Alan Wilson continues his BCP series in The Guardian with The Book of Common Prayer, part 8: Liturgy and society. “The BCP is defined far more by liturgical statements than dogmatic formularies, offering a distinctive concept of uniformity.”
Christopher Howse asks in the Telegraph Who’d be seen dead in an ill-dressed grave? and “rues the coming of new funerary rites that find a place for teddy bears”.
Stephen Tomkins and Nicholas Taylor write in The Guardian about Halloween: saints vs devils. “Catholic bishops think dressing up as saints, rather than devils, is a holier way to mark Halloween. What are the pros and cons?”
Sue Blackmore has been to a baptism and writes about it in The Guardian: Fighting talk in church. “At a family baptism I was appalled when the congregation was called to combat aggressive atheists – I don’t want to fight.”
Bernard Leikind writes in The Guardian that Job suffered alone – and so must we. “Many believe a caring, personal God has their welfare in mind, but the Book of Job provides little to support this view.”
Rowan Williams preached this sermon The purpose of fasting at a service of thanksgiving to mark the Global Day of Prayer for the millennium development goals at St Paul’s Cathedral in Kolkata. “Fasting is about more than going without food – it is connecting with reality and noticing the suffering of your neighbour.”
This is also available on the Archbishop’s website: Archbishop’s MDG sermon at Kolkota Cathedral.
Giles Fraser writes in the Church Times that Christianity is like being rescued.
John P Richardson (The Ugley Vicar) asks Why has Reform failed?
6 CommentsThe Church Mouse asks Is Harvest Festival now redundant?
This prompted Kevin Holdsworth to write But when is Harvest? Please, please, when is it?
Giles Fraser writes in the Telegraph that Blessed are the children – as long as they keep it down. “The young often make a racket in church, but that’s no reason to kick them out”, he argues.
Vanessa Thorpe in The Observer profiles Karen Armstrong: The compassionate face of religion. “The former nun’s writing and theories about God and belief upset some, but she numbers the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu among her fans.”
Alan Wilson continues his series in The Guardian: The Book of Common Prayer, part 7: The joy of being a miserable sinner. “The gloomy prayers of the BCP are simply a communal stare over the precipice into an abyss, but from a place of grace.”
Mark Vernon writes in The Guardian about John Henry Newman’s last act of friendship. “Why the beatified cardinal wanted to be buried with Ambrose St John is disputed, but for me this was an act of ‘sworn brothers’.”
Graham Tomlin writes in the Church of England Newspaper about The End of the Pew? (He is in favour of getting rid of them.)
Giles Fraser writes in the Church Times about Looking at the fearful, insular US.
Christopher Howse writes in the Telegraph about Gauguin’s day to wrestle with God. “The most surprising thing about Gauguin is his interest in religion.”
16 CommentsThis week’s instalment in Alan Wilson’s Guardian series on the BCP is The Book of Common Prayer, part 6: Fencing the table. “The BCP’s approach to eucharistic access was informed by seeing holy communion as the supreme instrument of inclusion.”
Susan McCarthy writes in The Guardian about Noah’s raven: whose flight of fancy? “The ‘tracks’ of Noah’s raven found in 1802 smack of slipshod Biblical literalism, but the slapdash historical research is worse.”
The Archbishop of York has given a lecture on Prison Reform, Restorative Justice and Community to the Prisoners Education Trust; full text here.
Andrew Brown asks in The Guardian What does prayer achieve? “If praying for someone else does them no good, what is the point of all those words and all that longing?”
Philip Goff writes in The Guardian that Stephen Hawking has not yet disproved God’s role in creation. “The existence of the universe cannot be explained by science alone.”
Giles Fraser writes in the Church Times Sandwiched between gluttony and vanity.
Christopher Howse has been to Hagia Sophia in Istanbul and writes about his visit in the Telegraph: Sacred Mysteries: An appointment with an angel at Hagia Sophia.
Nick Baines writes about the local structures of the Church in Keeping our eye on the ball.
3 CommentsAlan Wilson continues his BCP series in The Guardian with The Book of Common Prayer, part 5: The importance of evensong. “Evensong provides a peg on which to hang deeply personal reflections, most of them nothing to do with Christian doctrine.”
Chris Elliott, the readers’ editor of The Guardian, writes about his paper’s coverage of the pope’s visit and religion in general.
