ABSTRACT
In this chapter, Berkson reviews results from social psychology which, he suggests, present a compelling case that theology matters. The way that people conceive of God has a significant impact on how they see the world and how they evaluate other people. An increasing percentage of young Americans are rejecting the notion of a separate, personal God. Accompanying this theological development is a related demographic one: the dramatic rise of the religiously unaffiliated, the ‘nones’, a group that now makes up around a quarter of the American population. Berkson thinks it notable that a significant majority of people who do not affiliate with any tradition believe in some kind of higher power. And since the way one conceives of ultimate reality can deeply shape the way one sees and acts in the world, the beliefs of the growing number of unaffiliated people are important subjects of study. Berkson argues that many young people who can no longer accept the personal/biblical/agential God, but have intimations of something ‘greater’, engage existentially with nondual, impersonal conceptions of divinity. Even people who otherwise would identify as non-theists often respond positively to the descriptions of ultimate, unifying realities they encounter in East and South Asian texts and traditions. Berkson explores the way that Dao and Tian in the classical Chinese Confucian and Daoist texts, and Brahman in Indian Advaita Vedanta thought, present understandings of ultimate reality that are appealing, and at times compelling, to those who reject the notion of a personal God.
