First, the Face to Faith column in the Guardian is by Martyn Percy. It’s about Remembrance.
In the Telegraph Christopher Howse writes about a well-known hymn in Hashish-drunk hymn lyrics.
The Times has Jonathan Sacks commenting on the French riots in We are in danger of forgetting that waiting comes before wanting.
Also in The Times Ruth Gledhill reports on what Rowan Williams said when asked about his journey of faith, in Archbishop reveals his unorthodox way to God.
Giles Fraser wrote in the Church Times that we should Beware the Bible traffic Wardens.
Well said, Giles Fraser (as usual). But I’m afraid that it’s probably too late, at least for now. In the years to come – after we’re all dead and gone – these insights will be rediscovered by those outside the remnants of the church institutions which will be limping along, and used to give fresh expression to the experience of God to which Jesus of Nazareth points us. That will be an exciting time to be alive.
Perhaps Dr Fraser is not old enough to remember how the dissection of the bible to which he refers was actually the methodology by which modernist scholarship sought to discredit and disrupt the very sense and poetry of the bible which he now claims for his own? It was de rigeur when I was reading theology, and woe betide anyone who dared to point out that the dismantled corpse on the slab actually looked much better alive, before the predecessors of Dr Fraser got to work with the scalpels and saws. Chapter and verse are, as he points out, a… Read more »
I agree, Rodney. I think we need to remember that conservative evangelicals, despite their professed fear and dislike of modernity, actually use the tools of modernity but treat the Bible as a document in which all rationalised truth can be found, with an ‘explanation for everything’. A very scientific approach, looking at the Bible rather like a manual for a piece of equipment. In doing so, we have the sort of legalistic religion for people who want certainty and control – which, thankfully, there are ever fewer of in the UK, where we don’t accept the simplicities of premodern religion… Read more »