By Ronald Brown
“Oh, God,” I thought, another temple. Like cows in India, taxis in New York, musicians in Mexico, and nuns in Rome, I barely noticed temples in China anymore. But that spring day in Shanghai in 2005 was hot and humid so I decided to stop in for a visit.
The “god” was a rather ruthless looking person, flanked by equally fierce sword-wielding guards, all enshrouded in incense. Compared to a loving Jesus, scroll-bearing Confucius, or a serene Buddha, this god seemed fierce. Not on the tourist beaten track, the signs were all in Chinese so I asked a young guy to translate one for me.
“Back a long time ago, the British Empire attacked the city to force the people to become Christian and take opium. Chen Huacheng was a Qing Dynasty general who vowed to defend his city to the death,” he freely translated. “He roused his fellow residents to resist but they were defeated and Cheng was killed.” In honor of his heroic qualities and dedication to his homeland, the government of Shanghai declare him a god, placed a statue in the temple in his honor, and instituted a priesthood to worship him forever.
The god of Shanghai was about as far from the almighty, eternal and omnipotent god of Jews, Christians and Muslims as one could get. Jews might write books about such great men, and Catholics might construct elaborate visions of heaven, hell, purgatory, and until recently limbo, but only Confucianists would make a hero a god and celebrate the survival of a city as the goal of religion.
Standing in front of the incense enshrouded statue of Chen, I realized that deep beneath the centuries of encrusted rituals, traditions, beliefs, and deities of the religions of the world was a common quest: The creation of a perfect human being and placing this human in a perfect human society.
The evolution of religions
As humans evolved from their tree perches in East Africa to orbiting space stations, they have elaborated a host of unique religions.
In the beginning, they were tribal, concerned with tribal solidarity, victory in battle, successful agriculture and hunting, social stability, and the afterlife. Each religion developed a, some, many, or no deity; elaborate rituals; sanctified certain spaces; speculated on an invisible spirit world; and supported specially gifted religious leaders. As humanity evolved, so did its religions, one developing into another until today. This evolution continues, but at an accelerated pace.
Humans early recognized that buried deep within is a hidden power that can rouse them to anger, love, dedication, obedience, loyalty, or hope. Rulers long recognized that religion granted an evolutionary advantage to a clan, tribe, nation, or empire. Kings claimed divine descent, peoples believed that god chose them for a special purpose, they fought wars in the name of god, and even defeat was attributed to the displeasure of god.
Religion also inspired poets, artists, musicians, architects, and writers to explore the furthest reaches of human imagination and creativity. They created imaginary universes populated by gods, angels, and devils, elaborated images of life after death, wrote blueprints for a perfect world, and elaborated methods to achieve human perfection. Birds rest peacefully in their nests, herds of deer roam the fields, and bees stock their hives with honey, but humans aim for the stars and human immortality.
Karl Marx was convinced that religions would eventually die out, Friedrich Nietzsche went so far as to pronounce the death of the deity, and the framers of the American Constitution banished religion from the state, relegating it to the individual soul and weekend morning worship. Until recently, societal elites, at least, agreed that material prosperity, modern science, medical advances, and space exploration presented ample evidence there was not and in fact never had been a deity, afterlife, creation, or a heaven or hell. But, religions somehow survived and even went on to thrive despite the onslaught of modern science, technology, medicine, politics, and philosophy.
Much to the world’s shock, in 1979, an obscure Iranian cleric in exile returned to Tehran, overthrew the Shah of Iran and established an Islamic republic. In short order, Menachem Begin of Israel came to power with the strong support of Orthodox Jews, Ronald Reagan mobilized American evangelical Christians and took the White House, the Taliban took power in Afghanistan, and on September 11, 2001 the planet was plunged into what Samuel P. Huntington prophesied would become a century of holy wars. Evidently, god was not dead and religion not destined to join the horse and buggy in the trash heap of history.
21st century religion
Like every living thing, religions are the result of millennia of evolution. Today, in the early decades of the 21st century, the pace of religious evolution has gone into overdrive. A host of new and exotic religious movements, breakneck technological advances, the revolution in mass communications, social and political upheavals, mass migration, rise of super-empowered individuals, medical progress, sexual liberation, nuclear weaponry, pollution and global warming, and space exploration threaten to relegate ancient religions to oblivion and create new ones. What passed for religion a thousand years ago today is as dated as the stone axe and bow and arrow.
