 |
| Search |
|
|
|
|
Home >
About
World Network of Religious Futurists
Version 1.1 -- 10 July 2000
Summary: This is a list of Frequently Asked Questions about the future of religion and the scholars who study it -- religious futurists. It provides a useful introduction to the World Network of Religious Futurists.
Keywords: future of religion, research, creativity, social innovation, change, forecasting, spirituality, creativity, peace, civilization, millennialism, theology, science, technology, culture, scholars, associations.
Table of Contents:
1. How do you "study the future" of religion?
2. Does religion really change or improve itself?
3. So religious futurists also examine the responsibility of religions?
4. Hasn't religion, more often than not, been an enemy, rather than an ally of the future?
5. Do religious futurists endorse any millennial or utopian thought about the future?
6. Will organized religion still be around in the year 3000?
7. Why do you talk about the future of religion, instead of the future of spirituality?
8. Who has been concerned about the "future of religion" in this century?
9. What are "religious futurists"?
10. Isn't the modern future study movement secular?
11. What does a religious futurist do?
12. Is "religious futurists" a euphemism for 21st century "prophets"?
13. Can religious visionaries really learn from each other? Can mystics be managed?
14. What is the logic of "advancing the future of religion" beyond one's own tradition?
15. Are you working toward one a world church or a one world religion?
16. What is the mission statement of WNRF?
17. What benefits do I receive as a member of WNRF?
at the WNRF home page
1. How do you "study the future" of religion?
Look at the story of your own religion, your own denomination, and ask how you can improve its story -- by God's grace. It's a story, a history, which includes you who is studying it. You are not here to make it worse; and you cannot leave it alone. You can make it better. You can make a better future religion. Who do you admire; whom would you imitate in your faith's story? A Pope, a Saint, a peace activist, a healer, a reformer? "Go thou and do likewise!"
Put it another way: You "study the future" of religion by extrapolating trends, and by caring about the future, especially the future of religion. And by praying and studying sacred texts and histories of one's own faith tradition -- to be inspired by it. What inspires you in the past -- what would inspire you in the future? Is it making peace or writing sacred song, building a garden of healing, being a missionary or a bishop or a scholar? Who were/are your heroines and heroes of faith? Your admiration for them is a current of energy for you to build a nobler future for your faith tradition.
Religious futures scholarship focuses on predictable occurrences in the future of religion, based on present observable trends, and past trends in religion, compounded by expectations of wild cards or quantum leaps, in the context of society's future as a whole, ranging from science to technology. What kind of science and technology excites you, what kind worries you? Get involved in bringing religious values to the future of these sciences and technologies!
Added to that, futures study of religion thinks in terms of what we want to see as well as what we expect to see. Professional futurists distinguish between descriptive and prescriptive futures, or between possible and probable versus the preferable and ideal on the other. By reflecting on the past, present and likely emerging events in religion and religions, we clarify our values, and ask ourselves if these are the events we would like to see.
For example, look at your church building. Do you like it? Is it perfect? Do the walls and windows inspire you to act for God's glory? Are the pews sources of healing and connectedness? If we look at the conventions of ecclesiastical architecture, and try to imagine various future changes in these conventions, we can ask ourselves "Where are these likely to go? Do these changes represent the best change we could think of?" Do you like the organization or worship of your local congregation, mosque, synagogue, or temple? If not, make a better future for it. You can influence the future of your religion.
Prescriptive future studies in field of religion have a rather uniquely privileged position among general futures studies; the essence of prescriptive future studies is to move through the study of the desirable to the discovery of the ideal. What is your ideal church, the form and structure and worship you would yearn to see?
The Ideal in philosophical theology is one of the attributes of the Supreme Being of God, sometimes called the Absolute. The question of the relationship of absolute and Supreme Being of God, is a matter for theology, rather than future studies. One point is clear, though; the pursuit of the Ideal is the pursuit of the Spirit, as God is spirit as well as truth.
The study of the future of religion is therefore the pursuit of the ideal, the search for highest and best truth, and by God's grace, the power to improve all things, including religion itself. What dream of a better religion has God placed in your heart?
2. Does religion really change or improve itself?
Yes. Scholars, theologians and historians of religion, such as John Hick, Houston Smith, Ninian Smart, Jeffrey Parrinder, Ziauddin Sardar or Hans Kung help us understand that religion and our interpretation of religion is a tradition of change.
Some people would resist this idea that a religion is a tradition of change. They might say things may have changed until the coming of the Bible, Koran, Torah, or other sacred revelation. But then, final revelation was reached and that is the end of the matter.
