When today we ponder the future of religion, we find ourselves in a quandary that would seem to have no solution. Over the last fifty years, the number of people who identify with traditional forms of religion has steadily decreased. … Read More
The Creative Systems Theory concept of Cultural Maturity describes how our times are demanding—and as potential making possible—an essential new chapter in the human story. One characteristic of culturally mature understanding is that it helps us think more systemically about … Read More
In my recent book Quick and Dirty Answers to the Biggest of Questions, I describe how Creative Systems Theory helps us address all manner of “ultimate questions”—big picture concerns that in times past have tended to leave us baffled. The … Read More
[In response to today’s extreme social/political polarization, I’ll be doing a series of articles that take front-page-news issues and address them from a big-picture, systemic perspective—from above the partisan fray. My intent with this series is not to get people … Read More
[The following reflections are adapted from two of my most recent books: Cultural Maturity: A Guidebook for the Future and Quick and Dirty Answers to the Biggest of Questions.] The concept of Cultural Maturity proposes that the reason many ultimate … Read More
In my recent book, Cultural Maturity: A Guidebook for the Future, I divide the most commonly encountered views of the future into five “scenarios” (to use the language of futurists): We’ve Arrived Scenarios, We’ve Gone Astray Scenarios, Postindustrial/Information Age Scenarios, Postmodern/Constructivist Scenarios, and Transformational/New … Read More
One of the most significant new capacities that accompanies Cultural Maturity changes is the ability to engage limits in more sophisticated ways. Of particular importance, we become better able to recognize that some limits are inviolable. Nothing more defined the … Read More
A new, more mature relationship to limits represents one of Cultural Maturity’s defining characteristics. In my writings, I’ve given special attention to one particularly ultimate example: our human relationship to death. Never in the history of the species has looking … Read More
Adapted from Cultural Maturity—A Guidebook for the Future A key to understanding the seductions and risks of easy answers concerns what we might call the mythologizing of experience. Mythologizing may be for some an unfamiliar notion, but it is not … Read More
Excerpted from Cultural Maturity: A Guidebook for the Future: Essential leadership tasks: Religious leaders need to firmly denounce doctrinal polarizations, help us step beyond outdated moral absolutism, and challenge us to engage the larger questions of purpose and well-being that … Read More
Adapted from a manuscript draft of Creative Systems Theory; Jonathan (a minister): I want to talk about religion. CJ: Great. What about it? Jonathan: Its future. Does it have one, one that will benefit us? I look at interminable conflict … Read More
Robert Wright’s 2009 book The Evolution of God is fascinating for what it contributes to our picture of religion’s history. Even more, it is fascinating for the kind of history it represents and the picture of the future it puts … Read More