Good Questions

By Dr. Thomas Shepherd

Unity House® recently released the new book, Good Questions: Answering Letters From the Edge of Doubt (Good Questions) by Rev. Dr. Thomas Shepherd. This book represents questions and answers drawn from more than 15 years of accumulated letters, notes and e-mails for Shepherd's Q&A column in Unity Magazine®.

As a columnist, Shepherd is known for creatively engaging his readers and prompting them to think critically about their lives, their relationships and the Divine within. The following is an excerpt from Good Questions.
 

Dear Tom: Your column has really made me look closely at some negative feelings I've had about Jesus Christ. Raised in a highly traditional church, I rejected veneration of Jesus and studied other faiths. I have come to honor Jesus as a Way Shower, my Way Shower. Your thought-provoking columns are extremely helpful to this seeker. You bring knowledge, critical thinking and the courage to make tough statements. I especially like the fact that you make no attempt to appear infallible.—P.M., Oroville, California

Dear P.M.: No way could I get away with infallibility; I am a married man. But thanks for your kind words. Critical thinking doesn't mean “criticizing your opponents.” It means thinking clearly, asking good questions, and requiring every idea to pay its own way rather than grant it free access because it comes to us from some sort of authority. I also like your position on Jesus, as best I understand it from your brief letter. Way Shower sounds right to me, because it describes historically and theologically what Jesus has done for the people who have walked his path. We follow Jesus because he knows the path.
Let me add one more point, which is a blind spot for a lot of progressive-thinking people today: Many of us have isolated ourselves from the great new reformation taking place in mainline Protestant and mystical Catholic thinking, to the mutual impoverishment of all players. Spiritual seekers have so many friends in high places, so many allies and fellow seekers on the journey to Christ consciousness, that I would encourage you to explore not just writers you know but to look beyond to spiritual soul mates in the mainstream church. Take a look at outstanding books like Honest to Jesus by Robert Funk, The Heart of Christianity by Marcus Borg, Rescuing the Bible From Fundamentalism by the former Episcopal bishop John Shelby Spong, and Remedial Christianity by Paul Laughlin.

We are not alone in the night. The bright future of progressive Christianity cannot, must not, be constrained by a self-imposed, self-righteous isolation from those who stand near to us in the family of Jesus Christ. And then, as members of that kinship in the Christ, we can reach confidently beyond the circle of Christian faith to the wider family of humanity to explore more Truth and savor the unknown gospels of other traditions.


Dear Tom: Why do you think that God is confined in one religion?—S.I., via Internet

Dear S.I.: Oh, I don't. In fact, one could argue that God reveals Him-/Her-/Itself in differing ways, depending on the needs of the believer. What grows in the desert may not transplant to the seashore; your path up the mountain may take you far astray of my tack. God is the One, but we experience ourselves as many. It's perfectly logical that different kinds of cultures will produce different religions. As I tell my students at Unity Institute, there are no tiger gods where there are no tigers. Listen for the divine roar, and see what symbol of the One Power and One Presence calls to you.


Dear Tom: Astronomers estimate that the Milky Way Galaxy has 300 billion stars and that there are at least 100 billion other galaxies. Astronomers also estimate that the universe is about 13 billion years old. Did God create all that? If not, how did it come into existence?—D.J.P., Iowa City, Iowa

Dear D.J.P.: Cosmology is a bit above my pay grade, but I find one answer to the riddle of existence in the tiger lily, the lovely, trumpet-shaped, speckled orange flower, which greets me along the road to Unity Village every summer day. But hold that thought for a moment. Yes, the cosmos is a mighty big place, but whether it was created or has always existed is still an open question. The fundamental pattern of the universe could be linear (beginning to end) or cyclical (repeating), although the latter would require some kind of renewal once in a while (every few dozen billion years) when the laws of entropy run their course and all energy burns itself out. Would that constitute a new creation?

Anyway this is heady stuff to contemplate, and although I am flattered when asked to explain how the universe came to be, you probably should consult a higher Authority. You may discover the heart of the universe is not so difficult to fathom after all. I don't need astrophysics to appreciate tiger lilies. I have no idea whether someone planted them or if they just sprang from the weeds by an act of natural selection. But they sure are pretty, and that's good enough for me.
 

Thomas Shepherd, D.Min., teaches systematic and metaphysical theology, church history and theological ethics at Unity Institute®. Best known for his popular column “That's a Good Question” in Unity Magazine, Shepherd is also host of the Unity.FM program, Let's Talk About It.