But once we understand that religion is a tradition of change, then we can see that there is no particular reason to think that change has stopped. The Protestant reformers were fond of saying the church is ever reforming. The interpretation of the Bible on slavery is one example. In the US Civil War slave-owners and emancipators both cited the Bible to prove their side of things.
Since further change is likely, we can step in the stream of that change and ask ourselves what changes we wish to bring about. [A simple starting point would be to ask: Is my local church all I believe God wants it to be?] It is part of our human nature, Imago Dei, made in the image of God, that God has given us the will to set our objectives for the improvement of our religious institutions.
The etymology of "religion" as a word comes from the Latin verb, meaning, "to bind, to bring together." The word Yoga -- at the forefront of Hindu thinking, also means something similar, to yoke, yoking the human and divine. So when we speak of religion, we are talking about the life of the church, congregation, a mosque, a synagogue, or temple. We are talking about the fellowship of people pursuing holy living.
So our conversation about the future of the religion can be translated into a question about the nature and dynamics of congregational life and its change. What does the congregation think about finance? About social justice? About technology? Should churches allow their steeples used for informational transfer of cellular phones? Should congregations allow their facilities to be used to feed the poor?
3. So religious futurists also examine the responsibility of religions?
Exactly. On one hand you have the pure speculative side of the study of religion, then on the other, you have questions of what is the responsibility of religion to civic affairs, such as the question of cloning, road rage, school homicide/ suicides or terrorism. What’s your piece of the action as a person of faith, in a community of faith?
If the present position is that congregations or temples are not involved in the issue, then we might ask ourselves, "What is the possible, the probable and the preferable future of any congregations in relation to these urgent problems?" We might compare this to present practices in religious youth education, and ask, "How can youth be encouraged tackle these problems?"
In all these things, the method of the futurist is to make their thought and their imagination converge more towards one aim: the identification of God's holy perfect will for his people. This is the same thing as the search for the ideal.
4. Hasn't religion, more often than not, been an enemy, rather than an ally of the future?
One Christian historian claims that with the coming of Christ, hospitals appeared. The reason for this was that prior to Christ, it was thought in many ways that suffering was good for the soul, or to put it in a quite different way, it was one's karma, it was a way of paying off debt; illness was a punishment for sin [see the Book of Job in the Bible].
People in ancient times, reflecting on the coming of Christ, the coming of infinite compassion, saw God himself suffering. The divine act of sharing in human suffering launched a whole new human era of healing the human race. So in terms of social evolution, or health care, a religion such as Christianity, has not been the enemy of the future. Followers of Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and other religions would make a similar claim.
Indeed, religion in the form of such compassionate leaders such as Jesus, Mohammed, and Gautama Buddha, have brought a message of hope about the future of human race which can be placed at the exact counter-pole of the statement made by philosopher Thomas Hobbes, in his 17th century book, Leviathan: "Human life is nasty, brutish, horrible and short."
The Hebrew tradition continually affirmed that God is the enemy of evil. Major and Minor Prophets envisioned the day of the Lord, the day of final judgment, the day of salvation. At the end of the age, evil -- in that last day -- would be annihilated. We see this idea throughout the Hebrew scriptures and in Revelation, the last book of the Christian bible. Some readers of scripture interpreted that in such a way as to mean there is no future worth studying or caring about, except for the eschatological* annihilation of evil. But an exclusively apocalyptic** view of the future is a minority position in religion. [*Eschatological: from Ta Eschata -- the last things **Apocalyptic--a word meaning "unveiling." Apocalyptic is a complex viewpoint, which is associated with the idea of secret knowledge being conveyed in key scriptures.]
Scholars in the field of comparative religion are of similar mind in regards to social evolution -- that God is bringing the human race toward a greater peace, harmony, and happiness. We need not misconstrue eschatology, the theological study of the Four "Last Things" -- Death and Judgment, Heaven and Hell, in such a way as to see the future as inevitably destructive on a vast scale. See WNRF Associate, Dr. Richard Landes' site for a comparative study of aberrant millennialism http://www.mille.org/
We prefer to say that God is not the enemy of the future but its ally. God is the enemy of limitation, God is the enemy of pain, and God is the enemy of anguish, loneliness, confusion, despair, death and hell, things, which are widely prevalent in the human condition.
5. Do religious futurists endorse any millennial or utopian thought about the future?
No. What we do endorse is scholarship -- and love -- in the field of religion. We are against narrow "scientism," and narrow apocalypticism.
