Introduction to the 2025 Religious Naturalist / Process Theology Lent Course

I first ran this Lent Course series by Donald Szantho Harrington for the Unitarian congregation in Cambridge in 2014, during which a group of us explored Henry Nelson Wieman’s thinking (a kind of process theology/philosophy) and religious naturalism in general. Harrington’s Unitarian, Lenten Manual from 1980 was not only based upon some of Wieman’s work but also and that of his wife, Regina Westcott Wieman, and since then I've kept this course available for anyone else to work through should they be so minded.

Quite coincidentally, shortly after beginning my project to translate Imaoka Shin’ichirō‑sensei’s (1881–1988) essays back at the end of 2022, I saw a picture of him at his desk in 1985 (then aged 104), writing notes about this very book. I confess that it was unexpectedly pleasing to discover this shared interest.


Anyway, should you wish to follow this Lent Course yourself, please use the following 2026 calendar to find out which day of Lent we are on then click on the link and that will take you directly to the appropriate day’s reading.


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Forty-Eighth Day - As Yet Unglimpsed Possibilities

“The greatest distinction of all between the general working philosophy of life and the religious one is the type and quality of the crowning value in the hierarchy of values. When the individual has grown sufficiently to discern that the highest conceivable Objective of our dominant loyalty is a growth of meaning and value in the universe which we can serve but cannot construct, and which is in that sense super human, we have discerned God. . . . It is a steady and progressive process of growth.

 “Cf course, one can give consent to a philosophy of religion worked out by others long before this period, but it is not part of one’s very fibre. A philosophy of religion developed in the process of devoted religious living can never be lost. It can and is modified progressively, . . . nor is it ever finished. Always it moves toward the as-yet-unglimpsed possibilities of a more magnificent and profound Reality-on-beyond, so long as religious living continues intelligent and vital. The quickest and soundest way to the attainment of a worthy idea of God is not through a type of training which tries to ‘give’ ideas and precepts, insists upon the memorization of passages of sacred literature, super-induces conversion under high pressure, and in other ways endeavors to coerce the individual into an acceptance of the stereotypes and facts of a cult. The swiftest and surest way to the attainment of a worthy idea of God is through a progressive development of value-habits and ideals which grows into a progression of loyalties by way of devotion to the highest value at any one time conceivable. Finally, one who persists in one’s quest discovers that the highest value for all human living is growth of meaning. . . .

 "Of course, no one can have knowledge beyond the culture of one’s time, but one can recognize the limitations of that culture. Culture-bound individuals tend to have blind spots as to the possibilities of exploration and evaluation outside those which have been recognized and standardized by the social group with which they identify themselves. They do not realize the relativity of the techniques and the appreciations of their culture. They take their age and time too seriously. They do not see them as only a long moment . . . They are cultured-centered. 

 “This culture-bound philosophy can be better understood by contrasting it with its opposite. . . . Such persons engage in great flights of speculative imagination, which take off from the proudest heights of truth that this culture can erect. These speculative ventures suggest a larger perspective than that of their own culture . . . it is Reality-centered rather than culture-centered. Its development requires a transcendental point of view and attitude. Individuals, here, cannot know beyond the limits of the knowledge of their culture; but they can realize vividly and stirringly that there is more to know, and that there may be new ways of going about the building of knowledge. Their knowledge is bound by their culture, but the exploration and creativeness of their imaginations are not. They are not tradition-bound as are they with the conformative philosophy. They are not ego-bound as are they with the adventitious philosophy. They are not culture-bound as are they who build on (this) plateau. They have a mystical quality in their living and outreaching. They hold themselves ready for the greater which may emerge. They hold their system of concepts tentatively, ready to re-test and re-shape when greater meaning comes. They will progressively integrate their living in the light of the findings.

 “(Such persons) participate actively in the actual living processes which go to make up the realities of the every day; but they seek to discern in and through these, those significant meanings which are pointers toward the wider Reality. They have a vivid sense of the unfinished and fragmentary nature of what this particular culture can reveal of the Supremely Worthful. A working philosophy of religion, developed through a transcendental viewpoint such as this, is realistic while still being creative; it is tested while still being unbound. It favors unlimited progression in religious living and in the development of that body of concepts which guides it.”

We come to the end of this Lenten Exercise on the forty-eighth day as Holy Week comes to an end. But as that Week marked, not an ending but a beginning, so should this Lenten experience. lf it has succeeded, its users will want to go on building in their own daily meditations and ongoing search for truth and right. Everything they learn and encounter will be worked into their growing outlook. It will become the center and power in their lives. It is the noblest of all life's experiences.

PRAYER

God, You are the growth of creative mutuality in the universe. Grasp us. Guide us. Grow in us. Glorify us. For Your Shining City’s sake. Amen.

