Integral Christianity Introduction: Exploration and Revelation

In a conversation with the Integralist and philosopher, Ken Wilber, when we were discussing writing, he said to me, “I don’t write to teach people what I know but to understand what I don’t know.” I have found this to be true. The more that I lovingly give myself to a subject, the more it seems to open itself and reveal itself. To paraphrase the great American scientist, George Washington Carver, who, when asked how he had come to discover so many things about so many things, said: “If you give yourself in love to something, it will reveal itself to you.” So, it is my hope, that as we give ourselves to this subject of Integral Christianity, with love, great effort, and prayer, it will open itself up to us.  The whole concept of Integral Christianity is based largely on the work of Ken Wilber and his book Integral Spirituality. But one does not have to be an expert on Ken Wilber’s writings and thinking to dive into this subject.

So, what is Integral Christianity? Integral Christianity is a way of looking at the mysterious subject of Christianity and, of course, its center, Christ, through new lenses and as many lenses as necessary to give us as many perspectives as necessary to have a better, more inspiring, life-redeeming, and healed Christianity that becomes, as John Lennon said, part of the solution and not just part of the problem.

First, a little about me and my background. I had my first major spiritual experience and encounter with Jesus when I was 11 years old. I was reading in a Gideon’s New Testament bible that I’d been given at school, and I started on Matthew Chapter 5, the Sermon on the Mount. When I began to read the Beatitudes, something broke open in me and I felt an immense sense of the presence and the love of God, somehow being transmitted through this man, Jesus, and his words. By this time, I was a confirmed Catholic, church-going, catechism-going, sacrament-taking Catholic, and I had no felt sense of Jesus or God, or anything else along those lines, from my church going. I was not abused, I don’t remember developing any sense of guilt from my Catholic education—I was simply unmoved and bored by the whole process. And then, here I was at 11 years old, ecstatic and confronted by this profound mystery of Love. I had no idea what to do. Interestingly enough, it never entered my mind to ask a priest for guidance. But that was the beginning of my lifelong search for God and true spirituality.

It is a long, long story, with many chapters, but let it suffice to say here that I became very involved in a brand of evangelical Christianity, studied deeply and memorized scriptures for many years, and at the end of that particular period of my life, was hurt, fed up, and ready to launch out on my own in my quest for truth; whether it would lead me to or away from God, I was on the road to find out. For many years, I studied and experimented with other religions and brands of spirituality. I used to call myself, jokingly, an ABC: Anything But Christian.  But this has changed over the last decade, and I have begun to explore my Christian roots, not primarily as an historical dogmatic system and set of beliefs but the exploration of an inner presence of Christ that I have encountered in my own meditative and contemplative journey. 

Christ came to me from the inside and from the realization of God’s presence, spirit, and love. And, I think this is what Jesus was trying to teach us all along. So, fortified and armed with this contemplative spiritual awakening and with massive amounts of scripture that I had memorized as a young man, I began to look at Christianity again with a heart filled with love and a mind trained and illuminated by the Integral lenses that Ken Wilber and the Integral Institute had been laboring to bring forth into the world.

Integral Christianity is an enormous subject, which I propose to write about bit by bit. There are three major pieces that I want to explore—three ways of studying Jesus Christ. These are not necessarily in order of importance, but all must be included for a comprehensive and transformative understanding.  First, the mythic Christ, the Jesus of the Gospel stories, the miracles, the crucifixion, and the resurrection. Second, the historical Jesus, what we know about Jesus from the evidence at hand, to include the canonical gospels, the ever new, emerging non-canonical sources and scriptures, archaeology, and the historical writings of the times. Third, the Cosmic Christ, the Christ that illuminates our hearts, if we, through our efforts and grace, allow ourselves to be penetrated and to penetrate into the great mysteries of our own being

The second set of lenses that I will use are the three set forward by Ken Wilber, who said that for a religion or a spirituality to be integral, it needs to minimally include the following:

1)   An understanding of developmental process, or, as James Fowler called it, “The Stages of Faith.” I often use Spiral Dynamics, created by Clare Graves, as a tool for understanding the different developmental levels that we find in religions in general and specifically Christianity. Spiral Dynamics is a color-coded system, beginning at very primitive beige and moving up to very highly evolved yellow and turquoise, in what is called second tier or integral development, with many stages and colors in between. The essence of this is understanding, to quote Rollie Stanich, is that we see God through colored glasses, which means that our understanding of God will be apprehended by the tools we have, based on the developmental stage we are at.

2)   The second essential lens for an Integral Christianity, as per Wilber, is an understanding of states of consciousness, that the different states of consciousness come and go, from love, hate, boredom, rage, gross, subtle, causal, etc., and that all of these states will be also understood by our current developmental stage development, although often times powerful initiatory states can be the catalyst for growth from our current developmental stage to the next.

