Overview of the Journey

As you read this chapter, note the elements of the journey:

• the author’s admitted mystical orientation
• the Western spiritual writers and traditions he mentions favorably
• their Eastern counterparts he appears to admire
• his non-traditional views of God, nature, humanity, Jesus, and the Bible
• the practical implications for modern living that he draws

Discussion Questions — printout

1. Laughlin believes that any theology (that is, thoughtful and well-developed concept of God) should be based on an experience of God. How do you feel about such a claim? On what is your own view of God founded?
2. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, produced the so-called Wesleyan Quadrilateral—the four sources of authority on which Christian belief should be built: scripture, tradition, reason, and experience. Laughlin starts with experience and works backward to reason (in the form of a well-thought out and logically-arranged credo). How do you feel about this direction? Do you think that his use of Christian scripture and tradition is enough to call his a Christian theology? Why or why not?
3. In the course of his essay, Laughlin notes the importance of catalysts in one’s spiritual development, including among other things mentors and books. What such catalysts can you identify in your own life? How have they affected your thinking about God, the world of nature and people, existence, and yourself?
4. Laughlin’s essay presents the conceptual fruits of his spiritual journey rather than the specific experiences along the way that might have yielded them. His decades of having studied, taught, and written about Eastern religions and philosophies and his life-long role as a jazz pianist have affected his spirituality and religious thought. Which of your own vocations and avocations have helped to shape your theological views and religious practices? How?
5. Laughlin expresses his conviction that “mystical” moments (that is, “moments of extraordinary depth”) are much more common than we might think; and he gives examples, drawn mostly from the arts, as possible occasions for such experiences to occur. Can you identify any such moments in your own life? If so, name them and indicate to what extent and precisely how they may have affected your own religious thought. If not, why do you suppose this might be the case?
6. Laughlin lays out his beliefs in this topical order: God, Nature and Humanity, Jesus Christ, the Bible and other scripture, spiritual practice and experience, the planet and people, spiritual community, sources for spiritual truth, and personal faith development. This is obviously one—but not the only—logical way of arranging such topics. How would you arrange them to reflect your own spiritual, religious, or theological thinking? Which items (or articles) would you eliminate, add, or change? Why? How?

Class Exercises

• Have the class prepare their own working individual credos. Share the lists and discuss similarities and differences.
  
• Purely as a thought exercise, imagine what your own church or religious community would look like if it were suddenly to embrace and adopt Laughlin’s nine articles of faith. Specifically, how would worship and ministry to the world beyond its own walls be different from what it is now?

Theological Terms for Consideration — handout

• autonomy
• emanation
• heteronomy
• immanence
• metaphysics
• monism
• mysticism
• ontology
• pantheism
• transcendence

Religious Thinkers for Consideration — handout

• Meister Eckhart (1260–1328)
• W. T. Stace (1886–1967)
• Thomas Merton (1915–1968)
• Anthony de Mello (1931–1987)
• Wayne Teasdale (1945–2004)

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