HYMN

Wonders still the world shall witness
Never known by men of old,
Never dreamed by ancient sages,
How-soever free and bold.
Sons and daughters shall inherit
Wondrous arts to us unknown,
When the dawn of peace its splendor
Over all the world has thrown.

Men shall rule with winged freedom
Worlds of health and human good,
Worlds of commerce, worlds of science,
All made one and understood. '
They shall know a world transfigured,
Which our eyes but dimly see;
They shall make its towns and woodlands
Beautiful from sea to sea.

For a spirit then shall move them
We but vaguely apprehend —
Aims magnificent and holy,
Making joy and labor friend.
Then shall bloom in song and fragrance,
Harmony of thought and deed,
Fruits of peace and love and justice —
Where today we plant the seed.

Jacob Trapp
HOS, No. 352
HCL, No. 191
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Forty-Seventh Day (Easter Sunday) - The Recreation of Faith

“Religion is devotion to what we hold to be supremely worthful not only for ourselves but for all human living. This applies to all genuine religion as we shall understand it. But the superior forms of religion require an elaborate statement with full equalification. Religion, at its highest and best, is the devotion of the total self, through search, service and adoration, to the highest cause of which one is now conscious, providing that cause is deemed worthy of the devotion of all people, and is symbolic of ever higher unexplored values.

 “Religion, then, is a process of organizing the self around and toward the highest values. The total self must be involved if the highest values are to be promoted and realized. The total self will be involved spontaneously if the devotees are sincere, for they believe that that to which they devote themselves is truly the most worthful they know. . . .

 “In excellent religion, which is always something more than genuine religion, the objective sought and served and adored has not only the kind of value which must be shared to be realized, but a value which the individual reveres because it leads on to, and always opens out into, higher and wider realms of value which are never fully compassed at any one time by the devotee. Hence the highest that can be clearly formulated and comprehended is always a progression. Always this highest reaches on to values that elude the present powers of specific knowledge and appreciation. Hence the way of life that marks excellent religion is the process of progressive integration, involving the total person, and growing toward a Supremely Worthful which exceeds the scope of present comprehension.

 “This is the reason why people’s religion is so important to them when it is genuine. lt is not that it is so close to them but that it is the center of their lives. It is themselves. It is their total self living at particular way of life. We can no more suddenly ‘lose our religion' than we can suddenly lose our personality. Both are present growth processes rooted in previous growth processes, and thrusting out toward future growth processes. The particular responsiveness or way of life, and the generating and emerging body of concepts which portray what is at the time the most worthful, are not two distinctly different things, but rather two aspects of the religious process. One aspect is always becoming the other.”

Growing one’s own religion is a matter of constantly reworking one’s beliefs into a more and more perfectly integrated, living faith, testing out each fragment by one’s own experience, the findings of others and the wisdom of the past. The task is never finished, but that does not matter, for the task of spiritual growth itself becomes the principal source of personal pleasure, social effectiveness, and carries the sense of a transforming glory.

PRAYER

Our God, Yours is the glory, our is the joy and the labor of realizing it in and around ourselves. Yes, Your glory is always here — potentially — within and among us humans, waiting only our commitment to burst into being. Rouse us to such commitment. Amen.

HYMN

Press on! press on! ye ones of light,
Untiring in your holy fight,
Still treading each temptation down,
And battling for a brighter crown.

Press on! press on! through toil and woe,
Calmly resolved to triumph go,
And make each dark and threatening ill
Yield but a higher glory still.

Press on! press on! still look in faith
To God who vanquished sin and death,
And till you hear the high ‘Well done,’
True to the last, press on! press on!

William Gaskell
HOS, No. 315
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Forty-Sixth Day - Laughter That Makes People Thin

“What makes one feel at home in the universe is one’s beliefs about the universe, and the part and place of human life in it. This system of beliefs is the foundation of one’s sense of inner security, and is the basis for the organization of oneself and one’s characteristic behavior. When these beliefs are disordered or nullified, life loses its order and meaning. . . .

 “A transition period in religion is a very difficult period for human living. There are in commotion many factors and trends which confuse us, and prevent us from feeling at home. . . . These are further complicated because they do not bear upon any two individuals in an identical way. Therefore the reactions of those whose order of being and living has been threatened or disrupted, vary markedly. Some lose meaning, and hence lose the self. Others resist, but with devitalizing misgivings in their hearts and minds. Some, the pseudo-Stoics, that is, the cynics, indulge in the type of laughter that makes thin people. Certain groups keep on with what they have for want of something better, though aware of dry rot and lamed by a sense of futility or an apologetic spirit. A few courageous ones dare to say they do not know, and hold themselves open to all other opinion. Some try to build up a system deliberately, with the assortment of materials at hand. Many shut their eyes tight and turn back to the illusory security of the old dogmatically formulated creeds. There are those, also, who live in shelters and so feel only enough of the cross-currents and rip-tides to confuse these propulsions toward religious construction with wicked temptations. They interpret their impact as tests for consecrated resistance. These are probably the least distressed, for nothing can give sight to their blind faith; they believe devoutly that they live blessedly. Numerous ones do not think, managing this through keeping very active in various matters felt to be ‘good’ causes. Some are self seeking experimenters, trying first this and then that. But there are, over and above all these, certain searchers in the field who, while holding their findings to the discipline of rigid tests, are exploring with relatively open minds the possibilities of meaning and value wherever these seem likely to be found.

