Religious Tradition Manifesto
How do we create powerful religious communities that are inter-generationally persistent? More generally, how do we create powerful persistent cultures?
The key question here centers around persistence. Yet we do not want mere persistence, nor persistence at any cost, but the persistence of things we value. For me, that includes things like compassion, rationality, pragmatism, particular historical narratives, certain aesthetics, and so on. Others will have different things that feel like primary concerns.
Cultures can be classified as follows:
1. Unaware
These cultures are not aware of their own history, or not conscious of it as a guiding force. These cultures tend to "live in the moment", and adapt reactively to the current environment—whether by absorbing surrounding values or rejecting them. Even if they reject surrounding values, they will tend to adopt the questions or framing that give shape to those values. The combined effect is that these cultures will tend to mutate quickly, eventually losing their core reason for being. To the extent they think about their history, they may imagine that they have not changed at all. They may think they merely interpret the Bible, or follow some particular standard—not realizing that their interpretation of those things has changed radically over a relatively short period of time.
2. Traditionalist
These cultures treat history like an authority to obey. These cultures tend to "live in the past", and have trouble adapting to the current environment. If they are truly rooted in a deep tradition, they may be able to avoid widespread mistakes in the surrounding culture. By the same token, they may be late to powerful opportunities.
3. Rationalist
These cultures treat history like an ongoing process of learning. These cultures tend to “live in the future”, which really means that they hold an expanded awareness of time, stretching from past to future, including the change, trajectory, and potential destinations such a history suggests. They recognize the past as a history of successes and failures, to be mined for understanding. They recognize tradition (that which has persisted to their own time) as an accumulation of successes, to be studied and theorized about. They recognize their own tradition (that is, the unique perspective and values they hold because they are located in their place and time) as a valuable vantage point. Because they must stand somewhere, they recognize the contingency of their position, but also recognize its unique value. Because they are aware of where they stand, they can use this vantage point to reason.