Religious futurists look for truth all over the world, wherever it is appearing. Through scholarship and service, we work to create better societies. But they realize that to achieve profoundly social, deeply valuable new truth [knowledge bearing on the evolution of society towards God] requires checks and balances.
Rather than a naive utopianism, we strive for an enlightened hope and an educated will. We begin with ourselves as scholars and people of faith. We aim to form ourselves as deeply as possible in humble love, on the path of holiness, in conformity with divine revelation, in response to God's intent to build better civilizations.
6. Will organized religion still be around in the year 3000?
Yes. Since the dawn of time, humans in their solitude have felt they stood in relationship to whatever they considered the divine. They have always organized themselves into groups, linked to their idea of the Transcendent. Organized religion is the essence of human beings. As long as there are human beings, there will be religion.
Greek Orthodox Bishop John D. Zizioulas wrote of "being" as "communion." To be human is to be in relationship. This is relational ontology [the science of Being], where being is love. To be human is not to be "individual" [separate] but to be a person, a being-in-relationship. In the industrial age, we thought of people as individuals, as atoms. Seeking to broaden this reductionism, Paul Tournier wrote about the "meaning of persons." To be truly human is to love, to be a person is to be in a web of relationships, not only in God's image but also in a community of loving organizations.
The aim of organization is to build a team, a divinely inspired group, a fellowship, and an association of persons-in-community. To help people know God and give glory to God. Therefore if there is any future for humanity as a universal community, it must be in religion, in self-giving, in community.
We have several articles on the middle or long-range future of religion on our web site, including A Religious Vision for the 21st Century and Religious Projections for the Next 200 Years.
7. Why do you talk about the future of religion, instead of the future of spirituality?
Spirituality is often contrasted with religion, as the religion of a person, versus the religion of a group. Spirituality is a part of a person's private life of prayer, part of their decision to embrace a path of holiness, a life of charity. But the "spirituality" of a person in isolation from their neighbor is bogus. There is a mission of spirituality within religion. Its goal is to consummate God-realization within human beings, but that takes place within a social context of religion
Religious futurists study the future of both unorganized spirituality and organized religion. We look at the "cash value" of spiritual technologies, methods of prayer and meditation, the nature and results of the many ways of praying and expressing a sense of the sacred and spiritual.
Our Academy of Prayer offers a framework for people to advance their spiritual growth in the company of other seekers. And one of our Earl Award recipients gave an address on "A Spirituality for Tomorrow".
8. Who has been concerned about the "future of religion" in this century?
Many have declared religion dead or dying. A few thoughtful people saw a future for religion. But just a few. H.G. Wells, who lived 1866-1946, was one. He was, and is, preeminent among professional futurists. He wrote science fiction books such as The War of the Worlds, and Things to Come; also non-fiction explorations such as Anticipations [1901]. He also wrote a number of sociological novels, such as Kipps, and the History of Mr. Polly, both made into movies.
Wells' religious period was during and after the First World War 1914-1918. In Mr. Britling Sees it Through [1916], Wells connected theology and government. His vision was of "God, the captain of Mankind, fighting his way through to world republic." He followed it up with two more books, The Soul of a Bishop,and The Undying Fire. But Wells was much more a scientist than a religionist.
Father Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J., a Jesuit, mystic and paleontologist, wrote such books as the Phenomenon of Man and The Future of Man, and he famously postulated the emergence of the noosphere, the evolution of the whole human race toward "Point Omega." He saw the Christification of matter itself in the evolution of cosmos towards Godhead.
The astronomers John D. Barrow and Frank Tipler make use of Teilhard’s ideas in their collaborative epic of modern cosmology, The Anthropic Cosmological Principle [1982].
John Hick, a theologian writing in such books as God and the Universe of Faiths and Death and Eternal Life, called for global theologies, collaborative religious inquiries.
WNRF aims to provide a scholarly tradition of the study of the future[s] of religion[s]. Join us if you like that kind of thing!
9. What are "religious futurists"?
People who are deeply interested in the future of the world, the future of religion, of faith, of science, of humanity.
Religious futurists are therefore people dedicated to two activities: Religious reflection and practice; and futurist study and practice. Their hope is twofold: (1) to bring the best of the thought and practice of futurist study to the thought and practice of world religions. Also, (2) to bring the best thought and practice of world religions to the study and discussion of the future -- for example, 21st century issues in science, politics, and communication.
