Church and Religion
SOMA: The Society of Mutual Autopsy
Description: In its own words: "SoMA is a magazine devoted to dissecting matters of the soul—the sacred and the profane, the ridiculous and the sublime. We don’t think of religion primarily in terms of churches or institutions. We side with the theologian Paul Tillich who understood faith, and indirectly religion, as “ultimate concern.” He saw faith as a movement toward the unconditional, or God, the “ground of being” that eludes theistic thinking. Thus, religious vitality can be found in things that aren’t overtly religious, such as a “secular” films, art, and literature. Similarly, explicitly religious beliefs, symbols, and systems easily become rigid and lose their meaning, turning idolatrous. As Tillich said, religion itself is paradoxically one of the great threats to the religious life. As an ongoing autopsy of religion and culture, SoMA seeks to illuminate the difference between authentic and inauthentic faith, not because we consider ourselves experts on the subject—we don’t—but because we need to keep reminding ourselves that there is a difference. Our faith depends on it."
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