We continue, and conclude, our introduction to John Heron’s new book, Participatory Spirituality, A Farewell to Authoritarian Religion, which is available through Lulu Press.

For context, see our Wiki entry on Relational Spirituality.

Here is the programmatic Prologue:

1Â Prologue: a participatory spiritual culture

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“An increasing number of spiritually-minded people are currently busy with their own lived inquiry, and are seeking open and constructive dialogue about it. I call this social phenomenon, with which I closely identify, a newly emerging and participatory spiritual culture. It involves a growing and significant minority of people across the planet.

We are a loose, informal network of individuals and groups who are shaping our own spiritual paths from the creative wellspring within, Â evolving new forms appropriate to our day and age. At the same time, we honour and draw on, selectively and adaptively, the vast data bank of spiritual practices and beliefs derived from a diversity of sources, ancient and modern, worldwide.

My sense of it is that there are three interrelated criteria which, applying in varying degrees to any one individual, identify us:

·        We affirm our own original relation to the presence of creation, find spiritual authority within and do not project it outward onto teachers, traditions or texts.

·        We are alert to the hazards of defensive and offensive spirituality, in which unprocessed emotional distress distorts spiritual development, either by denying parts of one’s nature, or by making inflated claims in order to manipulate others.

·        We are open to genuine dialogue about spiritual beliefs and to collaborative decision-making about spiritual practices undertaken together.

The term ‘participatory’ applies to this culture in two intimately connected ways. First, we participate in the living spirit autonomously, in the light of our own discriminating awareness. And second, we participate in the living spirit co-operatively, sharing presence, and learning how to make decisions together about the forms of our spiritual culture that celebrate both our diversity and our unity.

This simple and radical combination bids farewell to authoritarian religion, in which an external authority prescribes the limits within which spiritual autonomy and co-operation may be exercised.”