Midweek Faith Lift
July 12, 2023
Unity Principle 1, Quantum Leaps
& Christianity
Rev. Deb Hill-Davis
Spiritual Reflection
June 30, 2023
For decades, the generally held belief was that, for early humans, men were the hunters and women were gatherers, but a new study suggests that this view is simply wrong, that women were also hunting. The implications of these results are potentially enormous, says Kimberly Hamlin, a professor of history. "Next to the myth that God made a woman from man's rib, the hunter/gatherer myth is probably the second most enduring myth that naturalizes the inferiority of women."
“Let every girl and boy decide who they want to be! Break the cage, let them fly free.”
- Deeksha Tripathi, Being A Macho Man
Affirmative prayer: Today, I honor the true character of each and every person. I give thanks for the courageous souls who answer the call to be their rightful selves, and for their inspiration for others to live a life of authenticity, inclusiveness, and genuine expression. Thank you, God, forever. Amen.
How interesting that this bit of mythology of women as gatherers and NOT hunters has so significantly impacted “the story we have told ourselves” about women and men. What is really true in this “new” understanding of human nature and behavior holds seeds for a quantum leap for how the whole of humanity understands its true nature and treats one another-as equal partners in the process of surviving and thriving!
And again, it fits so well with our subject matter today, which is the Quantum Leap Strategy and the First Unity Principle. “Thinking Beyond What Common Sense Would Allow” is what Price Pritchett proposes and that is exactly what our opening story suggests we need to do. Common sense is “ordinary good sense or sound practical judgment” according to Webster’s definition. Ordinary may sound good, but it is what is “customary, usual, regular, normal, common and unexceptional.” Sound, practical judgment has a good ring to it, but it is what has been obtained through common practice or action, based on the past.
As Pritchett says on p.8 of The Quantum Leap Strategy:
…common sense judgment is based on past experience. The quantum leap strategy, in contrast is based on uncommon sense. You2 is about what you can do….now….and that doesn’t necessarily have much at all to do with what you have done in the past…..common sense is what people today commonly believe. And common sense is full of dumb, limiting ideas.
These ideas include but are not limited to: the world is flat, people can’t fly, you have to bleed people to heal them, heart transplants are not possible, women were not hunters and thus inferior in survival skills and on and on. Common sense tends to focus on obstacles and what has been the “normal” pattern of achievement instead of opening to all that is truly possible! So with that in mind, let’s take a moment and look at early Christianity so that we can set some context for what Unity has brought to the fore and what that might mean for our possible quantum leap here at Unity of Ames.
Throughout its 2000+ year history, Christianity has been trying to understand who their central figure, Jesus, is and just what he calls us to do which has resulted in an ongoing struggle within Christianity. For some, Jesus is the One and only Son of God, and the only Divine/Human being that has ever lived. For others, including Unity, Jesus is NOT the one and only, but stands as a way shower pointing to the inherent divinity or “Christedness” in all. This basic divergence in perspective about Jesus and the Jesus message has had a significant impact on how Christianity has unfolded and developed.
Rev. Paul Roach indicates that there were initially 45 gospels, poem, and other writings that attempted to explain the importance and significance of Jesus. Only 4 of them made it into the “official, canonized” New Testament and only because of political power plays, not because they are really the “true” account of the life and story of Jesus. These divergent views about Jesus as both fully Divine and fully human would result in schisms within developing Christian theology including the split in 1054 CE between the Western Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. This split was over the “doctrine” of the Holy Trinity, which has only made sense to me at all from Unity’s perspective of the creative process, “Mind, Idea, Expression.” As we have also explored, the “trinity” of Divine self/human self/ observer self are also useful ways to consider the “trinity.”
As Rev. Paul Roach discerns the impact of all the divergent views, he identifies two basic worldviews that weave themselves throughout the history of Christianity. These originated in Antioch in Syria and in Alexandria in Egypt. As Rev. Paul explains the differences on p. 2 of Unity and World Religions:
Christian intellectuals of Alexandria emphasized the symbolic or allegorical interpretation of scripture and championed an understanding of Jesus’ incarnation that emphasized the possible union of the human and the Divine. Those in Antioch held a more literal interpretation of scripture and emphasized a distinction between the human and the Divine, which lived most fully only in the person of Jesus Christ.
This has resulted in two distinctly different threads of Christianity, one which became the orthodoxy and the other which was often described as “heresy.”
The teachings from Alexandria gave rise to the teachings of the Desert Fathers and mystics like Hildegard of Bingen, Meister Eckhart, the author of The Cloud of Unknowing, St. John of the Cross and Theresa of Avila. Modern mystics like Teilhard de Chardin, Thomas Merton and Richard Rohr are of this tradition of Alexandria. The emphasis was on having an experience of the “divine” and thereby awakening one’s own divine nature. These mystics and teachers follow the thread of the Perennial Philosophy, and Unity, too, falls under that umbrella. This brand has been frequently described by the more traditional powers of Christianity as “heresy.”
The teachings from Antioch put a greater emphasis on doctrine, external order, and authority as well as a clearly defined distinction between Jesus Christ and the rest of humanity. The Catholic Church held sway for centuries, emphasizing the evil nature of man and the “devil” as an actual entity or power that tempted man to sin. It grew far more sinister in the Middle Ages in writings such as Dante’s Inferno and highly graphic descriptions of hell. Avoiding hell and going to heaven in the after life became central to this story line.
The Protestant Reformation in the 1500’s did not change the story line, but the source of authority which now became the Scriptures rather that the Pope of the Catholic Church. Humans were still miserable sinners who were saved by the death of Jesus on the cross, a story line that remains to the present day.
Unity’s first principle, that there is only One Presence and One Power in the Universe, God the good, Omnipotence hearkens back to the teachings from Alexandria. God is not a “Being” therefore God is not gendered, or God is both father/mother God to encompass all spiritual energy. If God is all power, then there logically is not another being, Satan, which also holds all power to work against God. That creates a duality and the energy of God working against God, which does not follow. The notion of a literal “devil” has no basis in the Bible and is incompatible with the notion of God as absolute good, everywhere present. In the Hebrew Scripture, the devil was used by God when necessary, to teach a lesson or correct bad behavior but was not given an independent existence.
Are there polarities in our human experience? Yes, we experience the dark and the light, good and evil, birth and death, all as a part of our lived experience in this relative world where we live. However, the mystical Christian has an awareness of a greater reality, which holds and resolves all the polarities.
As the Psalmist says in Psalm 139:
7 Where can I go from your spirit?
Or where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
9 If I take the wings of the morning
and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and night wraps itself around me,”
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is as bright as the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
As Rev. Paul writes on p. 5 in Unity and World Religions:
The affirmation of oneness, the mysterious unity of God, and naturally following from that the unity of God with creation is at the heart of mysticism…..Mysticism, in its true sense is….the endeavor to experience direct union or direct spiritual apprehension of the Divine.
So how does this impact us, here and now? In our opening story, we learn of the discovery of “evidence” for what we have “known” all along….that women are and always have been equal partners with me in the surviving and thriving of our species. The telling of a different story could not undo the reality or “Truth” of the real story of the power, strength and contribution of women. Likewise, we “know” the Truth of our Spiritual nature even as we explore how to live into that “knowing” in our everyday life. Maybe it is truly time for the voice of Mystical Christianity to speak loudly and be heard! Maybe that is our Quantum Leap!
Blessings on the Path,
Rev. Deb