Chapter V from
"Normative Psychology of Religion"
by Henry and Regina Wieman
Thomas Y. Crowell Company, New York, 1935
THE CULTUS AND ITS EMOTIONAL
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE
CULTUS
The cultus is the symbolism
by which loyalties and sentiments are stimulated, fostered and sustained.
Every long-continuing social group develops a cultus. It is sensed
strongly in "old families", long-established universities and
churches, and in racial groups that have remained in one territory. Grandmother's
house where there are a myriad of things, each with some particular
significance or office, Oxford University, Notre Dame in Paris and Oberammergau
are places where the impact of a particular cultus affects him who approaches
in sincerity. But even new groups soon feel the need of a cultus. They begin,
blindly or deliberately, to grope their way toward those silent powerful
symbols which establish bonds to the end of supporting ideals and sentiments.
The gang of boys who set up the ceremony of a blood brotherhood and have their
pass-words, initiation tests, and, above all, their pledge, be it
barbaric or noble, are establishing their cultus. And unless their cultus is
sufficiently true to the nature and needs of the members to exert power over
them, the galng will dwindle into nothingness. The Soviets have sanctified the
tomb of Lenin, couched their goals into slogans for flaming banners, and
glorified the ordeals of struggle toward victory as altar service for the
cause. How else could they have made misery and deprivation acceptable?
Each family has its cultus. Everyone experiences this. Our
first act as guests in a home, if we would be gracious, is to try
The chief function of a
cultus is to foster the emotions with which the beliefs and ideals are
charged. It is a carrier of sentiments, beliefs, ideals, loyalties. All these
must be nourished and nurtured else they become meagre, vapid; else they fade
and fail. Even political parties sense this. Think of the vivid, vital
symbolism of the Progressive party under Theodore Roosevelt--Teddy's
smile, the slogan, "I'm delighted," even the Teddy Bears! Or review
in your memory that dramatized travesty of sentimental patriotism, "Of
Thee I Sing." The alumni organizations of colleges purpose this nurturing
of loyalties, however defeating their methods or ulterior their ends.
One of the chief attractions
of the cultus is that it belongs to the group, and often to the ages that have
gone before. It gives the members a sense of belonging, of shared affections,
loyalties and sentiments. Each individual is significant, not just in himself,
but in and through all the group--the living, the dead and the yet to be
born--who belong in the cultus. That this sense of belonging to the group
of a certain cultus is held a very precious value in human living, is markedly
evident. On the one hand, there is felt some degree of reverent glory or of
pride in the symbols of the cultus among the members. On the other hand, there
is a striving on the part of those who feel outside of a particular cultus to
imitate it. This striving is a subject for public ridicule of the resultant
material forms--the commercially antiqued houses of the nouveau riche, the elaborate and
artificial rituals of some large city churches, and the cheap bohemianism of
certain "colonies". Clever leaders of a group spare no
pains to elaborate a cultus and superimpose it upon their constituency. Aimee
Semple McPherson through wide use of symbolism has built a powerfully bonded
group around her enterprise. Visitors have commented on how skillfully they
are encouraged to feel panicky over their being "outside the fold".
Where the cultus is a pseudo-cultus,
that is, artificially evidenced or deliberately built, its power depends upon
its artificer and his constant promotion. Where it is genuine, that is, grown
through human experiences, it has tremendous power within itself over the
participants in the experiences.
Cultus has the greatest hold
upon human beings where they are not conscious of it. It is as much an
uncriticised and essential part of living for them as is the very air they
breathe. The patterning of their living takes form through it. It develops, and
constantly fosters and sustains those urges and sentiments which they believe
their ideal'situation in life requires. It establishes bonds sometimes which
are stronger even than personal affection. The rarity of the love of Ruth for
Naomi was measured largely through the fact that she would leave her own
cultus, as symbolized in many things and relationships, to go with Naomi into
what would be for her a meaningless life situation.
