Arriving at the Intersection

This week in my class on Major Twentieth Century Moral Thinkers, we considered issues that touched on questions I have asked myself over the last several months.  Increasingly, I am hearing questions about religious affiliation and assertions of faith in the election season here in the United States.  As a person who considered pursuing a graduate program in public policy at the same time that I was considering applying for admission to United Seminary, I wonder: where does my political voice leave off and my spiritual voice begin? Or, can these even be separated? Should they be? 

I have made a commitment that my spiritual path stands firmly in this world, with its grit and grapple, its heartbreak and its joys. And it is a political world. Yet I do not want to conflate politics with God in such a way that I am unable to perceive one for the other.  I think that a spiritual path transcends politics, though for me, it cannot abandon them.  

What I love in particular about a theological education, and specifically this theological education, is that in studying here I arrive at the intersection of deeply moral questions, theological voices old and new, their application to social and political concerns, and my own spiritual path. The diversity of voices from different faith traditions deepens my own efforts in thinking about things critically and spiritually.  

Two weeks ago at United’s Fall convocation, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of United Seminary. As we stood in the chapel for that service, I thought about the men and women who had founded this seminary 50 years before. What had they imagined for this place? What had they dreamed? Perhaps back then they had not quite imagined me, a woman raised in the Catholic tradition, who then attended a  Bible College for three years,  and following that considered herself an  agnostic for many years, only to arrive here. But I, looking back at those men and women, have a sense of what they imagined from the kind of seminary they created -- and I owe them.  I feel a sense of gratitude for the ecumenical vision they embraced.  During my years of agnosticism, I continued to ask the questions that have always concerned me at heart: Who are we? Why are we here? How do we live with compassion and with integrity to ourselves and others in a complex world? Why do we so often stumble in trying to live our deepest aspirations? Even though we are always speaking and thinking within a specific context – as the courses at United make abundantly clear -- I imagine that these kinds of questions are asked in every context throughout the world.  For some years, I thought I was better off asking them alone, without community and – let’s face it – its annoying encumbrances and sometimes grating disagreements. And maybe I did need some time alone for a while.  But ultimately it is only within community that I can practice and test my faith, compare and contrast it with the experiences and traditions of others, and find my way to a deeper place.  It is a richer place as well for all this. 

This is the year in which I need to make a decision about whether to change my degree program to M.Div. Already I’m feeling currents within the scope of the classes I’m taking and of the experiences I’ve had here that I think will help me in making that decision. Sometimes I wish I had all the answers straight up. But that has not seemed to be my path. I think it’s going to be a good year. 

-Kathryn Price, MA student