Four phases of religious philosophy/Sourcework

Wieman and Westcott-Wieman (1935)

Henry Nelson Wieman and Regina Westcott-Wieman, Normative Psychology of Religion (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1935), pages 316-319 Available here

There are four psychological levels upon which the formulation of a working philosophy of religion may take place.

First, the process may halt when the first system of habits and ideals, over-strongly charged with social influence, is fairly well established. There is no experimental living to speak of. The outcome is a conformative, or orthodox, working philosophy of religion. It is composed of stereotypes. It preserves. rather than creates. There are certain conditions which encourage the individual to remain on this low plateau. He may feel contented because of the protection which is accorded conformers. He may have developed fears of consequences threatened against those who reject a blind faith. He may love or revere the authority of the religious group, or the parent, or the teacher, who has influenced his development, and so may resist breaking accord with this one or hurting him. He may be anticipating the fulfilment of promises which a particular belief assures. In any case, his faith is strong, but blind, it is formulated by some authority. He does not seek to validate it by available, objective means.

Second, the process may halt as soon as experimental living. has developed a total plan of life that seems to work fairly well in his particular situation. The individual has been forced to do some thinking and some evaluating. He is no longer willing to accept unvalidated stereotypes which strain his credulity. Yet his goal is not progressive. He wants to find a philosophy which makes his world seem reasonably all right and orderly and meaningful. So his philosophy develops as the outcome of such experiences as he happens to have, and with only such criticism and evaluation as the exigencies of his living demand. It is an adventitious philosophy.

There are certain psychological reasons which influence individuals to remain on this plateau. The individual may have been seeking an explanation of life, merely. When he finds one that seems workable, he continues to use it, usually without re- examination from time to time. Such a one is likely to be the individual who gets caught into a busy round of matter-of-fact activities. Or, he may have been searching for a completion of himself and the inadequacies of his world in some form which he can respect. When he has found a Providence or a Redeemer or a Humanistic Theory which he "can tie to" and which seems rational to him, he treats his philosophy as settled, without being too curious concerning drifting fogs about the edges. of his clearing. Or his philosophy may be nothing more than expedient rationalizing, a belief in what works best for him or promises him most in terms of his preferences. Again, the individual may have gone as far as he could go in the face of the combination of social conditions which compose his operative environment.

Third, the individual may continue with the experimental living, keeping very alert and appreciative, and constantly evaluating. He may discover many high values, perhaps something beyond the ken of most of his fellow men. He may not be able to explain the workings of all the values which he finds, but he feels that this is only a temporary human limitation. For he believes that there is nothing beyond his cultural perspective. His philosophy is culture-bound. He does not knowingly accept any facts, nor stereotypes, nor does he build into his system of ideas any concepts, which have not been tested and validated. He is canny, well-informed, constructive, full of interests. He has scaled the heights of the culture of his day in so far as one man can. He is psychologically conditioned against beliefs in anything that the culture of his time ignores or repudiates.

Of course, no one can have knowledge beyond the culture of his time, but one can recognize the limitations of his culture. The culture-bound individual tends to have blind spots as to the possibilities of exploration and evaluation outside those which have been recognized and standardized by the social group with which he identifies himself. He does not realize the relativity of the techniques and the appreciations of his culture. He takes his age and his time too seriously. He does not see them as only a long moment. He is aggressive in experimental living and evaluating only when the interests of his culture are concerned, and only within the scope of his culture. He is culture-centered.

This culture-bound philosophy can be better understood by contrasting it with its opposite. Whitehead provides a good example of the opposite for this comparison. So does Plato for his time. Such a one engages in great flights of speculative imagination, which take off from the proudest heights of truth that his culture can erect. These speculative ventures suggest a larger perspective than that of his own culture. While this larger perspective is too far in the dawning to be clearly discerned, at least the here-and-now takes its small place in the sweep of time. But culture-bound philosophy of religion has great prevalence today. It is a chief barrier against the progress of religion. We are in great need of more philosophy of religion which is culturally transcendent in the sense just indicated.

The fourth area wherein a working philosophy of religion may be developed has already been suggested. It is a Reality-centered rather than culture-centered. Its development requires a transcendental point of view and attitude. The individual, here, cannot know beyond the limits of the knowledge of his culture; but he can realize vividly and stirringly that there is more to know, and that there may be new ways of going about the building of knowledge. His knowledge is bound by his culture, but the exploration and creativeness of his imagination. are not. He is not tradition-bound as is he with the conformative philosophy. He is not ego-bound as is he with the adventitious philosophy. He is not culture-bound as is he who builds on the third plateau. He has a mystical quality in his living and outreaching. He holds himself ready for the greater which may emerge. He holds his system of concepts tentatively, ready to re-test and re-shape when greater meaning comes. He will progressively integrate his living in the light of the findings.

He participates actively in the actual living processes which go to make up the realities of the everyday; but he seeks to discern in and through these, those significant meanings which are pointers toward the wider Reality. He has a vivid sense of the unfinished and fragmentary nature of what his particular culture can reveal of the Supremely Worthful. A working philosophy of religion, developed through a transcendental view- point such as this, is realistic while still being creative; it is tested while still being unbound. It furthers unlimited progres- sion in religious living and in the development of that body of concepts which guides it.