Leaving the Kiddie Table

New Thought Christianity: Full Participation in Theological Adulthood

(From an e-mail Reply to one of my D.Min. advisors.)

Your comments are quite helpful; thank you for taking the time to think about this project and giving a measure of your wisdom about how to make it work better. My intentions in designing Lyceum and the Unity Institute Journal of Theology (UIJT) are twofold, and both purposes are frankly subversive.

First, “to produce an ongoing theological journal that can bring Unity into dialogue with the wider world of Christian thought.”

When contemplating this project (UIJT), the image of Thanksgiving dinner comes to mind. While the whole family gathers for the feast and shares a general blessing, adults often sit around a large table while the children with their specialized menu--no wine goblets, light on vegetables, de-crusted white bread, extra sweets--sit at an adjacent table with other kids. The kiddie table(s) might have mixed ages, some just old enough to hold a fork safely, others at the teen years along the leading edge of adulthood. While this latter age group is mortified to be with the little kids—teens often consider themselves more mature than their parents, let alone younger siblings—nevertheless, they still prefer the youth-friendly menu items and are not eager to sit beside Aunt Bertha, who will expect them to at least try her cheese-covered Brussels sprouts.

Okay, I had fun with that image. Not very theological, but I think it makes a point: When it comes to the wider Christian family, Unity is not unlike that fourteen year old at the kiddie table. We have a fairly sophisticated concept of ministry, a deep and powerful understanding of prayer and spirituality which is recognized world-wide through the publication of Daily Word magazine and the millions of calls annually to Silent Unity’s Telephone Prayer Ministry (TPM); we have a worldwide network of churches and study groups where people actually attend classes during the week (often organized on their own impetus) to pursue personal spiritual growth, and a history which traces its origins back through Emerson and Hegel to mystics and delightfully heretical thinkers like Meister Eckhart, Pelagius, and Origen. We have a whole art gallery of spiritual techniques, including centering prayer, affirmative prayer, Ignatian-style guided imagery, and meditation in the Silence. The problem with Unity in its current state is that less than one Unity minister in a hundred would understand those historical references and fewer still would have any idea about how to reflect theologically on what those teachers and mystics said. We are too savvy in the practice of spiritually to be this information poor about the ideas which support praxis. We need theology like a long-haul camel needs an Oasis.

To return to my original metaphor, I believe that Unity needs to grow up and move to the big people's table. I hope the Lyceum and UITJ will help us transition to full membership in the wider Christian community and the world of religious thought. When we move from the kiddie table to the adult dining room, we need to leave the picture books of pop-fad spirituality and grab a volume of Tillich, Moltmann, or Rosemary Radford Reuther.

Second, the window looks both ways. I also believe the wider world of religious thought has much to gain from embracing Unity as an adult member. (See above on spiritual gifts we have been sharing for over a century.) So, as well as subverting Unity’s self-imposed, extended adolescence by offering opportunities for theological dialogue with thinkers beyond what I call the New Thought compound, I see the possibility for Unity’s ideas to extend their influence into the wider community as these principles, beliefs, practices and insights are explored and expressed through the tools of theological inquiry.

Additional thought, not in the actual e-mail: The results of this two-way communication might truly change the world, one person at a time...