. There will be large and small meetings, some of them open to students and the general public. At the end of each day there will be a nondenominational service in a nearby church or temple, and at the end of the conference there will be a large meeting that everyone may attend. You decide to go to the final conference meeting.

The gathering is in a modern auditorium, which is usually used by the theater department. Upon entering, you see a stage full of people in bright-colored clothes. Among them you notice Sikh representatives in white, Hindus in orange, Buddhists in gray and orange, Muslims in brown, Christians in black and purple, and Native Americans in various-colored tribal dress. To open the session, a cantor sings a Jewish festival song and a Native American chants a song in praise of the sun.

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After the music, the president of the university thanks everyone for attending. Next, the keynote speaker sums up the ideas discussed at the various meetings held over the three days. After his remarks, he opens the floor to questions and asks the audience members to please use the microphones standing in the aisles, so that everyone can hear. People line up quickly.

The first question is a bit startling and provokes laughter.

“Why are most of you men?” a faculty member asks the keynote speaker. “I see only a few women among you. Where are all the female religious leaders?”

Before answering, one of the representatives pauses to collect his thoughts. The silence is uncomfortable.

“Women ministers and religious leaders do exist,” he says at last. “In fact, some religious groups, like Christian Science, were begun by women. But I admit that most religious traditions are only beginning to appreciate gender as an issue, and many religions are still closed to the idea of female clergy. Fortunately, some religious schools are now training female candidates. Although leaders in most religions are still male, we can expect in the future that more leaders will be women.”

Nice try, you think. The people around you do not seem convinced either.

A man on the far left of the auditorium comments, “Religious leaders have been getting together to engage in dialogue for years. But has it really led to anything substantial? For example, have any religions come together to help survivors of catastrophes, such as the people of Haiti and Japan whose lives were devastated by earthquakes?”

A Buddhist monk answers. He speaks about the relief-work groups from Asia, like the Tzu Chi Foundation in Taiwan and the Ruamkatanyu Foundation in Thailand. But he concedes that their work has been done primarily in coordination with other organizations of the same religion. “It is hard to get religions to work together on global matters. I wish I knew why.” A Christian bishop adds information about Christian welfare groups, such as Catholic Relief Services and World Vision, but he admits the same problem of getting different religions to work together. “And there’s always the issue of sensitivity to the local religions of the countries needing assistance. Sometimes they don’t want our help.”

Another audience member asks about the future of religions. “Will the future just bring more of the same—the same religions, the same rituals, the same beliefs? Or is it possible that religions will influence each other and even blend? Can new beliefs emerge from the old religions? Could there be entirely new religions?”

A Shinto leader from the West Coast answers. “Some religions and denominations are very open to new ideas. My own religion of Shinto has many modern offshoots, like Tenrikyo and Omoto, which try to address the problems of the modern world. And there are branches of old religions that deliberately reject prescribed beliefs—among them are the Unity Church, the Unitarians, and some forms of Judaism. They want to be open to new ideas. For example, they seek new understandings of what God might be and of what revelation means.”

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Another representative adds that interfaith meetings like this really are having an effect on belief and practice. “Some Christian groups now practice meditation and silent prayer. These new practices have been influenced by Hinduism and Buddhism. And, in turn, Hinduism and Buddhism have taken ideas from other religions, such as the need for social involvement and welfare work. Maybe we are only at the beginning of our dialogue. I wish I could be here a hundred years from now to see what comes about.”

The questions and discussion go on for another half hour. At last, the keynote speaker makes his closing comments from the stage. Many of the leaders say a final prayer, and the conference is adjourned.

You walk out with Marianne, a friend from one of your classes. “What do you think?” you ask.

“I’m not quite sure,” she says. “I’m thinking about it, though, because I have to write a paper about the conference. What about you?”

“I think it was ‘same old same old.’ My parents are regular churchgoers, and they hear the same teachings as they did when they were children. I stopped following their religion, but I did try several others for a while. Right now I’m still looking. Maybe I’ll have to invent my own! What about you? What are you going to write?”

“I think I’m going to write about where religions could be headed in the future. Bringing women into leadership positions is inevitable, and it will change religions. I think it could make them more tolerant. And I also think that new religions will emerge. Maybe they already have—but we don’t see them as religions yet. People will always need a moral code. But maybe morality needs rethinking.”

Marianne and I make plans to meet again and to talk more about what we’ve learned. As I walk away after saying good-bye, I wonder, What new religions will emerge? What will the future bring?

MODERN INFLUENCES ON THE FUTURE OF RELIGION

It is obvious that religions in the modern world face both challenge and inevitable change. Numerous social and technological developments are responsible for bringing about change. Women are demanding roles in arenas traditionally dominated by males—including institutional religions. Scientific advances in such areas as reproduction, genetics, and organ transplantation pose ethical questions that people in earlier times never had to answer. Many Western cities are homes to religions, such as Hinduism and Islam, that not too long ago were considered exotic and foreign. Finally, television, the Internet, cell phones, immigration, and travel expose human beings worldwide to new cultures and religions.

Change is happening so quickly that we must wonder about the future of religion. What if we could return to earth a few hundred years from now? Would the religions that we know now have changed a great deal? What religions would even still exist? Would there be new great religions?