Julian Armitstead writes in The Guardian about Cardinal Newman: Oxford’s soon-sainted son. “The former CoE clergyman’s beatification can be cheered by local Anglicans too – he left a legacy to be proud of.”
Giles Fraser writes in the Church Times about Observer’s book of beauty.
Tomorrow is Back to Church Sunday. Paul Handley marks the occasion with this article in The Guardian: Putting the pull into pulpit. “Do not underestimate the power of a good priest in getting people back to church.”
12 CommentsDoug Chaplin asks on his Clayboy blog: Can you help me with this strange G-d orthography?
Alan Wilson continues his series on the BCP in The Guardian with The Book of Common Prayer, part 4: In the midst of life. “The robust and unsentimental realism of the BCP funeral service is better than modern sanitised sentimentality.”
Giles Fraser writes in the Church Times Ground the debate in worship.
Roderick Strange writes in The Tablet about Newman’s diffident holiness.
Stephen Bates writes in The Guardian about John Henry Newman: An unlikely candidate for sainthood? “Victorian academic who will be beatified by Benedict this Sunday was a troubled and conflicted character.”
Also in The Guardian Eamon Duffy writes that Newman offers church a candle in the dark. “Everything about modern Anglicanism bears the marks of Cardinal Newman’s teaching.”
Andrew Brown writes in The Guardian: Pope’s visit: Moral absolutes and crumbling empires. “Rebellion against the pope was the foundational act of English power yet now the pope stands in Westminster Hall.”
8 CommentsWilliam Rees-Mogg writes for the Mail Online about Cardinal John Newman, a hero who restored our faith in truth.
Christopher Howse writes in the Telegraph about Cardinal Newman: The Victorian celebrity intellectual who brought Benedict to Britain.
The New Statesman has profiled Christianity’s top 11 most controversial figures.
Alan Wilson continues his series in The Guardian with The Book of Common Prayer, part 3: An excellent mystery of coupling. “With the Book of Common Prayer, marriage takes its place at the heart of domestic and civil society.”
Robin G Jordan at Anglicans Ablaze asks How really Anglican is the ACNA?
Christopher Howse asks in the Telegraph What’s the point of St Sebastian?
Madeleine Bunting writes in The Guardian that The Catholic church is in crisis, but it is still able to influence and inspire. “The pope’s visit to Britain will prompt some noisy protests, but despite that opposition he deserves to be heard.”
Rupert Shortt writes in The Tablet So far and yet so near, a comparison of Pope Benedict and Archbishop Rowan Williams. [Shortt has written biographies of both men.]
Giles Fraser writes in the Church Times that Repentance is like going home.
29 CommentsKaren McIntyre writes in The Guardian about Retreating towards God and asks “What happens if you take a weekend off every month to go on a Christian retreat?” She blogs about her weekend retreats and other things here.
Stephen Hough writes in the Telegraph about Some assumptions about the Assumption.
Sophia Deboick writes in The Guardian that The pope’s heaven isn’t a place on earth (or anywhere else). “Benedict has rejected the rich Catholic tradition of interpreting heaven in terms of the most intense human experiences.”
In The Guardian Alan Wilson starts a new series of articles about The Book of Common Prayer with The Book Of Common Prayer, part 1: An English ragbag. “The Book of Common Prayer has shaped English spirituality for nearly 450 years. What are its enduring qualities?”
Graham Wayne, in The Guardian’s Environment Blog, asks Why would a solar physicist embrace the non-rationality of religion? “John Cook, who runs skepticalscience.com, says his faith drives him. But what does religion give him that science doesn’t?”
BRIN (British Religion in Numbers) analyses religious affiliation and voting in the 2010 UK general election: Religious Affiliation and Political Attitudes: Findings from the British Election Study 2009/10.
Giles Fraser writes in the Church Times that Kermode’s narrative has reached its conclusion.
He also gave this Thought for the Day about Liberation Theology on BBC Radio 4.
Christopher Howse writes in the Telegraph about Sherlock Holmes in old churches. “A sharp eye for details is essential to discover clues from the past.”
This week’s The Question in The Guardian is What is the point of Christian arts? “Is there anything distinctive about religious art, or could we shuck off the Christianity and keep the beauty?” Responses come from Harriet Baber, Roz Kaveney and Maggi Dawn.
1 CommentMark Vernon writes in The Guardian about William Blake’s picture of God. “The muscular old man with compasses often taken to be Blake’s God is actually meant to be everything God is not.”
