Faith in a Fishbowl: Unravelling the Mysteries of Your Life

A.J. Pell is editor of the Canadian Evangelical Review and an instructor
of Liturgy, Anglican Studies Program, Regent College, Vancouver.

Many years ago Reginald Bibby pointed to the rejection of established
religions in favour of self-designed pick-and-choose religion as a
defining spiritual characteristic of our society. Jerry Rose’s book is
an example of this. In the introduction, he speaks of his coming to
faith as coming into contact “with my inner voice, and discovering
this voice to be the source of my faith. The faith I gained was a
personal one, cultivated solely through my experiences.” In Part 1,
Rose blends personal experience with a myth-like story about goldfish in
a bowl to create a picture of spiritual life as a struggle between an
“inner voice” and an “outer voice.” In the rest of the book he
discusses these voices, with the help of science, before borrowing from
Eastern religions and focusing on “karma” and “energy” as
important aspects of this interior faith.

Ultimately Rose has chosen a dualistic faith in which the outer voice
is bad and the inner voice is good. The outer voice, the voice of
society and of the collected human experience, “constrains me with
fears.” The inner voice, “the voice of my feelings,” is the voice
“of the person I want to be, not the person I’m free to be.”
Salvation is found in courage, “the will and ability to act despite
the influence of your outer voice.” This dualism allows a person,
whether consciously or not, to blame the world for one’s troubles and
to withdraw into the safety and comfort of oneself. But what if, as so
often happens, Rose’s inner voice provides no hope, no joy, no
comfort? Then all we are left with is despair.