Deep-heart cosmic communication radiates truths of relationships in-common and the fact that "common ground" is wave/ particle pulsation sustaining and transforming all at the same time. The "light of the world" is wave/ particle, electromagnetic photon. We are the shining self-understanding of the cosmos, the scintillating light of Divine Instance in nature. Shine on. Shine on, Oh Cosmic Christ. The common anointing of universal priesthood is the Christic consciousness of universal transformation. "Green" religion is the essential consciousness of existence-in-common and the human distinction of self-aware purpose in transformation and in the fleeting reality of individual existence. The beauty, the glory, this ictus in time is to be savored in the moment, for all individual realization is in the moment. The past is non-reality, the future is non-reality; reality is in the moment; accomplishments and failures of the past project into the future. The ascendant consciousness of self-reflection is the conscionable responsibility of living mindfully, in the moment, grateful for the beauty and the glory of being a crowning achievement of the past as well as the hope for the future. The "cultural spectrum" is nothing other than the grand evolution of the electromagnetic spectrum-the ground-being and becoming of life. The greening of religion is about the florescence of all life, always in process of self-justification. Conscionable living is justified living.

GREEN RELIGION

Inside the Cultural SpectrumBy Sylvester L. Steffen

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2010 Sylvester L. Steffen
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4520-4827-7

