Metamodern Christianity | 5. Catechism for a Metamodern Christian (w/ Brendan Graham Dempsey)

Catechism has meant "religious education," especially as a coming-of-age initiation into the fullness of spiritual community and engagement with its mysteries. It has to do with what sort of support and instruction young people and converts receive about their faith as they move into deeper spiritual relationship with God and church. Here I ask, What would a supportive catechism look like for Christians on the path towards a metamodern form of faith? How might religious learning unfold in healthy and sustainable ways such as would foster a kind of Christianity that is truly metamodern in outlook? What are the right developmental moments for literalism, doubt, even atheism, and conviction?

0:00 An Education for Faith
1:55 Grades or Phases of Spiritual Learning
4:32 Age 0-7*: Childhood Enchantment
9:20 Age 7-10: Mythic Literalism
15:12 Age 10-13: Symbolic Belief
21:03 Age 13-15: Reflective Religion
26:24 Age 15-18: Rational Meaning-Making
29:28 Age 18-23: Deconstructive Questioning
41:33 Age 23-27: Integrative Wisdom
50:13 What's Missing?
54:13 Invitation to Keep Learning

*All ages are just rough approximations

[campbelldixon]

thanks for your efforts on this unfolding series. I've found your videos lately to build so well on the last, anticipating questions I have as they form and giving me other places to explore. Even though I'm not actively participating, I feel like I'm riding a collective wave of learning here and I'm very appreciative of how your work is scafolding that.

[aeonian]

Amazing and inspiring work and writing Brendan. You probably are as much aware of this as anyone but remember that what you are doing with your project is not something that you came up by yourself (or for yourself). You are stepping into a territory that many Christians, probably millions of people, are also inhabiting and trying to make sense off.. you're just doing it much more skillful. - I remember having a lot of cognitive dissidence with christianity since I was a child, experiencing something genuine in church but couldn't reconcile it with the modern world and being true to myself. - I totally get how the "meaning in life" can for some people like you be found in looking for the "meaning of life" by finding a real purpose in figuring out for yourself and for others how things fit together in a way that is truthful and satisfying as a Christian or just as a person. Someone should do what you are trying to do with Metamodern Christianity, more people should do it, glad that you are actually doing it..

[RichardCosci]

Nice, clear description of stages of spiritual growth & Christian spiritual growth. I especially enjoyed near the end you describing the metamodern as notes in a chord, a symphony of all the stages. Of course held loosely and open to additional voices in the choir.

[jerrypeters]

Contemplating the expression of metamodernism through the lens of experiencing our late 20's is entertaining. Like, what would Chandler do?

So, we've packed our minimalist heritage bags and found a place to live on our own, a job to get by, and immerse ourselves into the complexity of the dating scene. Allowing for generalizations here, all areas seem impoverished because our task before turning 30 is to build up experiences of our own that hopefully reveal our relative individuality and trajectory, and then, we can finally make some serious plans for the future.

So, is that what the metamodern community needs to do? Dive into the unknown, experience diverse attempts of personal meaning, and then eventually, do some serious world-building for the character we see ourselves as?

Just spit-balling here

[Organising_stuff]

You might find it interesting to look into the work of Kieran Egan. He was concerned with education so he seems relevant to a discussion around catechism. He built a philosophy of education as a series of stages that we developed through that teachers should be using to educate their students at the level they are at. His system is much more nuanced that I can express in a short comment, but I thought I'd through it out there.
Especially interesting to me is how in 'the educated mind' he doesn't really talk about the "somatic stage" until after he reaches the "ironic stage", which most would seem to be the most developed state of mind. He seems to have a kind of metamodern return to simple embodiment in mind.
There is definitely something to be said for a return to simplicity. Like how all of the Cartesian philosophising gets undermined by embodiment. It also bring to mind the end of Ecclesiastes (perhaps my favourite book of the bible), where after all the striving and thinking and achievement of the philosopher king, his advice is to remember your creator and be suspicious of too many books.

[autismfromtheInside]

"Doubt is the seed of faith" :)
I have no idea who said that.
I wonder if we should be attempting to shelter kids from certain material they're not developmentally equipped to handle? Or whether with appropriate role models to talk through their questions, if this would become less of a problem? Obviously that would require a particularly sage role model, capable of meeting the person with answers at their level. Personally, I think that's the key. Real progress is made when we can allow ourselves to give, not necessarily the best, most comprehensive answer, but the one most appropriate to the listeners level, i.e. the one they will best understand. The one they most need to hear. The one that speaks to the questions they have right now (not a future stage they haven't encountered yet). CS Lewis was good at this. I'm thinking of mere Christianity when he frequently said something like 'if you haven't asked yourself this question, pay no attention to this chapter!'

[parksgore]

Loving everything you're doing, keep up the great work brother. Much needed. Recently started Metamodernism and the Return of Transcendence

[elizabethraper]

Liked educational pedagogical approach that emphasizes process of unfolding.

