Understanding Religion

A few Christmases ago I took part in a Radio 4 panel discussion about The Creed. Four of us: 'a Hindu', 'a Conservative Christian', 'An Atheist' and 'A Liberal Christian' were required to engage, line by line, with the Nicene Creed. Rigid boundaries to the discussion were policed throughout by the presenter, who was impatient with any departure from scientific rationalist notions of 'truth', and with any discussion of the political functioning of creeds in designating 'insiders' and 'outsiders' (which, to me, is their most interesting feature). We were simply expected to declare, unequivocally, whether or not we 'believed in' each line.

It was great fun, but left me with a deep feeling of unease. I came away thinking that if even the specialist religious affairs department of the BBC rules out a proper exploration of the complexity of religious truth and belief, what hope is there for other media? Even worse, I had been designated 'a Liberal Christian': a label I would never claim for myself. Naming ourselves was strictly forbidden!

As a society, we are not very 'literate' about religious identity. We give scant attention to the amazing variety of truth claims that abound within and between faiths, and the diversity of ways of 'being religious'. We tend to see religions as simply collections of beliefs, and religious commitment as intellectual assent to certain propositions coupled with particular resultant practices. We don't really (even within the Christian community) want to listen that closely to the tricky conversations that go on between our heritage and our lived religious reality; the ways in which we rebel against and depart from tradition as well as submit (joyfully or not) to it. And the best we seem to be able to achieve is a vague attempt to 'treat all religions equally', without bothering to assess differentials in political and historical context. For instance, to insult a Bishop of an established church, with access to political power and privilege, is not morally equivalent to insulting a member of a minority faith that lacks those things.

Perhaps this corporate ignorance barely mattered in a pre-globalised world, or when our small corner of it looked certain to become secular and post-Christian. But it surely matters now. Over and over again in the last few months, we have been reminded of the global significance of conflict about religion. To get to grips with the conflict, we need to get to grips with questions of human identity. We have a lot of political, intellectual and emotional work to do.  

Alison Webster is Social Responsibility Adviser to the Diocese of Oxford.