Evolutionary is the last buzzword in this blog series on concepts with the potential to change how we view and teach religion. In previous posts, we looked at buzzword #1, integral, and buzzword #2, interspiritual. 

Introducing Buzzword #3: Evolutionary

Evolutionary has multiple meanings — it can be understood as an adjective AND as a  noun. It is sometimes used interchangeably with integral and interspiritual.

As an adjective, evolutionary describes our process of development — and I mean not just biologically, but also culturally. Unlike a Darwinian view of evolution that describes biology as being random accidents, I wish to talk about the view that evolution actually has an unmistakeable direction and purpose. In this view of evolution, we are not just becoming a different species. We are becoming a better species. Planetary goodwill is on the rise. And it is not accidental. As a noun, Evolutionary refers to one who actively and consciously participates in the evolution of our consciousness and ultimately, our culture.

Author Carter Phipps describes Evolutionaries as people who take the idea of evolution seriously and personally. Seriously, because they believe evolution applies to culture as much as to the natural world. Personally, because they believe individuals make choices in their everyday lives that collectively determine the course of our future. Psychohistorians like Robert Lifton and De Mause urged us as individuals to face our past to explain how we arrived at our present. Evolutionaries encourage us to face our collective future to inspire us to make better choices as we depart from our present.

Evolutionaries believe they can be instrumental in guiding our culture toward ostensibly higher levels of consciousness that will benefit all beings and the planet. And they are optimistic. 

If indeed a critical mass of people on the planet is poised to enter a stage of evolution in which humanity embraces universal values and denies the dignity of none, perhaps we will solve the complex global problems of poverty, inequality, climate change, and disease, that threaten our very survival.

Will religion be part of this evolutionary process? 

Theologically, religion is showing signs of evolving. As theologian John Haught says, evolutionary spirituality is not knowing God “up above” but knowing God “up ahead.” God is in the future. And the future is us. “Evolutionary spirituality,” writes Phipps, “…can awaken us to a universal process that is not neutral or inconsequential but more real and important than anything that happens…in our individual lives.. It can connect our own capacity of choice to a 13.7 billion-year process…playing out in the evolution of human consciousness and culture in our time…it can make us true believers again – not in heavenly deities or godly favors but in the positive, deeply spiritual nature of life and human potential.” 

The evolutionary process Phipps describes is the bigger thing of which we are a part and which we can influence. What began with Darwin is only now coming into its fuller expression. The French philosopher, Jesuit priest, and paleontologist, Teilhard de Chardin, saw it coming almost a century earlier. Writes Phipps,

“Teilhard de Chardin predicted that the religions that would survive would be those that were willing to develop forms of their traditions that organically embrace the reality of an evolutionary worldview.”

How does religion embrace an evolutionary perspective?
Perhaps organically, one person at a time.

In response to what integral philosophers might call “evolutionary pressure,” I had to find a new way to teach religion when I found myself with students who did not fit the traditional Jewish mold. Teaching Judaism within the context of interfaith marriage and an increasingly global culture meant there were ways in which the old model no longer fit. As more teachers, parents, and faith leaders (from all spiritual traditions) find themselves in similar positions, we’ll find ourselves needing to revise our relationship to religion and how we teach it.

Evolving into a new worldview is one way to upgrade religion. Each emergent worldview is, as Hegel told us, in a dialectical relationship to the one before it; each is an answer to the problems created by the previous dominant worldview. Each new stage of development simultaneously transcends and includes the values of the previous level of development. In short, different worldviews are responses to different life conditions. And indeed, we are in need of responding to new life conditions today.

As I share the religious education program I developed with other religion school educators, interfaith families, and Evolutionaries, I imagine my lessons being amended in ways that suit individual circumstances, in the same way that nature copies successful templates — with occasional alterations that lead to new versions even better than the original. Adapted for different religions, this work can support our transition to new, sustainable practices and perspectives – and breathe new life into perennial wisdom. Religion may look very different from what some of us grew up with, but it will have evolved into something more valuable.

With the awareness of integral consciousness, the experience of interspiritual practice, and the enthusiasm of an Evolutionary activist, we can help each other bring religion into the future — or, the future to religion. Join me.

Teaching Resources from ZinnHouse are designed to help us make this evolutionary leap.