The hold of an unconscious
cultus may be so great that the participants cannot conceive of any other
possible situation which would meet the requirements of what they have come to
feel is their ideal situation for living. They may vaguely sense that there are
those of mankind who live otherwise, and feel that these wandering or lost
souls must be strange, indeed. We could all experience the status of
"heathen" or "foreigner" or "bounder", if we chose
certain social locations for residence. And it should be remarked that there is
apt to be beauty and goodness of some sort or degree where the group lives
within a genuine cultus of which it is unconscious. A harmony of sentiments and
loyalties works into a harmony of standards and beliefs. The bonds grow deep,
grow powerful, grow warm.
When this happens, there
develops one of the greatest obstacles for social reconstruction. The cultus
so completely nurtures and preserves
the established loyalties, sentiments and beliefs as to resist change. To the
participants in the cultus, change would seem synonymous to the tragic loss of
meaning in living. The instigators of social reconstruction may look upon these
participants within the impeding cultus as selfish, provincial, narrow-minded,
ignorant, superstitious, ignoble human beings. They may fail to realize that
the participants are resisting what they believe are evil forces to which the
same list of adjectives are meritoriously applicable. Each feels that this
way lies salvation. The continuing impasse between capital and labor
illustrates the condition. So also does the persistence of certain tribes of
American Indians in holding to the ways of their fathers in the face of the
educative efforts of missionaries and government agents. The martyrs of the
Christian church gave up life rather than break the bonds of their religious
loyalty.
Cultus, then, can pass
beyond the promotive function and become conformative, even to the point of
physical, intellectual, social or spiritual martyrdom. It tends so to do where
its growth continues undisturbed by serious challenge in the form of
maladjustments of its participants within, or disruptive intrusions from
without. Only when the growth of the cultus is periodically examined in the
light of the highest realities and possibilities accessible to the group, can
it be kept in its place as a means of promotion. It is not a self-critical
or self-corrective force. Nor does it stimulate criticism. Quite the
opposite. Yet, withal, it is a forceful educative influence.
THE FAILURE OF THE RELIGIOUS CULTUS OF TODAY
The cultus of religion today
is not fulfilling its function. Because of this, communicants cannot get an
adequate symbol of the Cause they serve. There are many stranded individuals
who no longer feel that they do belong, or can belong. For them, there is no
adequate living symbolism which lights the way toward the highest accessible
Cause and which develops sentiments of sufficient emotional power to lead to
devoted action. Indeed, the development of an effective cultus in any religion
today is a very serious problem. Our society is swiftly moving, swiftly
changing. This is true not only in the larger aspects that have to do with
national enterprises and international relationships, but also in the
individual aspects that have to do with types of jobs open, population shift,
cosmopolitan contacts and many other matters. Rootage takes time and a
furtherance of the conditions for its growth. A religious cultus must grow. And
there must be constant renewings in the light of the nature and needs of the
situations in the lives of the participants. Modern living has been too speedy,
shifting and preoccupied to give consideration to the culture of effective
symbols.
We have the remnants of the older
religious cultus with us. It was built upon the nature and needs of the life of
another era. The security of the individual, "his salvation", was the
central issue in the cultus of the Christian religion. This religion will be
used here to exemplify the modern breaking down of religious cultus. Since
individual salvation was the great issue, fear was, for many, the major
emotional drive. And this fear was specific. It was the fear of eternal
damnation or of the loss of heaven. Graphic portrayals of the devil, of hell,
of angels, of heaven, even of God were frequent stimuli. The old beliefs about
the improvement of persons were based upon a faculty psychology or else upon
inferences from certain theological concepts. Original sin must be washed in
the "blood of 'the Lamb". There must be some breaking in from the
outside of something supernatural to redeem the individual. Waiting for this
impression, and celebration of the fact of its coming, were great emotional
periods. These religious events became ritualized in a "coming to the
altar", baptism and other ceremonies. "The Lord's Supper" is a
symbolic partaking of the body and blood of Jesus Christ which has its deeper
rootage in this belief in ingression.
All these and more made up
the very rich and powerful Christian cultus. Those of us who were nurtured in
it can testify as to its significance and potency in the individual life. To
this day there stands in my memory, as clear as reality, the cross which loving
hands had interwoven from branches and hung high above the altar of the simple,
dignified church where Ty family worshipped. Under it, fashioned in the same
way, were letters that spelled the words, "Jesus only". The cross and
the words were interwoven, also, with quite definite ideals and standards for
religious living through being kept a vital part of certain church ceremonies.
