(RNS) — “I don’t have a belief in any form of resurrection,” declared the Rev. Duncan Littlefair, then-pastor of Fountain Street Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to NBC’s Frank McGee on the “Today” show in April 1973.
Wearing a white turtleneck and navy blazer, the pastor explained that he viewed the idea of Jesus’ physical resurrection as “absurd” and the notion of being saved only through Christ as a “totally provincial, Western view.”
In the days that followed, both NBC and Fountain Street faced backlash as viewers caught wind of the pastor’s unconventional beliefs. But even in the 1970s, Fountain Street, a historic church founded in 1869 that had earned a reputation as a dogma-free activist outpost, wasn’t the only church where Jesus’ resurrection could be called into question. In 1961, the Unitarian Universalist Association had formed, a noncreedal tradition whose theological heritage saw Jesus as a moral exemplar, not God incarnate.
These days, the landscape of noncreedal faith traditions has grown to encompass not just Unitarian Universalist congregations or historic, independent churches like Fountain Street, but also newer faith communities that emerged from an evangelical context and resist specific doctrines. And during Holy Week, when Christian congregations around the world commemorate Jesus’ triumphal entry, crucifixion and resurrection, many of these communities have a different emphasis, often interpreting resurrection as a spiritual metaphor or call to political action.
One of those groups is Aldea Spiritual Community, a “post-religious” gathering that meets on the northern outskirts of Tucson, Arizona.
“Belie …
