Oct 19-21, 2007
“Seek not afar for beauty
Lo, it glows in dew-wet grasses
All about your feet. . .”
-- from the Unitarian Universalist hymnal
Paradise is in this world—not in the Garden of Eden or in Heaven after we die—but in an elusive but real place in which life flourishes in justice and peace. This belief is taught by many ancient religions, including early Christianity.
But paradise can be destroyed unless we know we are relational, interdependent beings and we use our power wisely, practice generosity and non-violence, and ground ourselves in our earth’s elemental powers.
In this workshop, we’ll learn about forgotten strands of Christianity: their rituals, their art, and their spiritual practices that celebrated paradise in this world. This knowledge was not obscure but prevalent in the first thousand years of Christianity, when Jesus was never depicted dead in Christian art. The decisive turning point came in 1095 when Pope Urban II called forth the first crusade, which led to holy wars and conquests sanctioned by the church. Soon, the idea of redemptive violence, centered on the crucifixion, came to dominate Christian imagery.
We will explore this history and what it means in our time, when paradise is threatened by environmental irresponsibility, our economic systems, and war. How can we defend paradise against all that threatens it? Can we live as citizens of paradise? Paradise is here and now. It is entered through a religious life that practices generosity and non-violence. It builds communities where we care for each other in the face of injustice and brokenness. It rejoices in life’s exquisite goodness.
We are called to see the truth of human suffering in ourselves and to be sensitive and compassionate to the presence of suffering in others. How we respond to suffering is under our control. Every human being has the power to live with integrity. We can honor the sacredness in ourselves and in each other. Together, we create history.
The Rev. Dr. Rebecca Parker has been President of UU Starr King School for the Ministry since 1990, the first woman to serve as the permanent head of an accredited theological school. She is co-author with Rita Nakashima Brock of Proverbs of Ashes: Violence, Redemptive Suffering and the Search for What Saves Us and the soon to be published Saving Paradise: How Christianity Came to Worship Crucifixion and Lost Its Love for This World as Paradise. She also wrote Blessing the World: What Can Save Us Now. Her wider concerns are in progressive faith as a way of community, of social engagement, and of life. An accomplished cellist, Dr. Parker says, “The creative life of the artist is the well-spring of all my work.” She is a wonderful teacher, and we are honored to present her ground-breaking work.
Come, Enter the Garden
“Jane Lead, a 17th century Universalist mystic, saw the church as the renewed garden of paradise and invited its members to become plantings of God, watered by the Spirit, springing up as flowers, vines, trees, and fruits, rooted in love, growing and unfolding in the Garden of God. Paradise is waiting for us now. Salvation is the restoration of paradise, re-opening the Garden, restoring our likeness to God, in splendid diversity. Our world needs this life-affirming and life-giving vision of salvation. This is not utopian. It springs from a profound embrace of this world. It begins with love, the seed from which the tree of knowledge grows.”
– Rebecca Parker