Worldview and Mind covers a wide range of thinkers and movements to explore the
relation between religion and modernity in all its complexity. Eugene Webb
invokes a number of topical issues, including religious terrorism, as he
unfolds the phenomenon of religion in all its complications, from the
difference between faith and belief to the diversities among—and
within—religions.
What
drew you to write about this complex topic?
One of the writers I talk about, Robert Kegan, has
described our modern world as one in which many of us find ourselves “in over
our heads,” overwhelmed both by competing visions of life in our pluralistic
world and by the demands of mental development these make on us. I conceived my book as a kind of guide for the
perplexed that would help people deal with these challenges by showing the
reciprocal relation between the worldviews we hold and the minds we develop and
hold them with. It is a book not about
what to think but about how to think--that is, about what is involved in the
process of thinking carefully and critically about issues of ultimate meaning
and value.
What
is the difference between faith and belief?
Since the rise of modern science in about the
seventeenth century, the word belief
has taken on the rather narrow meaning of holding opinions, usually with
insufficient evidence. In its root
meaning, as Wilfred Cantwell Smith showed, believe
is cognate to the German belieben,
meaning to cherish or hold dear. The
root in Latin is similar: credo (I
believe) is formed from cor (heart) +
do (I give). It is in modern usage, therefore, that the
two words diverge. In their original
meanings they were quite close, with faith
referring to loving trust and loyalty under conditions of uncertainty. In the book I discuss St. Thomas Aquinas’s conception
of living faith (fides formata) as
animated by love, as compared with dead faith (fides informis), which lacks animation by love. The word belief,
in modern usage, tends to be understood as referring to the latter.
What
are the basic steps we can take to be more tolerant of others’ beliefs?
One key element, I think, it to recognize that all
worldviews are developed by interpretation and that careful thinking in any
domain requires a willingness to consider different possibilities of
interpretation. Another is to recognize
that religions tend to address questions that have no simple and
straightforward answer, so that alternative symbolisms may be helpful in
further illuminating the areas of mystery and spiritual experience religions
are concerned with.
Why
do you think religion has had such a huge impact on society since as far back
as religion dates? What is it about us that makes religion such a big part of our
lives?
I think human beings have a basic thirst for meaning
that is all-encompassing in its reach. Religions are not the only way people can try
to satisfy this thirst, but religions, at least at their best, tend to be the
most open to living in the face of mystery.
In
your introduction you say, “Almost every person alive today is aware that there
are people who hold visions of life different from his or her own, and almost
everyone suffers at least some degree of anxiety about the lack of certainty
this implies.” Do you ever find yourself guilty of having this anxiety?
I don’t think anxiety is something anyone should
have reason to feel guilty about. I
agree with Kierkegaard that anxiety is a great teacher and that if one listens
to it, it can lead toward greater intellectual and spiritual openness. Anxiety comes as an indication that one may
be resisting new possibilities of interpretation that might be more adequate to
experience. If one attends to the voice
of anxiety, it can make one aware of areas of resistance. Anxiety becomes chronic, and therefore
problematic, however, when one resists it by trying to cling to impossible
claims to certainty that would exclude further questions and further
possibilities of experience and interpretation.
Do
you think that it is likely in our lifetime that “the world’s religions might
manage to develop a way of living together with mutual appreciation and respect”?
Certainly not in our lifetime, but even so, each
individual can try, by living in intellectual and spiritual openness as a
reasonable, responsible person, to contribute to the development of a world in
which such mutual appreciation and respect can take root.
What
can you tell us about your next book?
In Chapter 7, on “The Dynamic Diversity of Religious
Worldview,” I said that the vitality of a religion depends on its openness to
differences of interpretation and that just as there is diversity among
different religions, there is also diversity within any given stream of
religion. In this book I used the
diverse forms among Islamic traditions as the main example, but I also
mentioned that there was similar diversity within the Christian tradition and
that the differences between Eastern and Western Christianity would be worth
exploring. That is what my next book, In Search of the Triune God: The Christian Paths of East and West (University of Missouri Press) will be about.
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