Citation

Brown, Andrew James. “To the Old, Present, and Still to Appear Gods and Goddesses.” Caute, 28 Jun. 2025, https://andrewjbrown.blogspot.com/2025/06/to-old-present-and-still-to-appear-gods.html.

Quotes

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Collations

Religious expressions are relative

a person’s personal spirituality and their public religion must always arise from their own life experience and context, exactly where they are and in the midst of whatever they are doing.

Andrew's experiment

In both places, I read the poem aloud as a kind of offering.

There is something enduring in all religious expressions

although all human expressions of religion are temporary and passing, there is in them something at play that is eternal and enduring.

All religious expressions are temporary

With the disappearance of these physical places, it’s no surprise that the gods and goddesses associated with them have faded too — and that our songs to them have been ever-dying away.

because the physical conditions of those places and times are always changing, so too are our depictions and expressions of ultimate truth. There is nothing permanent about them. This is as true of the old gods and goddesses as it is of any newer ones in every religion, everywhere.

this form is always provisional — always shedding its old state and undergoing metabolism or renewal. It is not fixed or immutable.

All forms of religion are temporary and relative.

Remnants of past religious expressions play a role

Such remnants are enough — however ineffably and fleetingly — to remind us of the old gods and goddesses who once lived there, and to invite us, as Muir does, to address them once more in wonder

Religious expressions are tied to particular places and times

our human expressions of ultimate reality or truth — whether in the form of gods, goddesses, angels, buddhas, or otherwise — are always-already tied to particular places and times.

Free-religion recognizes that religious expressions change

Free-religion understands this dynamic deeply, for it seeks always to be like life itself — something that continually develops, evolves, and grows, and therefore must also change.

Free-religion invites us to let these forms and their deities pass naturally away, and through a process of metabolism and renewal, take on new and more fitting expressions of ultimate truth.

All religious expressions take form

religion, like life, must always take on some form.

Even if temporary, religious expressions are valuable

just because something is temporary does not mean it lacks value.

even the most fleeting form, in its particular moment and place, is indispensable: it is the most essential form it can take.

it was — in that moment, in that place — indispensable, the most essential form it could have taken.

Because temporary religious expressions are valuable, some will try to freeze it

precisely because it was essential and indispensable then, some would inevitably have tried to render that dynamic form static — freezing what was meant to be temporary and relative, and mistaking it for something eternal and absolute. They failed, of course. Life always wins out; change always comes.

Free-religion recognizes the value of old religious forms while maintaining a dynamic spiritual life

It is this realisation that leads some of us to feel the need to raise the banner of free-religion. For it is only under that banner that we can, without contradiction, acknowledge both the necessity and value of old religious forms and their gods and goddesses, and also the current ones — while still living a spiritual life that embraces the freedom to become tomorrow what we are not today.

Free-religion is grounded in the living, dynamic creative process

Free-religion can do this with gentle confidence because it is grounded not in transient forms, but in that living, dynamic creative process which makes all forms possible what Spinoza called natura naturans — “nature naturing”; the Japanese call it dai-shizen [大自然] — “Great Nature”; and Imaoka-sensei, drawing on Henri Bergson’s Creative Evolution, called it “the great life of free and selfless creative evolution” [自由で無得な創造的進化の大生命] — a life always-already shedding its old state and undergoing endless renewal.

Free-religionists honor the dynamic, creative, free, and inquiring impulse to name the sacred

In being able to honour the old gods and goddesses, the present ones, and those still to appear, we free-religionists discover we are not really honouring fixed figures and forms but, instead, the enduring dynamic, creative, free and inquiring impulse to name what is truly sacred in our changing world.

Free-religion helps us express this impulse with reverence and openness, trusting that what is true will always-already continue to find form — for a time — wherever life gives it space to appear.

Literature notes

Prompts

Per Andrew James Brown, a person's spirituality and religion must always arise from their own life context.

What poem by whom did Andrew James Brown read to some sacred spots he rode his bike to as an offering? :: "To the Old Gods" by Edwin Muir

Per Andrew James Brown, what is the role of remnants of past religious expressions? :: They remind us of their past subjects and wonder.

Per Andrew James Brown, since the places and times religious expressions are tied with change, religious expressions are necessarily temporary.

Per Andrew James Brown, why are religious expressions temporary? :: The places and times they are tied with change.

Per Andrew James Brown, all religious expressions are tied to particular places and times.

Since jiyū shūkyō recognizes that religious expressions are dynamic, what is its attitude toward them? :: Allows them to pass away or be renewed but recognizes their value.

Per Andrew James Brown, why are even the most fleeting form of religious expression valuable? :: At that moment, it is the most essential form it can take.

Per Andrew James Brown, since temporary religious expressions are valuable, some will try to freeze them.

Per Andrew James Brown, jiyū shūkyō is grounded not in transient forms but in what? :: the dynamic process birthing all forms

Andrew James Brown equates "the living, dynamic creative process that makes all forms possible" to the following:
1.
2. Japanese' dai-shizen or "Great Nature"
3. Shin'ichirō Imaoka's "the great life of free and selfless creative evolution"
?
Spinoza's natura naturans

Andrew James Brown equates "the living, dynamic creative process that makes all forms possible" to the following:

1. Spinoza's natura naturans
3. Shin'ichirō Imaoka's "the great life of free and selfless creative evolution"
   ?
   Japanese' dai-shizen or "Great Nature"

Andrew James Brown equates "the living, dynamic creative process that makes all forms possible" to the following:

1. Spinoza's natura naturans
2. Japanese' dai-shizen or "Great Nature"

?
Shin'ichirō Imaoka's "the great life of free and selfless creative evolution"

Andrew James Brown equates "the living, dynamic creative process that makes all forms possible" to the following:
?

1. Spinoza's natura naturans
2. Japanese' dai-shizen or "Great Nature"
3. Shin'ichirō Imaoka's "the great life of free and selfless creative evolution"

Per Andrew James Brown, Spinoza's version of "the living, dynamic creative process that makes all forms possible" :: natura naturans

Per Andrew James Brown, the Japanese's version of "the living, dynamic creative process that makes all forms possible" :: dai-shizen or "Great Nature"

In Japanese, dai-shizen means Great Nature.

Per Andrew James Brown, Shin'ichirō Imaoka's version of "the living, dynamic creative process that makes all forms possible" :: "the great life of free and selfless creative evolution"

Shin'ichirō Imaoka's "the great life of free and selfless creative evolution" came from the idea of Creative Evolution from the philosopher Henri Bergson.

Per Andrew James Brown, when a free-religionist honors the old gods and goddesses, the present ones, and those that will later appear, what are they truly honoring? :: The impulse to name what is sacred.