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God Has No Religion
Blending Traditions for Prayer
By Frances Sheridan Goulart
Sorin Books, 2005. 252 pages.
Let me say this right from the start: Three cheers for syncretism!
Despite evidence of increasing divisiveness among religions, Frances Sheridan Goulart draws on research that shows that Americans are not so divisive as the twenty-four hour news networks would have us believe: “Almost half of all Americans under thirty, and one-third of those over seventy, think the best religion is one that borrows from all religions.”
If this is true, then one can hope that the next generation or two of civic and religious leaders will create a better legacy than the one we can expect from the absolutists that so many baby boomers have become in recent decades. God Has No Religion is now and will be a great resource for any individual, family, or community that chooses to put God before dogma and understands one’s neighbor as something more than someone to fear or hate until he or she has been converted to one’s beliefs.
God Has No Religion is divided into several sections that provide inter-sectarian prayers for healing, gratitude, peace, and so on. Each prayer is preceded by identification of the particular tradition from which it springs, and is followed by an acknowledgment of the source and options for how to use the prayer. How refreshing to see, for example, side by side, a Shinto prayer for nature . . .
There is not place
On this wide earth—
Be it the vast expanse of Oceans’ waste,
Or peak of wildest mountains, sky-caressed—
In which the ever-present power divine
In every force of nature’s not a shrine.
. . . and a traditional Celtic devotion:
You are the wind that breathes upon the sea,
You are the wave on the ocean
You are the murmur of leaves rustling,
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
You are the thoughts of all people,
Who praise your beauty and grace.
God Has No Religion is filled with many such juxtapositions and moments of grace. This book is a must for any family or community that is willing to acknowledge that the sharing of wisdom and of the poetry of prayer is a greater value than exclusivity.
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