True religion is not about possessing the truth. No religion does that. It is rather an invitation into a journey that leads one toward the mystery of God. Idolatry is religion pretending that it has all the answers.
Interpretation
True religion is about the journey towards understanding rather than claiming to have all the answers.
This quote by John Shelby Spong emphasizes that religion should not be viewed as a possession of the absolute truth, but rather as a personal and spiritual journey towards the unknown aspects of divinity. It critiques idolatry as the misguided belief that any faith system can fully encapsulate or claim to have all the answers regarding the nature of God and existence, urging followers to embrace the mystery and exploration inherent in spiritual practice.
In practice
During a spiritual retreat, one might quote this to highlight the importance of exploring faith.
When I grew up in the South, I was taught that segregation was the will of God, and the Bible was quoted to prove it. I was taught that women were by nature in inferior to men, and the Bible was quoted to prove it. I was taught that it was okay to hate other religions, and especially the Jews, and the Bible was quoted to prove it.
The church is like a swimming pool. Most of the noise comes from the shallow end.
Christianity is not about the divine becoming human so much as it is about the human becoming divine. That is a paradigm shift of the first order.
I would like the church to be a place where the questions of people are honored rather than a place where we have all the answers. The church has to get out of propaganda. The future will involve us in more interfaith dialogue. ... We cannot say we have the only truth.
It appears to be in the nature of religion itself to be prejudiced against those who are different.
The cross reveals that we're called to a deeper, fuller experience of what it means to be alive and open to new dimensions of life which our religious boundaries - creeds, atonement theologies - have kept us from experiencing.
If Lacan presumes that female homosexuality issues from a disappointed heterosexuality, as observation is said to show, could it not be equally clear to the observer that heterosexuality issues from a disappointed homosexuality?
The Buddha, the Godhead, resides quite as comfortably in the circuits of a digital computer or the gears of a cycle transmission as he does at the top of a mountain or in the petals of a flower. To think otherwise is to demean the Buddha - which is to demean oneself.
The sick do not ask if the hand that smoothes their pillow is pure, nor the dying care if the lips that touch their brow have known the kiss of sin.
The more isolated a person is, the more destructive will be the power of sin over him, and the more deeply he becomes involved in it, the more disastrous is his isolation.
Whitney wanted to eradicate the idea that in the case of a language we are dealing with a natural faculty; in fact, social institutions stand opposed to natural institutions.
Though thousand times a thousand in battle one may conquer, yet should one conquer just oneself, one is the greatest conqueror.
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