UU community of scholars

Sometimes I long for a UU community of scholars.  Perhaps it is time to seek out other UU's on some issues.

I am writing a paper on theological reflection.  I've enjoyed the class and found some resources on the UU website that I shared with my class.  There is a wonderful list of names for God that came out of the UU hymnbook.  Every time I share that list, people, my people, the hungry spiritual skeptics, and some others, the non-skeptics who want to stretch out of the limiting box of names for God; jump up and shout, draw, sing and dance.  It really is a wonderful list.

However the class on theological reflection makes me nervous about my own tradition.  I love going deeper and digging into a tradition to find those precious theological insights.  What could be better for a theology nerd?  I have discovered Meister Eckhart, Rebecca Parker and Sallie McFague through my classes.  All of these theologians are Christian although all three are pioneers and occasionally wanderers around the edges of the faith.

However, it reminds me of the no man's land of Unitarian Universalism.  We don't have a central scripture or a place to dig deeper.  We have permission to dig anywhere.  We see the wisdom in all the worlds wisdom traditions, including earth based and humanism, plus our own experience, plus prophetic men and women.  It brings to mind a bunch of people out there digging digging, one under a cliff, and one on top of it, one out on a plain, another by the sea.  Perhaps we can shout our insights at each other and hope the wind doesn't carry it away.

I know this isn't the final answer (but I do love extending a metaphor :)) however if I was taking UU theological reflection at a UU university, perhaps I would have some strategies taught me that would help me do this in community.   One of them is the names for God -- but then what does one do after the names for God.  How to go deeper in community?