A House for Hope: The Promise of Progressive Religion for the Twenty-First Century

by John A. Buehrens, Rebecca Ann Parker

Hope is rising. The political tide in the United States has turned, and people across the country who have been working for years for social change and justice finally feel as though they aren't struggling alone. Yet for those who ground their social activism in progressive religious belief, it is all too easy to feel spiritually divided and isolated, daunted by the apparent dominance of religious fundamentalists in the media and politics. The impact of liberal religion is richer and more far—reaching than many know—a force for good that has inspired and supported two centuries of American social progress, from the abolition of slavery and the securing of women's rights to the present-day struggles for marriage equality, ecological responsibility, and global peace. In order to sustain our spirits and advance positive social change, progressive people need to claim the transforming power of our theological heritage.

Authored by two leading progressive theologians, A House for Hope affirms that the shared hopes of religious progressives from many traditions can create a movement far stronger than a liberal religious renaissance. Yet for it to flourish, progressive people must rediscover the spiritual sustenance available in the theological house our liberal forebears built, and embrace what our tradition truly holds sacred, as well as understanding what it rejects.

In lively and engaging language, A House for Hope suggests that liberal religious commitment is based on expansive love for life rather than adherence to narrow dogma. With chapters that reveal the political and personal relevance of the enduring questions at the heart of this theology, A House for Hope shows how religious liberals have countered fundamentalists for generations, and provides progressives with not only a theological but also a spiritual foundation for the challenges of the twenty-first century.

Genres: Religion, Nonfiction, Spirituality, Theology, Faith

208 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Naomi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Given that John Buehrens and Rebecca Parker have directly shaped much of what Unitarian Universalist clergy are required to know in order to be fellowshipped in the past twenty years, I wasn't surprised not to meet anything new in this book. But if you haven't dedicated yourself to reading progressive theology rooted in christianity but heavily influenced by humanistic judaism and eco-feminism then this may be an entirely novel text. Every generation at least, we need books that restate what we're doing theologically as good general introductions to that work. Here's this one offered by people who've been teaching and preaching and living it so long they can summarize and outline in ways that stir a person to further inquiry as well as agreement. Cheers for that!

