Interview with Ursula King

As part of Templates For Change World Citizen Forum, we recently had the privilege of interviewingProfessor Ursula King, Professor Emerita of Theology and Religious Studies and Senior Research Fellow Institute for Advanced Studies, the University of Bristol, and a Professorial Research Associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, following the release of her latest book, “The Search for Spirituality.” The World Citizen Forum, which is a gathering views from eminent thought leaders across the globe, will be presented to the United Nations later in the year.

 

 

Ursula King:There is a majortransformation taking placetoday in consciousness and culture. I see the emergence of a new humanity with more andmore people interested in spiritual issues. This gathering momentum is like when youdrop a pebble in the pond.. it then begins to move out wave on wave in an ever-widening circle.

 

Ursula King:I have always seen education to be crucial in helping people take their life in their own hands and in changing themselves to develop consciousness. There is also a sense that we, as humans, have the future development of humanity in our hands. It is our responsibility and people need to be made more aware of this fact. We need to be more aware in order to become more conscious and this calls formore self-reflection, discernment and being less credulous - being prepared to be more critical in the sense of testing the waters for ourselves. Becoming conscious demands greater critical examination and reflection about these issues - it is our philosophical, religious and spiritual task.

 

 

Ursula King:There is a tendency in new age thinking, as there is generally in the world, to polarise things - to think in terms of “religion is bad, spirituality is good” or “the body as matter is bad and the soul is good.” This dualism is harmful. Yes, body and soul may be separate but they are related: the spirit works through everything in life. This is the same with religion and spirituality. Some people will draw strength andinspiration from one, some from the other - they are interrelated and so we donít have to think in terms of opposites.

 

Ursula King:Particularly in the West we have a tendency to emphasize the individual personality out of context. But no one really stands on their own: we are all products of circumstance, family, genes, education, our friends and other social factors, and we have links with many others from neighbors to friends and family. When it comes to things like politics and corruption there may be a tendency for some to say: “What does this have to do with me?” But when you look more deeply, there is a very human, and humane, motive at play in all people and a deep longing for a more satisfactory life.

 

 

Ursula King:Teilhard de Chardin talked about the Noosphere - a collective layer of thinking around the globe that is conducive to interacting, sharing and loving; a web of activity in life, ways, feelings and insights. This “layer of thinking.” which concerns the further evolution of our consciousness, is about reaching out to and sharing with our fellow human beings. This calls for many encounters, for further education and for much dialogue in particularly in the realm of the 3 H’s: the Head, the Hand and the Heart.

 

We humans have already done a lot with our head, now we need to do more with the hands.. we need to get practical with projects such as housing the poor. And we need to develop a deeper dialogue of the heart through relationships and through celebratory human expressions such as art and other aesthetics. The next level of human consciousness is the coming together into a totality of thinking, feeling and doing.

 

Ursula King:I’m not sure how many people would call themselves a world citizen, but it’s a growing number. People today are moving away from the narrow boundaries of tribe and village and are exposed to so many new forms of media, such as the Worldwide Web, TV, film and world music. Because of this today’s youth are far more aware of the big issues affecting the world, and will demonstrate about such things as economics, war and poverty. They seem to feel totally at ease with people in different classes and old economic barriers appear to have almost broken down. In fact, because of the Internet, we humans today are dealing with a virtual global community that is expanding with a velocity unknown even ten years ago.

 

 

Ursula King: One thing that inspires me is that women who have traditionally been defined and constrained by their religion are now breaking out. They want autonomy and to be able to define religion and spirituality for themselves. I can see it happening in every religion in the world. In central China, Muslim women have had independent womenís mosques with their own woman Imam for 400 yrs. Nepalese Buddhist nuns are writing doctorates about the scriptures of their own faith, and so are many other Buddhist women. They are taking thing into their own hands. Yes, there are battles with the monks, as there are with Anglican women and their bishops. But this empowerment is now a global movement, it is part of the rise in consciousness. Women won’t be held back. It’s like a Tsunami, it cannot be held back: once an idea is born, there’s no way of stopping it.

 

 

Ursula King:I believe that the balances are already tipping towards the positive. The world has become a different place even since 1968. People tend to think the world is always going to stay as it is, but if you had told someone living in medieval times that one day humans would be safe because of treaties rather than fortifications, they would find it difficult to imagine. When you think of the strictures placed upon their individual freedom and compare that with the extraordinary freedom we enjoy now, the opportunities for the future are huge. And there is no going back. Once you get a young child awakened, there is an unstoppable desire to know more, to explore.

 

We need to awaken the energy of love and to have a zest for life, a desire to be fully alive. Then we need to feed the fire of this passion to the very young, but also to the old and the ill. Yes, when we are older our faculties may be diminished, yet we can still gather in our memories. We need to teach, discuss, reflect and dialogue with people of all ages to encourage them to enter into these lines of thought and to work with them. To have a purpose that is larger than the individual self is very life-enhancing and nourishing. This leap of love is the next step of evolution. It is this power and the energy of a more active, qualitatively different kind of love that can help us to create a better world.

*The Search for Spiritualitywas published in 2009 by Canterbury Press (http://www.scm-/canterburypress.com). This and other books by Ursula King can be found on http://www.amazon.com/