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.
3 CommentsSeveral this weekend are about the 400th anniversary of the gunpowder plot. In the Guardian Catherine Pepinster (who is editor of The Tablet) wrote about this and in The Times Geoffrey Rowell wrote Remember, remember the legacy of suspicion, intolerance and hostility.
Christopher Howse however, wrote about The vision of Magnus Martyr.
In The Tablet *Michael Barnes continues the gunpowder theme with Terror, treason and plot and there are also book reviews. related to this.
Giles Fraser in the Church Times asks Is Sandy Millar a Trojan horse?
The gunpowder theme even extends to Peter Steinfels in the New York Times with A Day to Think About a Case of Faith-Based Terrorism. (hat tip KH)
18 CommentsAlister McGrath writes in The Times about atheism: The Enlightenment is over, and atheism has lost its moral cutting edge.
Paul Oestreicher writes in the Guardian about the rebuilding of Dresden’s cathedral.
Christopher Howse summarises what Rowan Williams said to Mary Midgley about Gaia in a dialogue at St Paul’s Cathedral in Living on the skin of Gaia (you can read more about the book here).
Those who found Rowan Williams’ remarks about Islam in the context of Richard Hooker interesting may also find this critique by Colin Chapman of last summer’s Spectator article on Islam of interest: An Open Letter to Patrick Sookhdeo, while Madeleine Bunting has an interview today in the Guardian with Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi.
Speaking of Williams and Hooker, Graham Kings’ review of Anglican Identities has been republished:‘Passionate Patience’.
0 CommentsThe Guardian has now published on its website the Face to Faith column by Giles Fraser that was in the Saturday paper with the strapline:
Secularists who dismiss Christianity as the choice of the stupid should turn their critical gaze a little closer to home…
Here’s a part of it:
While the ordinary atheist remains indifferent to religion and all its ways, the born-again atheist has adopted the worst arrogance of Christian fundamentalists – just in negative.
Part of the problem is that many born-again atheists remain trapped in a 19th-century time warp, reheating the standard refutations of religious belief based on a form of rationalism that harks back to an era of fob-watches and long sideburns. One Oxford don has called the website of the National Secular Society a “museum of modernity, untroubled by the awkward rise of postmodernity”. Ignoring the fact that at least three generations of thought have challenged an uncritical faith in rationality, the society continues to build its temples to reason, deaf to claims that it is building on sand.
This commitment to Victorian philosophy turns to farce when campaigning secularists describe themselves as freethinkers. In truth, atheism is about as alternative as Rod Stewart. The joke is that many who were converted at university via Richard Dawkin’s The Selfish Gene think of themselves as agents of some subversive counterculturalism. This is ridiculous to Da Vinci Code proportions. Contemporary atheism is mainstream stuff. As John Updike put it: “Among the repulsions of atheism for me has been its drastic uninterestingness as an intellectual position.”
(More about the “Secularist of the Year” award mentioned can be found here)
24 CommentsFirst, two journals have reviewed the same book today: Earthly Powers: religion and politics in Europe from the French Revolution to the Great War by Michael Burleigh.
Diarmaid MacCulloch reviews it in the Guardian Holy and profane
Owen Chadwick reviews it in the Tablet The idolatry of nationhood
Second, in the godslots, we have
Christopher Howse in the Telegraph writing about Cherie’s love of Chesterton
Bernard Crick in the Guardian saying that This age of fanaticism is no time for non-believers to make enemies
and Roderick Strange in The Times By loving our enemies we come as close as we can to God’s perfection.
The October Fulcrum newsletter is by Francis Bridger and is entitled The Anglican Communion and the Evangelical Centre. This reflects on the recent Eames lectures.
And here is the speech that Rowan Williams delivered earlier this month at the confirmation of the election of John Sentamu as Archbishop of York.
1 CommentSex seems to be on several people’s minds.
Ruth Gledhill reports in The Times that Enjoy good sex on a Sunday, Church course recommends which may raise an eyebrow here and there.
The Guardian godslot has Colin Sedgwick saying that “sexual lust will never banish our yearning for love”.
To balance this, The Times also has Jonathan Sacks considering the earthquake in After even the worst disasters, we will hear the still voice of hope and in the Telegraph Christopher Howse considers Human sacrifice in London.
