religious revolution now 275
terms of a Christian’s understanding of the claims and content of his
faith. Under the terms of such a shift , the problem may become part of
a solution. Christianity could become a terrain for the development of
the religion of the future only by turning into something other than
what it is now.
Suppose that a person who has found light and guidance in Christian-
ity has taken to heart the criticism of the struggle of the world and un-
derstood the reasons that argue for religious revolution now. He under-
stands that the chief aim of this spiritual transformation is to enter
more fully into the possession of life, or to achieve a greater life, not just
later but right now, so that living for the future becomes a way of living
in the present. He fi rst wants to discover, however, whether this reli-
gious change can be accomplished if not within the bounds of his faith,
at least with the materials that it provides. Anxious to free himself from
error about what matters most, he has opened himself to the religious
criticism of religion— of his religion— no matter how radical. He has
determined to free himself from the hesitancies of the halfway house;
he will not be satisfi ed with an interpretation of his present or future
religion that transposes its disturbing claims into the humanistic com-
monplaces of his time. He has faced, without lying to himself or seek-
ing refuge in confusion and sloth, each of the scandals of reason com-
mitted by his faith. He has understood how his faith, once interpreted
and refi ned, can be made less scandalous to reason. He nevertheless
appreciates that it cannot cease to be scandalous without losing its grip
on the vision and the experience that made it powerful in the fi rst
place. He has been sobered by refl ecting on the infl uence of circum-
stance upon belief. Th is refl ection has led him to persist in his spiritual
search lest he allow his religious imagination to be ruled by the acci-
dents of family, society, and culture and license the dead to govern the
living. He will not abide such a perversion in this, the most encompass-
ing part of his convictions: the part that connects his vision of our place
in the world with his choice of a way to live.
He will then want to understand what in the past and present of
Christianity serves, and what impedes, the needed religious revolution.
Whether the religion that results will be seen as the old religion made
new or as a new religion altogether is something that, refl ecting on the