Enfeebled Religion

Our own age seems primarily to need a rejuvenation of the supernatural forces to be affected by driving roots deeply into the nutritious energies of the Earth. Because it is not sufficiently moved by a truly human compassion, because it is not exalted by a sufficiently passionate admiration of the universe, our religion is becoming enfeebled.

Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin Cited in The Christian Mystics

Matt Fox gives us his commentary on the dour and yet compelling reflections of de Chardin: 

“A Jesuit priest and scientist, Teilhard DeChardin proposes that “our religion is becoming enfeebled.” That we are too cut off from awe and wonder and a “passionate admiration of the universe.” We are too anthropocentric, living our lives entirely in manufactured boxes. Thus, we lack a “truly human compassion” and we are cut off from our deepest roots, which derive from “the nutritious energies of the Earth.” Is religion enfeebled?”

Fr. de Chardin is writing in the 1950’s… and Fox in 2011, so I expect that his question is rhetorical, and is aimed at any person who still attends church and who identifies with an American religion… and of course the answer is: Yes!

With the notable and noble exception of some environmental eco-justice groups who anchor themselves in a world religious tradition or at least derive inspiration and guidance from one or more traditions, the church as a whole, has become bland, stale, and teetering on the precipice of irrelevance! 

As Fox has taught me, as the mystics East and West widely contend, without a sustaining sense of reverence and wonder, amazement and thanksgiving, the attempts at worship are at best hollow and self-centered, so that the worship itself is feeble.

Without a sense of affirming one’s place in the gracious universe, we can become electronic, mechanical and lifeless! Our task is to infuse our personal lives, our communal connections, and our sense of value in the universe with transcendental truths. We are to tell and retell inspirational myths with wise stories and infuse them with educational experiences that would bring this wider and deep sense of the sacred into our lives and our daily, social, and environmental decision-making…