Contents

INTRODUCTION....................................................................viiPREFACE.........................................................................ixAUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION...........................................................TP1ξTP1TC1[FOREWORD]TC1 xvSection I: MONDAY READINGS......................................................11. God and Creation.............................................................32. The Quantum-Electric Universe................................................33. The Science of Conscious Light...............................................54. Only Just Begun..............................................................75. On Being Less Than Fully Human...............................................86. What is Enlightenment? What is Religion?.....................................97. Emergent Creation and Symbiotic Evolution....................................118. Symbiotic Nature and Elusive Truth...........................................129. How Words Undo Us............................................................1410. Putting God to the Test.....................................................1511. Justified Living............................................................1612. Triumphal Religion..........................................................1913. On Reading Scriptures.......................................................2014. Evolution's Slant on Original Sin...........................................2115. Truth and the Culture of Distrust...........................................2416. The Consensus of the Faithful...............................................2517. Trust Issues: Faith, Ecology, Natural Law...................................2718. Trust: the Evolved Insight of Symbiosis.....................................2819. Another Word for the Breach of Trust........................................2920. Reviving Trust: Genetic Moorings............................................3021. Reviving Trust: Cultural Moorings...........................................31Section II: TUESDAY READINGS....................................................331. The Evolving Universe........................................................352. God Consciousness — Evolution's Rosetta Code...........................373. The Evolution of Intelligence and the Survival of Life.......................384. The Talking Brain............................................................395. Grace Supposes Nature........................................................416. Religion/ Faith/ Reason/ Relationships.......................................427. Axioms of Evolution..........................................................448. The Analogies of Cosmic Continuity...........................................459. The Analogs of Complementarity and Subsidiarity..............................4610. The Many Faces of Intelligence..............................................4711. Of Two Minds: whither Education?............................................5012. One-Sidedness Challenged: a Sign of Hope....................................5113. Intentional Intelligence: Mystery and Plan..................................5314. Personal Confession of Faith................................................5515. Reason Changing Faith Needing Change........................................5616. Educating for Life..........................................................6017. Education: Means/ End of Self-Fulfillment...................................6318. Owning Intelligence.........................................................6419. Faith and Fideism...........................................................6620. Fideism: a Black Eye for God................................................6721. CREEDon'ts and CREEDos......................................................69Section III: WEDNESDAY READINGS.................................................711. Self-Reflective Consciousness................................................732. Substance/ Consciousness/ Suppositions.......................................743. The Universal Analog.........................................................744. Relationships and Reciprocal Analogies.......................................775. The Letter Kills, the Spirit Gives Life......................................806. REALITY: What is Real!?......................................................817. MATURITY: What is Mature?....................................................848. Godlikeness..................................................................859. True Priesthood, True Religion...............................................8610. Polarized Church............................................................8811. Worldview Dictates Dogma....................................................9112. The Method of Evolution.....................................................9413. Prevision/ Provision: Essential Cosmic Continuity...........................9514. The Parent God..............................................................9615. A Troubled Church/ Culture Marriage.........................................9816. Maturity and the Marriage Commitment........................................9917. At the Edge.................................................................10118. Confession of a Partisan....................................................10219. What's wrong with Religion?.................................................10420. Faith Expectations of the People............................................10621. The Cultural Spectrum & Intrinsic Order.....................................107Section IV: THURSDAY READINGS...................................................1091. New Social Paradigm for Faithful Living......................................1112. The Electric Universe........................................................1133. Cosmic Eucharist: Oneness from Two-ness......................................1154. The Place of Conscience in Evolution.........................................1165. Is Theology Beholden to Science?.............................................1176. Conscience and Divine/ Human Hypostasis......................................1207. Modernity is Dead, God is Alive!.............................................1218. Frozen in Time...............................................................1239. The Enlargement of Love......................................................12410. Eucharist as Conscience.....................................................12411. OPEN LETTER to Pope Benedict, 8 December 2006...............................12612. Conscience: the Requirement of Love.........................................13113. Female Conscience...........................................................13114. Opportunistic and Promiscuous...............................................13315. Sexuality Informs Conscience................................................13616. Truth and Demagoguery.......................................................13917. Permanence in Change: the Constant of Love..................................14118. On Priests and Presidents...................................................14219. What Would Jesus Do?........................................................14320. Childhood Confession and Conscience.........................................14421. Roots of Disrespect for Women & Disregard for Nature........................147Section V: FRIDAY READINGS......................................................1511. What is the Crisis of Conscience?............................................1532. The Psychic Precondition of Cosmic Evolution.................................1543. One Earth/ One Spirit, One Humanity/ One Church..............................1574. Intrinsic Ordering...........................................................1595. Science and Invention........................................................1606. Philosophical Invention......................................................1627. The Deception Called God.....................................................1638. Dogma Drives Cultures........................................................1659. Individualism Run Amok.......................................................16710. Romanticism and Realism.....................................................16811. Catholic Romanticism........................................................17012. Male Proclivities...........................................................17213. Rising from the Ashes.......................................................17414. A Cautionary Tale: Knights Templar & the Popes..............................17615. A Crusades Iteration........................................................17816. The American Impediment.....................................................17917. American Corporate Feudalism................................................18118. Neo-Cons & Neo-Colonialism..................................................18319. Nafta Nimbies and the New Imperialism.......................................18420. Insult and Injury...........................................................18621. What Happened to Humility?..................................................187Section VI: SATURDAY READINGS...................................................1911. "Evening Thoughts"...........................................................1932. Theology of the Land.........................................................1963. The Future of Agriculture....................................................2004. No Easy Answers..............................................................2035. Expectations of Consistency..................................................2046. Nature — Insistent, Persistent & Consistent............................2057. Why is the Religious Right the Religious Wrong?..............................2068. Politics, the Religious Right, and the Assault on Reason.....................2089. Bureaucrats and Political Corruption.........................................21010. Is Religion Fated to be Deadly Dull?........................................21111. Modernity and Absolutism....................................................21212. Culture Wars: Religion vs. Civility.........................................21413. Prevision/ Preconditions for Global Revitalization..........................21714. Dominion Quest..............................................................22015. Self-Tithing................................................................22116. Re-Membering and Remembrance................................................22417. Holding the Accountant Accountable..........................................22618. Is Atmospheric Heating Happening?...........................................22719. Natural, Providential Relativity............................................22820. Relativity & Religion: the Dance of Reason & Faith..........................22921. Reflections on Faith and Frustration........................................230Section VII: SUNDAY READINGS....................................................2331. "A Child Shall Lead Them" Is 11-6............................................2352. On the Fast Track............................................................2363. Choosing Faith and Life......................................................2374. Of Kinship and Kingship......................................................2385. Virtual Reality and New Age Metaphysics......................................2396. Summary Judgment.............................................................2407. Down-to-Earth Cosmic Sense...................................................2418. Confusion and Escape.........................................................2439. The Common Weal & Social Evolution...........................................24610. The Culture Wars between Faith and Reason...................................24811. Embracing the Challenge.....................................................24912. Persist, is what Consistency Does...........................................25013. The Luminaries of My Life...................................................25214. Talk, and Slow Evolution....................................................25415. Church, Faith and Truth.....................................................25616. Quorum-Sensing, Symbiosis and "killing with love"...........................25717. Equal Opportunity Sin.......................................................25918. Good News and Green Tithing—1.........................................26019. Good News and Green Tithing—2.........................................26120. "Sacred Spring".............................................................26321. Encountering the "Unconditioned"............................................265APPENDIX: Whither the Future?...................................................2691. The STATE....................................................................2692. The CHURCH...................................................................2733. The PEOPLE...................................................................2914. The TRUST....................................................................293AFTERWORD: Green Religion & Green Apples........................................305EPILOGUE: One Reality...........................................................309BIBLIOGRAPHY: Sources & Selected Readings.......................................315

Chapter One

SECTION I MONDAY READINGS

OVERVIEW Emergent Cosmos, Emergent Earth, Emergent Life

From where do we come? Whither do we go? Growing in wisdom, age and grace

Religion is about God, intentional and committed relationship, Culture is the changing spectrum of social insight; the mindful means of intentional life.

