REDEMPTION
Go to any casino in this country or abroad and you will see signs pointing you in the direction of “redemption”. Redemption in those contexts has to do with trading in your plastic chips for something useful. Namely, money.
In films redemption generally has to do with the need to change certain situations or attitudes. Shortly before the end of the episode or during the season finale protagonists move through a series of transformative experiences, resulting in a new capacity to forgive, love or to feel at peace. So redemption can be about money, situations, feelings and attitudes. But is that all?
Within religious contexts human redemption is lifted up as a deeply personal, essential transaction - with wider and longer-lasting implications. Human sins (failures, limitations, shortcomings, etc.) are traded in so that we might be assured (for example) forgiveness and eternal life. In Christian tradition redemption is made possible through belief in the sacrifice of Jesus: his life traded in on behalf of the faithful so that they might enjoy eternal life. In Buddhist tradition redemption involves giving up attachment to desire so that one might be ultimately free from cycles of incarnation.
Unitarian Universalism affirms and promotes each person’s ability to come to an understanding of what redemption might mean to them, of each person’s worthiness of it and ability to strive for it, as well as of each person’s responsibility to contribute to the redemption of others.
All of this raises some interesting questions. For example: who is and isn’t redeemable? What’s actually involved in that transaction? What do we have to let go of in order to experience the transformation? Is it possible to conduct that transaction on someone else’s behalf or to receive that benefit without doing something to earn it? How can we tell when redemption is needed or when it has happened?
As much as there is secular resistance to traditional religious teachings about redemption, the concept itself seems universally relevant. What do you think?
In films redemption generally has to do with the need to change certain situations or attitudes. Shortly before the end of the episode or during the season finale protagonists move through a series of transformative experiences, resulting in a new capacity to forgive, love or to feel at peace. So redemption can be about money, situations, feelings and attitudes. But is that all?
Within religious contexts human redemption is lifted up as a deeply personal, essential transaction - with wider and longer-lasting implications. Human sins (failures, limitations, shortcomings, etc.) are traded in so that we might be assured (for example) forgiveness and eternal life. In Christian tradition redemption is made possible through belief in the sacrifice of Jesus: his life traded in on behalf of the faithful so that they might enjoy eternal life. In Buddhist tradition redemption involves giving up attachment to desire so that one might be ultimately free from cycles of incarnation.
Unitarian Universalism affirms and promotes each person’s ability to come to an understanding of what redemption might mean to them, of each person’s worthiness of it and ability to strive for it, as well as of each person’s responsibility to contribute to the redemption of others.
All of this raises some interesting questions. For example: who is and isn’t redeemable? What’s actually involved in that transaction? What do we have to let go of in order to experience the transformation? Is it possible to conduct that transaction on someone else’s behalf or to receive that benefit without doing something to earn it? How can we tell when redemption is needed or when it has happened?
As much as there is secular resistance to traditional religious teachings about redemption, the concept itself seems universally relevant. What do you think?