A Book Review by Jim Burklo:
Young interspiritual guru and homelessness activist Adam Bucko and
old radical theologian and rave-mass priest Matthew Fox engage in a
rambling dialogue inspired by the soulful ideals of the Occupy movement
in this book. Most fascinating to me, an old radical pastor, is the
emerging global spiritual landscape described by Adam, whose “souljourn”
has taken him around the world – from his native Polish Catholicism
shaped by the Solidarity resistance to Communism, to busking in the
subway stops of New York City, to ministering to the sick and addicted
in India, to co-founding a spiritually-centered outreach to homeless
youth in New York. In his short life he’s experienced spiritual
practices and disciplines from the old traditions of Buddhism, Hinduism,
different branches of Christianity, and Sufi Islam, as well as new
“home-grown” ones emerging around the world today.
Adam Bucko and millions like him are fulfilling a prognostication of
Walt Whitman quoted in the book. Long ago he said: “There will soon be
no more priests…. The gangs of kosmos and prophets en masse shall take
their place. A new order shall rise and they shall be the priests of
man, and every man shall be his own priest.” Matthew Fox was defrocked
as a Catholic priest for acting as if Whitman’s vision should come true.
But Fox, now an Episcopal priest, has a much stronger personal and
institutional bond to traditional Christianity than does Bucko. The
consequences of this difference are evident in the book, which both
celebrates religious tradition as well as liberation from its confining
doctrines and structures. The book is at least as much about “occupying”
religion in order to break it open as it is about “occupying” Wall
Street in order to reveal alternatives to its assumptions.
The book stirred my blood. It inspired me to work harder to change
history, not just lament current repetitions of old, bad patterns.
Times have changed, and traditional religious institutions are
generally ten steps behind. But the church to
which I belong is breaking out of the old model of congregational life. We are doing “Occupy
Spirituality” by de-occupying our old, creaky building that ate up too
much of our time and money and energy. We sold it! Mt Hollywood
Congregational UCC really is experiencing a new life – we all feel
lighter, freer, and more focused on what really matters: being a
community of service, mutual support, and progressive spiritual
awakening. We’ve gone from big pulpit to no pulpit. Our new minister,
Anne Cohen, preaches in her bare feet. The theme of her preaching:
simplicity of spirit and lifestyle. We rent an intimate,
beautifully-remodeled space in a church building that’s in the same neighborhood
we’ve occupied for 100 years.
But we’re radicals. Most churches can’t bring themselves to
restructure in such a dramatic fashion. Indeed, our church lost some members who could not make the
transition. We’re a bit smaller in size but a lot bigger in spirit!
Resistance
to change in old institutions means that many of them will die. And
then, over time, new faith institutions will emerge. It’s happening
now, and this book is a window into the process.
Adam Bucko de-occupied the Catholicism of his upbringing, in order to
occupy a new “interspiritual” space where any one soul-centered
community celebrates the others, and eagerly seeks to learn from them.
This book vividly describes the emerging spiritual communities and
movements he and Matt Fox have created or encountered.
My prediction is different than Whitman’s. I think he was
prescient about demise of the religious institutional structures of his
time, and the emergence of a spirituality of and from the people. But
people being people, it is inevitable that they will create new
religious or spiritual institutions upon - or away from - the ashes of the
old ones. There’s no reason these new organizations can’t continue to
embody the “Occupy” ethic of being “leaderful” and maintaining a culture
of 100% participation. People are likely to have a more fluid
relationship to these institutions, moving from one to another through
their lifetimes of growth and change.
We are entering an era not of the collapse of religion altogether,
but of the collapse of some big, old religious organizations and the
emergence of amazing new ones. Matthew Fox will continue to be a wise
elder advisor, urging on this process. (I aspire to the same role!)
Adam Bucko is a recovering anarchist. I predict he will move from an
“Occupy” tent to a more enduring edifice of spiritual community. And the
world will be better for it.
JIM BURKLO
Website: JIMBURKLO.COM Weblog: MUSINGS Follow me on twitter: @jtburklo
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Associate Dean of Religious Life, University of Southern California