At college I am
currently studying Sociology of Religion. There the world is placed
firmly into the category of the social. The behaviour and beliefs of
religions are assessed on the basis of their social role. Of course
there is much to be gained from this approach but it often places the
individual into the social system as an unautonomous being who is
simply moulded and changed by the social world around them. The
connections between sociology, psychology, biology and belief are
severed and this produces a flatter view of the world than it really
is.
On Guardian Science
today research was presented on the 'wiring' of male and female
brains. The article presented sex differences as if they were a fait
accompli. We are born with these wirings, that determines what it
is to be a man or a woman and we just have to get on with it. The
reality is, of course, much more complicated than this. Our genes limit what we can become but the
expression of those genes, the development of our biology – even
the functioning of our brains, is also determined by our environment.
We create men and women on the basis of our cultural norms. We are
not just biological, or social, or psychological, we are connections.
Our behaviour is full
of connections. We are like walking self fulfilling prophecies.
Psychological research shows that if you believe you will have a bad
day, your behaviour shifts, you attract fewer positive responses from
others (because we are, of course, social animals as well as individuals) and your
perception of 'having a bad day' is reinforced. So much of our daily
experience is shaped by our assumptions about it. Our behaviour is
full of connections.
And in our typical way
of categorizing we have done this no more so than in ideas about the
'spiritual'. We have sacred and we have secular. This is a very
'Western' thing. In many cultures there is no such divide. The
spiritual is not the thing that goes boo in the night or which gives
you a warm glowy feeling it, it is the wind blowing through your hair
and a bird perched on a tree branch. That we separate the world so
categorically breaks us off from so much of the reality of God and
from the depth of our own lives. If God is only to be found in the
'spiritual' then will I miss him when a baby clutches my finger or
when my Mum gives me a hug? Will I seek God out in the
'spiritual things I do' rather than in the way I have a conversation
with my family over dinner?
The wonder of the
Christmas story for me is that it smashes open these box and lays
bare all the connections. God in a tiny baby. Divinity in the dust.
Nothing about our humanity, our every day here and now, is
untouchable. It is validated and made whole. Our assumptions are
turned upside down, our categories broken down. It tells us to open
our eyes wider, to see our every day as sacred. To stand whole and
to celebrate those connections.
