Better Religion: A Primer for Interreligious Peacebuilding (John D. Barton) - A Review
It is
often said by critics that religion fosters intolerance, bigotry, and violence.
There is some truth to the accusations. Religion has been used and is being
used to foster nationalism and provide cover for wars of aggression. Defenders
of religion will respond by pointing out that religions have also fostered
compassion and articulated calls for peace. The truth is, it's something of a
mixed bag. The Scriptures that I hold to be sacred can espouse both violence against
enemies of God and the people as well as those who sin and call the people of
God to love one’s neighbor and even one’s enemies. God seems to be the author
of both emphases. It would seem that we who make up the religious communities
have choices to make and many of those choices are rooted in theology. Since
religions can be used to exclude and include, and engage in violence as well as
compassion, how might people of different faith traditions overcome barriers
designed to keep them separate to pursue peace on earth and goodwill without
watering down their faith commitments? That is the question we who are faithful
and devout have faced throughout history, but it has become even more acute
today as our world becomes “smaller” and we are more likely to interact with
people whose theologies and faith practices are different from our own.
Those
of us who are committed to finding pathways to peace often look for sources of
wisdom that can guide us along this path. One of these sources of wisdom is
John Barton’s book Better Religion: A Primer for Interreligious Peacebuilding. Barton brings to this question his own experiences as a
missionary in Uganda and his teaching career both at Rochester University in
Michigan and now at Pepperdine University in California. Barton currently serves
as a Professor of Teaching in the Religion and Philosophy division at
Pepperdine as well as serving as the director of the Pepperdine Center for
Faith and Learning. Before going to Pepperdine, he served as the provost and professor
of Philosophy at Rochester University. It is while he was at Rochester
University that I got to know him. His
interest in interreligious issues first developed during his tenure in Uganda
and was further expanded during his time in Michigan, which has a very diverse
religious population. That experience included his co-teaching with a Muslim
scholar and another colleague in a course focusing on Muslim-Christian, which
led to his to create the Pepperdine Center for Faith and Learning.
While Better Religion isn't a lengthy book, I believe that it will prove to be an important
one. That’s because in this book Barton provides the foundation for diagnosing
the nature of religious differences and the potential for diverse religions to
engage in peacebuilding. It should be understood that this is not an
introduction to world religions. One would be well served to first read an
introduction to world religions if one does not have a familiarity with the
diversity of traditions. What Barton does here is offer us "a toolbox of
resources for thinking about religion in the twenty-first century and imagining
the prospects for peacebuilding across even the most challenging of religious
differences" (p. xi).
This
book is enriched by the many important relationships that Barton has developed
through the years that cross religious lines. As a result of having these
relationships, he has been able to participate in religious peacebuilding
efforts. One thing he wants to convey here is that one need not give up or
downplay one's religious beliefs or values to engage in dialog and peacebuilding
efforts. As a result, there is a lot of symmetry between what he is doing here
and what Eboo Patel has been doing in his writing and community-building
efforts. Barton draws on a wide assortment of resources to develop his vision,
including the work of Miroslav Volf. What Barton wants to make clear is that
religious disagreements need not be minimized or set aside for us to
collaborate in building peace in the world. However, to get to that place where
we can hold in proper tension both our religious commitments and our
commitments to peace, we’ll need to define both the words religion and peace.
Barton
divides Better Religion into two parts or sections. Part 1 offers
"An Aerial View of Religion" in four chapters. Here he lays out what
it means to move "Toward Religion's 'Better'" (chapter 1). Then he works on "Setting Coordinates for
Hope" (chapter 2), followed by chapters that describe religion (chapter 3)
and observe religion (chapter 4). This last chapter in part one focuses on global
religious trends.
In Part
2 Barton examines "The Geography of Dissonance and Peace." Whereas
Part One offers an “aerial view” of the religious landscape, in part two,
Barton takes a more localized view of the religious geography and its potential
for interreligious peacebuilding. The focus here is not just on physical
locations, but more importantly “the interactions between people,
places, and ecosystems, and the meanings attached to those interactions”
(p. 71). With that in mind, Barton offers us four chapters that focus on religious
identity (chapter 5), religious agency (chapter 6), religious similarity
(chapter 7), and "dissonance and peace" (chapter 8).