For example, religious leaders can learn to use the Delphi method. Its use can bring heightened awareness of the significance of emerging science and new technology. It can direct towards political trends and the mood of the times the minds of religious leaders -- such as theologians, educators, bishops, philosophers, pastors, religious journalists. Such futurist activities can lead to a greater capacity for actual inspiration, and discernment of the will of God for the future of the human family.
Conversely, "Religious Futurists" can influence, by the sensitivity of their values, and their capacity to teach repentance and the amendment of life, the trajectory of evolving sciences and technology. [For more, see FAQ #11 below, "What does a Religious Futurist do?"]
10. Isn't the modern future study movement secular?
The modern study of the future is secular, as indeed science is secular. But even the secular has a core of compassion.
In 17th century England, the Royal Society, building on the thought of Francis Bacon, repudiated dogmatic divinity doctrines and substituted the actual study of nature. Compassion and pity for suffering humanity motivated Bacon. His deep religious vision of the orderliness of nature, our world being God's world, led him to inspire scientists to search for laws of nature an act of faith. Science, a secularization movement, was another way of expressing faith.
Religious values or spiritual technologies, however, for the most part do not guide the contemporary futurist. However, there is a new openness among futurists to exploring how meaning, culture and values shape tomorrows' worlds.
The mission of the religious futurist is to relate the worlds of the religionist and the futurist. This involves recreating the concept of laboratory, [made up of words for work and pray,] to recreate science as a more spiritual arena and a more spiritual practice, to bring a heart of love, a divine core to present and future technologies. For more information, see The Temples of Tomorrow by Kirby and Brewer.
11. What does a religious futurist do?
Prepare for a better future -- a future that is God's -- a future in which it will be "on earth as it is in heaven."
A religious futurist should do this with classic disciplines of the spiritual life. Thus, members of the World Network of Religious Futurists strive to support each other in our commitment to study, pray, experiment, worship, meditate, repent, discuss religion and religions, walk in the way of divine Law, extrapolate, predict, forecast, warn, prophesy [occasionally!], seek inspiration, encourage and communicate -- and remind the world to return to God in prayer!.
We care, is what we do most! We care about holiness, which means we care about God and therefore about God's creation, of which we are a part. We care about human predicaments, sickness and loneliness and war and death and evil and sin and horror and terror and dread.
Our caring is focused to a fiery point by our faith traditions. So, we go to work for a greater good, a better society; we build towards the Kingdom of God on earth; we help each other not to weary in well-doing. We work from the resources within our religious Tradition. We care about God's Word in the present moment for the divinely guided future.
We search for truth; we purify ourselves as seekers, as citizens, as people of God, as activists and reformers, as healers and emissaries of love, peace and joy. We work particularly to bring these values to futurists and their communities and programs.
We struggle to see how the message of the divine life has become encrusted in what Olaf Stapledon [and the prophet Amos in a different way] calls "dope." We work for a better religion; we work to improve our own religious tradition.
We study -- to be inspired, to be inspired to pray. If study does not lead to prayer, it would be wrong for religionists.
We struggle to Pray. If not, our thoughts may become sterile or false or self-serving.
We pray to find a better way of study.
We pray to sanctify our intelligence.
We pray to look for, and find, and deploy, a sacred science.
We Experiment.
The experimental method multiplies the power of mind.
We experiment to test if our hunches are correct. If correct, then we experiment to test if our hunches are fertile. If fertile, then we experiment to test if our hunches are useful.
We experiment with specific experiments in religious practice, to build a happier, more honorable world.
We Communicate. We publish our findings, compare them with others, and apply them.
We gather, to worship. We meet -- to collaborate, to support each other, to plan, to publish.
We share. We share resources, joys, sorrows, problems and paradigms. We celebrate our friendships, under God. We try to love, as well as to like, each other. We are holy community, which means loving community. "Through the night of doubt and sorrow, onwards goes the pilgrim band; brother clasps the hand of brother, onward to the Promised Land," as the hymn says.
12. Is "religious futurists" a euphemism for 21st century "prophets"?
No, "religious futurism" is not a euphemism for anything. It is a professional activity and a spiritual vocation.
The prophets of Israel, for example, were not forecasters, futurists in our modern sense. They were visionary religious leaders, but they were not foretelling events, but forth-telling: telling forth the will of God. "Thus says the Lord," was the "formula" used by Amos and Isaiah, for example.
