Religion as a Transformative Journey

What is it about?

Religion is about transformation. Transformation into expanded expressions of love, compassion, wisdom, and fervor for social justice. When we see religion in this way, then the idea of separate, boundaried religions that do not overlap becomes a difficult position to hold. If all religions are involved in some way in experiments with the possibilities of human transformation, then emerging forms of religious life which cross the boundaries of religious traditions can be embraced as partners in this transformative work. This may be the underlying motivation for the growing populations of "spiritual but not religious" and the religious "nones" in the United States. A number of detailed examples of people living out mature religious lives in emergent ways will be offered to help ground my arguments.

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Why is it important?

This is an important article to help better understand emergent forms of religious life, to give them credence, and to reorient our understanding of traditional religious life at the same time. By offering a new conception of religious "depth," we can view both traditional religious life and emerging forms in a similar way, by discerning their capacities for human transformation into expanded expressions of love, compassion, wisdom, and fervor for social justice.