Karen Burke writes in The Guardian about Tweeting God. “What happens when a Methodist minister tries to perform a service of peace and unity over his Twitter feed?”
Giles Fraser writes for the Church Times about Egotistical malaise at the heart of the City.
Catherine Pepinster writes in The Guardian about Justice, tempered by mercy. “Compassion should not be reserved only for those we judge to be deserving.”
Christopher Howse writes in the Telegraph about Bertrand Russell versus faith in God. “Which comes first, faith or philosophical proof?”
This week’s The Question in The Guardian is Would we be better off with nothing sacred? with responses by Peter Bolton, Nicholas Blincoe and Ben Rogers.
Colm Tóibín reviews The Pope Is Not Gay by Angelo Quattrocchi in The London Review of Books: Among the Flutterers. Andrew Sullivan responds at the Atlantic with The Pope Is Not Gay.
8 CommentsJohann Hari writes for GQ about Losing our religion. The article has been republished in The Huffington Post under the title The Slow, Whining Death of British Christianity.
And David Pollock writes in The Guardian about The onward march of secularism.
In an interview for the Catholic Herald John Hall, the dean of Westminster Abbey, tells Huw Twiston Davies that he is looking forward to welcoming Benedict XVI: ‘It is good that the Pope is coming’.
Timothy Larsen writes at Inside Higher Ed (of Washington DC) about No Christianity Please, We’re Academics.
Giles Fraser writes for the Church Times about Make giving seem more normal.
Sophia Deboick argues in The Guardian that Theology is a crucial academic subject.
In his column Wren’s tall tower in Twickenham in the Telegraph Christopher Howse writes that “More city churches were demolished in peacetime than were bombed by the Luftwaffe.”
This week’s The Question in The Guardian is Can you keep Christ and give up being a Christian? with responses from John Richardson, Rebecca Jenkins, Theo Hobson and Shirley Lancaster.
16 CommentsChristopher Howse “loves nothing better than a really terrible bit of verse in church.” He writes about it in the Telegraph: An embarrassing poem for Chelsea Clinton’s wedding
Giles Fraser spoke about the cost of weddings on Wednesday’s Thought for the Day on BBC Radio4. You can read what he said here, or listen to a podcast here. The broadcast prompted this piece from Andrew Brown in The Guardian: What’s wrong with weddings. And Giles also appeared at MailOnline with: I despair of so many weddings – they’re more about ego than love.
Giles Fraser’s Church Times column this week is titled Why Mary Magdalene is a true apostle.
John Milbank gave an interview to Asia News about the impending papal visit to Britain, see Anglican Theologian: Pope’s visit “crucial” for relations between two Churches.
Colin Coward wrote about the launch party this week for James Alison’s new book, Broken Hearts and New Creation – James Alison’s latest book launched at CA London and Southwark meeting.
A great many people have written about the TV programme Rev but I agree with the criticism of Gillean Craig which you can find first here, and then again here.
Rowena Loverance has written the Face to Faith column in the Guardian: Images of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. An exhibition at Friends House offers a chilling insight into the suffering wreaked by the A-bombs, 65 years on.
Stephen Tomkins wrote at Cif belief that William Wilberforce was complicit in slavery. Wilberforce and his supporters permitted slave labour in Sierra Leone. But is it a fatal blow to his reputation?
6 CommentsKatharine Jefferts Schori preached at St Paul’s Cathedral, London, on Sunday 25 July 2010, the feast of St James. The Guardian has published the text of her sermon: The search for dignity. ‘We must challenge the human tendency to insist that dignity doesn’t apply to the poor, or to immigrants, or to women, or Muslims, or gay and lesbian people.’
Giles Fraser writes in the Church Times about Excess is reassuring as well as attractive.
This week’s The Question in The Guardian is Do we have a right to death? with replies by George Pitcher, Joel Joffe, James Harris and Onora O’Neill.
Ekklesia has two items on religion and the media. Simon Barrow writes about The changing landscape of religion and the media.
And there is a paper by Lizzie Clifford: ‘Thought for the Day’: Beyond the god-of-the-slots. The abstract of this report is copied below the fold.
David Chillingworth is Stumped on his Thinking Aloud blog.
And if you have an answer to his “What should I say to the Pope?” question you might want to develop it into an entry for Andrew Brown’s Pope T-shirt competition at The Guardian.
Mark Vernon writes in The Guardian about Afghanistan’s unjust war. ‘We must apply the just war tradition to our analysis of the conflict in Afghanistan. Otherwise, we risk disaster.’
