“I believe it is time for a second Christian Reformation, one that returns the focus to…the religion of Jesus, and away from the religion that others created later about Jesus.” The refashioning Craig Vander Maas envisions would “go beyond…a system of beliefs, which I might define as the conviction of ideas that are without significant evidence.” It would be a church “whose only requirement is…the promotion of extravagant love for all of God’s creation, and the promotion of justice and fairness for all people.”
On his own website, he explains, while folks today “appear to have significant interest in spirituality, religion is increasingly seen as outdated, shallow, anti-science, repressive, and exclusive.” Therefore, “A focus on encouraging moral development, and addressing the significant problems of humanity that are the result of self-centredness, might be a worthy mission that makes churches relevant again.”
In Beyond Religion, Vander Maas, a clinical psychologist and educator—whose curriculum vitae fills 18 pages—has authored “an extraordinary work,” one reader declares, “in that it integrates so many streams of awareness and knowledge”—everything from consciousness studies to mysticism. As another reader avows, “he explores how we can put love and compassion into action.”
Beyond Religion: Finding Meaning in Evolution
By Craig Vander Maas
Integral Growth Publishing, LCC, 2023
