New York Times columnist Ross Douthat says that over the years, he’s seen a striking shift in the responses he receives to columns in which he discusses his religious faith.
When Ross first became a Times columnist, it was during the heyday of the New Atheists like Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and Christopher Hitchens. Whenever he wrote about anything related to his own religious faith, he would be inundated with letters from devotees of these writers, quoting them and telling Ross what an idiot he was for being religious.
In recent years, he has noticed the kinds of letters he received changed in tone and substance. What he started to receive instead were people saying, “I’m not religious. In fact, I’ve always been an atheist, but I wish I could be religious—I just don’t know how.”
His new book Believe, is an attempt to help them do just that.
While Ross is a devout Catholic, he isn’t really making the case for Catholicism. He’s making a case for religion writ large.
I learned about this book on a podcast called Weird Studies that is sort of a metaphysical/philosophical podcast run by a Catholic and a Zen Buddhist who both agree with Ross’s premise. The Zen Buddhist host was previously a strong atheist and fan of the New Atheist genre. He now can see how the container of Zen Buddhism has been really beneficial to him. So it’s worth noting that when I say religion, it could be a non-deistic type of practice like Zen Buddhism.
It’s important to note that Ross and these hosts are not saying “become spiritual.” They are saying “become religious.”
I’m surprised to be saying this, but I think they’re onto something.
There is something very different between being spiritual and being religious. I know because I’ve been spiritual and religious and spiritual and not religious. I also have been an atheist/agnostic in my younger years, so I’ve seen this from various vantage points.
Because I had such a terrible experience when I became religious in my thirties, for the last eight years or so I’ve embraced a more of a “spiritual, not religious” sort of Christian-adjacent faith (since Christianity is my context due to my history in that tradition). My faith is one that is informed by mystics from all traditions, but has been nearly devoid of any kind of religious aspect other than going to the occasional Mass.
I think it served me well enough up until probably around the time it started shifting for lots of Ross’s readers.
I’m not against being “spiritual, not religious” per se. I just think it likely isn’t a strong enough container for the period of history we are living through.
I also think that it may not be strong enough even in the best of times, and the reason for that is that it doesn’t generally do a good enough job of keeping our egos in check. When your ego is running amok, it just creates problems for you and everyone around you. It’s what makes everything seem terrible when some things are terrible and some things are wonderful. Your ego doesn’t like nuance, and it loves to blame all your problems and the problems of the world on other people. It loves to be hopeless because it knows there is no point in being otherwise.
Back in April I interviewed Richard Rohr and I asked him about something he said in his latest book, which is that if you’re going to be prophetic, you really need to be part of a religious tradition because you need the guardrails.
You need to be in some sort of context that says it’s not okay to demonize your enemies because, actually, you’re supposed to love your enemies. There really isn’t any religion that doesn’t teach this. You will be in a context that won’t affirm your judgment and rage and all these things that we humans like to do when we feel threatened.
This context ideally will funnel your anxieties and concerns into service and action that is healthy, and that looks nothing like raging on social media. (I'm aware there are many churches in the US that do stoke rage, and I don’t consider those places religious. I consider them ideological. Stay away from them at all costs.)
But the truth is, you really need these guardrails even if you aren’t going to be a prophetic person.
I asked Richard, on my behalf and on behalf of many of the listeners, how we can be part of these religions, particularly Christianity, that are so problematic?
His answer basically was, “That’s just your ego.” When he said it to me, I knew it was absolutely true. As he pointed out, your ego makes things all good or all bad—everything is black and white. It makes you the ultimate judge. His point was that the Catholic Church is not one thing. He pointed out that he has been a fierce critic of the Catholic Church, so being religious doesn’t mean you can’t confront problems within the institution.
Even though I knew it was true, I still have been having a hard time going back to church, all while feeling it would probably be good for me. But it was something in Ross’s book that wasn’t even the main point—and in fact, he sort of rejected it as a starting point—that actually has made me decide that I’m going to start going back to church.
He quoted from the ex-nun turned comparative religion historian Karen Armstrong’s 2009 book, The Case For God, where she rebutted the approach the New Atheists were taking in attacking religion. “It is no use magisterially weighing up the teachings of religion to judge their truth or falsehood before embarking on a religious way of life. You will discover their truth—or lack of it—only if you translate these doctrines into ritual, or ethical action.”
This was the first time I had read that quote, but it’s something that I believe and that I actually have said to other people in the past when they were struggling with their faith.
But, of course, as usual, I can never take my own advice.
While Ross makes the case that you really can reason your way into religion, I am more in the Karen Armstrong camp that it’s spiritual practices that will get you to where you probably want to go.1 Reason can help, but it’s not in my experience what leads to real spiritual transformation. So for Catholics the spiritual practices would include the sacraments or praying the rosary, and for Zen Buddhists it would be a serious meditation practice that is part of a lineage and community rooted in that lineage.
The thing that’s amazing about spiritual practices is you don’t have to believe in anything for them to work. All you need is sincere intention.
In my experience, if you are sincerely seeking God or Source or whatever you want to call it, you will find it.