1. God and Creation

The picture I have of the creationist god is of a grand puppeteer frantically pulling strings to control everything. Now, however, since Einstein illumined the science-world in 1905 with his understanding of light and its role in assembling matter and informing relationships, humanity is offered a more satisfying and perceptive sense of cosmic continuity and divine insight.

Light is cosmic energy, the origin of matter and the continuity of spiritual consciousness. This understanding is eminently compatible with ancient understandings of God as Light, of Light as Word (made flesh), and of evolution's emergent energy/ matter.

It is Einstein who opens spirituality/ materiality, religious and secular consciousness, to an ever emerging sense of enlightenment. Light is the common energy of faith and reason, of religion and science. Light is natural focus of grace representing divine presence in all Earth/ human relationships. "Let there be Light!"

2. The Quantum-Electric Universe (How Eucharist works in Nature)

Ben Franklin's kite experiment in the middle of a thunderstorm pretty well established the reality that we live in an electric universe. An Iowa thunderstorm dramatizes the fact. The reality is revealed in other ways also. When I sleep on my reclining chair I have by my side a fluorescent lamp, and when I move under the blanket it generates static electricity and causes the light to flicker.

A battery of electrical energy exists when pools of opposing electrical charges accumulate. Charged potentials of electricity are agencies of change. A lightning flash is an instantaneous and intense discharge of accumulated electrical potential. Electrical energy can be harnessed by controlling the grounding of the discharge. The controlled discharging of electron energy happens when a light bulb is turned on, when an electrical motor runs. Science tells us that all brain activity is about neurally controlled harnessing of electric messaging. We are part and parcel of the quantum-electric universe.

The energy spectrum of the universe is electromagnetic, particle and wave. Particles are distinguished in electrical potential, positive and negative. The strong force attraction of particles, that is, of opposite charges attracting each other, contributes to magnetic inherency and the particulate structuring of least particles, photons, electrons (negatively charged), in cooperation with the atomic nucleus (positive-charged).

The strong-force attraction binding positive energy in the atomic nucleus gives stability and inner motivation to molecules with respect to engaging electrons and opening their potentials of transformation and diversification.

Satellite particles around atomic nuclei (electrons) move at light speeds; the atomic nucleus has a defining effect on them. Depending on the valence-strength of magnetic attraction, electrons may be shared within clusters of atoms and even be taken by one atom (molecule) from another. The further away an electron is from the nucleus, the more it is available to be shared or appropriated. Electron sharing and exchange, molecular formations are governed by laws of particle-physics that determine transformational outcomes.

Because of quantum-electric nature, the inherency/ coherency of subatomic particles are of a kind as molecular substance sensitivity and reactivity. Vibration, resonance, radiation are wave-characteristic of quantum-electric energy; frequency and intensity of waves vary and qualify differently the structures and potentials of molecules.

Einstein's E in his equation can be understood as the sum total of all cosmic energy as it is disposed throughout the universe, as dark energy and light (wave) energy, quantum-differentiated in molecules. His M is matter, substance-energy; his BLDBLD² is tension-energy tied in quantum-substance. (The BLDBLD is the first letter of the Latin word "Celeritas", meaning swiftness, speed, as in the "speed of light".) The substances of the universe, molecular structures, are inherently/ coherently charged systems of electrical potential.

What is different about living creatures is that their inherent/ coherent energy is not only "intensional" but also "intentional", that is, capable of sensation and response in anticipation of outcomes, what is "mindfulness". Self-reflective consciousness is capable of acting in self-interest. What is unique about human beings is the self-sense of personal/ social interest, which, while it is of a piece with cosmic substantiation, can, within the laws of nature, choose roles in other relationships which may or may not be sustainable.

The above is a round-about way of getting to a real and really important truth: if we believe in Intelligent Design in nature, in Divine Instance (presence) in the cosmos, then we must believe in the sacred grace of natural dependency, the Eucharistic Grace of natural economy.

The economics of ecology is Natural Eucharist, the basis for natural connection. By our fidelity to Natural Law we affirm Eucharist, memorialize the Sacrament of Natural Order and raise consciousness. Intelligence compels conscience.