I can recall, as no doubt can many others of that group of worshippers, certain
vital experiences into which these symbols entered. The symbols and ceremonies
of that little, New England type church were very precious and deeply potent.
The Christian cultus had
already, in that day, reached the conformative stage where the behavior of the
individual was a responding to the cultus primarily. At the opening of the present
century the average community lived in this cultus. The devotees shared much of
their living under the potency of a common symbolism. There was the Central
Symbol, Jesus, around which their idealistic concepts and purposes were
gathered. Then, those that follow were also potent--the symbolic myth
concerning the order of the universe; the holy authority of their priests or
officers of religion; their ceremonies and rituals of worship and service;
their sense of fellowship in the security of salvation; their outreach toward
supplementary, supernatural power; their fears and hopes as symbolically
objectified; their compensations and sublimations as ritualized; and their
harmonious, or at least related, interpretations of life, with its good and
evil, joy and sorrow, deprivation and glory, suffused with the illumination of
the treasured words of Jesus, their Central Symbol. All this community in the
area of the deepest issues of life as then conceived gave direction and values
to living, brought light and color and warmth.
Why cannot such a cultus
remain? Because certain events have disturbed the bases upon which much of its
symbolism was developed, and hence have de-vitalized and de-powered
it. A deeper and truer understanding of the processes through which persons are
improved, a socialization of outlook which interprets individual salvation
through considerations of social interdependence and constructiveness, critical
examination of the tenets of the Christian religion and its sources through the
instrumentality of modern scientific methods, the revelations of modern science
concerning the universe, the breakdown of the old religious sanctions dependent
upon specific fears, the cosmopolitan contacts between those of the Christian
cultus and those of other cults, the increase in the number and variety of
population shifts which repeatedly break into the growth of communities--these
and other forces have come as disruptive intrusions from without to disturb
and devitalize the passing Christian cultus.
The maladjustments of the
devotees have brought disruptions from within, also. There is much open
discussion today as to whether the Christian religion, as presented through the
Bible and creeds, provides the ideals and standards necessary, pertinent and
constructive in a modern society quite different from the simple, pastoral one
of the time of the Christian leader. These great doubts have come to light
through the problems of living encountered by Christian persons. So long as
there are these grave doubts as to the ideals and standards themselves, the
cultus which was developed to charge these with emotional dynamic cannot
function adequately.
Current use of this largely
devitalized symbolism weakens religion. The very deliberateness with
which many groups are setting about building forms of worship through ritual
and ceremony is a telling symptom of the low vitality of the cultus. It is
being artificially nourished and nurtured. In many religious groups today
symbolism is introduced primarily to give a pleasing emotional glow or stir.
Some of it subtly serves to sustain the easy security of those either who are
prosperous or who feel their salvation is sure. Part of it reverberates with
reminiscent emotions of ancient childhood experiences. Again, its appeal is an
aesthetic one and the resultant subjective warmth is vaguely interpreted as
religious. Or it moves through giving a sense that this, however different in
semblance, is the true way our fathers trod. Occasionally, it descends to being
merely sugary attractiveness, designed to be delectable to the communicants. At
times the effort is made to augment its weakness by combining its symbolism
with that of other causes which are commanding the interest of the people.
Alarm over this state of the Christian cultus has been strong enough to become
vocal. This is shown by the great emphasis worship has been given in the
formulated programs of various religious bodies.
Many
individualswho feel that religion is a
truly vital process are at a loss
today because the old cultus does not function effectively. They are bewildered
in regard to the adequate bases for religious living. In a society largely
trained in conformative response to a cultus, they are not prepared for more
constructive responding. It is a deeply creative undertaking for devotees in a
transition period to give expression to their own vital religion. It is
difficult for them to discover, each for himself, what his own essential and
actual religion is. There is a question, oftentimes, of allegiance in turning
from the religion of the cultus to the religion of intelligent, genuine
loyalty. Some few can meet and surmount these difficulties. Among them are
those who can express their emergent concepts and loyalties in a philosophy of
religion or in a program for religious guidance and education. But always for
the great mass of persons, religion becomes vital, potent, significant only
through a cultus in and through which they can live out their lives day by day.