Actually, we believe the religious vocation of all believers is threefold: pastoral [caring], priestly [sacramental] and prophetic [discoursing on God’s present Word.] According to Martin Luther and the Reformers, all believers are called to exercise all three functions. They go together in holy community. St. Paul considered the prophetic function to be vital to the life of every congregation [see 1 Corinthians chapter 14 for a detailed exposition of the nature and importance of prophesying.]
Religious futurists do not presume to be prophets outside of the body of faith, because we are aware of the frailty of human knowledge, and the contingent nature of the intellectual ideal. Religious futurists do aspire as a corporate presence to be a prophetic voice in the contemporary world scene. So do artists, poets and writers. So should every congregation [that is a "prophetic" remark!]
We are interested in the prophetic tradition, in religious fields, and we study it. We do have a duty, we believe, to be scholars in the history of prophetic thought and practice.
We care about the human predicament, about the tragic disorder of world affairs, and we believe the Spirit can lead us towards peace and health in the Body Politic. We aim not to predict, however, but to discern, in the light of studied solutions, ones most suited to the ennoblement of the human condition -- to its divinization. For we recognize that the whole of creation is groaning in travail [see Romans ch. 8 v. 22]. One of our Earl Award recipients, Dick Spady, describes his task as a futurist not to predict but to influence the sociological and technological future.
13. Can religious visionaries really learn from each other? Can mystics be managed?
Yes. Religious visionaries really can learn from each other. [That is why we write our books!]
The word "conscience" contains the word "science." Conscience means knowing together the nature of spiritual or scientific matters; and that is collegial.
Can mystics be managed? In ancient Biblical times, the mystics were in schools or groups, the bands, guilds, or schools of prophets, as we read in the books of Samuel and Kings. Even mystics, visionaries, contemplatives need support groups. WNRF is such a support group.
Christians have their identity as members of the body of Christ. Even Christian mystics have to consult with one another, regarding their vision from God. They need to share it, and risk learning they may be mistaken. WNRF is a clearing-house for visions; we hope to help our visionaries grow. Growth means not quantity, but quality of visions. Growth is towards truth.
The story is told of the farmer who saw a vision in the clouds, He read there three letters, G.P.C. He reasoned, "I must 'Go preach Christ.' I will obey God."
He turned out to be a crashing failure as a preacher. Just when he thought he was nothing at all, that he had lost his only real career, that he had to sell his farm, he was saved by an angel. The angel came to him, and said, "You already had a job. God was saying, 'Go plant corn.'"
Oliver Cromwell used to say to his adversaries, "I beseech you to consider you might be mistaken!"
So religious visionaries need one another to test and improve their ideas. The World Network of Religious Futurists is a place for this kind of friendship, community, peer review; the life of religious scholars is collegial.
As for management, if management is seen as a sacrament, as within pastoral care, as being a form of ministry, yes, mystics can be managed. We in WNRF aim to pioneer a sacred management theory and practice; a theology of management. Our hope is the same for the management of all religious communities, including our own: to organize and lead by example, a divinely inspired community. To create the conditions for such inspiration is the hope of our managers. It is to set management in the context of prayer, meditation, worship and service.
Monasteries could likewise be considered as places for the management of contemplation and the gifts it brings civilization. [See Contemplation in a World of Action by Thomas Merton.]
14. What is the logic of "advancing the future of religion" beyond one's own tradition?
It is the logic of love; the logic of Total Quality Management -- the logic of continuous improvement. It is the logic of hope.
The logic of love is what Thomas Torrance called "theo-logic" or God's logic in books such as, The Ground and Grammar of Theology, or Theological Science. This logic is not atomistic or separatist, but involves the logic of relationship. It is the logic of love, the logic of larger being. This logic is not in contrast to the logic of discerning the false from the true, but it follows the logic of love and empowered relationships.
The World Network of Religious Futurists is unique in that it fosters the development of religious futurists both within their traditions and across them. Christian futurists are encouraged to study the future of their own religion, as well as engage in comparative religious scholarship with Muslim futurists as to how each other's tradition can improve.
The Logic of reaching beyond one's own tradition is the logic of connectedness. We want to help each other grow, each in our own field. The religious story of the human race is one story, with many chapters; and not all are written yet. We are co-authors in the science and art of world religion.
Scholars of religion have to work with people of many faiths. We aim to help each other become at least competent on an elementary level in our knowledge of world religions such as Judaism, Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, BaH’ai Faith. Together we can understand more of the whole human story. [See John Hick, God and the Universe of Faiths; William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience; Ninian Smart, The Religious Experience of Mankind; and Houston Smith, The Religions of Man.]
