Tribalism: Why Faith Is Social

Throughout human history, and only until recently, faith has been an inherently social phenomena. The idea that faith is purely a personal, individual matter is a recent aberration.

Faith as identity.

One of the most repeated criticisms of faith from the small but vocal realm of secularism is that it causes strife and war. That puts aside, of course, the fact that strife and war have been a feature of human culture, both within communities of faith and within secular communities, for all of our history. Yet it is fair to say that faith has often been bound up with the tensions that lead us to war.

One of the reasons for this, it might be suggested, is that faith helps human beings to form identity – not least in terms of who holds “ultimate truth”, a concept that seems exclusive however you choose to look at it. From differences in the way in which we identify one-another, the idea goes, we recognise and are tempted to persecute that difference. Tolerance, whether religious or political, has tended to be a rare quality.

In my own life I have both experienced and participated in this kind of group-think leading-to-violence. That violence is not always physical but, nonetheless, certain behaviours and attitudes are clearly of a violent nature. Listening to two atheists one the bus talk about their “stupid faith-head” associates is about as appealing as hearing two Christians or Muslims express their own frustration at how “blind and stupid” non-believing people can be. The same extends into football tribalism, fashion taste, movie preference, vegetarianism versus omnivorous habits, environmentalism, the passions that arise from stopping animal testing and culling, and so on… and on…

We are a tribal species and faith is one of the key elements in our tribal identity.

You are not a tribe of one.

An individual alone is not a tribe. Alone you are simply that – alone.

Tribes form when a few people come together. The earliest tribal identity was probably rooted in family – the unit commonly formed when two humans opt to raise a child – and grew from those roots.

We are, psychologists seem to be telling us, essentially “wired” to group together – to form connections with other human beings. That heavily implies that our health and well-being is, at least in part, linked to the social context within which we find ourselves.

Individualism is limiting.

One of the critical dysfunctions of our modern (Western) culture is that we have elevated the individual to the point of loneliness.

We are informed that we alone can decide who we are and what we will seek to achieve. We are surrounded by opinion but denied access or reference to any kind of truth.

The biggest taboos in my own life, that I was raised never to try and spread my own views about (at least not without first being asked for those views), were three subjects: politics, personal wealth, and religion.

For myself I have to confess that for many years it was as if I was living within a tyranny of self. I learned to view the world in the way that it was explained to me, and I learned to function within the rules and boundaries that society laid out for me. Yet, to be frank, I was too constricted by those boundaries and could not understand the “why” of many of the rules.

Some things in my life did not meet with the expectations of nature… and those mismatches caused doubt and, eventually, frustration and pain. Not being able to talk about and challenge the ways of thinking around me, which were dominated by secularism and atheism, led me to withdraw and seek something else. I began to seek a new tribe.

There are many tribes.

Human history offers you many tribes to join. There are at least four major religions and, beyond that, there are many dozens of less popular faith identities. For me, however, the most valuable things to discuss and explore are the points of connection between those many spiritual approaches.

Not for one moment, incidentally, am I in favour of trying to blend many faiths into one. That would be unrealistic and completely counter-productive – after all, we like our tribes and we like our tribal identities. No, we can do better than that because the great aim of my own approach is to keep the tribes at peace. Understanding and seeing points of contact are good things, to my mind… but blending differences will just lead to a meaningless mess.

Choose your tribe with care.

Get involved at a practical level to learn about and identify the different tribes that surround you. Accept that it is quite possible that you understand less than you believe may be the case… and that, quite simply, the best thing is to explore the cultures that each of those tribes offer.

For our purposes, you are welcome to join the journey we are taking here – and we really do mean that too. We aim to begin with the “big 4” of Judaism, Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam. We will also take a delve into Buddhism. And I’d love to explore modern Paganism too. That’s just for starters.

What might that offer to you?

Perhaps you are already part of a tribe. Would you consider learning about the other tribes?

Are you tribeless? Maybe you can try and feel your way into the right community for your own spiritual health.

Are you anti-tribe? Well, maybe you would prefer to stay away from our tribalism… I really don’t know.

In the end, the main thing is to understand that you are not alone. Religion is social, not private, and it is worth some effort. In the end, this is no small matter of lifestyle… this is about your soul, psyche, and purpose in life.

Come join the tribes.