Body language: Jan Arriens puts in a good word

‘We have reached a point at which our language is in danger of failing us.’

There has been some discussion in these pages recently about whether killing off traditional Quaker terminology can take us to a deeper spiritual place. With some diffidence, I feel that it would.

All religious language is, in my view, ultimately metaphorical – we struggle to put the wordless into words. Problems arise when the metaphorical or ritual becomes taken literally. As Isaac Penington wrote, ‘All Truth is a shadow except the last, except the utmost.’ Sometimes, we may have glimpses of the Truth beyond. These intimations are at the heart of mysticism and go to the core of all the great faiths. Our inner awareness is, however, generally delicate and elusive.

For Friends, this intuitive awareness has been known as the Christ spirit (or Christ within), the Inward Light, or now more commonly the Inner Light. This is what we seek in Meeting for Worship. It is here, in the gathered Meeting, that we can lose our selves. Through the silence and the ministry we experience an indefinable yet tangible sense of what Rufus Jones called ‘the Great Beyond’. This is, I believe, religion stripped down to its very essence. We live in the mystery. Often, Friends will simply but honestly say that they have an inner awareness going beyond words.

And yet we must struggle to put that awareness into words. Our spiritual experience is not something to be hidden, but to be shared. Here we run into problems: the language we use must be comprehensible and must not jar.

I feel we have reached a point at which our language is in danger of failing us on both counts. In my experience, Friends can have difficulty ministering at all on deeper matters. How, we ask ourselves anxiously, will others respond to words such as ‘God’, ‘prayer’, ‘worship’ or ‘ministry’? These are not idle matters. We cannot turn back the clock: within the last century, formal religion has ceased to be central to society.

Along with internal communication problems, there is also the issue of outreach. What are we to put on the posters outside our Meeting houses? Young people often say that they are not religious but spiritual. This ought to be an open goal for Quakerism. What, though, will those potential Friends of the future make of a poster advertising a ‘Meeting for Worship’ and proclaiming that there is something of God in everyone?

We were on the right track 350 years ago when we were known as Children of the Light. What a splendid metaphor. Many other terms work in much the same way: Spirit, interconnectedness, awareness, mindfulness. Using this rich vein of spiritual language will greatly enhance communication within our Society and with others. But it will require gentleness, kindness and patience. We need to test these terms together, while not ditching the old. Words matter, but must also allow us to get beyond them.

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Comments

All religious movements have traditionalists and reformers. The fact that Quakers have no creed seems to favour the reformers - but is that such a bad thing?
Do we want a vibrant and diverse spiritual community, or do we want to remain stuck in the past?

By MartinCoyle on 15th March 2024 - 22:37

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