The Interfaith Union for Progressive Religion

Weaving a Faith in Modernity

by David E. McClean
Founder & Director

Modernity is a phase in world history and consciousness in which a crass materialism, commercialism and "pragmatism" rule. It takes the problems of existence as limited to only the needs and comforts of the body, because it understands the body in only crass quotidian terms. Modernity objectifies the body. Thus, art, poetry and spirituality are relegated to those things that are to be pursued only in one's spare time - to where we are to always relegate the "less serious" activities and interests. It dismisses any appeal to anything but "facts" and "data" and a narrow notion of "reason" as guides for living. It worships science and technology and business as idols. It looks down upon religion as infantile (Sigmund Freud, Richard Dawkins and others), calling up as evidence for its case religion's literalisms and fantastic stories as though they were the heart of religion and not merely the portals to religion's more important messages. In modernity, religion is thought to answer to a "mere" psychological need for protection from the storms of life, from the uncertainties of time and chance. And on that basis, religion, by modernity's lights, must be rejected as retrograde, as a hinderance to human flourishing, as the pursuit of unintelligent and unenlightened people.

Modernity misses the vital element that is common to all religious experience - the belief that what we think and what we know is but a sliver of a far grander reality which, in most traditions, has been labeled the divine, or just God.  Its view of reason as calculation misses the point that there are deep mystical and emotional elements that are part and parcel of reason, as properly understood.

The purpose of The Interfaith Union^sm ("IU") is to create a forum in which religious, mystical and philosophical ideas from the various faith traditions can be bridged so that common languages, in the service of God and humanity, can be forged and used. The IU does not celebrate all faiths as they are, uncritically, but endeavors to extract those ideas that help increase a sense of personal peace and greater love in the world, while fostering hope and enhancing life.  The IU is commited to the view that, as indicated in the Gospel of Thomas and other important religious writings, we need to transform and transcend ourselves in the direction of love - to engage in personal jihad as our Muslim brothers and sisters tell us, and to endeavor, daily, to "walk" with God as the prophet Micah urged. In addition, the IU is committed to the idea that we must learn to expand our circle of loyalty to include others beside those in our own nations, communities and families.

The IU serves as a clearing house of ideas and information for and between progressive people of faith. Heavily influenced by its founder’s commitment to  liberal religion, the IU has no dogmatic commitments but promotes two ideas that are complementary: Transcendence and Radical Love – two ideas foreign to few traditions.

Transcendence

Transcendence is the intuition that we are not meant to be separated from the rest of the natural world or from each other by hard barriers, which barriers include philosophies, ideologies, religious dogma, nationalisms and other social constructs. Secular philosophers of recent times have warned of the dangers of these barriers. These include Herbert Marcuse, John Dewey and Richard Rorty, to name but a few. For people of faith, Transcendence is our felt connection to God, to other people as well as to the world of non-human creation, not in a superficial way, but in a manner that carries with it deep insight, a deep intuition that compels us to transformative practices and acts of love in our families, in our communities and in the world in general. It understands "God" and similar words for the "Ground of Being" to be the best that we can do with our language to direct us toward that which is the Source of our lives, and which summons us to utter transformation that we may live more fully in the world, despite the tragedies and afflictions of life. Intuiting transcendence means intuiting our need for re-connection (reconciliation) with God, with our brothers and sisters, and with all of nature – not merely sentimentally, but in a way that affects our mundane choices. The idea borrows from such diverse sources as Rumi and Sufism, St. Francis, the Dalai Lama, Gnosticism, Schleiermacher, Buddhism, Thoreau, Emerson, and Thomas Merton who, removed from the walls of his Trappist monastery in Kentucky, found himself at 4th and Walnut, in Louisville, pondering the expressions of passers-by and knowing that he loved all whom he saw, and that he was part of them all, and they part of him:

Achieving the intuition of Transcendence is not the result of a mere intellectual or professional pursuit, but involves the whole heart, the whole mind, and the whole body, just as the greatest spiritual leaders have always taught us.