[Rev. Sharon Wylie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must-read for any religious liberal looking to engage with timeless theology questions: what is the nature of God? What is the human relationship to God? Why is there suffering? What brings us together? What is the nature of evil? Parker and Buehrens explore these questions thoughtfully and with an understanding that the answers have urgent implications for our suffering world.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oriented to readers with a Christian, American background. Lots of gems:
xviii re interfaith social action from a Muslim perspective: Eboo Patel, Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim.
7 background re Social Gospel, as explained by Walter Rauschenbusch.
9 what Universalist eschatology shares with social gospel: earthly realization of God's dream through the ultimate inclusiveness of God's love: "We are all going to end up together in heaven, so we might as well start learning to get along now." Gordon McKeeman.
11-12 Islam: "move beyond apparent contradictions and . . . remain focused on that Love that transforms, transfigures, unsettles, disturbs, challenges, makes you think you are losing your mind, comforts, consoles, and liberates."
12 Radically realized eschatology - affirm that we are already standing on holy ground. Hope that what is good will be treated with justice and love and what has been harmed will be repaired.
13 our goal can be to fully arrive here and greet each day of life with gratitude, expressing hospitality for the mysterious goodness that is new every morning and engaging in compassionate care for the present realities of suffering, injury, and injustice that call for our active response.
15 as the early Christian church understood, here is where the hand of comfort can be extended, the deep breath can be taken, and we can live at home in the world, knowing this is enough. A sense of enough is critical now, because anxiety over not enough drives the exploitation and greed that threaten the earth's ecosystems and put cultures and lives at risk around the globe.
23 When encouraged toward the end to prepare for the next world, the great naturalist and progressive Henry David Thoreau is said to have replied, "One world at a time." And when asked if he had made his peace with God: "I wasn't aware that we had quarreled."
27 quote from Toni Morrison's Sula: What was taken by outsiders to be slackness, slovenliness, or even generosity was in fact a full recognition of the legitimacy of forces other than good ones. They did not believe doctors could heal--for them, none had ever done so. They did not believe death was accidental--life might be, but death was deliberate. They did not believe Nature was askew--only inconvenient. Plague and drought were as "natural" as springtime. . . . The purpose of evil was to survive it and they determined (without ever knowing they had made up their minds to do it) to survive floods, white people, tuberculosis, famine, and ignorance. They knew anger well but not despair, and they didn't stone sinners for the same reason they didn't commit suicide--it was beneath them.
29 Jesus - Beatitudes: Jesus preached that the kingdom of God is right here among us wherever and whenever we make it real by loving the very ground of our being with all our heart, mind, and strength and by refusing to give our allegiance to any oppressive power. It is among us when we love our neighbors, even the very least of these, as we should also love ourselves. It is among us when we put our anxieties over what to eat, drink, and wear into proper perspective and consider the lilies of the field.
36-37 Frank Lloyd Wright, who designed a number of Unitarian church buildings, was asked what he thought of organized religion. His response: "Why organize it?"
37 Is there an importance to religious community life that needs to be claimed anew, while protecting against the liabilities and dangers that community life can pose? Yes. We need life together, and liberals would be wise to invest in rebuilding the walls of community.
37 - 46 good material on community
45 Religious communities can enable people to claim and deepen the values that the dominant culture is ignoring or denying. They can convert us from lifestyles that disregard the earth and are heedless of the environmental damage and danger we are courting, to lifestyles of reverence and gratitude that enable us to be less materialistic and more attentive to the goodness of life's intangibles.
107 - 119 Chapter 8 - history in US
115 Reinhold Niebuhr tried to warn that religious liberals were whistling in the dark, talking abut their ideals up on high while ignoring the rising tide of totalitarianism and, in the depths of the Depression, merely entertaining one another.
126-127 what it means to be human, what it means to live in right relationship with the divine, and what it means to love and be loved - the topics of theological anthropology.
134-135 We need to creatively transform our economic system with a different theological anthropology at its heart--one that regards human beings as generous, capable, and connected with one another and the earth.
154 The path to more abundant life needs a sustaining spirit of gratitude and praise. Liberal worship sometimes suffers from an underlying anger and disappointment at the state of the world, as if mere outrage were in and of itself a source of healing and empowerment. it is not. "A person will worship something," said Emerson. "Have no doubt about that. We may think that our tribute is paid in secret in the dark recesses of our hearts--but it will out. That which dominates our imaginations and thoughts will determine our lives, and character. Therefore it behooves us to be careful about what we worship, for what we are worshipping we are becoming."
164 A theological house can be a place of hospitality to any who seek its shelter. . . . It can greet the Other as a holy guest and urge its own residents to venture out and engage with the world.
168 "My father's mansion has many rooms," Jesus says.
177-178 story about indigenous Unitarians in India. "We Khasis should . . . thank you British for introducing us to the spiritual and moral teaching of Jesus. After all, if nothing else, this tells us how you tell yourselves you should treat other human beings! Now, just a few questions: Why do you want us to believe things about him he never spoke about? Would it not be enough just to treat one another as all children of the one God he called Father, that others call Mother, that our Khasi tradition calls Blei [Spirit], that Hindus have so many names for, that the Muslims call Allah? Would that not be enough?"After the Calvinist missionaries called the speaker a heretic like the ones in Wales - a Unitarian, he replied: "Better to have spiritual partners. Unitarian? You have an address for them, maybe?" [Author points out this is a dramatization, but still, an interesting exchange in which the name caller connects the persecuted with a like-minded community.]

[Dnicebear · Rating 4 out of 5]

My husband and some folks at my Presbyterian community are reading this book. After being caught up by a snatch of it, I continued reading till, well, I read it all. It's not meant to be an end to the conversation on progressive religion, and the structure supports this as we construct a house first from Ms Parker's California point of view followed by Mr. Buehren's east coast viewpoint.

Theology as a house-building exercise engages us, starting from the ground, the holy ground, from which many bodies are formed. We realize the great hope in many kinds of bodies and in building a theology that honors the diversity.

