A CONTEMPORARY SPIRITUALITY

Autumn 2022

I think that you can make a good case for Jesus being feral. If feral means that something/somebody has returned to a natural state from one of captivity or domestication, then I reckon that Jesus fits. Consider this:

1. Jesus stood deeply within a religious tradition but stood back from it, and challenged it, 
2. He did so as a result of his direct experience of God Who called him at his baptism.
3. His ministry was nourished by time spent in prayer, and his ongoing relationship with God
4. God continued speaking directly to him through his observations of everyday life
5. When he preached, he rarely began by quoting Scripture, preferring to speak from his experience of life.
6. He left his home and family, had nowhere to lay his head, and was dependant on the kindness and generosity of others. He had no institutional support, rather he trusted that the God Who had called him would look after him
7. Angels supported him throughout, after his baptism, and in human form through Martha and Mary, Joseph of Aramathea, Nicodemus, Simon of Cyrene, the man who lent his donkeys, and whoever lent him the use of an upper room etc

I think that you could make a similar case for Paul, Francis, and other significant religious teachers. We don’t think of them as feral because they went on to claimed & honoured by institutional religions.

Moreover, I sense that we are all called to become, to some extent feral, but that we are fearful of it.  We prefer to remain in a child-like state of dependence on authority figures rather than grow into spiritual maturity. Religions tend to encourage this, making simple things complicated.  It’s a matter of power I suspect. 

My experience is that a loving God has already given us most of what we need to know about God & life; most people have some spiritual experience; prayer is as natural as breathing, & we are better at it than we think; If we learn to pay attention, God will teach us what else we need to know through our everyday experience of life; and angels frequently appear to support us on our journey.

But feel free to disagree.