Returning
to Part One of the book, Barton invites us to imagine ourselves on the
International Space Station looking down at the earth. This is the aerial view
he speaks of, and as such it offers a macro-level look at religion. He is
seeking to lay out the broad patterns of human religious life while seeking to
minimize essentialism.
In the
first chapter of this section, Barton suggests that the fate of the world is
linked to religious life and activity. He pushes back against the suggestion
that religion is on the decline, arguing that the relevance of religion in the
world is actually on the increase (ignoring this reality is failing to
recognize what is going on in the world). So, if our future as a world is
impacted by religious forces, then we must work toward creating better religions
that can provide the foundation for peace in this world. He points to the
importance of religion in providing great numbers of humans with a sense of
meaning and purpose. Having laid out the reasons why he believes religion
provides a foundation for meaning and purpose, Barton turns in chapter 2 to
setting "coordinates for hope." In many ways what Barton does here is
aspirational. As such, he confesses that he's not optimistic about the project’s
success due to the steady stream of bad news when it comes to religion.
Nevertheless, he has hope that the project succeeds. He wants us to know that
there is a difference between belief and hope, for hope is rooted in the promises
of God. Barton sees these promises as providing an invitation to participate in
peacemaking efforts.
One of
the elements Barton draws on is here the contrast between thin religion, which
allows itself to be hijacked by ingroup agendas, and thick religion, which
offers "expansive moral visions that transcend in-group politics, and it
provides powerful motivations and resources for intergroup peacemaking, genuine
kindness, and concern for strangers and even enemies." (p. 31). He
believes that the thick form of our various religions provides overlapping
elements that lay the foundation for peacebuilding. With this distinction
between belief and hope in mind, how should we define religion? He seeks to
answer that question in chapter three, where he provides definitions, so we
know what we're talking about going forward. In this chapter, he not only defines
religion but also peace. To this point, John has laid out the foundations for
what is to come. Then in chapter 4, where he offers further observations on
religion, focusing on the statistics and demographics of religion. Here he
highlights the complexity of religion, including noting where it's growing and
declining. Perhaps, as he suggests the reality here is not that religion is
declining, but that religious consensus is declining, such that we're seeing a
cacophony of new beliefs and practices and communities.
In part
2, Barton looks at what he calls the "Geography of Dissonance and
Peace." As we noted earlier, here Barton focuses on not only locations but
also interactions between people, places, and ecosystems, along with the
"meanings attached to those interactions." What he offers here is a
series of "conceptual maps" using analogies between physical and
conceptual landscapes. He begins this section in chapter 5, which is titled
"Silos, Sheilas, and Sets," laying out ways of understanding
religious identity. When he speaks of religious silos, he is referring to the
tendency to focus on individual religious systems in isolation from other
religious systems. Some of this is natural in that we distinguish religious
communities from each other. Thus, we can speak in terms of world religions,
especially the big five (Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam).
When we begin this process, however, where do we stop? We might ask about all
the others such as Sikhism, Jainism, and many others. Sociologists have also
begun to speak of what has come to be called the Sheila model of religion.
Robert Bellah introduced this model by using the way one person, whom he calls
Sheila, spoke of her cafeteria-style religion as Sheilaism. I think many of us
have encountered people who have embraced radical individualism when it comes
to religion. Barton suggests that we might find a more suitable model of
religious life in the anthropological concept of centered sets to identify
religious families. Barton makes use of the work of former Fuller Seminary
professor and missionary Paul Hiebert’s work by speaking of three kinds of
sets—bounded, fuzzy, and centered—to organize religious identity. In reality, all
three models have value in understanding how religion functions in our world,
but the idea of religious sets does seem to have value for what Barton wants to
accomplish.
After
looking at the question of religious identity in chapter five, which I must say
is an important chapter, we move to chapter six, where Barton speaks of religious
agency in terms of "Magnets, Markets, and Fields." Here he focuses on
how religious identities are formed and the roles they play in social
conditioning and personal agency. The idea here is that religions serve as
magnets, drawing people together, and as marketplaces (here he speaks of the
connection of religious consumers to religious goods, as well as suppliers). As
for the religious fields, these are spaces that religions inhabit, and as such
religions have distinctive jargon, rules, and practices. Having laid out ways
in which religious agency functions, Barton addresses the relationship of
religious similarities to collaboration. If we are to collaborate across
religious lines, even if our religions are quite different, we will want to
know if and where there is overlap so that conversation can take place. But
what is the nature of that similarity? One answer to that question is known as perennialism.
