Metaphorical thinking

My UU Christian Circle is using a progressive Christian curriculum called Living the Questions to guide our discussions each month. It is a set of DVD's with several people of note (including John Shelby Spong and Marcus Borg to name just two) who have much to say about finding a place in Christianity for those of us who question dogma and doctrine but long for the message.

Yesterday we had a discussion about thinking literally/critically (the need to determine the factual historical accuracy of a story) versus finding the truth of the story thru metaphor. It seems that all of the women in our group have moved beyond the need to "prove it" and into the acceptance of the truth of the metaphors. It is like passing through a set of large doors that opens you up to a whole new spirituality.

There was a time in my life that I was very much into the critical stage of thinking and, as a result, I totally rejected Christianity. There cannot be a man in the sky watching us, virgin births are impossible, people don't rise from the dead, etc. It wasn't until I was 36 years old that I was able to see past all that and realize that those stories and ideas do hold truth in the metaphoric sense. As soon as I realized that, I wanted to go back and reread the bible and see all of those stories through a new lens. Once I did that it really was as if I was "born again".

I am often frustrated that my two older sons have trouble with my new relationship with God and Christianity. But then after our UU Christian Circle discussion yesterday, I realized that they are both still stuck in the literal stage of looking at things. They don't think a person can walk on water so Mom must be crazy to buy into all of that. To them, there is no other way of seeing things. I need to be patient, expose them to different ways of understanding the story, and let God do his/her work with them.