Moore wants genius of Gospels to sparkle

On 23 April 2010 Barque announced an interview with Thomas Moore by Kay Parris for Reform magazine that is sponsored by the United Reformed Church. This interview "Transcending Unconsciousness" is now available online.

Parris writes, "As a life-long student of world religions, Moore doesn’t see the Gospels as more important than other holy texts – all are "writings from time immemorial that try to express the mysteries of the spiritual life". But he does feel that, if the "moralism and judgementalism" of hundreds of years of translation and interpretation could only be cleaned away, the genius of the Gospels would be allowed to sparkle into life in a way that could be truly liberating, illuminating and "useful for the world". To that end, he has now set himself the task of producing a fresh translation from the Greek."

Responding to Parris’s question about the existence of "a power beyond ourselves that is both natural and supernatural," Moore shares:

"You’re asking the most difficult question of all. Language fails us at this point. The way I see it for myself, if someone asks me do you believe in God, I would say yes, but I would probably not mean the same thing that most people would mean.

I believe the theology I find, in both east and west religions, that says God is unknowable, is mysterious. I believe we face mysteries in this life that we don’t understand. When you look into the sky, whether it’s the night sky or the day sky, you are looking into a great mystery that surrounds us. It is both a metaphor and also a direct experience of that sky. We wonder what’s out there, what is beyond us. And I don’t want to give any answers to what we don’t know. I don’t see any point in trying to make up answers to those questions.

I think what religion should be doing is helping us relate to those questions – giving us some language that doesn’t explain the mysteries, but rather allows us to relate to them."

For a follow-up question, Moore addresses his interest in Jungian psychology:

"Jungian psychology has helped me a great deal, although I am not a Jungian psychologist and I see great limitations in it as a system. But there are a great many insights there that helped me tremendously to have an appreciation for mystery."

In a recent post under Dark Nights of the Soul on his Discussion forum, Moore also writes about his interest in Jung's ideas.