A Reflection on the Journey Inward

I was raised in a home and religious context where the Bible was understood in a literalistic sense as a direct and absolute (“inerrant” was the theological term used) Word from God, and the Christian life was lived in a strict, regimented way that emphasized our difference (as evangelical Christians) from the rest of humanity. The journey has been decades long with many conversations and events along the way, but as a result I have 

come to stand in a very different place in terms of my faith today. 

I still consider myself a Christian, but with that designation I mean

something very different from what it meant in the evangelical-fundamentalist setting I grew up in. At the core of this difference is the understanding that to be a Christian is less about belief and more about relationship. It is about relationship with God, with my human sisters and brothers, with all living beings, and with our planetary home Mother Earth. As a Christian, the Bible continues to be an important source for me but no longer as a book of absolutes and directives, but as stories and poetry and images that inspire and guide and call me to a life of deeper meaning and purpose.¹

To avail myself of opportunities to hear and respond to that call  (whether through the biblical narrative or through other narratives or in other ways) is to walk the path of the “Journey Inward.”²

1  Two books (and authors) I highly recommend that use non-technical language and do an excellent job of offering an alternative to the older more rigid way of understanding the Bible are: Marcus J. Borg. Reading the Bible Again for the First Time: Taking the Bible Seriously but Not Literally. 2001. New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc. and John Shelby Spong. Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism: A Bishop Rethinks the Meaning of Scripture. 1991. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.

2  For the journey images in the title of this blog, I am indebted to Elizabeth O'Connor whose book I read years ago. Journey Inward, Journey Outward. 1968. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, Incorporated.