Through the cultus the loyalties and ideals, standards and beliefs, are made
available to them. Through it they gain access to what they hold as supremely
worthful.
WHENCE COMES AN ADEQUATE
RELIGIOUS CULTUS?
It grows up through the
devotional experience of the devotees, through their adoration and service. It
must be true to the nature and needs of the situations of life of these
devotees. It must be a living and growing symbolism through which they sense
The Highest, and through which they dedicate their living to The Highest. This
means that no two groups will develop an identical symbolism, though there
will be some basic similarities among groups who serve the same dominant
loyalty, The religious cultus evolves.
WHAT MUST BE THE FUNCTION OF
A NEW RELIGIOUS CULTUS?
It stimulates, fosters and sustains the sentiments
and loyalties with which the religious beliefs and ideals must be charged if
religion is to function vitally and effectively. It must make available the
highest realities and possibilities accessible to the particular group, in such
a way that the members are stirred to adoration and service. It thus reveals a
patterning for living, and develops and constantly fosters and sustains those
urges and sentiments which they believe their ideal situation in life under
their dominant loyalty requires. It builds bonds that gradually grow stronger
and more deeply rooted. It is the chief means of religious education, the means
through which the immature or the novitiate are inducted into the distinctively
religious way of life. The particular system of religious education, with its
curricula and methods, is an outgrowth of the cultus. The religious cultus is
the symbolism which is the carrier of religious beliefs.
WHAT ARE THE ESSENTIAL
ELEMENTS IN AN EFFECTIVE
First there will be
presented some of the more significant elements which have characterized an
effective cultus through much of the past. Then a factor new in a cultus but
essential in this day will be given consideration.
1. The cultus must symbolize
that which is permanent in the midst of change. It must point ever to that
which is held to be Supremely Worthful, so that this will be the great central
ideal through all the changes which may take place in the immediate and
concrete situations of living. It must facilitate the illumination of all
routine and constructive activities by the splendor of The Highest.
2. There must be continuity
in the material cultus, a strong warp running through to give a sense of unity
to the woof of variety. This is achieved partly through the first element
given. It is furthered, also, by allowing the symbols to remain the same, or,
if changed, reconstructed by a slow modifying. In such a way, the new becomes
thoroughly conditioned by what has already been established and so is able to
carry this heritage in addition to whatever new functions may be added. The
potency of a symbol depends upon the amount and significance of the experience
which has been incorporated into it. Continuity gives stability to the cultus.
3. Beauty must be there, but
cannot be introduced deliberately if it is to be of greatest effectiveness.
Everywhere about us, in this mechanical age, we see beauty being overworked as
applied decoration or exploiting lure. Synthetic beauty is only a sort of prettiness of surface. Deep,
genuine beauty develops through sincerity and harmony in functioning. It is
spontaneous in this sense. The symbolism of the cultus automatically
incorporates beauty whenever the devotees, with all their hearts, adore and
serve. It is cumulative. Once beauty is there, more beauty comes.
4. Another element in the
effective cultus is interpretation of the glory of the mystery. Beyond the Most
Worthful, as men can at any one time apprehend it, there lie possibilities,
vast, magnificent, sublime. The apprehension of these emerges gradually through
consecrated religious living, but always there are further unexplored, and at
present uncomprehended, worths. The sense of this existent and potential
"on beyond" is a vital and poweriul lure in the adventure of high
living. The mysterious Higher is a reality: it is always there, though the
conceptions of it change. The cultus must bring to the devotees a vivid sense
of this precious reality "on beyond".
5. The symbolism must
consist of factors, elements, signs, which have psychological association with
great experiences. Some of these experiences may be significant to the
individual, some to the group. Those which have deep meaning for the group will
be the more powerful. To be most powerful of all, these great experiences must
be concerned with a timeless entity.