[kevincrouse]

Hey Brendan, really appreciated this framework and your engagement with Fowler AND McLaren! Where does Brian express his framework? Is it in a book, podcast or paper?

[JiveTurkey]

Thanks this is really helpful. I like that you broke it down by age. I am attempting to be a metamodern Christian.

I actually teach Sunday school on Wednesday night. The kids break up by age and the 4-5th graders by gender as well. I teach the 4-5th grade boys.

It’s weird because I don’t have the same perspective as any of the pastors or other adults as far as I can tell. It can be lonely because I can’t really relate with anyone from the same vantage point. I have to go to channels like this or Vervaeke or Integral or TLC. And most of these sources are at a higher vantage point than myself.

Hopefully an integral perspective better equips me to teach children about God and the Bible. Much of what I’m teaching is symbolic and I’m teaching it as if it’s literal most of the time because that’s where they’re at. When we get away from Dogma and into the deep questions though, kids will surprise you with their insight.

Anywho, thanks for the videos you’ve been putting out, I’ll probably go through this one a couple of times. 😆

[DoubtfireClubWGPowers]

Now a metamodern Liturgy! That I can do something with!

[aeonian]

I wonder why the work of Hans Küng is (almost) never mentioned in Integral or Metamodern circles. His theology as well as his "Project Weltethos/Worldethos" seems to be gesturing towards a Metamodern opening of the Catholic Church. One line of thinking that stood out to me when I looked into his theology was that he was arguing that Christianity as a world religion has a special relationship to western modernity and the enlightenment, that the other world religions don't have since it co-evolved in Europe - and also that the Christianity that we get now in the late 20th century or early 21st century is already one that has passed through modernity - it faced modernity already in the nineteenth century - and that this is a strength of Christianity that the other world religions don't share. There is no historical critical research on the Koran in the same way as it happened with the Bible. And Hinduism is something totally different that emerged on its own, independent of the Abrahamic book religions, also independent of western modernity, which is why it is even more difficult to relate to it in its essence for us westerners.

[WhiteStoneName]

6:18 “…lima beans…collard greens…peachy keen…”

[StevenPetermann]

Very interesting presentation of the stages of development. However, I'm skeptical that this sort of catechism would work within a tradition *unless* the understandings of the religious narrative don't make a fundamental change as the development proceeds. Now, a narrative can be *presented* differently at the various stages but if there is a sense that something was "wrong" about the prior narrative this could be seen by the adherent as a bait-and-switch strategy. Then as you said, a nihilism or profound skepticism could ensue. The key would be that the earlier narratives aren't seen as naive or ill-informed and therefore in need of correction.
From my perspective as a former Christian and seminary student many years ago, what's needed would require a radical shift at the grassroots level that I don't see happening in Christianity. Theologians like Paul Tillich, Marcus Borg, and others have offered radical alternative proposals and nothing of consequence occurred. An alternative I would suggest is the offering of a broad in-depth education about metaphysics and religion coupled with examinations of the various religious and metaphysical schemes on offer both today and in the past. Then the person could make up their own mind if something is appealing. Given the vast array of cultures, personality types, histories, and dispositions coupled with modern sensibilities, I think pluralism is here to stay even more than in the past. Now, it might be that a metamodern offshoot of Christianity could find some traction but the question would be if it really deserves the label "Christian" and whether it is unique enough to distinguish itself from many other systems.

[williambranch]

Human beings can only handle 4-10 things at the same time ... hence the 10 Commandments ;-)

[elenabalyberdina]

do you really think that confusion and coming upon various contradictions necessarily lead to greater resolution? it may in fact be very detrimental to developing critical thinking, when you are constantly bombarded with and demanded to believe unverified claims. intellect eventually gives out and selects the simplest answer. i am sure you are aware of it

[domesdaylines]

Do you think the new religion is gnostic? I am very deep into the Work right now and engaged in a forced 100% commitment, which is not something most people should even engage in, but it seems clear to me that people are prime for gnosticism. They have lost touch with old religion and want to understand the truth for themselves.

[newtonfinn]

With regard to the development of faith, Kierkegaard alludes to the image of a child learning to walk. From the helpless state of being carried around as a baby, the child evolves into holding the mother's hand and struggling to take steps. Eventually there comes the point where the mother must let go the hand of the toddler, so that it might stumble and tumble, over and over again, until it learns to stand and walk uprightly on its own. Thereafter, for the rest of its life, it will walk the faith journey by itself, following in the footsteps of Jesus, the pattern and redeemer, who will rush to pick up the walker each time it falls, but only to instantly let go and again become the pattern toward which the walker in faith must stride and strive. May I suggest that the thought of Kierkegaard, freed from its orthodox doctrinal framework, holds much promise for a meta-modern Xianity. So in quite different ways do Teilhard and his universe moving toward Omega, and Schweitzer with his mysticism of reverence for life.

[elenabalyberdina]

Brendon, are you serious, are you suggesting that elders or proponents of faith should include in their respective catechisms an idea that there might not be neither divine nor truth accessible to human beings