5 CommentsTomorrow (Sunday) is the festival of James the apostle.
Sophia Deboick writes a Face to faith column in The Guardian about The enigma of Saint James. The identity of Saint James has been reinvented many times over two millennia, from Moor-slayer to Spaniard-killer to pilgrim.
The archbishop of Canterbury preached, in both Welsh and English, at an ecumenical service, held at Westminster Cathedral, to mark the 400th anniversary of the martyrdom of St John Roberts. What’s the martyr’s message to our society?
Jonathan Derbyshire profiles the archbishop in the New Statesman The NS Profile: Rowan Williams.
Theo Hobson explains in The Guardian Why I won’t pay for St Paul’s. It isn’t just meanness that makes me resent having to pay an entrance fee to visit places of worship like St Paul’s Cathedral.
Adrian Pabst writes in The Guardian that The ‘big society’ needs religion. The ‘big society’ will not work unless it is informed by religious ideas of free and reciprocal giving.
Giles Fraser also writes about the big society in his Church Times column: Why the Big Society is a good thing.
And the Church Times has this leader: Big question mark.
Writing in his blog, Nick Baines has Big questions about the ‘Big Society’.
Colin Slee writes in The Guardian about Desmond Tutu, prayerful priest.
Daniel Schultz at Religion Dispatches asks Will Gender and Sexuality Rend The Anglican Communion?
20 CommentsDoes Hywel Williams have the answer to one of the Church of England’s problems? He writes in The Guardian: Ditch the bossy-boot bishops. Rather than debating if women are eligible, the church should scrap the absurd post of bishop.
The archbishop of Canterbury spoke on the precious gift of Martyrs on BBC Radio 4.
Gerald Warner writes in the Telegraph about Why it is a mistaken policy for Rome to offer Anglicans converting en bloc a church within the Church.
Janet Street-Porter writes in The Independent that The C of E will die if it shuts out gays and women.
Ruth Wishart in HeraldScotland Why won’t men in frocks let women wear the trousers?
Christopher Howse writes in the Telegraph about Religious pilgrimages: The hard slog that refreshes the soul.
This week’s The Question at Comment is free belief is Can science explain everything? Here are the responses.
Monday: Sue Blackmore Science explains, not describes. The experience of consciousness seems incommunicable and ineffable. Yet science can hope to explain how it arises.
Wednesday: Mark Vernon Chaos theory and divine action. Physicist John Polkinghorne is often accused of offering up a God-of-the-gaps argument. But his work has subtler shades.
Thursday: Adam Rutherford Ever-increasing circles. The domain of knowledge amenable to science has only ever changed in one direction: at the expense of all others.
Friday: Keith Ward The parts science cannot reach. We need to distinguish in detail all the different sorts of explaining we do in life. No one key opens every lock.
Dave Walker has this view of the Synod at his Church Times blog.
The Seminal has this Saturday Art article: William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury by Hans Holbein the Younger.
Emma John asks in The Guardian Should women ever be bishops? It’s an issue which could result in schism and put the future of the church in jeopardy. Four women who would be in line for the top job, reveal why it’s time for Christians to put their differences behind them.
Ellen Painter Dollar writes on the her.meneutics blog: Confessions of a Church-Skipping Mom. Is it better to attend church burnt out and stressed, or occasionally stay home but miss corporate worship?
Theo Hobson writes in The Guardian about A new model Christianity. The “emerging church” movement may offer something more than new manners and styles if it breaks free of establishment.
Albert Radcliffe argues in The Guardian that The Bible is an open book. The Bible does not end moral debates on gay rights and the role of women. Its pronouncements are there to open discussion.
Jack Valero writes in The Guardian about The sad demise of celibate love. It is symptomatic of modern values that we conclude Cardinal Newman’s intense love for a man meant he was a homosexual.
Philip Ritchie writes on his blog about Gossip: cancer of the community.
Giles Fraser writes in the Church Times that Turkish scars need healing
Graham Kings asks at Fulcrum Should Christians share Christ with People of other Faiths?
11 CommentsRoz Kaveney in The Guardian asks What are demons, really? Christians and Satanists are both divided about the reality of demons. But even liberal believers can be led to silliness by their beliefs.
And John Casey writes in The Tablet about Talk of the Devil: Satan in Catholic theology.
Mark Vernon writes in The Guardian about The eroticism of the Church of England. The BBC’s new sitcom, Rev, is a surprisingly realistic picture about the sexual undercurrents of normal Christianity.