6. The cultus must include
forms which the individual can carry out significantly on his own initiative.
The Roman Catholic Church has provided generously for this element of the
cultus, with such ceremonies as are associated with the rosary of beads, votive
candles and the twelve stations of the cross. Each individual must have, in
some sense and form, his own altar. When two children participate in the
lighting of the first fire on the hearth of the new family house, that hearth
forevermore carries significance for them, even though the specific event be
forgotten. The individual must be stimulated and sustained through rituals of
self dedication.
Now, all these six elements
in an effective and mature religious cultus can be studied in religious living
of the past. They are ancient and potent. They still stand as essential
elements. But we have said that a new element has come into religious living.
Therefore, a new element must come into the religious cultus. A more worthful
loyalty has emerged and is being apprehended--the salvation of all mankind
through intelligent and noble social reconstruction. The cultus must stimulate,
foster and sustain the sentiments and loyalties which the promoting of this
Highest Value requires. So we add one new element to the list, not only to care
for this new type of objective, but also for the emergence of other and
greater objectives as they are apprehended. This new element must function
effectively in those areas of religious living which promote growth in keeping
with the emergence of higher objectives.
7. The cultus must symbolize
dynamically the increase of value. It must keep in the consciousness of the
devotees a moving sense of that which functions in our midst for the reconstruction
of society for the good. A religion with an outworn theology cannot do this.
There is an actually operative, creative growth of value. It takes strong
loyalty to discover the conditions for this growth of good, and to set up
those required conditions. The theory of religion must illuminate this growth,
so that loyalties will be adequately stirred to serve it. A religion which
effectively incorporates into its symbolism such clarified theory and potent
cultus would insure its own perpetual renewal. Out of the consequent
progression of loyalties would come the incorporation of new significance into
the established symbols, and of new experiential elements into the total
cultus. This would give a new quality to the cultus, qualify it for today and
the new days to come.
These seven are significant
elements to be incorporated in a modern religious cultus.
THE DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY
OF A NEW RELIGIOUS
An enormous difficulty at
once presents itself. Until this century, social change has come so slowly or
in such a scattered way, as a rule, that mankind has not felt his whole world
changing at once. There has been time for accommodation to change through a
process of almost imperceptible modification of what-has-been into
what-is-becoming. Even when the changes in the past have been more
catastrophic, the situation was neither so complex nor so essentially
interdependent as now. Also, there was, for most persons, room and right to
seek new situations for living. There was not, as today, a closing in of the
world of things and of thinking upon the individuals. When this closing in
occurs, it tends to force a solution of the problems of change within the
situations where the change is taking place.
This present condition of
things makes the whole process of adjustment to swift change a more conscious
one. There is more realization that something must be done about it all. The
timid and dependent grow panicky. They clutch back at old securities in ancient
or modernized forms. Those whose age or, geographical location or intellectual
habits protect them from forceful facing of the impact of change tighten their
hold of the old cultus. Many flounder, and for their sakes or for the advantage
of opportunistic founders a myriad of new cults spring up, each seeking
sincerely or profitably to furnish soil for the uprooted. All such as these are
hindering factors in the growing of a new cultus in so far as their action is
individually motivated. There can be no marked movement in any one direction
when many parts are pulling in numerous and varying directions. The old concept
of individual salvation is still the motivation. That lesson of seeking one's
own salvation was all too thoroughly learned.
Another difficulty is that
no central ideal or dominant loyalty as symbolic of what is supremely worthful
for all human living will be accepted widely today unless it can withstand the
scrutiny of thorough examination and the testing of critical experience. We
have come to the place where no new Messiah with a new Revelation, nor no new
reformer with a new interpretation of the old word, can precipitate all the
floating elements into the compound of a new religious doctrine around which
will grow a new cultus. Modern methods of investigation and evaluation will
examine whatever is set forth in the name of religion. This difficulty is at
the same time a great good, for, while it slows the process of religious
discovery and organization, it tends to insure it against perversion and
error, at least in terms of the highest culture of the period. Nevertheless,
this is a suddenly new basis for religion.
