SPIRITUAL and RELIGIOUS

Major Religious Symbols

This week we look at "I'm Spiritual and Religious" from our Life of Meaning text. Interviews of Rev. Tilden Edwards and Tina Brown of the Shalem Institute in Maryland express their observance of changes in the faith landscape as persons look for more individual experience in the daily walks of spiritual encounter. Tilden who has "left" the church to establish the institute for individual faith journeys and Brown who as a Spiritual guide at Shalem feels a "call" to serve in an institutional church setting.

Below are some of their comments for evaluation and impression.

From Rev. Tilden Edwards:

There was a sense that what counted most was "right belief."

"There has been an imbalance between head and heart."

"It (spirituality) has to do with the way we probe and respond to that deepest yearning in us for the infinite."

(Teilhard de Chardin) "We're not human beings on a spiritual journey, we are spiritual beings on a human journey."

"One thing about a religious tradition is it helps you stay with something until you touch the bottom of it."

"...a love affair out of which all other loves derive."

From Tina Brown:

"I think you've been touched by God."

"I need time on retreat"

"When I listen to others...often I get clarity and a sense of expression from others that calls up in me something I can't quite express."

"Being open means sometimes being vulnerable too."

"To know and to listen...I want to be present to that."

"The call, the inner nudging was -- go and offer yourself, offer what you have to offer."