Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 13, 1994 TAG: 9410150026
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
"Most people find organized religion moribund. It is boring, secular and irrelevant.
"People see that there should be something more. What they don't know is how to get it. They are yearning for substance in their own lives."
Kushner doesn't pull any punches, either, about who bears much of the responsibility for that condition.
"Most rabbis and ministers wouldn't go to the services they lead" if they weren't getting paid to, Kushner insists.
So, many people have turned to books on spirituality for guidance. Kushner's are among the most popular in the country, selling tens of thousands of copies and bearing dust jacket recommendations from rabbis, priests and ministers - even from other writers on spiritual issues, such as M. Scott Peck.
Though written from a distinctly Jewish perspective - Kushner is rabbi of a Reform Judaism congregation in Sudbury, Mass., and an instructor at Hebrew Union College/Jewish Institute of Religion in New York - his books attract many non-Jewish readers as well.
His broad appeal was demonstrated during his recent appearance as scholar-in-residence for a weekend sponsored by Roanoke's Jewish community. An overflow crowd for last Friday evening's Sabbath services at Temple Emanuel included not only members of the Roanoke Valley's two Jewish congregations but Christians and people inactive in any religious practice.
His appeal to Christians supercedes any contradictions he may raise to orthodox Christian belief. For instance, Kushner - and Judaism in general - rejects the doctrine of "original sin," which is the concept that all of humanity is tainted by Adam and Eve's disobedience of God in the Garden of Eden.
In his book, "God was in this place and I, i did not know," Kushner contends that Adam and Eve committed no sin by eating the forbidden fruit, but were merely doing what they were supposed to do. The story is a metaphor for every person's separation from his or her parents, as Kushner reads it, necessary for every individual's growth and repeated unendingly throughout history.
Part of the appeal of this approach, Kushner said in an interview during his Roanoke visit, is that it assumes that people are not intrinsically evil. By rejecting belief in a Devil or even the "reality" of a separate force of evil, "there is not as much room [in people's lives] for guilt and sin, punishment and anger."
Instead, there becomes "room for hope, forgiveness, nurturing and loving.
"There are a lot of maimed souls out there," Kushner said. With enough love and care, "I maintain we can heal most of them. ... And the ones we can't heal, we don't need to injure too much."
His appeal is predominantly to more liberal strains of both Judaism and Christianity, Kushner acknowledges, but he insists that while he is not a biblical literalist or fundamentalist, he does "take the biblical word very seriously." He and other more liberal religionists "can and do revere the sacred text and tradition."
Kushner's most recent publication, "The Book of Words," consists of 30 short chapters, each on a different Hebrew word. He presents an unconventional as well as traditional translation of the word, biblical passages related to it, rabbinic or other recent writings appropriate to the word and a "personal, meditative exercise."
Kushner argues that literalist Jews and Christians "confuse what the words convey with the words themselves." That is "not only unimaginative but blasphemous," he said.
An imaginative and creative approach to his subject may explain much of Kushner's appeal.
Rather than having the "luxury or the curse of writing to imaginary people," Kushner first tests his ideas in sermons or classroom lessons to a live audience.
"I'm not an academic. I serve a real congregation. So if I pitch something that I really like, I have a built-in market survey" to tell him if others respond to it.
After the ideas are firmed up in front of an audience, Kushner not only writes out the messages for his books, he designs the covers and the individual pages as well. He uses graphic design to blend the various elements of "The Book of Words," juxtaposing his interpretation of the words, Scripture and tradition into tight, easy-to-read units.
That seems to be a reflection of his whole approach to spirituality - which he defines in one of his books as "that dimension of living in which we are aware of God's presence."
Divinity schools are paying more - even if still not enough - attention to the subject, Kushner said. More than a third of the eligible divinity students where he teaches take his course on spirituality, even though it is an elective and taught early in the morning, he said.
"Congregations will make rabbis be more spiritual," Kushner contends. Rabbis - and perhaps Christian ministers - who don't meet that need will eventually be without jobs.
"Institutions move slowly, but people are going to make it happen."
by CNB