3. The Science of Conscious Light

God communicates by creating. We are "Godlike" when we are creative, for creation is "intensionally" bonded and inventive. In learning about God, about Creation, about personal potentials, we learn about intentional creation, invention; in this we have only just begun.

Albert Einstein's lasting contribution to cultures for all times, specifically, to religion for all times, is his mind-changing insight that all substance, including conscious life, are constructs of light, what is also the energy complex (soul) defining the unique "spirituality" of substance. This insight seems so significant that it may come to be recognized as the beginning of Postmodernity, Second Enlightenment.

The science of conscious light calls for an adequate "philosophy of conscious light" upon which might be edified a consensus on religion and civility. What this writing seeks to do is to advance an awareness of the religious meaning of "intentional light" — Second Enlightenment, and the essential insights of organic relationship and self-reflectivity.

Religious traditions customarily link life and light with insights of divine creativity. In contemporary understanding self-reflectivity is harmonic, transmissible, transformational and driven by responsiveness to Word-Light-Love.

The process of Trinity, the harmony of Word-Light-Love, is the ongoing process of illuminating the human person. In the face of life's ambiguities, choices in the process of coming to harmony are not always transparent. Reason and faith are conflicted in their competition to accommodate self-reflectivity with nature. But perhaps now, with the greater convergence of knowledge and experience-based intuition (faith), conflicted consciousness can become more settled.

The thing about conflicted consciousness is that it registers in all facets of human relationships and gives rise to ideological conflicts that unsettle individuals, families, communities and nations. The price of ideological conflict throughout history is tallied in the consequences of interpersonal and societal conflict. The corruptive and wasteful outcomes of the many and continuing conflicts are now universal catastrophes, especially destructive to the fragile webs of global flora and fauna upon which humankind and all life depend.

Now is already too late to rescue some valued relationships and life-forms. Serious common effort is needed to stay the tide of self-undoing and global havoc.

4. Only Just Begun

There is something about fathers, mothers and their first child. Somehow the trials and urgencies of first parenting get unloaded on the first child; and somehow younger siblings get the idea that parents give the oldest child preferential treatment — even as the oldest child thinks she's the one being "dumped on". Both points of view are probably true.

Our first child Monica received the "preferential treatment" of being "dumped on". Through the years she submissively, if sometimes grudgingly, read my writings and talked with me about them. I still admire her artistry, sense of poetry, and quickness of mind.

From time to time I suggested to her that she should write. But she was very good at not letting me push her harder than she allowed; she would say, "I haven't earned the right to write yet." Of course, as a father who thought otherwise, I'd say, "You earn the right by writing". And so it went, and so it goes, I suppose.

From hindsight I better understand now what she was telling me, that my writing was unfinished. She reversed on me what I was trying to put on her; she would say, "You have a lot of writing to do, Dad." She is right, and so I write. After fifty years, I'm beginning to question myself if I have yet earned the right to write. Even though I write I'm not as bold about my ideas and words anymore. Everything has become more fluid. I found the harder I tried the less satisfied I was with what I wrote. So I stopped forcing myself; instead I collected things in my mind and let them marinate in the amniotic waters of consciousness until they matured on their own.

I talk more now to my daughter Monica, who has ultimately earned the right to write. I tell her now "Your work is just begun; I will write what you tell me to write." So now I wait ... for ideas and words to come to me, and when they do, I write. Sometimes I believe that it isn't really me writing but deep intuitional nature seeking exposure through me. I think this is what natural consciousness expects from all of us—to open ourselves to be conduits of understanding to one another. Dear reader, your work, your journey is just begun. Kindle the powers of your soul and let your light shine, and let divine intuition shine through you.

Faith information is wisdom, the unfolding mindfulness of life. It begins with trust and flourishes in trust. Mindfulness weaves hard-earned experience into memory-webs. The enduring lessons of experience are self-renewing complexes of emotional/ rational intelligence, what is enlightenment, "gnosis".

The tides of change wash away the obsolete and reveal new certainties that arise with new experience. The wells of amniotic consciousness treasure wisdom, the lessons of pain and joy, and pass them on in baptismal experience. It's what trust and faith do persistently, patiently.

5. On Being Less Than Fully Human

To be fully human is to affect in one's lifetime the convergence of faith and reason and to emerge ever renewed.

While knowing past dynamics may be enlightening to the way forward, more to the point perhaps is coming to know the conscionable necessities of authentic living. Faith and reason mutually inform us in these matters.

Humankind, personally and communally, is conditioned by nature (genetics) and by culture (nurture). Going forward, we know that we condition the future (genetics and memetics) by the way we correlate with each other and nature.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is for Christians the Way, the Truth and the Life (Light). Faith and reason together compel us to conscionable behavior, to love's symbiotic fidelity.

