A New Kind of "Religious" World

I am interested in the world of "Religion".   I am a preacher's daughter, am 75 years old and have seen many changes.  I have a seminary degree from Midwestern Baptist Seminary and now, my daughter, Sara Dyer, is finishing her seminary degree.   I repeat, I have seen many changes and I don't always know how to cope with the changes mentally.   So I constantly search for answers and explanations.  It always starts with the question:  "Why do we have to have change?   This was good enough for me when I was growing up!   Now, the church has to have some kind of music program or some kind of secular program to entice people into its doors!"   And, if a scintilla of those questions are true, why is it true and is it a good thing?

Harvey Cox has a  book out called  "The Future of Faith".  He is a giant among theologians, having served on the faculty of Harvard Divinity School.  He says that religious life can be focused on three eras:  The Age of Faith when we drew ourselves and our churches around the teachings of Jesus Christ;  The Age of Belief when church leaders began to state, unequivocably, what we believed and why we believed it, and The Age of Spirit, when Christians began to ignore dogma and began looking to find common threads with other religions in a world which was getting smaller and more complex, at the same time.

The times they are a-changing!  Maybe in this new world, each person who is seeking to find a faith to call his/her own will find the courage to examine what is worth the keeping and what can be traded in on a different kind of role-model.   I wish you well if you are a seeker and pray that you will find YOUR way!  I wish the same for myself!