For these reasons there can
be no formulation or even fairly formed projection as to what this new cultus
will be. It must grow out of religious living. There is one avenue that does
not seem wholly closed to thought and imagination in regard to it, however, and
it may be profitable to explore somewhat in that direction.
As has been said, the great
issue underlying and pervading the old Christian cultus was the salvation of
the devotee as an individual. Indeed, for some time, there has been a
glorification of individualism in religion. Now, forces beyond the direction
and control of men have developed conditions of group living which throw new
light upon the matter of individual salvation. It is no wonder that Christians
have begun to inquire if their particularized ideals and principles could be
promoted and lived in this civilization. It has come about that no man can live
unto himself, even in trying to live "the good life". His behavior is
an integral part of the social situation in which he is a participant.
Conversely, the total of his social situation is an integral part of his
behavior. They are truly two aspects of the same process. Modern man can find
his salvation only in and through the social situation in which he is a
participant. His high purposes and noble intentions will often miscarry or fail
in a situation which is not organized to foster the best that man can know. He
will suffer pain and loss through the actions of others whom he may never have seen.
The thrusts of injustice, malice, cruelty, intolerance, avarice, and all the
evil from a society which is organized in the exploitive interests of certain
powerful persons, reach him through a succession of intermediary blows and
thrusts leveled at his fellow men. He may find himself faced even with the
choice of criminal behavior or forceful deprivation of means of livelihood. In
other words, social conditions have become such that man must seek his
salvation through continuing social reconstruction.
In such a situation the
essence of religion is no longer to be looked for in the subjective states of
devotees, but in the direction and character of their loyalty to that
objective which best represents the supremely worthful for human living. Now
for the great majority of persons, the directions of loyalty are not yet
clearly and convincingly discerned. They cannot start with a central symbolic
ideal and build their cultus around it. They are not ready.
If, then, there is now no
central, widely recognized, symbolic ideal around which a new cultus can grow,
how is it to come about?
THE FOSTERING OF A NEW TYPE OF CULTUS
The urgent question at the
heart of the problem centers in the social procedure which will be efficacious
in developing new and potent symbols, and in fostering emotional response to
all symbols carrying new meanings. Practically speaking, the question stands:
what may be done to promote the growth of a new type of cultus which will
stimulate and develop sentiments and loyalties, which in turn will give
direction to social reconstruction as a religious function within the social
process? How can a growing religious cultus be used to give direction and power
to the human effort of serving the highest cause of which modern man in the
modern world can be conscious today? How can the fostering and sustaining of
the emotions be so carried on that the Supremely Worthful, in terms of a
present dominant objective, will claim their dynamic devotion?
In setting the religious
cultus into effective functioning in connection with present day living, we
have said that we cannot begin with any widely shared idea of what is Supremely
Worthful. There is none. We can begin only with what we have. We must search
appreciatively and critically for suitable nuclei. Since these cannot be found
in the matured forms of fully and richly developed loyalties, we must turn back
to search for possible generative sources.
There are already certain
sentiments which have received sufficient validation to warrant their being
stimulated, fostered and maintained. Some of these are strongly manifested in
current life, such as;
1. A rising sense of the need of reconstruction in the economic order.2. Demand for the abolition of war.3. A drive toward peaceful means of international adjustment.4. A reaching out for some reasonable basis for a planetary community.5. A strong sense of the need of adequate education for all children.6. Concern to establish family life upon a more stable and effective basis which will foster genuine fellowship and a spiritual community within it.7. A demand for universal conditions of physical and mental health.8. A growing need to discover something dependable about which to organize one's living.
It is with such as these
that we can begin. Clearly, they are not those traditional religious, emotional
complexes which have been treasured as sacred and holy sentiments. Rather, they
are new ideas emotionally charged with clustering feelings which are being
engendered by those processes of living which seem to carry, and to lead on to,
higher possibilities of value.
We have as nuclei, then,
those sentiments and loyalties, already functioning in some degree, which seem
to point on to richer fulfillment of life and to the emergence of meanings not
now fully discernible. Certain ideals have forced the attention of mankind in
no doubtful fashion. Certain loyalties are emerging which command our devotion.
