Religion and the Family by Geoffrey Hoyland

Author:Geoffrey Hoyland [Hoyland, Geoffrey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780367086565
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2020-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 6

MINDS AND WORDS

It has often been said—it has become indeed almost a religious wise-crack—that religion cannot be taught, it can only be caught. This may be true enough, but it does not bring much comfort to most of us; however conscious we may be of our unfitness to teach religion to children we are probably even more aware of our inability to hand it on to them by infection—they won’t catch much, we feel, if they have to catch it from us. But there is a third possibility; if religion cannot be taught—and that is only a half-truth after all, for teaching is necessary and good teaching may be effective—and cannot be caught from us, it may be sought by ourselves and the children together, according to the time-honoured principles of the true family gang. And I believe that the family gang—father and mother and children working in equal partnership—is the best of all groups for such a search. It must be a democratic expedition if it is to succeed, there must be no laying down the law or heavy stuff of the kind dear to our friend Mr. Barrett; each member of the crew will bring his or her special contribution, the seniors their experience and intellectual power, the juniors their imagination and their direct vision—that priceless possession of childhood—together with their uncompromising realism.

The responsibility for planning and equipping and launching this expedition will obviously rest upon the parents, not the children, and this is going to entail for them a deal of hard work, careful thought, and detailed planning. Moreover, families are usually small in these degenerate days and there will certainly not be room in the family boat for any passengers lolling idly on the cushions and reading newspapers, or taking a merely bored, tolerant view of the proceedings. You may have to carry some of the children with you at first by a certain amount of cajolery and suggestion, but if either of the senior members is there under protest, or is not in earnest, then the expedition is doomed to failure. There need be no dishonesty or sham about this; perhaps one—or even both—of the senior members may have to say quite frankly “This is all new to me. I’ve never thought much about religion before, and I’ll have to start from scratch, right from the A.B.C. I’m afraid I can’t take the helm—I don’t know enough about the job—you’ll have to make me cabin-boy!” That is perfectly all right provided that he or she is game to be the cabin-boy and take the job seriously; there is no room for passengers. And remember, the gang is pledged to seek and to find the real thing, not a sham. The conventional, tame, wishy-washy, top-dressing, codliver-oil type of religion is not worth seeking—or finding. This is to be a flat-out adventure, a spiritual D-day, and there is to be no turning back. There may be storms and the risk of ship-wreck ahead and Heaven knows where we shall land up, but we are going through with it—to the end.

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