Relig ion
Symbol and reality
Martin Sullivan Less than 4uu years ago men believed in an immovable flat earth and a three-storied universe. When Copernicus and Galileo, both Christians and churchmen, Challenged this view and ultimateIY Put it to rout, they paid dearly l'or their discoveries. Copernicus was not allowed to publish his Lresults, until the year of his death, LAO his word of course has come through and dwells among us. The Renaissance Church forced ualileo to unsay; it could not c°111Pel him to unsee. And now every school boy thinks in these terms He takes an evolutionary, lot a catastrophic view of the World, and consequently the religious teaching of the Bible and Prayer Book do not convince "ltri. The margin of the Authorised Version still bears the date of creation as 4004 BC attributed to
the research of Archbishop Ussher of Armagh in 1605, and the prayers and scripture readings set for Advent in the Prayer Book are shattered by modern science. The scientific doctrine which destroyed the traditional cosmology has long been an undisputed fact, but the church has not taken in hand the necessary re-adjustment. Modern translations of the Bible and liturgical changes surely serve to expose the errors, What then, in the light of this dilemma, has been happening to modern man in his religious pilgrimage? Intellectually he inhabits and interprets a post-Copernican world, but emotionally and religiously, he appears to be satisfied with a pre-Copernican view. This must lead to a state of schizophrenia, and he is obliged to deal with this nagging complaint. In fact he does, although the church is not always aware of what he is doing, and indeed he himself may not know. He reacts to religion in three or four quite different ways.
The simplest and most obvious is to accept literally all he reads and hears, and thus by tucking religion away into an isolated compartment, he ,finds he has no problems. Many faithful churchgoers adopt this stand. He may revolt and abandon the Christian faith entirely. Some have taken this step explicitly and Oeclared their hand either as atheists or agnostics. Implicitly he may pay lip service to the church's teaching and trundle along for baptisms, weddings and funerals, engaging in a mild form of ancestor worship. The great majority of the population falls into this group.
He may, however, attempt to solve his problems, by regarding the language of the pre-Copernican world as purely symbolic. All earlier affirmation about God and man are acceptable, providing they are interpreted metaphorically. Spiritual truths are to be grasped only by the help of symbols, images and imaginatives myths. This approach is appealing and has much to commend to. Most clergy seem to accept it, in one modified form or another. But it has its difficulties, because it does not make clear where symbol stops and reality begins.
These are some of the most urgent religious problems of modern times.
I belive a great deal of work has been done by scholars to help us to find an acceptable reconciliation, but their findings have not yet filtered through to the market place or to the pew. But they will, and when they do, we must be prepared for them and not retreat to prepared positions in order to repel them. Non-believers as well as believers often resist new insights into the faith, because both find the bases of their security at
tacked. We do well to note that the enemy of true religion is not atheism, but false religion.
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