PREFACE
How does one live an authentic life in a pluralistic, multi-cultural world? How does one honor their spiritual self in a world of competing, dogmatic, controlling, and seemingly irrelevant religions? It is issues such as these that led me to write my first book. As a professional psychologist with decades of study, experience in clinical work, behavioral research, and teaching, I was determined to address these issues. I know from the perspective of a professional psychologist what it is that constitutes a healthy personality. I determined that those same ingredients must also be a part of a “Healthy Religion,” which is the title of my first book.
Our Western society was built on a worldview and religion that emerged from an historical religion that is called Christianity. Christianity was responsible for early education and learning with the establishment of schools and institutions of higher learning that were begun by various religious groups in the U.S. Our society evolved as a consequence of that educational structure. The religion of Christianity was based on what was understood to be contained in the Bible. The problem that emerged was the diversity of opinions, interpretations, and historical traditions used in the developed beliefs and practice of the religion called Christianity. The question was always what could you trust to be true? What could you believe? What was an appropriate interpretation of what was contained in the Bible? How did it come to exist? What in it was believable? How could you reconcile human intelligence and reason with scriptural literalism? Inquiring minds want answers to such questions and need to find credible evidence for beliefs that they hold. The need to know and understand is what led me to create my own background in personal and academic religious studies, and my first academic post at a major university. It is also what then led me to create my second book called “A Believable Bible.” This too, was the result of decades of study and research in the fields of religion, psychology, and spirituality.
But my work wasn’t finished. What is paraded in the U.S. as traditional Christianity alienates thoughtful, reasonable, and intelligent people. What people are led to believe about the Christian religion is often misleading, unbelievable, inconsistent with reality, incredible, and contradictory to modern historical and biblical research. Such inconsistencies create a state of conflict we call cognitive dissonance. No one needs to live in conflict within one’s self. The head, the heart, and the spirit all need to be in harmony with each other. Any system that asks a person to violate their intelligence and reason will necessarily become irrelevant to their life. If the practice of your religion violates your reason and common sense, the practice of your religion will simply become intolerable. It became clear that we needed a book to help others understand what we have learned and now know about the Christian religion through decades of intensive religious and biblical scholarship. The results of that scholarship actually give us what you might call “A Credible Christianity.” I offer this book because what is presented to us by the public electronic and other media about religious beliefs and practices of the Christian religion is in reality, incredible. It is incredible because it violates what we have come to know to be true about ancient religions, the Bible, Jesus, and early Christianity.
This is a scholarly book, but it is not a book for scholars. The scholars already know its contents. It is a book that comes from the work of scholars. It is the end product of the work of many scholars, most of whom have made their contributions during the last two centuries, and more especially from recent findings during the last several decades.
In every realm of knowledge we make use of the findings of experts. If we want to know the weather we rely on the expertise of meteorologists. If we want to build an automobile we rely on the expertise of engineers. If we have a medical problem we seek out the latest medical knowledge and the expertise of a modern, present day physician. We would not rely on first century medical knowledge or expertise. If we want to understand religion we need to rely on the scholars and experts in the field of religion. We call them biblical and religious scholars. Enter the scholars of religion and the Bible, some of whom you find in the Jesus Seminar.
In this book you will find the end product of research and scholarship in the field of religion. That end product has been created by the diligent work of many scholars. Some of that special scholarly work is the result of my own study and scholarship. The uniqueness of this book is that you will find in it the latest and best of current biblical and religious scholarship available today. You will also find foundational items of behavioral research, and the experience and wisdom of the latest psychological insight.
You journey will be a rich and expansive one. You will find yourself opening to new information and insights that will resonate with your very being. You will experience a new sense of enlightenment and freedom. You will wonder why all of this knowledge was not available before in one location. You will complete the book with a new sense of awareness. You will become committed to continuing life in the amazing awe, and the wonder of the mystery and miracle of life. Your spirit will be free to actualize the full potential of the many dimensions of your spiritual and physical self, because you will become unbound from an archaic past, and a restrictive and oppressive approach of the old religious limitations placed on it.
Here I offer you a lifetime of research and learning in the two professional fields of psychology and religion. To be enlightened is to know that the light of life and spirit resides within you. You are the light. You are the unique essence of what is divine. Never let others dim, darken, or cover the light or the potential that you are. You are about to embark on a journey of true enlightenment!