Hi everyone,
For a long time now ive been struggling - with many things. Life seems empty - something seems to be missing. I wasnt brought up in a religious household or surroundings, it wasnt a part of my parents or the lives of anyone around me.
Growing up i found this difficult, even at a young age I felt i wanted to know more about faith, I knew nothing about organised religion- but I always felt drawn to religion, faith. I wanted to be part of something.
Now many years later, again im drawn, I cant say i agree with many of the viewpoints of organised religion, but the essence of religion seems to be what im looking for.
I guess im looking for advice, to know if theres a place for me somewhere
Thanks
The concept of "organized religion" is fairly fluid and broad. Even in Christianity different denominations and/or theological traditions retain, at times, quite different forms of church polity (i.e. how the community is run); and even then, one can find a community with a highly structured polity that is also a highly open and rather broad community. The Anglican Communion is the perfect example of this I think, as Anglicans (Episcopalians in the United States) are a diverse bunch but which retains what is known as episcopal (from the Greek word
episkopos: "overseer" or "bishop"), that is, it is organized by dioceses overseen by bishops with local priests pastoring individual parish communities. At the same time one can find much less seemingly structured communities that are excessively narrow and potentially toxic.
Seeing as you're on a Christian forum and seem to be asking specifically concerning matters of the Christian religion then I'll assume you're, in this thread, primarily interested in the Christian religion.
My general advice to you would be:
Examine various denominations and theological traditions on a broad, general level. If you're a history nerd like I am you may even find this sort of think fun, learning how all of Christianity's many denominations, sects and branches are connected and how they've formed under historical circumstances.
See how they function, what and how they believe, how their communities act, see how they relate to the broader culture at large (is the community closed off? does it actively engage culture? how does it engage it, is it hostile? open? does the community work with the poor and the hungry? etc).
A lot of people suggest reading the Gospel of John first. I understand why, but I don't know if that's the best idea. John's Gospel is a rather robust theological treatise concerning the nature of Jesus told through the narrative of the Jesus Story. It contains complex, deep and robust theology which, depending on how much you understand Christian theology, may or may not be overwhelming.
I would probably recommend Mark or Luke. Mark is the shortest of the Four Gospels and is quite action packed, while Luke is more "political" and meatier (though I admit my own bias, Luke is my favorite Gospel). I would especially encourage you to look at and read through the Sermon on the Mount/Sermon on the Plain (Sermon on the Mount is found in Matthew, starting in chapter 5; while the Sermon on the Plain is the same Sermon--though slightly different--but found in Luke starting in chapter 6). The Sermon is roughly Jesus' grand exposition on the kingdom of God, the central theme of Jesus' ministry: It is where Jesus talks about how the poor are blessed, how to turn our cheek, to love our enemies, to bless those who curse us, etc.
I also highly recommend studying the history of Christianity, the book that introduced me to Church History about a decade ago was Dr. Bruce Shelley's
Church History in Plain Language. It's not perfect, and may be biased in a few areas, but I recall it having a rather good, neutral and objective treatment of the subject--and it's tremendously easy to read. For a more thorough treatment of Christianity in the East (Shelley's book is, in all fairness, far more interested in Western Christianity than Eastern), I found Bishop Timothy Kallistos Ware's
The Orthodox Church to be both accessible and quite meaty.
All of this, of course, I'm addressing as a purely launching pad sort of trajectory. Some places to start in your inquiries.
-CryptoLutheran
Good advice! I'd recommend reading it prayerfully as well; it doesn't matter what you say but that you direct it to the one you're going to find in the scriptures. He'll help you to understand the Bible and will guide you in your life as well. God bless you!
