(no subject)
May. 27th, 2005 09:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Time and again I contemplate going into the ministry as a vocation, or perhaps working on religion in the academic context. Or both.
But I strongly hesitate to do so, because the more I examine religion from the perspective of human power dynamics, the more strongly I feel that theology or mysticism should not be divorced from this concern. If I depend on theology or religion as a source of income I will be commodifying it, and this cannot help but temper my views. It would eventually incline me to modify my message to make it more "marketable," which would inevitably mean less radical.
Also, I suspect that working within an institution would also incline me to make my message less radical. This might be debateable; there are many radicals who have not been tempered by working in academia.
I have to weigh this against the reality that working within an institution might give me a wider audience.
But I strongly hesitate to do so, because the more I examine religion from the perspective of human power dynamics, the more strongly I feel that theology or mysticism should not be divorced from this concern. If I depend on theology or religion as a source of income I will be commodifying it, and this cannot help but temper my views. It would eventually incline me to modify my message to make it more "marketable," which would inevitably mean less radical.
Also, I suspect that working within an institution would also incline me to make my message less radical. This might be debateable; there are many radicals who have not been tempered by working in academia.
I have to weigh this against the reality that working within an institution might give me a wider audience.