This week I attended an Educational Conference for primary school teachers. The keynote speaker was Tim Freke - author and philosopher. Tim gave a very energetic presentation on the nature of religion where his presentation centred on the fact that human beings are made up of three parts - body, mind (psyche) and spirit. During his address he made two assertions. Firstly, that all religions can be harmonised under the umbrella of his one true philosophy, and secondly, that at our spirit parts are a single collective consciousness - or one. Now, I took exception to three things about Tims presentation. The first is that he promoted his own philosophy as the real truth behind all things. Now, of course, all people of faith or no faith do this, but in that context, to a mixed crowd of educators, whenever presenting a world-view or philosophy, we couch it in language that expresses that it is a particular viewpoint - i.e. Humanists believe... or Christians assert... We do this lest we get accused of indoctrination! And if we dont do this we allow space for people to disagree, doubt, probe and question. Secondly, I took exception to the way in which he rationalised all religions including Judaism, Hinduism, Islam and Christianity, harmonising them into his own philosophy. By doing this he was unfaithful to the teaching of those religions - choosing to pick the bits of each that fitted his worldview. For example, from Christianity he promoted gnosticism as being compatible with orthodox Christianity - quoting Jesus from the Gospel of Thomas and asserting that it was the earliest gospel - despite scholarly arguments that it is a later gospel. A pic-and-mix approach is neither scholarly or teaching with integrity. Thirdly, - and I believe this was where Tim was most unfaithful to the historical witness of religions such as Christianity - is the idea that at a spiritual level we are one - a collective consciousness and this is what God is. However, the fundamental tenet of Christian mysticism (if I may call it that), which is born out by the witness of the church throughout the centuries (including myself), is that when we awaken to our spirituality we become aware not that I am God but that God is wholly other. Our oneness with God is not that we are God, but that we can connect with a God who is distinct from us - the author and creator, and he/she who is totally incomprehensible, unknowable and fathomless. Much of what Tim said was good, and I agreed with his passion that we regain the beauty and wonder of spirituality. He was a gifted communicator and clearly passionate about his philosophical ideas. However, his absolute relativism (yes, that was an oxymoron) left me wanting to say, Sorry, but thats just not how it is!
Posted on: Sat, 08 Nov 2014 13:15:36 +0000