An Empirical Faith

The Right Rev. James A. Pike has long contended that what Christianity needs is fewer beliefs but more belief. In his previous ventures into pop theology, the resigned Episcopal Bishop of California has been mostly concerned with explaining why he regards such dogmas as the Trinity and the Virgin Birth as beliefs he can do without. Now, in a new book called If This Be Heresy (Harper & Row; $4.95), Pike tries to explain what he does accept and why, summing up his formula for faith in a neat little equation: "data + inference = modest faith-affirmation."

According to Pike, the traditional authoritative sources for Christian doctrine are all suspect. The Bible, for example, is not only shot through with "superstition, sheer evil and flat contradiction," but did not even exist in its present form until several centuries after the founding of Christianity. The bishop similarly dismisses the infallibility of church councils on the ground, among others, that Christian denominations disagree violently on how many there really were; Roman Catholics accept 21 ecclesiastical synods as ecumenical councils, the Greek Orthodox only seven. He also contends that the creeds did not take shape until several centuries after Christ, and "do not stand on their own feet."

With Relevant Data. What this means, argues Pike, is that man today is forced to create his own creeds and dogmas on the empirical basis of what can be proved factually. In line with his formula, he suggests that faith should start not with speculations about God but with the "relevant data" that man can establish about his own existence. Citing the examples of such diverse figures as Christ, Socrates and Unitarian Minister James Reeb, who was bludgeoned to death at Selma in 1965, Pike argues that man can transcend his "occupation of a limited space-time continuum" by his impact on others. In other words, the existence of heroism and sanctity is evidence that there is a transcendent quality to man's being that points beyond this life.

An appreciation of man's transcendence, argues Pike, can lead to an empirically based faith in the hereafter. As evidence, he cites experiments dealing with the plausibility of extrasensory perception and clairvoyance that have persuaded him, with only "a modest leap of faith," that "personal survival of death is a fact." Fact though it may be, Pike warns that too much speculation about the mystery of heaven, hell and the afterlife leads nowhere: "It is here and now that we are called to learn, to work, to love, to enjoy--and to grow. There is in this view of things every motivation for moving to new plateaus of freedom and effectiveness, for becoming all we can become, while in these familiar surroundings. One world at a time."

No God to Lean On. And God? Pike firmly rejects the idea of a personal deity who answers prayers or somehow serves as an answer to the mysteries of life. "There is no way that the 'God' whom we could alternately lean on and blame can be made credible again." Nonetheless, the bishop suggests that man's "awareness of the amount of order there is, and of beauty, of joy and love" points to an "ultimate Reality" that is "in the realm of the empirical." Much in the manner of Philosopher Alfred North Whitehead, Pike seems to regard "God" as a force deeply bound up in the continuing creative process of the universe that in effect works in and through men. Thus, concludes Pike, "we can focus toward the future--conjoining our energies, capacities, and insights to the making of that which shall be."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.