Certain social objectives give promise in the light of those principles of
evaluation which are in slow process of being clarified.
We can start here with these drives. We will test
them by these emerging principles of evaluation to ascertain
if they point toward the increasingly worthful. To those which pass the test we
can devote ourselves and serve their growth. Gradually there will emerge
larger objectives. And, in turn, through these, a socially functioning idea of
the Supremely Worthful will steadily become clearer to perception. This will
become the central symbol of our devotion until, through that devotion, in
turn, we perceive emerging an ever more comprehensive objective. Thus, there
will be a progression of objectives which claim our highest loyalty. By this
stairway of objectives, man ascends towards The Highest.
SOME
POSSIBLE STARTING POINTS
A new and effective cultus
can grow through stimulating, fostering and sustaining of these sentiments,
loyalties and objectives. Since the church is the community institution which
is in the most strategic place for nurturing this cultus, the illustrative
suggestions will involve the church as the initiating agency. Other groups
outside the church are building up a new cultus. The church is chosen for discussion,
however, because of its position of advantage in the matter. Ideally the membership
of the church includes the whole family, and this ideal is somewhat
approximated. This adds potency to whatever the church can achieve in this
direction.
One area of human living where already there are
likely to be strong sentiments and loyalties which need sustaining and
directing, is in the love life of the family. Organized religion has
usually shown a marked interest in this area, and certain ceremonies have grown
up in the church which symbolize some of its values--the wedding ceremony,
christening of infants, and the burial of the dead among these. Many of these
ceremonies, though, have lost their former depth of significance. Further,
some of the most important values have never been potently symbolized. The
chief reason this is so, we venture, is that the emphasis has come to be placed
upon events rather than upon growth. If the cultus had fostered the growth of this love life, there would be
much more vigor in it. Our present practice emphasizes culminating events and
products. It is the increase of value which
needs promoting and celebrating.
Thereare
several values or objectives in this growth of the love life of the family that
need the support of a beautiful and potent religious symbolism. The
intermediary success of parenthood is one of these. Most other professions
experience rather concrete and fairly immediate social returns and recognition
for achievement. The nature of the vocation of parenthood is such, however,
that it is difficult for parents to know whether their devotion to the growth
of the love life is succceding or not. Indeed the mother who makes her first
business that of parenthood is apt to suffer a degree of social neglect,
however fine a person she may be. The sentiments and loyalties entering into
the promotion of the growth of the love life of the home are certainly in line
with the larger objectives concerned with noble social reconstruction. A rich
and potent symbolism for the nourishing and nurturing of these scntiments,
ideals and loyalties would be a truly great contribution to the worth of human
living.
The functioning of such a
symbolism may make use of many avenues and means. There is drama which may
celebrate glowingly what has been done to promote this growth of the love life.
Perhaps a periodic production worked out by parents themselves as an avenue of
expression of their discoveries, problems and victories might be one specific
element. There are the preparatory rites, definitely educative, by which the
young may be made ready for new experiences of social affiliation: starting to
school; club membership; community participation at a definite level, such as
citizenship. The total sacrament of betrothing, which should cover weeks
certainly, perhaps months, is a crucial experience which needs a powerful and
moving symbolism.
Families need leadership in
developing the religious symbolism of those intimate and precious family
experiences which make living significant. The seeds of the symbolism are there
in plenty. Ignorance, or competitive interests, or nonsensitivity, often
interfere. Group pressure as expressed in an effective religious cultus would
be a tremendous force in vitalizing the loyalties involved in promoting the
growth of the love life of the home. It could develop in people an appreciation
of, and a cooperative participation in, this area of growing good.
In the larger community of
which the home is a part there are also nuclei of sentiments which need fostering.
There may be evidences of the dawning of a larger group consciousness in
community attitudes on inter-racial or economic issues. Again, it may be
that there is a growing anxiety toward one focal point where the widening
community threatens to break down. However and wherever sentiments and
loyalties are functioning, there needs to be a symbolism to catch these up and
build them through enduring bonds into the total growing good. To illustrate
more concretely; pageantry may interpret the moving community sentiments in
regard to some one crucial focal point, such as getting a school established or
a needed law passed. There may be an annual ceremony of appraisal of community
social progress for the year, with meaningful processional songs and presentations
of progress. There are already hymns that symbolize the movements of community
life. Or again, there may be an annual ritual of working out the group's
manifesto for the new year in which hopes and purposes evolve into defined
expression, and loyalties are repledged.
