I'd say every religion, in its spiritual roots, including Christianity,
comes from asking the question "What's really going on here?" We look
around and see that everything is interconnected, that our personal
welfare is tied to the welfare of others and that the idea of others is
really misnomer--there is only us. The teachings of Christianity (as an
expression of spiritual understanding--not political ideology) emerge from
this idea; so do all other religions--each with own nuance depending on
cultural milieu. In other words, spirituality and religion explore the
idea of oneness (and seek to come up with a rational answer to how it all
could have come about) and what that means. I have long felt the entire
Bible is about two things: (1) We are one, and (2) what happens when
people don't understand that.
The systems view of organizations and life is, for me, one more metaphor
of this idea of oneness. The archetypes describe, in a manner of
speaking, what happens when people don't understand this. I am sure we
could apply the archetypes to various Bible stories. Can we escape the
archetypes? Not exactly, but we can be aware of them and not be
overwhelmed by them. We can also learn from our experience, be humble,
and be very moved by the gift of self-awareness that allows us to ponder
such ideas in the first place. As well, we can use them to guide our
behavior to benefit of all that we are part of--which is just exactly what
the 5th Discipline is about.
John Woods
jwoods@execpc.com
--John Woods <jwoods@execpc.com>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>