Learning from people who think differently to us is fundamental to growth as a human being

At the moment I am enjoying listening to Brian McLaren’s book Finding our Way Again which my parents gave me on CD. One of the interesting ideas in the book is what he is calling “spiritual fusion.” As McLaren is looking at what is happening in the Christian world, he sees

“I think that’s part of what’s going on in this time of change and transition. Old sectarian turf wars are giving way to a sharing of resources – heroes, practices, flavours, and styles of practice. And this, in a way, is itself a new practice, namely the sharing of previously proprietary practices. We might say that Christianity is beginning to go “open source.”

Later he says

“As more and more of us open our lives to be sources of inspiration and examples for one another, we begin to seize the unfulfilled promise of the Reformation with its open-source concept of the priesthood of all believers. Similar concepts were affirmed in Vatican II. Its true that not everyone can go to seminary. Not everyone can go live in a monastery. But all of us can wake up to the people around us, whose lives embody – not perfectly, but authentically – practices of the spiritual life. And each one of us can aspire to become an open source of embodied spiritual practices for the benefit of others.”

I find it interesting that McLaren has come under significant fire from some wings of the church for even suggesting that we could learn from other traditions and even other faiths. It seems strange to me that we should feel threatened by people who see the world differently. Like McLaren, my experience is that I need those different perspectives to keep my faith growing and alive. Brian confessed that if he was faced with a choice of staying with and conforming to the very strict Christian tradition he grew up in, or leaving the church, he would almost certainly have left the church.

I love the idea that we as a Christian church are moving forward into a world where we are less territorial and less sure that it’s “our way or the highway.” My own journey has been very much “open source.” I grew up in a Bretheren church, went to an Anglican school and was baptised in the Churches of Christ. When we were in Victoria we went to a Baptist church that we loved, but now we are at a little community church that isn’t actually connected to any denomination.

As I heard McLaren’s words I was reminded of a letter written 1700 years ago by one of the very early fathers of the Christian Church: Basil of Cappadocia. He was writing to a bunch of young students who were wrestling with the question of whether it was possible to learn anything from any other source than the bible. His simple answer was… yes.

Basil’s approach to learning from sources other than the bible, he took from nature:

We should model ourselves on the bees when we participate in these works. They don’t go to all the flowers indiscriminately. And when they do fly to certain ones, they don’t try to carry them off whole. They take only what is useful for their work and leave the rest without a backward glance. In the same way, we, if we are wise, will gather what suits our needs and conforms to the truth, and pass over the rest.

While McLaren was talking about learning from other Christian traditions, Basil was talking about learning even more broadly. He specifically mentioned the poetry of Homer (not Simpson):

“I once heard a man skilled in the interpretation of the thought of the poets say that for Homer poetry is simply an exaltation of virtue. Everything in him, he said, except the merest incidentals, is aimed at that goal. …

Indeed, this is true of practically all the authors with any reputation for wisdom. In little ways or great, each according to his powers, they set themselves in their works to sing the praises of virtue. …

Now, we can learn all of that, no doubt, and in a much more perfect way, in our own Scriptures. But for the moment, at least, a sort of an outline of virtue can be drawn for us by secular teaching. Those who are careful to gather whatever is useful wherever they find it are like great rivers: they find increase after increase coming to them from all sides quite naturally. …”

(you can see Basil’s words for yourself here:

The Non-Fiction section of my bookshelves is pretty evenly divided between Christian and Non-Christian books, and most of the people I respect the most are able to live with one foot in both worlds. I love that some of the world’s leading scientists are people of faith, as well as some of the worlds leading businesspeople, academics and artists. Thats how it should be.

Either God is truth, or he’s not. If He is truth, then we have nothing to fear from any truthful insight, ultimately it will lead back to Him. I’m grateful that Basil was wise enough to give people a few clues on how to engage with secular learning. I’m grateful that Mclaren had the guts to suggest we might be heading in the direction of “open source” faith. Learning from people who think differently to us is fundamental to growth as a human being, and as a disciple of Jesus.