Communion of Thinkers

"Similarly, if you are to know what you think and what you might worship, you need to tune in to the conversation that others have had. You’ll end up thinking something, you’ll end up worshipping something, but the study of philosophy and theology puts you in touch with people now and in earlier centuries with whom you can speak. If you listen only to yourself, you will find yourself imprisoned; if, in isolation, you try to worship 'the God within’, you will end up only worshipping yourself. Meaning and purpose are transmitted through communities of experience and reflection. Only silly people think that religion is what a person does with their solitude: the privatisation of religion is part of the privatisation of all experience in our postmodern culture.

Religion is essentially social, and people find their space within a sharing of insights and possibilities that extend across the centuries. The business of thinking within an extended community of thinkers about the conditions of our life and the possibility of God is, I think, liberating and fulfilling."

John McDade, Heythrop College