What do these new religious movements have in common? What are the common bonds that, on one hand, unite them, and on the other, propel them to religious wars? The brutality of the 21st century wars of religion risk eclipsing the Hebrew conquest of the Land of Canaan, the expansion of Islam, the European wars between Catholics and Protestants, and European colonialism in brutality and global danger.
Religious leaders today are intent on throwing off centuries, even millennia of accumulated accretions and restoring their respective religions to their primal goal. What plunges these diverse religious movements into holy war in the early 21st century is their differing interpretations of the primal goals of all religions: the creation of a perfect human being and construction of a perfect human society for this perfect human being. All other aspects of religion — gods, heavens and hells, laws, rituals, theologies, meditation, religious architecture, and politics — are, to quote the second century Jewish teacher, Hillel, are but commentary on this quest.
The perfect human being
Many religions have formulated an image of god that is simply a human being, usually male, raised to perfection. Judaism, Christianity and Islam teach that this god created two individuals, Adam and Eve, in god’s own “image and likeness.” Tragically, these perfect humans rebelled against their god and consequently lost their perfection. With their fall, disease ravaged human bodies, ignorance reigned, women gave birth in pain, human labor was drenched in sweat, and death our only escape. Thomas Hobbes put it eloquently: “Life was solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” The “Hail Mary” well expresses the Catholic teaching of human life: “To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve: to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears.”
Recognizing this tragic fact, early religions elaborated laws, rules, traditions, and taboos to guide humans through their short and brutish earthly time in this vale of tears toward a state of perfection. Dietary laws from Jewish Kosher to Hindu vegetarian, and Catholic meatless Fridays to the Muslim Ramadan fast, aimed to purify the inner body. Muslim beards, Maori tattoos, Jewish and Muslim circumcision, African women’s purification rituals, Buddhist pilgrimages, and sexual taboos all sought to purge the individual of evil and transform him or her into a state of purity.
Hindu, Buddhist, Sufi, and Catholic meditation practices sought to purge the soul of impurities. Confession of sins, penitential prayer, initiation rituals, and penances sought inner purification. The Islamic doctrine of jihad was likewise the inner struggle to purge the soul of impurities like a raw piece of iron on the anvil. Catholics celebrate those individuals who have approached individual perfection with the crown of sainthood and even attribute supernatural powers to them. Ultimately, it is hoped humans will reach an elevated state of perfection and merit union with their god as a result.
“Gods,” whether the warrior hero of Shanghai or the invisible and nameless god of the Jews, is in many respects the ideal human purged of all impurities. For those less religiously inclined, the hero, perfect citizen, great writer, philosopher, ruler, explorer, or sports star serves just as well. They are all ideal individuals who can inspire ordinary persons to greatness, if not holiness.
Modern religions have dramatically highlighted this primal quest to create the perfect human being. Dr. Norman Vincent Peale literally reinterpreted Christianity into a form of psychotherapy with his bestselling book, The Power of Positive Thinking. The popular Gospel of Prosperity preached by Creflo Dollar, likewise emphasizes personal happiness and financial success as the reward for individual perfection. The “born again” experience taught by evangelical Christians stresses individual salvation, a new beginning, and victory over the forces of evil. Gays and lesbians may likewise view sexual liberation as a necessary step on the path to individual perfection.
The tomb of Chen Huacheng.
The perfect society
This quest for inner perfection goes hand in hand with the search for outer social perfection. The ancient Babylonian, Egyptian, Indus Valley, Chinese, Greek, and Roman civilizations traced their origins to divine intervention and even attributed divine status to their rulers. The Aztecs, Mayas, and Incas, and a host of African, Celtic, Germanic, and Slavic cultures likewise found legitimacy for their kingdoms, empires and rulers in religion. The Hebrew Bible, Muslim Koran, Confucian Analects, Hindu Gita, and teachings of Theravada Buddhism give eloquent testimony to the sacred origins of human society and hold out heaven as the model to guide them.
All of the above traditions contain elaborate regulations for the founding and maintenance of a perfect society that would endure for millennia. Traditionally, the family has been considered the cornerstone of any stable human society. They elaborated marriage rituals, often made marriage obligatory, stressed children as blessings from god, encouraged ancestor veneration, idealized the Christian “Holy Family,” and imposed strict rules regarding husband-wife relations. Christians employ family terminology such as father, brother, sister, and mother to strengthen their churches, and of course god himself is “God the Father.” Unificationists refer to Rev. and Mrs. Moon as Father and Mother and stress the family as the central pillar of the movement.