 “There is great need today for the same type of objective, critical, intelligent, creative, persistent investigation into the realities which concern religion as has been given to the more restricted inquiries in the realm of the sciences. . . . Religion is the most important way that humans have tried by which to organize the order of life. This way is itself now disorganized, and is being questioned and brought under examination. Whether out of the resulting confusion there will come a period of the chaos of mere ruin, or sort of a Dark Ages of Futility, or a period of vigorous growth which will compel intelligent, creative control, is a question of social evolving. Certainly the soil around many of the roots of religion is giving evidences of the sturdy thrusts of living force.”

In our age, religion itself is undergoing its own “via dolorosa,” a crucifixion and a resurrection or rebirth in a new more pertinent garb, capable of speaking powerfully to the modern scientific age. But this rebirth and resurrection can become significant only as it takes place in and through us.

PRAYER

God, help us to understand that even the Valley of the Shadow of Death is not frightening, for it is part of Your Plan that all which lives must die to make way for the new and nobler day and life. Not that we live and die, but how — is what makes the difference. Jesus has shown us the way, the truth and the life. Help us to take up our cross and follow him. Amen.

HYMN

When my love to God grows weak
When for deeper faith I seek,
Then in tho't I go to thee,
Garden of Gethsemane.

There I walk amid the shades,
While the lingering twilight fades;
See that suffering, friendless one
Weeping, praying, there alone.

When my love for all grows weak,
When for stronger faith I seek,
Hill of Calvary, I go
To thy scenes of fear and woe;

There behold his agony
Suffered on the bitter tree;
See the anguish, see the faith,
Love triumphant still in death,

Then to life I turn again,
Learning all the worth of pain,
Learning all the might that lies
In a full self-sacrifice.

John Reynell Wreford
HOS, No. 189
HCL, No. 313
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Forty-Fifth Day (Good Friday) - Religion May Become Fiendish

“There is a fairly pernicious feature in the degeneration of religion. The immediate objective in any social enterprise always involves a stand in relation to persons, for and against. When the horizons of our religion narrow themselves down to some one specifically formulated objective, all the driving power of our religious loyalty may become focused upon persons, for some and against others. Then the persons who are opposed to us cease to be human in our eyes. They become devils. They become the incarnation of all that is obstructive to the forward movement of history and the fulfillment of highest values.

 “Religion often takes this form in times of war. But never does it become so evil and degraded in this respect as in the great struggles to change the status quo on the one side, and defend it from change on the other. Under such conditions a religion that is operative but unconscious, uncriticised, uncorrected by the insights of history, the fellowships and the meditations of cultivated religion, may become fiendish. It becomes directed by social differentiation — against persons and for person. Then the most terrible persecutions, the most unbelievable cruelties, can arise. They are unbelievable except when we understand the psychological principles of a religion that has become fiendish, by reason of narrowing its devotion to a dauntless and unswerving drive towards some immediate social objective . . . No religion at all is better than that unconscious religion which becomes demonic. Yet without the sustaining devotion and driving loyalty of a religion, social reconstruction with all its difficulties and sacrifices cannot be carried through.”

Rabbi Jesus, during the period we call Holy Week, himself confronting religions and nationalisms that had become idolatrous. Yet, he continued to believe in a God of all-conquering love, even in the hour of his own betrayal. True religion will always look for God’s judgment upon even our noblest endeavors, and will place itself under that judgment at whatever cost.

PRAYER

God, help us to catch the vision of endless growth of meaning through increase of creative mutuality in an ever evolving world. Let it stand in judgment upon all of our small victories and partial accomplishments. Amen.

HYMN

The sky has gathered the flowers of sunset.
The earth is red with the dew of slaughter.
The shores are ringed with the steel of onset.
And darkness covers the weaponed water.

The world-tree sickens beyond all knowing.
The worm is wasting the leaves that wreath it
The bough is drying; the sap is slowing;
For hatreds gnaw in their hells beneath it.

On one sole ground will the world-tree flourish,
On earth unarmored against its bearing,
Its glories free and it strength to nourish
The world-wide lands in a common sharing.