Alex Klaushofer writes in The Guardian about New wine in old church buildings. All over the country small churches are growing while the large buildings that once housed them decay.
And Ian Jack writes, also in The Guardian, about Saving churches for their history – not religion. These buildings are an important part of our landscape – even if they are not used for worship.
Symon Hill writes in The Guardian about Queer, Christian and proud. Ultra-conservative anti-gay Christians are a just a noisy minority. That’s why this coming Pride, the rest of us should raise the roof.
Peter Stanford has this Face to faith article in The Guardian: Christianity, arrogance and ignorance. After decades of discussion on world faiths, how could I know so little of their core beliefs?
Giles Fraser writes in the Church Times about The football babies come home.
Jay Michaelson asks in Religion Dispatches Does the Bible Really Call Homosexuality an “Abomination”? This word, used for centuries to justify an anti-gay posture, has been badly translated and even more poorly understood.
This week’s The Question at The Guardian’s Comment is free belief is Should religions compete? Would the world be a better place if religions concerned themselves only with the crimes and follies of their own?
Here are the responses.
Monday: Alan Race Conversation demands mutual respect. Without trust we cannot talk about God, but to build trust we must avoid trying to convert or lecture people
Thursday Maggi Dawn Religions should not compete for power. The call for peace at the heart of most religions contrasts with the way they behave as competing communities.
Friday Mehdi Hasan
Islam should not be missionary. Muslims must shun the divisive idea of a marketplace of religions which all compete for believers.
The Times has now hidden itself behind its paywall.
8 CommentsJenny Taylor in The Guardian Not a question of conversion. A new C of E report is described as a call not to be embarrassed about ‘conversion’. But ‘conversion’ can’t be any Christian’s aim.
Andrew Brown in his Guardian blog A kumquat hoisted from comments. The Christian churches have moved slowly and partially away from patriarchy in the last fifty years. But every step has been contested.
John Richardson in The Guardian These compromised bishops will not fly. A conservative evangelical condemns the Archbishops’ measures to make room for opponents of women priests.
Giles Fraser writes in the Church Times that Faith in the future is also irrational.
Geoffrey Rowell writes in The Times about The faith that has been handed on to us by the apostles. (registration required)
4 CommentsKaren Burke writes in The Guardian about the Church and media conference 2010. Is religion sidelined by the media? Broadcasters, church folk and humanists gathered last week to thrash things out.
Patrick Strudwick writes in The Guardian about Selective gay rights from the coalition. Allowing civil partnerships in places of worship, and a few other measures, can’t make up for a dubious record on gay rights.
The Archbishop of Canterbury preached at a special evensong service at St Paul’s Cathedral in celebration of the Royal Society’s 350th anniversary. A video and transcript of the sermon are available on the Archbishop’s website.
Giles Fraser argues in the Church Times that Enlightened thinking still raises queries.
Mark Speeks writes in The Tablet about Perils of the deep: Pensions and the BP catastrophe.
Jonathan Sacks writes in The Times about Searching the faces of those who bring light to others.
This week’s The Question at The Guardian’s Comment is free belief is Do prisons need religion? Can the moral and material structure that religion provides improve prison life?
Here are the responses.
Monday: Erwin James A civilising influence in prisons. If religion can provide a measure of peace in a troubled environment or a troubled heart then it has to be a good thing.
Wednesday: Francis Davis Religion can make life inside bearable. As a support system – and even, yes, as a way to make life more comfortable – religion is an essential part of prison life.
Thursday: Danny Afzal A Muslim prisoner’s story. When I first went to jail, I gave up God for sausages and bacon butties. But in the end, it was religion that helped me survive.
Friday: Naomi Phillips Faith is not the answer. Religion should be accommodated as far as is reasonable. But prison must remain a secular space.
The Archbishop of Canterbury preached at a Service for the New UK Parliament at St Margaret’s Church, Westminster Abbey: Sermon for the New Parliament.
George Pitcher in the Telegraph has this comment on the archbishop’s sermon: Rowan Williams challenges George Osborne to be more than a little Caesar – I hope he’s up to it.
Giles Fraser writes in the Church Times: Redeemed from the dark corner.
Also in the Church Times Penelope Fleming-Fido argues that Paganism is not a distant or very different religion.
Theo Hobson writes in The Guardian about How religious liberty works. Complaints of persecution by the semi-fascist secular state must be rejected as historically ignorant (or dishonest) alarmism.