Confucianism considers the family the base of human society, but goes on to elaborate a virtual blueprint for a peaceful, prosperous, and happy society with the emperor at the summit. This model is drawn from the perfect empire that existed during the Zhou Dynasty (1046-771 B.C.). Unlike most world religions, such as Judaism, Islam and Hinduism, that attribute their respective social blueprints for the perfect society to a deity or appointed prophet, Confucianism relied on human history and logic.
The teachings of Jesus and Buddha are exceptions to this universal pattern. Jesus taught that after his death and resurrection, he would return before the present generation had passed away, and reign forever. Thus, the four gospels contained no blueprint for organizing human society. Eventually, however, when the early Christians realized that Jesus’ return was delayed, they were forced to establish so-called “Christian” empires, kingdoms, political parties, and movements. These ranged from the Byzantine and Holy Roman Empires to the European doctrine of divine right of monarchs.
The United States proved especially fertile for Christian groups that attempted to rectify the failure of Jesus to return as he had promised in spite of the American endorsement of the doctrine of separation of church and state. Beginning with the Puritans, Quakers, Amish, Mennonites, and Moravians, a host of European movements found refuge in the colonies.
In spite of the nation’s attempt to separate church and state, a large number of homegrown utopian experiments also flourished. The Oneida and Mormon movements remain the most famous, but the abolition, temperance, women’s rights, and Social Gospel movements also figure in this list. At the end of the 19th century, millions of Orthodox Jews from Eastern Europe found refuge in the country. In 1963, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., gave eloquent to this American quest for a new Garden of Eden in his famous “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington, D.C.
The American experiment with separation of church and state, French Revolution, Marxism, and fascism continued this human quest for a perfect society but purged of any divine blueprint. However, during these first decades of the 21st century, the religious origins of this primal human quest to create a perfect society here on earth have reemerged as a determining, if not the determining force in society. Beginning with the establishment of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, the rise of religious Zionism in Israel, ascent of the Hindu BJP Party in India, the evangelical predominance in the Republican Party in the U.S., utilization of Confucianism by Marxist China, institutionalization of Orthodox Christianity in Russia, among others, nations and political movements are adopting religious blueprints for their societies.
The vision of a perfect human society not only inspired the great religious thinkers and institutions, but a host of social reform, political, economic, utopian, Marxist, and fascist movements. The primal human quest for a perfect society cannot be quenched. Hollywood films, novels, and television programs abound with utopian and dystopian future worlds.
Conclusion
The quests for the perfect human being and a perfect human society have inspired humans since pre-history. Loincloths, tattoos, and sea shell jewelry became baseball hats, artificial hips, and computers. Caves, tents, and wooden shelters gave way to democracy, skyscrapers, and mega-cities. Religions hold up gods as the perfect individual that humans should aspire to and heaven as the perfect society humans should strive to create here on earth.
Today, this quest has broken through the accumulated commentary of thousands of years in what can only be called a Great Religious Awakening, the likes of which the world has never seen. In these first decades of the 21st century, religious leaders, writers and poets, and film and television directors are putting forward their conflicting visions of the perfect human living in a perfect human society. As an historian, my students often ask me, “If you could choose, what time in history would you like to live in?” Of course, I always answer, “The present!”♦
Dr. Ronald J. Brown is a professor of history, political science and ethnic studies at Touro College, and teaches courses in world religions at Unification Theological Seminary. A docent at the New York Historical Society with degrees from Harvard Divinity School, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the University of Geneva, he is author of A Religious History of Flushing, Queens; Into the Soul of African-American Harlem; and How New York Became the Empire City.
Photo at top by Samuel Ferrara on Unsplash.
Applied Unificationism 
“The vision of a perfect human society not only inspired the great religious thinkers and institutions, but a host of social reform, political, economic, utopian, Marxist, and fascist movements.”
Is it possible to build a “society of conscience?” How can we have a society without laws and police? You may call it a self-regulating society.
Absolutely right regarding social and other secular reform movements. The Confucianists have tried to construct their perfect human society without the aid of a deity. The authority of laws and police in secular utopian movements do not derive their legitimacy from divine revelation as in Judaism, Hinduism, and Islam, but rather from the laws of nature, or as Confucius would term it, the laws of Heaven. The goal of religions and secular (non-deitist) movements is the same, the formation of a perfect human living in a perfect earthly society.
“The framers of the American Constitution banished religion from the state, relegating it to the individual soul and weekend morning worship.” Wrong, fortunately.
The founders, and more importantly the educated citizens of the period (“We the people”) knew that the republic would only survive with a virtuous citizenry, and that that required both God and religion. Religion was to live in the family and the community and in the ultimate purposes of the state, not just the individual soul.