The still larger communities
of the nation and the world need consideration, too. Perhaps at first this will
be most difficult, for it is hard to feel their nearness and hence the urgency
of their call upon the loyalties of those who would adore and serve the growing
good. The beginning may have to be made by some simple service of directed
meditation each Sunday morning when specific symbols of the experiences of
others of mankind who are far away bring to the devotees vividly the living
issues of their situations.
To make this more specific,
a possible symbol for such a service is here suggested. Symbols, as have been
said, cannot be merely designed and superimposed; they must grow out of the
devotional activities. This example, then, is an illustration of a possibility.
The simple service of meditation may be opened by a reverent presentation of
the symbol of a circle of clasped hands, hands of quite different skin tones
and indications of use in work. This may be shown on some beautifully wrought
banner or other insignia which is hung during the service. Or it may be worked
into a ritual of clasping of hands in which persons take part, either a few or
the larger group, while speaking some dedicatory meditation. Songs and guided
meditation may accompany the presentation of the symbol. And then the new and
immediately present issue of far away men, women and children, can be
introduced in vivid and stirring ways so that the devotees can vicariously
appreciate their needs and aspirations. The same symbol and ritual, used in
connection with successively new but related issues will tend to foster more
meaningful sentiments and purposes for action. These symbols may be presented
in many, many ways--will have to be, for different persons are stirred by
quite different elements.
Russia furnishes a vivid
example of the manner in which a vast human enterprise can be symbolized. The
emotional life of a nation was transformed in a relatively short time. The five year
plan was presented in such a way as to inspire sacrifice and devotion among
great masses of people. Nazi Germany, for less worthy purposes, has inspired
the German people to ardent loyalty by means of slogans, ceremonies, analogy
and metaphor. No mass movement is possible until some great project can be so
presented as to fire the imagination of the people. If the New Deal had been
able to clarify important objectives this might have happened in the United
States. Then we could have clothed this project with potent symbolism.
These are times in which, at
almost any moment, an objective with a program of endeavor may capture the
hearts and minds of the people. The manner of its presentation will be a source
of its potency, but the main factor will be the promise it seems to carry of actualizing
the possibilities of value which all feel are imminent. The religious
institutions must be equipped and ready to adjudicate this objective and its
program in respect to its validity as a representative of the values for which
religion stands. In so far as it proves valid, a rich and effective cultus can
be developed around it. In fact, the church should thus adjudicate all living
issues and foster those which carry religious values. In this way, the
beginnings of an effective cultus can grow and will be powerful in shaping the
nation and the world.
We might go on, but these will be sufficiently
illustrative.
Out of
these occasions and beginnings there will develop the rudiments of a permanent
cultus as fine for the day at hand as any which has gone before was effective
in its day. The cultus will grow to the extent that those sentiments and
loyalties which do or can sustain worthy causes are fostered.
The cultus is the very heart
of religion. It is what fosters religion more than anything else. If religion
is to function effectively it must develop a symbolism which will keep its
devotees alert and cognizant of the fact that the established system of law and
order must be continuously reconstructed, at times perhaps even
catastrophically. Progressive reconstruction is necessary in order to release
the widening and integrating community of life. The cultus must foster the
emotion's which charge men's ideals with the power necessary to growth.
Two things are permanent
today--change and growth. These we shall have with us always. The
Christian leader, Jesus Christ, stated this graphically when He symbolized the
widening community by means of a mustard seed. The enlarging life that acts
under loyalty to the supremely worthful must be promoted and celebrated. The
cultus must foster, whether through evolution or revolution, that growth which
is essential in a progression of objectives toward the Supremely Worthful.
This includes a basic truth which must be applied to any religious cultus which
would be effective, precious and potent. The cultus must provide for the
change, be it evolution or revolution, in its own religion.