Allow me to jump ahead a little to say that this understanding of states is only really useful if we embrace and engage in the contemplative dimension of Christianity, and I will venture to emphatically say that without this dimension, Christianity is dead as a doornail and absolutely part of the problem and not part of the solution. As Paul said, “The letter kills, but the spirit giveth life.”

Without this contemplative dimension, which means a daily, ongoing, lifetime commitment to prayer and meditation, we will not find the living waters the Gospel of John speaks of and Christianity becomes nothing but another “ism,” devoid of Spirit, devoid of love, and just another excuse for projecting and enacting our hatreds and prejudices. So, back to states, without an understanding of states, our contemplative practice becomes confusing, and can often do more harm than good, as we can become attached to certain states and reject other states, both which lead to pathologies, or draw the wrong conclusions from other states, which can lead to fanaticism and increased narcissism. States are important, and an understanding of which are essential for the inner contemplative journey, which as stated above is essential for the relevant, loving, transforming wisdom filled realization of the “Kingdom” that Jesus pointed us to.

3) The third essential category, according to Wilber, is the shadow. These are parts of us that both individually and collectively are forced into our unconscious or else projected onto others and not dealt with in a healthy, healing, and transformative way. These shadows often come from our traumas and wounds or areas of life and experience that we simply have been unwilling to face and integrate. For example, often in the history of Western Christianity, the feminine has been relegated to the shadow, and, along with the feminine, there has been a rejection of the body, nature, and sexuality as things that are somehow contrary to righteousness and which need to be repressed and controlled. We have seen this in the recent tragic scandals and outrages in pedophilia perpetuated in the Catholic clergy and more often than not covered up by the ecclesiastical authority with utter disregard to the victims of the abuse, until confronted, sued, and forced to pay reparation from the church’s coffers. I believe this is largely caused, at its roots, by a rejection of the feminine—no feminine leaders, priests, bishops, cardinals, etc.—and the repression of healthy sexuality by enforcing an unnatural celibacy upon the all-male priesthood. That which is forced into the shadows or locked in the basement ends up growing in the front lawn, but in an unconscious and hurtful way. This colossal disaster has shaken the very mythic foundations of the Catholic Church’s authority and its cornerstone of papal infallibility. That bucket just doesn’t hold water anymore. What I have learned in the last few years in my own practice and working with my students is that the shadow is not something to be avoided but holds tremendous energy and potential for integration, transformation, and enlightenment. As Carl Jung said, God comes through the rejected elements, or as Jesus himself said, the rejected stone has become the chief cornerstone of the building.

It is in the re-integration of the lost feminine element of the Christian tradition, which we are beginning to see clearly in the new non-canonical scriptures that keep popping up almost routinely these days, in the acceptance of a sacred and healthy form of sexuality, and in the re-integration of a nature-infused creation spirituality, where the natural world is not a realm of the material, the fleshly, and even the demonic, but an open revelation—even a scripture—that reveals and transmits through us the glory and the wisdom and the love of God.

We must also re-integrate the obvious care and concern of Jesus of Nazareth for the poor and the downtrodden. Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of God. Often in our conservative versions of Christianity, we have consigned the poor to a lesser and despised realm, something like the untouchables in the Indian class system.  This is absolutely contrary to the Gospels and the most sure teachings of Jesus. According to Jesus himself, it is the rich and the wealthy and the powerful who have the most trouble entering into the kingdom of God.

How does one do that? How does one re-integrate the shadow? This is a hugely important and complex question and beyond the scope of this introductory statement, but as a hint to where we will go with this in the future, let me reference the wisdom of the desert fathers by saying, that which is not experienced is not redeemed and that which is not accepted is not transformed. By including all of the elements, lenses, and practices mentioned above, I believe there can be a rebirth of Christianity of love and light and power, with the power to heal and bring us together and not to separate and add to the great alienation that threatens us, and all species on the planet at this time.

On a final note, there is something that I have learned from the Jewish mystical tradition and specifically the kabalistic tradition. Oftentimes, in our legalistic and fundamentalist approaches to scripture, we are looking for the true meaning of what God was attempting to say in each verse, word, jot, title, semi-colon, etc. I think this misses the point entirely. Scripture was never meant to be a literalist statement about the nature of reality but a deeply revelatory and evolutionary hall of mirrors that reflect back to us our own present conditions and the ultimate wisdom that resides in us as children of God. There is no one right interpretation. The correct interpretation is how the sacred text reveals itself in relation to the text, reader, and Holy Spirit through the prayerful study of the scripture and through self-reflection. If the scripture is not brought forward to address our current needs and our current evolutionary challenges, we have consigned it to the darkness—not through any fault of its own, but by virtue of our own inner darkness, rigidity, and dogmatism.