Radical Love

Radical Love is the belief that the phrase ‘God is Love’ means that to love is to be as close to God as is possible, as God is equated with Love – the constant pursuit of Wholeness through the integration of thought, passion, hope and faith. Love must be acted out in the world of human beings. The word "Radical" is chosen because etymologically it derives from the Latin word for "root." Radical Love proffers that love is the root ethical virtue of human engagement and interaction, that component often missing from secular moral philosophy which is overly committed to hair-splitting rational analysis for professional consumption. It proffers that there are mystical dimensions of love that can only be understood if we dig deeper, and look closer. It is not merely intellectual, but is lived-out and felt. Examples of persons who may be thought of as Radical Lovers are Mohandis Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr.,  Rumi, Mother Teresa, and Jesus. These exemplified a desire to Transcend through radical loving -  that is, caring for the plight and happiness of people wherever they may be, over and beyond boundaries of culture and circumstance. They exemplified a love that transcends mere dedication, commitment or faith to or in a single person, ideology, creed, or institution.

Radical love entails a spiritual practice of experimentation with different ways of loving our neighbor, as well as extending the circle of those we include as our neighbor – of being kind; of discovering the various ways in which we are cruel and standing ready to change those ways; of discovering the ways we have made ourselves socially and emotionally distant from our brothers and sisters around the world (through culture, through dogma, through nationalism, through classism, through sexisms) and working to reduce that distance; of seeing God in the face of all; of seeing the divine dance in the quotidian elements of daily life. It is the great risk of giving and of sacrifice for the good of all, and for the heightened meaning that love brings to living. It is utterly transformative to the self and to society. But, as Rumi would remind us, it is not an intellectual exercise, or an easy path:

The way of love is not

Both Transcendence and Radical Love bid us to engage in active works of social transformation by exercising our moral and political imaginations – thus the full name of the organization, The Interfaith Union for Progressive Religion. The ‘progress-ive’ meant here is the progress of greater care of others, while engaging in the difficult work of transforming ourselves into more loving caretakers. The work requires mindfulness of speech, of our bodies, of our thoughts and of our practices, not in an ascetic way, but simply so as to recreate ourselves each day as better people of love and faith.

While embracing the mytho-poetic power of sacred texts, rituals and iconography, we seek to be ever mindful of the idolatries of such things where care is not taken. As modern people, we employ modern sensibilities, modern knowledge, modern thought, and reasonableness in inquiry. Yet, the IU preserves an important distinction between science and epistemological inquiry concerning the natural world, and the vision, intuition, and decision which attend the life of faith.  

The IU is an additional "space" and vehicle to help engage in self-transformative and socially-transformative spiritual work through practices (such as prayer and meditation), discussion between informed people, exchanges of experiences, and commitment to praxis in venues across the country and in other lands.

Your membership in the IU signals a commitment to use the tools provided by it, and to share your own experiences and insights with others through the communicative channels of the world wide web, in places of worship, and through seminars and other venues for learning and sharing.  Members may be organizations or individuals. There is no fee. To become a member personally, or to become an organizational member, click here.

David E. McClean, is founder of the Interfaith Union ("IU"), and was ordained by the IU, pursuant to its charter, to carry out a public teaching ministry designed to reach those who have turned away from traditional faiths but who retain the "hunger" for meaning and connection with God and the spiritual life. Not constrained by traditional organizational academic or religious models, he conducts his ministerial work both through the IU and as a Unitarian Universalist educator and congregational leader. Presently, he teaches social philosophy at Molloy College in New York and at Rutgers University, Newark, NJ.

David obtained his B.A. in comparative religious studies  from the City University of New York's Hunter College. He holds a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies from NYU, with a concentration in philosophy, and a Master of Arts in Philosophy from the New School. He is a former student of The New Seminary, in New York.

While engaged in multiple pursuits, David teaches and lectures in philosophy and religion across the country, and he has taught or lectured in the past at Purdue, University of Southern Maine (Portland), Howard University, Molloy College, Hunter College, The New School, University of Colorado, Rutgers University, University of California at Berkeley and the University of Oregon (Eugene). He preaches regularly at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Central Nassau, in New York, and at other places of worship upon invitation. He is a member of the Board of Directors of ERASE Racism, in Syosset, New York, and he is a member of several philosophical and religious societies, including The TIkkun Community and the Network of Spiritual Progressives.