When we are at the welcome table Mr. Buehren quotes Robert Bellah: "Just when we are moving into an ever-greater valuation of the sacredness of the individual person, our capacity to imagine a social fabric that would hold individuals together is vanishing. And this is in no small part due to the fact that our religious individualism is linked to an economic individualism which, though it makes no distinction between persons except monetary ones, ultimately know nothing of sacredness. For if the only standard is money, then all other values are undermined."

For me this quote exposes the direction of "the great work" now before us: re-weaving the web, mending the fabric, of community. The authors encourage us to notice the old, outworn images while re-claiming vital traditions, pressing on towards fuller dimensions of a progressive and engaged faith "that can shelter the Spirit of Life in all of its depth, breadth and height."

[David Glasgow · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tag-team authoring is tricky.

But even given that disclaimer, this book feels like the product of someone's first-glance "brilliant" idea and far, far too few honest revisions. Less an integral volume on progressive religion and more a series of loosely related sermons, A House for Hope offers relevant history, poignant anecdotes, thoughtful reflection, and enough self-indulgent preacher-ese filler to have saved quite a few trees in the hands of a less lenient editor—but never quite sells me on the metaphor of religion as house. (Wait. Was the roof the community's self-definition? Or was that the threshold?)

I finished this book wishing that Parker and Buehrens had simply written two different, shorter books—their two writing voices don't harmonize particularly well, and they each seemed to spend at least as much ink straining the premise of the dual-author metaphor as they did providing useful content.

[T.Kay Browning · Rating 4 out of 5]

I automatically push back against anyone arguing for UUism to be more Christian, which I think the authors would deny they are doing in this book, but which they are definitely doing, but they were convincing and thorough in their positions and open to the views of others. Reasonable, compelling stuff.

[Vicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read for someone who spent so many years in Catholic school. Some parts felt a bit dated

[Kiwi · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I appreciate Buehrens' academic knowledge and ideas, I didn't find his chapters quite as personally moving; I think this book would have received a five form me if written just by Rebecca or split into two sections (one book each or all chapters by one author followed by all chapters of the other). The two voices didn't mesh well enough for me to not notice how completely different the styles were. I found myself comparing and contrasting in a way that I usually don't when reading books written by multiple authors. (I also think some of my high rating might come from the fact that this is one of the first books I've read on UUism outside of my UU directed learning experiences. Perhaps ask me again if I end up going through seminary!)

I did quite enjoy the analogy of progressive religion--or religion in general--to a house. Some of my theological buddies have talked about religious "paths" and furthering that "path" or "journey" metaphor; I think that is true for many religions and belief systems. For me, Unitarian Universalism is like a beloved old inn-and-tavern at a base point of a many-forked road. Travellers can meet and greet there, talk about their separate journeys, meet others to journey with them in the future, share a drink and some community, rest and rejuvenate, plan action to change things, and even get down to some frivolous fun. While there are paths out back to some lovely scenery and some people do stay there all year round as staff or lodgers, most head off down the forked paths to return later and continue the cycle. The inn-and-tavern must be friendly and welcoming, housing that is comfortable and encouraging and validating. Thus the metaphor worked well for me.

I'm afraid I'm all the more tempted to head out to Starr King School at some point in my life, now... Drat you, Reverend Sunflower, I knew taking you on as a new minister would be dangerous! ;D Glad to have had this book suggested to me. And alright, it WAS part of a UU directed learning experience, but I didn't ACTUALLY take the class--I just read the book. So it doesn't really count.

[Dzillich · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't like it, found myself thinking I had to finish it and it took forever because I'd read a few pages and set it aside. The only thing I liked about it was the analogy of religion being parts of a house. The authors quoted many people who I would guess are experts in the field but it made for tedious reading.

[Kelly Brill · Rating 4 out of 5]

What do progressive Christians think? How do you define progressive theology? This is an excellent primer. Each section of the book is in two parts: one written by a local church pastor and one written by a seminary professor. I found Rebecca Parker's chapters especially helpful. Much underlining!

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good overview of progressive religion, as told with a focus of our Christian founding.

[Vanessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Challenging theological book.

[Stacie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written introduction to the idea and ideals of progressive religion using the familiar metaphors of a house.