Peter Singer writes in The Guardian about Religion’s regressive hold on animal rights issues. How are we to promote the need for improved animal welfare when battling religious views formed centuries ago?
Mary Midgley writes in The Guradian about The abuses of science. Is the evolutionary argument against God’s existence any stronger than Isaac Newton’s in favour?
Roderick Strange has a Credo column in the Times: The call may not be welcome but it cannot be resisted. If our instinct is to shun failure, who would want to be associated with Catholic priesthood?
This week’s The Question at The Guardian’s Comment is free belief is Who’s your favourite heretic? Of those cast out by the mainstream religions, whose thinking are you most intrigued by?
And here are the responses.
Monday: Tina Beattie Porete: a forgotten female voice. Marguerite Porete was a pious French mystic burned to death for her book, The Mirror of Simple Souls.
Tuesday: DD Guttenplan Einstein, heretical thinker. Unlike those we usually think of as heretics, Einstein set himself against the workings of the physical universe.
Thursday: Harriet Baber Origen, radical biblical scholar. Genesis is obviously metaphorical, according to Origen, for whom modern-day Christianity would be unrecognisable.
Friday: Stephen Tomkins Ebion, the fictional heretic. The Ebionites, said to follow a non-existent Ebion, remained closer to Jesus’s Jewishness than other Christians.
Giles Fraser writes in the Church Times that This is a Matthew 25 moment.
Ephraim Radner writes for Fulcrum on Ten Years and a new Anglican Congregationalism.
Guy Dammann asks in The Guardian Celibacy: whose bright idea was that? Christianity’s greatest tragedy is turning a religion founded on a genuine philosophy of love into an excuse for repression.
Sara Maitland writes in The Guardian about A very un-Anglican affair. The Walsingham pilgrimage refreshes the parts that other Anglican practices do not reach.
Peter Townley writes a Credo column in the Times: The Exile is an inspiration that can renew the Church. Will the Church of England survive? We do not know and in a way it is not important.
Christopher Howse writes a Sacred Mysteries column in the Telegraph: Under the spire of Grantham. It’s a joy to learn the language of medieval tracery.
This week’s The Question in The Guardian’s Comment is free belief is What’s wrong with missionaries? Is there a distinction between religious missionaries and people who work to spread human rights on secular grounds?
Here are the responses.
Monday: David Griffiths The free exchange of ideas. If it is done respectfully, the spreading of ideas, values and faith is good and creative
Wednesday: Ophelia Benson The limits of free preach. There is a difference between spreading beliefs and values, and forcing them on people.
Friday: Joel Edwards Missionaries are a force for good. Far from being latter-day colonialists, many missionaries today come from the global south and aren’t obsessed with conversion.
Saturday: Barbara O’Brien A self-defeating zeal. In the words of Ashoka, whoever praises his own religion and condemns others only harms his cause.
Kelvin Holdsworth, the provost of St Mary’s Cathedral, Glasgow, preached this Sermon for Affirmation Scotland at Pentecost.
Giles Fraser writes in the Church Times Consider the bees, not the wasps.
Ian Bradley writes in a Face to faith column in The Guardian that Liberals must stand together. Liberals across all faiths should create a coalition to turn the fundamentalist tide.
Francisco J. Ayala writes in The Guardian that Religion has nothing to do with science – and vice versa
Maggi Dawn writes about the acceptance of gay clergy in the inside view.
This week’s The Question at The Guardian’s Comment is free Belief is What is theology? Is it all just pointless talk about a non-existent being?
Here are the responses.
Monday: Tina Beattie A bulwark against ignorance. To do theology well is to empower people to resist religion’s co-option by the powers of fanaticism and violence.
Tuesday: Terry Sanderson Theology – truly a naked emperor. In the words of Robert A Heinlein, ‘Theology … is searching in a dark cellar at midnight for a black cat that isn’t there.’
Thursday: Nick Spencer Theology illuminates reality. Theology would be worth studying even if God did not exist for then it would tell us about our deepest selves.
Friday: Michael McGhee A critical eye on theology. Whatever else they do, the scriptures, like any other literature, reveal the unconscious ambivalences of their writers.
Terry Sanderson’s article above has prompted this from Andrew Brown: Making sense of Rowan Williams. Theology isn’t trying to produce scientific knowledge. We can all agree on that. But what other sorts of knowledge are there?
11 Comments