Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation

From the Center for Action and Contemplation

Week Twenty-Two: An Evolving Faith

Divine Love Leads to Growth and Change

The whole creation is eagerly waiting for the full revelation of the children of God. . . . From the beginning until now, the entire creation, as we know, has been groaning in one great act of giving birth. —Romans 8:19, 22

Evolution is just the language of growth and change. In the classic quote above, St. Paul does not actively teach what we now call evolution. Rather, I think he fully assumes it when he says parenthetically “as we know.”

It has always seemed completely strange to me that there should be any resistance whatsoever to evolution or evolutionary thinking in Christian theology or practice. Instead, Christians should have been the first in line to recognize and cooperate with such a dynamic notion of God. But maybe many do not enjoy such a relational God—with all that that implies—and only recognize a “substance” (that which “stands under”) they call God. A static notion of God makes everything else static too, including our very notions of spirituality, history, and religion.

It’s hard to imagine that so many still have a very static notion of God's being and divine action in the world when we have so much evidence to the contrary! Our theological understanding of the Trinity reveals God as a divine dance. The Indwelling Holy Spirit shows us God who always moves within us. The notion of salvation is continuously and actively revealed in the Scriptures. History itself is unfolding alongside human growth. Many spiritual development schemas have been formed, beginning with the desert period and carrying on through the Christian mystics. Sadly, even resurrection has traditionally been understood as a static, one-time anomaly concerning Jesus. Few saw it as a promise and model for us too (see 1 Corinthians 15:20–25).

I can only assume that this resistance reflects a very limited inner experience of God. Anyone with a sense of soul knows this to be true: God is never static within us. Only when God is held without can we continue to think of God as inert, static, and merely imposing laws. Anybody who has paid attention to their inner life or read history books surely recognizes that life and love are cumulative, growing, and going somewhere that is always new and always more. Perhaps it is this newness and non-familiarity of which we are afraid? For some reason, we think that admitting such love dynamism and cooperating with it (see Romans 8:28) is going to compromise our eternal, unchanging notion of God. Yet the Bible is not afraid of a dynamic and unfolding understanding of God. The notion of “The Lord” clearly evolves with many other iterations in the Hebrew Scriptures. For the New Testament writers, these images inspire the Christian notion of Jesus and lead to the utterly relational and totally interactive doctrine of the Trinity. A dynamic understanding of God is not only rather obvious in the Bible, but also necessary—and surely exciting. Remember, the only language available to religion is metaphor. God is always like something else we have experienced visibly and directly.

Adapted from Richard Rohr, “Introduction,” “Evolutionary Thinking,” Oneing, vol. 4, no. 2 (CAC Publishing: 2016), 13–14.

Image credit: Chaokun Wang, bamboo 天竹子 (detail), 2015, photograph, Wikiart.

Image inspiration: The capacity of bamboo to grow mirrors our own potential for inner unfolding. As long as there is life, there is evolution. As long as we have breath, our faith can continue to grow.

Prayer For Our Community

Loving God, you fill all things with a fullness and hope that we can never comprehend. Thank you for leading us into a time where more of reality is being unveiled for us all to see. We pray that you will take away our natural temptation for cynicism, denial, fear and despair. Help us have the courage to awaken to greater truth, greater humility, and greater care for one another. May we place our hope in what matters and what lasts, trusting in your eternal presence and love. Listen to our hearts’ longings for the healing of our suffering world. Please add your own intentions . . . Knowing, good God, you are hearing us better than we are speaking, we offer these prayers in all the holy names of God. Amen.
Listen to Father Richard pray this prayer aloud.

Story From Our Community

I became a Christian in 1977 and joined a charismatic community with great zeal about evangelizing. I have had times of doubt and struggles, but it wasn't until my 60s that I started to question everything, even the blessings I was so sure of before. This has been alarming to my wife, family, and friends, and scary and quite lonely for me. I don't know what it will look like, but I know my way must evolve and mature or it will surely die. The meditations on doubt as a key player in growth have given me hope. It shows me I'm not unusual or lost, but actually in good company.
—Stephen R.
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News from the CAC

Explore Faith After Doubt

An evolving faith requires a dynamic notion of God—and of ourselves. In his recent book, Faith After Doubt, Center for Action and Contemplation faculty member Brian McLaren proposes a four-stage model of faith development, encouraging readers to see doubt not as the enemy of faith, but as a portal to a continuously growing spiritual life.

Evolve on a Wisdom Journey

Cultivate a rhythm of contemplative practice that embraces a dynamic and evolving spiritual journey. Join Cynthia Bourgeault and like-minded seekers for an online exploration of the wisdom way of knowing and growing in our online course Introductory Wisdom School. Financial assistance is available for those who apply.

Explore Richard Rohr's Daily Meditations archive at cac.org. 

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