Dr. Brown gives colorful details about the traditions of religions. To properly describe Unificationism, however, it is necessary to distinquish how it references itself— as the one and only religion that has the capacity and mission to unite all religions. It has an in-depth systematic theology and philosophical underpinnings to relate with all religions as well as atheism, Marxism and other thought systems for the purpose of uniting the universals of ideologies and all religions. In that regard, Rev. Moon has given a dispensational history and time frame that deems the creation of America as a providential nation and Korea as the nation to receive the Messiah. Thus, its perspective on the world religions is not just a panoramic pluralistic view in which all are equal in providential meaning.
In addition to the providential meaning of bringing all religions into oneness, Father Moon described the role of a “perfect human being” as the emergence of a true woman and mother. “[T]he time has come when God will elevate one woman to be the physical Holy Spirit. This is the time for the birth of the true Eve. God is looking for the ideal woman who has the qualifications and potential to become a true wife and true mother, and eventually the true queen or empress of the universe. Every woman is a candidate for this position, which is why women in general have been given a chance to rise. But God is looking for one perfect woman to summon out of the satanic world who has the potential to become the true wife and mother and queen, in order to establish her as the first God-centered wife, mother and queen (“The 23rd Anniversary of the Uniication Church,” Belvedere, NY, 5/1/1977, 5),
As Peter rightly says, there is no “doctrine of the separation of church and state” in the Constitution. From the misunderstandings since Thomas Jefferson, to the misuse of the phrase by President Johnson in his “Johnson” legislative backlash against a Baptist preacher for not supporting his election, religious influence, especially Christianity and Judaism, is an integral part of our constitutional foundation and culture and Father Moon affirmed this as well as stating that America was created to receive the Messiah and be a new Israel.
“…the one and only religion that has the capacity and mission to unite all religions…”
Some Unificationists of conscience now consider this romantic ideal articulated in the DP black book a simple positive aspiration; no more and no less.
This is an interesting point because there is a very definite narrative in the Korean UC that Unificationism should become the national religion of the country. This begs the question: Is the narrative that the goal of Unificationism is the eventual diminution of all religion merely a “romantic” aspiration?
To some adherents of Islam, the Koran is the book that has the answer to everything. Relatively few practicing Christians in 2019 hold such a view of the Holy Bible book.
According to the book, A Course in Miracles: “No one with a personal investment is a reliable witness, for truth to him has become what he wants it to be.”
Dr. Brown raises the issue that gay advocates are also pursuing the goal of individual perfection. If we defined the search for perfection in principled terms, or in accordance with natural law, gay advocacy could hardly qualify as a religious pursuit.
As Thomas West has pointed out, the founding era conception of sexual mores was essentially that heterosexual committed married relationships were not only God’s ideal for family life but also the only family structure that was beneficial for the state. Yet they allowed considerable freedom in the form of a “don’t ask, don’t tell” ethic. It was the later progressives who pried into private spheres insisting on sexual propriety even behind closed doors.
Perhaps if we had stuck to the founding vision we would not have had the repression of the Stonewall raids and the consequent Stonewall riots.
Every time I watch a video describing how gigantic and limitless our universe is, I face a breakdown of reasoning which is the very starting moment to assume a realm of religion. As Kant clearly pointed out, “it’s beyond our reason.” Then looking back to the earth, its size, how tiny it is, almost no trace in the universe, in comparison with the size with no “limit,” a religious virtue naturally comes out of my mind: humility or modesty. With that mindset I meet God. And I am so grateful to Rev. and Mrs. Moon, for the teaching or describing our God as Parents. We don’t need to be scared of being so vulnerable, afraid of being all alone, or get horrified by any chance to be extinct in the unverse. And taking a step further, we may need to promote for the time being “Feminine God” so that we can fully recover a balanced viewpoint, I mean, to see “Parent God” as it or they are.
Yes, we easily feel a yearning for and the presence of God when confronted by the vastness and beauty of the creation. But Hegel criticized Kant for thinking that the mind can place a limit to its own activity, and I think Father would agree. Our minds transcend time and space, in pale imitation of the mind of God. If that is what we need religion for, then perhaps we do not need religion. In today’s world, where science carries all before it, we need religion to stake out the realm of the spiritual so that it is not forgotten completely. But if we understood Principle as the science of the universe both internal and external, then we would not need religion.
Indeed the kind of religion that Dr. Brown has sketched is simply true anthropology (the science of human nature and its development) and true political science (the science of justice in human institutions), and not religion at all.