Reaching beyond one's own tradition is not leaving it, but enriching it; it is joining a bigger family -- the family of world-religious scholars.
In fact, we can, studying world religions, be encouraged and inspired by the ubiquitousness of God's love. Mystics such as Vivekananda and Sri Ramakrishna pointed out that to be inspired by this realization is not to abandon one's own tradition; it is to dig deeper roots in one's own tradition.
Such mystics tell us not to dash around large areas of ground looking for the waters of inspiration, but never finding the well. If we stay in one place [our own tradition of faith and worship] we will find the cascading water of the Spirit.
We aim to advance within the tradition most suited to our own nature. Usually this will be one we were brought up in.
We bloom where are planted, making a more effective, compassionate, and innovative church or other religious community.
We want to "advance the future of religion," so that religion has a future. We want to improve religions, building for them a future faith of ennoblement, intelligence, creativity, potency, and glory.
15. Are you working toward one a world church or a one-world religion?
No, religious futurists are not working toward a one-world religion, or a one-world church. We work to raise the "collective theological I.Q." of all religions. We want all religions and spiritual traditions, all wisdom traditions, to grow -- in magnanimity, effectiveness, gloriousness and intelligent love.
Religious futurists do not, for the most part, foresee the emergence of a world civil religion. They consider each religion on its own merits. We see different religions reflecting different personality types, being suited to different social realms of being. We foresee greater diversity in the religions of the future, just as there is a growing diversity in the way people define religious vocations, whether as priest, scholar, monk, missionary or nurse.
Religious futurists labor to bring forth among religions a larger capacity, a larger compassion, and a greater potency of service. Our aim is to see, at the round tables of those planning the civilizations of tomorrow, architects of the future with the best religious values.
We support international, inter-disciplinary joint research initiatives. For example, we work with Russians, Pakistanis, Japanese and Indians to pursue research in social innovation for spiritual civilization building.
WNRF doesn't have any organizational ambitions, beyond expanding our membership to create a larger intelligence and love; and growing in our understanding of futures study methods appropriate to our calling. Like all dedicated scholars, we hope for better schools of religion, and we pray for dedicated students!
16. What is the mission statement of WNRF?
Simply stated, the World Network of Religious Futurists exists as a leadership development ministry to advance the future of religion by empowering people to think creatively and critically about the future of society, and to reinvent their ministry in light of those new contexts.
Or to put it another way, WNRF aims to activate, through the convocation of community of religious scholars from all traditions, the civic energies of young, older and all other ages of people from all lands, who care about helping religion to evolve towards a greater instrument of peace, justice, healing, and sustainable life, in the near, medium and long-term future, and who are willing to help spiritualities, theologies and religious traditions and their communities grow humanly and divinely towards the fulfillment of the good society for ourselves and our descendants in this and all worlds to come, by shaping and working within evolving groups of highly effective religionists who are willing to support one another in studying the moral and ethical possiblities of the hi-tech world which is now aborning.
WNRF traces its origin back to 1980. At that time, the encounter of theology with future studies brought into being a field of inquiry called "religious futures," in which scholars, or "religious futurists" began forecasting alternative futures of religion's role in society.
Today WNRF has multiple programs for scholars, professionals, youth and seniors; networks for Jewish, Christian, Muslim or Esoteric futurists; and a dozen Senior Associates who serve as scholars and ambassadors-at-large.
For a fuller treatment of WNRF's aims as a professional association, see "Where is the WNRF going at 18?"
17. What benefits do I receive as a member of WNRF?
Friendship! Connectedness. A mouthpiece for your voice.
Support for research. A place among a community of scholars and activists. A place in a community of the future.
Resources and publicity to broadcast your ideas and the results of your work.
Cyber-space.
A community of prayer. Your family of prayer.
A place to make known your needs and concerns.
A chance to be recognized for the merit of your work.
A place to share in peace-making and creativity. Ways to use your whole brain, to learn right-brain creativity.
A place to share in spiritual civilization building.
A place to seek, and together find, ultimate Reality.
Tangible membership benefits of WNRF include our monthly bulletin, email forum, annual conference invitation, discount on publications, plus a permanent redirect email address at wnrf.org. Annual membership is $30.
We encourage you to invest in your personal development today by joining a professional association dedicated to advancing the future of religion. Click here to join using our secure on-line membership form.
URL: http://www.wnrf.org/cms/faq.shtml
| © 1998-2010 by World Network of Religious Futurists |
|
|
|
|
Printer page
Email article
Top of Page