In kinship only, with all earth gardened,
The ravished leaf may be stayed in thinning
The stony ground at the root unhardened,
The boughs be green for a new beginning.

Ridgely Torrence
HCL, No. 197
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The Forty-Fourth Day - No Religion Is Better Than Demonic Religion

“Religion degenerates when not progressively redirected and amplified by an adequate philosophy and helpful religious fellowship, by meditation, and the religious insights of history. The manner of its degeneration is peculiarly pernicious. Nothing can be so evil as the noblest and most potent interests of human life when they go wrong. This is especially true of religion. 

 “One way in which religion constantly degenerates if not corrected by criticism and cultivation is to become narrow and demonic. It becomes demonic when some specific objective of endeavor which is sufficiently near to actual conditions to be within the range of practical achievement assumes the role of the supremely worthful for all human living. When this objective commands the sovereign devotion of a life and is served as though it were the final and supreme good for all history, we have a very great evil. The noblest propulsions, utmost zeal and greatest powers of human life are perverted and degraded by being harnessed to anything so low and so full of evil as any such objective always must be held subordinate to the ultimate objective which is far more spacious, and more lofty than these. In normative religion this supreme objective must eternally reach beyond the meanings and values which the individual is able to comprehend in definite formulation. Nothing short of such vastness and reach in the mastering loyalty of a life can save religion from being demonic, that is to say,destructive of the most precious values of life."

When better than Holy Week for us to remind ourselves of the our unending temptation to our own particular way as the only good way for all. to make of limited objectives the City of God's goal. It is this which leads to crucifixions and divisive hatreds where there should be all-redeeming love.

PRAYER

God, dear God, never let us forget our tendencies to label our goals Yours, and set ourselves up as God. Keep us humble, teachable, open, ever-growing. Amen.

HYMN 

O life that maketh all things new,
The blooming earth, our thoughts within!
Our pilgrim feet, wet with thy dew,
In gladness hither turn again.

From hand to hand the greeting flows,
From eye to eye the signals run,
From heart to heart the bright hope glows;
The seekers of the Light are one.

One in the freedom of the truth,
One in the joy of paths untrod,
One in the soul's perennial youth,
One in the larger thought of God;

The freer step, the fuller breath,
The wide horizon’s grander view,
The sense of life that knows no death,
The Life that maketh all things new.

Samuel Longfellow
HOS, No. 416
HCL, No. 54
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The Forty-Third Day - The Interpenetration And Transfusion Of Cultures

“All missionary enterprise carries with it the interpenetration and transfusion of cultures. . . . If missionaries have the faith that inquires, they can bring to others a devotion to that supreme and perfect reality which they do not claim to be identical with their own specific beliefs. This reality is much more sublime and perfect than their formulation of it. Thus they can bring others a striving and an awareness that reaches up through all imitations and errors of their own culture and all culture, their own unworthy practice, and all unworthy practices of religion. They can bring a loyalty that reaches up to the supreme and perfect reality of God . . . Such missionaries can bring to all people a devotion that can rally all cultures, all religious souls, all traditions and perspectives, to one great cooperative enterprise of bringing their diverse insights and dominance of efforts into creative inter-change, mutual correction, and supplementation to the end of attaining a clearer vision of the sublime and perfect reality of God and of the way of life whereon his goodness shines.”

Our world is coming together with a rush, bringing together cultures and peoples who had known of each other but had no real opportunity to interpenetrate. Today, especially in places like North America, they meet and work together, fall in love, marry and have children across all of the religious, cultural, social, national and racial barriers of the past. This is God at work in and through us towards a higher, broader mutuality. We need not to resist it, but to welcome it.

PRAYER

God of all peoples, Source of all the faiths, open our minds and hearts to each other’s yearning and discoveries. Help us to find truth in our differences and reassurance in our similarities, and let us clasp each other as brothers and sisters should, Children all of One Spirit. Amen

HYMN

It sounds along the ages,
Soul answering to soul;
It kindles on the pages
Of ev’ry Bible scroll;
The psalmist heard and sang it,
From martyr lips it broke,
And prophet tongues outrang it

Till sleeping nations woke.
From Sinai’s cliffs it echoed,
It breath’d from Buddha’s tree,
It charmed in Athens’ market,
It hallowed Galilee;
The hammer stroke of Luther,
The Pilgrim's seaside prayer,
The oracles of Concord
One holy Word declare.

It calls — and lo, new Justice!
It speaks — and lo, new Truth!
In ever nobler stature;
And unexhausted youth.
Forever on it soundeth,
Knows naught itself of time,
Our laws but catch the music
Of its eternal chime.

William Channing Gannett
HOS, No. 76 
HCL, No. 247
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