At least we, theologians and scientists or advocates for both groups, can meet together, as ICUS believes, at the boundary or “frontier” of our knowledge, in between the known and the unknown, regardless of how such pieces of knowledge have been built upon whether by discovery or revelation. I think one of main vehicles by which we’ve stacked up the knowledge is “faith.” Everybody knows, whoever tried to write a dissertation or a simple logical statement, that there are lots of quantum jumps of faith, like holes in the road to our understanding, or at least perception. Let it be that religion has evolved throughout history, as Dr. Brown described, and so Unificationism is a kind of advanced religion which describes God as the Parent, as much as humankind has been awakened by discovering the world and the universe. Still, I’m thrilled by the fact that the universe has no “limit,” at least in my brain, hovering in a world of “limits” and its stretch of imagination.
Scientists and theologians — 2 out of 3 isn’t bad, but it’s not a complete picture. Where do the artists fit in this equation? The paradigm of truth, beauty and goodness as described in Divine Principle stipulates that art (emotion/heart), science (intellect/truth) and religion (will/goodness) should be in some form of harmonious relationship — integrated, not segregated. Any assessment of the role of religion in fashioning a better society ought to include the arts as part of the process. This was well-understood by Confucius, Plato, Plotinus, Boethius, and Luther.
The Enneads of Plotinus, as extrapolated into Christian philosophy by Thomas Aquinas, was based on the assumption that truth, beauty and goodness are attributes of the deity, through which “the divine unity makes itself known to the human soul.” For Aquinas the transcendental aspects of truth, beauty and goodness were features found in all things, since they are, according to Roger Scruton, “aspects of being, ways in which the supreme gift of being is made manifest and properly understood.”
Kant couldn’t easily explain (rationally) the transcendent effects of beauty on our soul state (seelunzustand), yet he understood that these effects were real and universal — everyone experiences them. Scruton reminds us that in the “Critique of Judgment” Kant situates the aesthetic experience and religious experience side by side, and tells us that it is the first, not the second, which is the “archetype of revelation.” It could be said that by experiencing beauty we become more conscious of our station in relationship to both God and the natural world, and thus the true essence of our being is affirmed. This is a significant aspect of the artistic experience.
The vast, limitless expanse of the universe may indeed be beyond our limited comprehension, but our station and responsibility on the planet that we inhabit is predicated on the simple, foundational idea we are in a parent-child relationship with our Heavenly Parent. Instead of looking outward into the vast universe, we ought to be looking inward to find the ways that we can be co-creators with God in the pursuit of betterment — individually and collectively. Creativity is an important factor.
Regarding the influence of the Judeo-Christian faith and our founding document vis-a-vis our country’s religious heritage, I’m reminded of George Washington’s farewell address to the nation when he left office. Excerpt:
“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens.”
David,
Dr. Brown wrote:
“Standing in front of the incense enshrouded statue of Chen, I realized that deep beneath the centuries of encrusted rituals, traditions, beliefs, and deities of the religions of the world was a common quest: The creation of a perfect human being and placing this human in a perfect human society.”
I was hoping that someone would respond: “I thought that a Unificationist view of religion would center on the idea that through history God has been passionately seeking His lost children while those children have been fitfully seeking their divine parent”.
And what could be more important than a perspective that lets us draw a line between Marx and Moon?
Thanks, Peter. I am reminded of Jesus’ exhortation on “being perfect as our Father is” (Mt. 5:48). The point was to love even enemies as if they were the children of the parent. Applying that view is a very clean definition which could lead us to both ideals of people and society.
Bravo, Peter!
Your point is well taken. So subtle to some, so obvious to others.
I would respond that Rev. Moon is another good example of the human quest to fashion a perfect human being and a perfect world.
By now, we are very far from Unificationism, applied or otherwise.
Thank you for pointing that out. You’re right, we can see the whole picture through three eyes: art, science and religion. Why I mentioned only two out of three was because of my weakness poorer than a bee. A bee is as capable as I, a human, in that it sees ultraviolet. A human sees the world through the tiny window of the visible spectrum. I’m not that familiar with the Arts though I enjoy them every day and heavily rely on them to be happy. That’s why I like Kant who taught me such weakness of a human. Ultraviolet does not seem to exist as long as a human cannot recognize that it exists. But it exists regardless of my consciousness. And more and more as I think of the vastness of the universe, there should be a whole lot more things in the universe beyond what I see. Let me try to see the world through the attribute of beauty. I’m sure another eye will make me more comfortable as like my faith gives a rest to me, helplessly floating on the vast ocean.