So, I would say, Lighten up! As the Jewish masters would say, we are all verses of Torah; we are all the living word of God. Jesus was pointing this out to us, not as the unique Son of God to be worshipped, but as a master and teacher of divine wisdom, who was trying to awaken us to what and who we truly are, and always have been. World without end. Amen.

I’m often asked what I mean by Integral Christianity and to answer this question, I will take a piece of the neurological and psychological wisdom brought forth by Dr. Dan Siegel and his psychology of mindfulness. In his book Mindsight, Siegel says that psychological and emotional (and, I might add spiritual) disease is characterized by rigidity and chaos. And, on the other hand, emotional and psychological health is characterized by integration and coherence. So, the work of Integral Christianity is to aid in the rebirthing of a wisdom-based and love-motivated transmission of the Jesus message that is relevant and appropriate to our times. We achieve this greater integration of ourselves within the living transmission of Jesus’ inspired wisdom by using the practices, tools, and lenses that are now emerging. And, I believe we are finding and will continue to find, in that which we call Christianity, a greater coherence, by which I mean something that actually holds together and makes sense in all the different realms of human and non-human experience; a Christianity that coheres or moves together and moves forward.

CODA

As I was reading over this it came to me, what is Integral Christianity? It is a spiritual attempt to find the living transmission of the living Christ and restore to full measure an all-embracing Christianity that is relevant, transforming and loving, that shines the penetrating light of awakened compassion and unitive wisdom. That shakes off the dogma and dust of the past. That understands that all that supports the transmission of living, loving Christ wisdom, is the measure of the truth, and that which does not support the living transmission is idolatry and can be shed like an old skin, a cocoon which, not cast off, becomes a coffin.  As we engage and flow and struggle with this process, re-member the rejected pieces that become the cornerstone of this renewal, the rejection of which, has turned our ancient churches into whited sepulchers full of corruption and dead men’s bones. Not only have the institutional churches putrefied, but their lack of connection with the ever-present living source of the Jesus transmission has led to the rise of hateful, fanatical, often far right-wing so called Christian movements, who glorify violence, despise the poor, idolize the rich, oppress the feminine and persecute the non-hetero sexual. Projecting their fears and hatred on an antichrist world they become the anti-Christ whom they fear.  “thou shall Love” becomes “thou shall hate…” In the meantime our world, our children, our elders, no our entire human family, yea all living creatures, choke and die in a world that is only divided by our lack of love and connection and understanding of who and what we really are: what Jesus came to teach. The symptoms of which are addiction, religions devoid of Love and Light, heartless and often mindless capitalism, rule by gangs in the street, rule by gangsters in our presidential palaces the world over (see the revolts in the middle east), the filling of our world with toxic and dangerous nuclear reactors which do nothing but threaten all life while again concentrating money, power and control in the hands of the few, while abundant and renewable energy surrounds us on every side.

So to find the Christ transmission what must we do?  Reconnect the rejected pieces: God in her feminine beauty and power; the body in all it’s sensual, sexy glory; the ego as jewel of human individuality to be polished by practice and honored in its uniqueness as the instrument of the divine transmission and not the enemy; our homosexual brothers and sisters in all their God created beauty and preciousness; the rejection of money for it’s own sake, the rejection of greed as virtue, cynicism as wisdom, and virtue as weakness. The realization that we are all one and that no one is saved until every last one of us is, to include every last sentient being in the whole of the manifest world. And the question we should be asking ourselves in our hearts and on our bended knees is, “What am I going to do about it and how are we going to get there?” We must heal our deepest wounds and divisions, individual and collective, new and ancient. Bind our wounds, heal our sick, and not make religions and philosophies and economic systems based on our blindness, fears and projections. We must bring all back home. That which is not experienced is not redeemed, that which is not accepted is not transformed. Each of us is birthed and blessed with infinite love, limitless wisdom and creativity, if we can only remember Who and What we really are. All pain, all beings must be held in the open embrace of our true natures, in our awakened realization of the one, and the staggering holy realization of the uniqueness and beauty of each individual part. Open, accept, feel, dream, create, love, evolve and remember…, Blessed are the poor, blessed are they that mourn, blessed are the meek and weak, blessed are they that hunger and thirst, blessed are the merciful, Blessed are the pure… the open in heart, for they shall see inside and outside more and ever more… God… Only God. Blessed are the despised and persecuted, Love your enemies, sell the riches you hoard and give it away, for to give is to receive and to Love is to re-member, and if you seek you will find, and if you ask, it will be given and look and you will see, and if we stumble we will rise up. And there ain’t no heaven and there ain’t no hell, just the sunrise of our awakening and the dreams of our forgetfulness.  And if all would perish, not one would be lost because there are not two…

“The Kingdom of Heaven is inside you and it is outside you. Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up the stone and there you will find me.”
The Gospel of Thomas, Rediscovered in Egypt cir. 1945