I just discovered Joseph Barth. His words in ‘Faith and Practice in Unitarian Universalist Churches’ almost prophetic in my personal struggle as educated lay person practicing Unitarian Universalism far from the heady atmosphere of Boston
The dogma of the Free Church is no less tough than the authoritarian, though in one way it is significantly different. The inescapable either-or of it is this: "believe with your life in the testing way of the liberal church or when tested in it you will get out!" In the dogma of the liberal church excommunication is self-imposed
Those who in principle live angrily among us as "silent" or "stay at home," or those who insist on their way, walk out or "resign" from us, have lost the shared faith in the Free Church as instrument for discovering the truths of faith and the sought better way.
What we need to understand is that, if we sacrifice a winnowing of truths for the sake of peace and order in the short run, then, in the long run, we will find we have deserted our trust in discussion and the free church as a way of winnowing specific truths out of falsehood
Becoming an iconoclast in response to the idolatrous interpretations of established faiths may be a necessary stage of development in the growth of an examined faith. If it be the last stage then faith is not grace but an angry emptiness
When the religious institution waters down the life-giving elements of any or all religious faith to the point that faith is defined in a few high-order abstractions like truth, goodness, beauty, reason, freedom and love, etc., those who try to live by such peace-making generalizations are, usually without knowing it, on a starvation diet of faith. At best these are the weak broth of grace
Barth’s words have renewed my hope in a disciplined, religious life in the outposts of Unitarian Universalism.
Nancy
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