Struggling with change: The predicament of evolution and change for religious traditions

Abstract

SummaryThe present article identifies and reflects on some dimensions in how change is a vital and necessary (constitutive) element in the development of religious traditions. Change both challenges and contributes to the upholding of these traditions. The argument is that contrary to popular opinion, change should not be seen as a problem for religion, but as an important condition for religion, even when it comes to the very basic biological conditions of humanity that make possible the historical and cultural realms of our existence – realms in which religion mainly expresses itself. Thus, it offers reasons for taking leave of the idea that religions are, or should be, expressions of an unchanging world order and of unchanging normative doctrinal positions. Such a position does not take historical change seriously, but it also ignores the basic evolutionary conditions of religion, as well as the pragmatic and adaptive features in religion. Thus, the constructive argument of the article is to propose that change and order work in interplay and that they are mutually dependent or dialectically related to each other. Religion must be seen as existing in the tension between order and contingency, stability and dynamics, law-like regularities and change. Religion would accordingly, from this perspective, be just as much about change as about that which endures and remains unchanging.