This is a view of religious similarity that assumes that despite differences in
form, all religions spring from the same spiritual essence. That vision is
often spoken of in terms of there being "many paths, one mountain."
In other words, since religions are all going toward the same goal, though from
different starting points, we can look to the goal as the place of overlap. To
do this, participants in such collaboration will want to separate the essentials
from the nonessentials. The problem is, it’s the “nonessentials that make a
religious tradition distinctive.” So, can we truly separate out the essentials
and let go of the nonessentials without undermining the religious traditions we
inhabit? In other words, must we set aside our distinctives if we’re going to cooperate
and build peace? Barton offers us a helpful critique of that vision, while at the
same time acknowledging the possibility that there are universals that are
present in most of our religious traditions that can provide the foundation for
cooperation. One of those similarities is found in the prevalence of something
akin to the Golden Rule. That rule is a key element in our efforts of working
together toward peace.
Finally,
we come to chapter eight, which Barton titles "Bubbles, Bombs, and Bridges.”
In this chapter, Barton brings to a close the conversation about the reality of
religious dissonance and the possibility of collaboration toward creating peace
in the world. In this chapter, Barton draws together his thoughts on what
divides and what unites us when it comes to religion. It’s important to
remember, as Barton reminds us, what unites us isn't always good and what
divides us isn't always bad. That is, humans tend to unite around very bad
things. Consider the defenses of slavery by Christian theologians in the
nineteenth century (unfortunately, even today there are theologians, wishing to
defend biblical inerrancy, that defend slavery). Political movements can unite
for good or for bad purposes, and the same is true of religions. We see this
present in different forms of religious nationalism. In this chapter, Barton
wants to provide a practical set of tools that will allow us to pursue
collaboration. Thus, he provides us with several diagnostic models so that we
can look at how religions address human questions. One of those models is to
speak of organizing religions into sets using the image of mountain ranges.
With this in mind, we might speak of three mountain ranges (families): Indian
Religions, Abrahamic religions, and Primary religions. We might even add to
this conversation a naturalistic/secularist range. Thus, instead of religious
silos, we can envision sets of religious families that share similar roots and
understandings. Thus, the Indian mountain range would include Hinduism,
Jainism, Buddhism, and possibly Sikhism (though it also has connections to the
Abrahamic religions). The Abrahamic family would include Christianity, Judaism,
and Islam, as well as perhaps Bahai. Primary religions might include Native
American or African spiritual traditions. Here again, he brings into the
conversation the Golden Rule as a way of organizing the conversation toward
peacebuilding.
As I
noted at the top, I believe this is an important resource for those of us who
seek to build relationships across religious lines. Living in our silos is not
helpful in an increasingly pluralistic world. As one who has been actively
involved in interfaith work and who counts among my closest friends members of
very different faith communities from Islam to Hinduism, I believe that
Barton’s book Better Religion will serve not only as a primer but the
foundation for important conversations that can lead to more collaboration in
the pursuit of peace. Once again Barton doesn’t provide us with a book that covers
every element of the process in complete detail. It’s not a how-to manual, but
it points us in the right direction. It provides a set of tools that can help
us move toward a greater understanding of one another and cooperation with one
another without jettisoning the distinctives of our faith traditions. I want to
close this review by returning to Barton’s distinction between optimism and
hope. I think that this is an important distinction because right now there is
not a lot of cause for optimism, but that doesn’t mean there is no room for
hope. If we are to see this hope fulfilled, we’ll need to let go of thin religion
that allows itself to be hijacked and embrace thick religion that
“leverages their own distinct resources for interreligious peace. It needs
religious activism that builds bridges across chasms of difference and
mobilizes human capacities for compassionate empathy and altruistic love” (p.
36). This is the key to the hope that is rooted in a Better Religion. John
Barton offers us in this book a primer that will help us get to that place.
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