Tony says,
> I have been intrigued by the start-up of a discussion thread on
> Christianity/Religion and "The Fifth Discipline" but have been scratching
> my head about the content. It is difficult for me to see religion and/or
> Christianity and the LO as complementary. Other than perhaps the Quakers,
> Buddhists, and Unitarian-Universalists, I do not know of any religious
> orders that do double-loop learning which for me is an essential
> capability of a LO.
> For example, at every mass Catholics recite the 'Credo' - I believe in .....
> The Catholic church is not open to reconsidering the divinity of Christ,
> nor the immaculate conception. Religious organizations are based on
> assumptions and beliefs that are rarely (should I say never) subject to
> critical inquiry or learning.
Precisely, Tony. Christianity is felt to have a divine origin, and
therefore to question its structures and systems is to become a heretic
(just as our good friend Galileo. . .). This raises an important issue for
many practitioners of Los: How do you switch between questioning the
assumptions behind what you do at work, but then avoid questioning the
assumptions of your church/religion?
It was Jesus' intent to establish a kingdom -- something that is much more
than an organization; a kingdom has a King -- Jesus is known as the King
of kings -- and a King has complete authority over his kingdom. Thus to
question the structures of his kingdom is to question both Jesus' divinity
and authority .
It is my opinion that Christians must be willing to say, "yes, I can
question the systems and structures created by man. But I trust God and
His Son, Jesus, to be all-knowing, and therefore their systems and
structures, by their very nature, are perfect and cannot be improved
upon." After all, isn't God the greatest systemic thinker in the universe?
Many non-Christians are uncomfortable with this type of faith (and given
their context, I don't blame them a bit). And many Christians will find
themselves at odds with their church if they carry their intellectual
practices such as challenging assumptions, or trying influence/change a
system, into the sacred realm of religion.
Everyone has to resolve this issue on their own. It's a personal thing, I
think.
--Benjamin B. Compton ("Ben") | email: bcompton@novell.com Novell, GroupWare Support Quality Manager | fax: (801) 222-6991
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>