Religious belief is often characterized as being inflexible and closed. The source of the beliefs that give rise to a religious system lies within the interpretation of “sacred” doctrine that in some manner originates in an all powerful being, or God. The doctrine is considered to be an untouchable, while the interpretation of it may be widely varied. The notion behind many religions is to implant a specific set of beliefs into the minds of followers in order to elicit specific kinds of behaviours. If the follower is successful, they are granted some kind of reward in the afterlife; if unsuccessful they are condemned in the afterlife. In this sense, religion is a form of fear-based confinement and mindless conditioning. In Unformed Future Tom Roberts describes the emergence of a third-way, which is focused on changing some of the assumptions behind the construction of a religious system that fundamentally changes how people learn and interact within it.

To talk of an emerging church or emerging Christianity is to speak of something that owes a great deal to tradition but that seeks its shape and bearing in ways not yet formed.

Emergence, an idea at the heart of our ability to learn, is not an idea that would normally be associated with the evolution of religion. To prohibit or prevent emergence is to destroy all chances of learning. Religious practice and belief is usually considered to be a “finished” not an “emerging” product. Unformed Future, however, describe the early emergence of a religious practice that does not lay claim to having all the answers. Franciscan Fr. Richard Rohr challenges the notion of religion as the enforcement of doctrine:

“I hope whatever emerging Christianity is,” said Franciscan Fr. Richard Rohr, a featured speaker at the conference, “it’s going to be much more practice-based than doctrine-based. Where has this obsession with believing correct doctrines gotten us?”

An essential perspective within this third way is the practice of contemplation. Contemplation embraces what Rohr refers to as a “respect for not knowing.”The purpose of a religious doctrine is to define specific sets of beliefs that people (the masses) are to adopt, that is, to eliminate “not knowing.” These beliefs in themselves are not typically a basis for contemplation, at least within the confines of religion. Contemplation invites individual perception and exploration of the beliefs being expressed, a process that many religions would oppose.

Religious doctrine also reveals the extent to which we can “know” something yet completely ignore that knowledge within our own actions and behaviours. Merely knowing something, and being able to hold that knowledge within memory, has never been an adequate basis for creating more productive actions and behaviours. Contemplation, in this sense, is viewed as a bridge that would open up a personal dialogue between our actions and behaviours in the spirit of exploration.

“Religious consciousness from the beginning has to have a respect for not knowing, for unknowing. That’s contemplation. That’s the different mind. It is wonderful how broadly and widely and deeply it is being rediscovered.”

Under the mounting pressure of its own inertia, a religious system is eventually forced to evolve. Religion is perhaps the least adaptable and least flexible mode of thought that humanity has ever developed. It is a mercurial phenomenon as well in that it contains within it a vast array of contradictions and deceptions that many people become mired in. It produces both good and evil in the world.

For a religion to embrace contemplation is to lift itself out of its own inertia. Embracing contemplation as a central spiritual practice will reanimate a religion and help it to adopt new and more beneficial lines of development. The essential “practice” in any religion is providing the freedom for each and every participant in it to question and challenge the very assumptions and presuppositions the religion itself rests on.

Learning in the Third Way?

The most essential characteristic for me in the idea of the third way, or emerging Christianity, is the freedom to learn and therefore to establish what truth is on my own terms. Religious doctrine is an object of inquiry, not dogma to be imposed. Contemplation, as a means to embrace and perhaps even prefer a state of not knowing, is an essential element of learning in the third way. This means that what has been taught as truth may no longer serve as truth. Perhaps religion can free itself from the tyranny of the prerequisite, and the seemingly endless rules, procedures and traditions which are largely manufactured, fictitious, and blindly accepted.

The follower of a religion in the third way is encouraged to be a learner, not merely a follower. Learning means freedom to seek the truth, and religion should be an important means to create the conditions for that freedom. However, as we know all to well, religion has acted in the opposite manner and frequently serves to imprison people within a bog of dogma and vacuous procedures. It is only a frail and insecure religious system that intends to prevent its followers from contemplating the core assumptions and beliefs upon which it is built. Instead, religions should embrace and encourage contemplative practices that are open. To contemplate religion means to put it in a constant state of emergence, of growth, and therefore relevance.

Overcoming closed systems of belief that have failed to evolve is one of the greatest obstacles to learning. Transforming a belief system into an open practice that not only permits and encourages the practitioner to explore on their own terms is essential for any form of emergence to succeed within an established religion. This means that each individual is granted the freedom to question the truth and validity of the religion itself. To call this essential freedom to learn sacrilegious is the essence of insecurity.