Religion is not about accepting twenty impossible propositions before breakfast, but about doing things that change you. It is a moral aesthetic, an ethical alchemy. If you behave in a certain way, you will be transformed. The myths and laws of religion are not true because they conform to some metaphysical, scientific, or historical reality but because they are life enhancing. They tell you how human nature functions, but you will not discover their truth unless you apply these myths and doctrines to your own life and put them into practice. The myths of the hero, for example, are not meant to give us historical information about Prometheus or Achilles — or for that matter, about Jesus or the Buddha. Their purpose is to compel us to act in such a way that we bring out our own heroic potential.
–Karen Armstrong, The Spiral Staircase
A Mindful Life / Kathryn Harper
express : discover : renew : create
What an illuminating quote!
Oh yeah, may I steal it for my blog?
This is one of the best descriptions I’ve seen. I’ve been trying to write something up that would explain to a curious friend of mine how an intense scientific world-view can coexist with a strong religious faith, and the best analogy I can really come up with is the difference between technique and aesthetics in looking at art — in the same way that no writing class can give you inspiration that you don’t already have, nor a painting class generate vision, science may be a good description of the world but say nothing to what gives it meaning. This brief quote distills much of my mullings wonderfully…
thanks!
Michael, sure!
ACM — I highly recommend the entire book. She’s an exceptional thinker and writer.
How I wish I could have said this, though I must admit these thoughts certainly do guide the way I live. I’ll have to look up this author and book. I’m not familiar with it.
That might be the purpose of religion, but not the purpose of faith by which one has a relationship, or believes to have a relationship, with the Divine Being. That relationship is an interactional and transformational experience not grounded in the drama of acting out a mythology, but in interacting with God spiritually and intellectually.