John Hick, Under My Skin

I awoke with a start at 3:48 this morning, thinking about Zen Buddhism, Advaita Vedanta, and a host of other Eastern Religions that don't have "God" at their center--regardless of how much I or John Hick would like to generalize 'God' as the name of the Divine, the Eternal One, or the Other. Clearly, my distinctions are Western Christian ones, too [which still allow me to disavow a "religious" categorization for Scientology, I feel….], that simply don't work when applied globally as a template. And yet, I don't want to give up the distinctions entirely….

The other complicating aspect of distinguishing between a religion, a philosophy, and a psychology is how it does and does not take into account the interplay between beliefs and actions--one's religious 'life in the world' is a key component in all this, too, right? Furthermore, the role of one's larger community should be considered here, too: is there some way in which religions are inherently communal, the way a philosophy and a psychology are not?

More food for thought; now, onward and upward [as my mother says!] to new and different things today.




Kristin Johnston Largen