The "Naturalis Sacramentum Ordinis" is "sign" and "grace", nature and nurture, intention and intuition. Reason tells us, "grace supposes nature", i.e., culture supposes nature; and faith tells us "nature supposes grace", i.e., nature supposes culture.

The fullness of Sacramental living requires the reciprocation of sign/ grace, nature/ nurture, reason/ faith, and intention/ intuition. Faith needs reason, reason needs faith; intuition needs intention, intention needs intuition; religion needs science, science needs religion. Faith's motive of love supposes reason's motive of symbiosis; reason's motive of symbiosis supposes faith's motive of love.

Intentional consciousness (conscience) is a two-cylinder engine. When only one cylinder fires, life comes to fulfillment with greater difficulty. To be fully human means to enable faith (belief) with reason (knowledge), and to enable reason with faith. Human living lacks full integration if/ when faith demeans reason and reason demeans faith.

Rationalism (First Enlightenment) eschews fideism (imperially imposed belief) and fideism (imperial belief) eschews rationalism. Second Enlightenment (conscionable rationality, rational conscience) eschews both rationalism and fideism in favor of faith's and reason's mutuality.

6. What is Enlightenment? What is Religion?

Background: in conjunction with and after the Thirty Years Wars of Religions (1618-1648), faith and reason were set against each other and were irreconcilably divided; on the one side Imperial Religion, on the other, Scientific Enlightenment. We experience the consequences of their schism, namely, in the continuing mean-mindedness of fideistic religion and rationalistic science toward each other in our time. Vatican II pointed to the way out from under the heavy load of cultured angst — and that is by updating and evaluating failures of faith/ reason, the causes of their division, and updating and reconciling consciousness in light of the mutual necessities of faith and reason.

In pursuing truth, wellbeing, Enlightenment and Religion find common ground. Universal (catholic) religion is a universal calling—a vocation. The universal call for every person, for every community is to become Godlike, i.e., to be harmonious (symbiotic) in all relationships.

How do we become Godlike? By owning Godlike virtues, FAITH (fidelity); HOPE (confidence in things unknown); LOVE (altruism, self-donation, Eucharist). The opportunity for exercising these is present in every waking hour.

In Christian tradition, for example, God is WORD (the Trustful Communicator); God is LIGHT (informed in all things); and God is LOVE (Total Self-Donation, Eucharist). By TRIMORPHIC RESONANCE, by trustful communication, by informed consciousness, and by altruistic conscience, we grow into Godlikeness, moment-by-moment, day-by-day.

For Christians, Godlikeness is THE NEW DISPENSATION! Not an institutional ideology, but personal quest of the Way, the Truth, and the Life, as nature equips consciousness to enter into Divine Presence, into harmonious relationship, the HYPOSTASIS of divinity/ humanity in Natural Ascendancy, in Natural Sacrament.

By individual coming to Godlikeness, by owning "trimorphic resonance", i.e., by trustful communication, by informed consciousness and altruistic conscience, Enlightenment and Religion, reason and faith accommodate in us personally, communally.

Nature equips us to grow out of small-world culture and closed faith ideology by opening us to our commonalities and individualities; by their accommodation, Enlightenment and Religion affirm consciousness and symbiotic purpose. Symbiotic living is based on the realization that belief and reason, faith and science, and religion and civility are inseparably essential to each other in the joined unfolding (evolution) of religious, civil behavior.

In short, we need to recognize the essential supposition of faith and reason in nature (primary scripture), and update our worldview from the informed insights of quantum-electric consciousness so we discover continuity in the new "analysis and synthesis" called for by Vatican II.

There are a lot more questions that need asking and answering. The many centuries of neglected updating have put us in a nearly overwhelmed circumstance, but neglect to deal with them now is not an option because the outcome of neglect is too high a price to pay. It's going to take a lot of serious and committed effort.

7. Emergent Creation and Symbiotic Evolution

To our introverted way of thinking, humankind is the highest perfection of symbiotic evolution. The question is whether humankind can survive its own intelligence and stop the lethal degradation of Earth-life. The continued sustainability of human life and web-life is the life-and-death issue of this time, of all time. Religious fixation, presumptions of exclusive divine election and wars for dominion and control feed the global violence that puts the sustainability of complex life at risk. We must ask ourselves "what changes of consciousness need to happen if we would desist from self-destructive violence?"

(Continues...)

Excerpted from GREEN RELIGIONby Sylvester L. Steffen Copyright © 2010 by Sylvester L. Steffen. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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