The Times further reports on a nightclub in Maidstone [sic] with a Church Army chaplain, see Who’s in the house? Enter a new kind of spirit.
Of course, there is plenty of critical comment on religion in the newspapers as well. Yesterday in the Guardian, Polly Toynbee wrote this diatribe against the bishops who spoke in the euthanasia debate: The bishops have no right to restrict our right to die.
More gently, Robert Winston trailed his new TV series and book in Why do we believe in God?
And earlier in the week, Magnus Linklater had written in The Times about Church, old, bankrupt, empty, seeks saviour to which George Carey responded with this letter today: Church progress.
(The original report of his lecture was by Jonathan Petre in the Telegraph Churches near last rites, says Carey.)
Before the Sentamu confirmation event, Stephen Bates wrote this piece for the Guardian: A pivotal moment which asks whether the Church of England’s first black archbishop can bring new impetus to a communion on the brink of schism…
After the service, Geoffrey Rowell wrote A new knot in the net that links communities in fellowship
for the Credo slot in The Times.
Ruth Gledhill reviews two books about Opus Dei in A wholesome reality shines beyond the dark conspiracy.
Earlier in the week Simon Jenkins had written in the Guardian that: London should keep its hands off the treasures of the north which deals mainly, but not exclusively, with the Zurbaran pictures at Auckland Castle. He says:
I am sure the Church of England would never think of selling its London treasures to meet its property losses. It would never part with the Westminster Abbey reredos, the Litlyngton Missal or the Charter of Offa. In St Paul’s Cathedral, works by Grinling Gibbons, Jean Tijou and Henry Moore are, we can assume, secure for the time being.
Christopher Howse writes in the Telegraph about A burglary in the Abbey but this turns out to have been in an earlier period.
1 CommentIn The Times Alan Webster writes about Coram and Barnardo’s in A vision that inspires hard work and high ideals for the next generation.
Christopher Howse in the Telegraph writes about the Spiritual side of Trafalgar. Over at the Tablet, he reviews the latest book on Opus Dei by John Allen, Out of the shadows.
The Guardian godslot is written by Alex Wright:
We need a more nuanced debate about religion, and must stop seeing it in terms of being either a fantasy or a destructive force…
Giles Fraser writes in the Church Times about the Silly season of political conference and Synod.
Church Times readers of this week’s Press column may find the full version of the article in the New Yorker (which is quoted by Andrew Brown) here at INTELLIGENT DESIGN by Paul Rudnick.
Returning to the Tablet Robert Mickens reports on the meeting between the Pope and Hans Kung in New-found harmony?
0 CommentsIn The Guardian
Mark Rudall Face to faith
Highly motivated prison chaplains and dedicated visitors are helping to bring faith to those behind bars.
In the Church Times
Giles Fraser Nature, red in tooth and claw
In the Telegraph
Melanie McDonagh There is more to religion than sexuality
Christopher Howse, in his Sacred mysteries column, writes about the new Pope’s coat of arms.
In the Times
Mark Vernon Friendship provides a foretaste of the everlasting love of heaven
Jack Shamash A modern, greener way of death takes root
First, the world’s largest inter-religious gathering took place in Lyons. This is organised annually by the Community of Sant’Egidio. Complete programme here. The website also includes various audio and video recordings of the sessions.
Rowan Williams made three contributions, which can be found on his website, here and also here and again here.
While there, he was interviewed by John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter
The same event is reported by Paul Handley in the Church Times who also had an editorial comment.
And Ekklesia also reported this event including what Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor said.
Not entirely unrelated, Graham Kings has published a Fulcrum newsletter that deals with Jesus Christ, Salvation and People of Other Faiths.
From the Guardian two items:
Roy Hattersley on Faith does breed charity and Tim Radford on Can God know the future?
Two items in The Times
Roderick Strange Jesus is not a choice between Galileo and the Inquisition
Catharine Morris We still have belief, but where is the poetry
And finally, Christopher Howse in the Telegraph recalls the bizarre story of Cornelia and Pierce Connelly in Strange twist in the nun’s tale (Well, they were Americans.)
0 CommentsIn The Times Jonathan Sacks has Tragedy unites us but blame divides, in the aftermath of disaster.
Ian Bradley writes in the Guardian Let’s hear it for the union (this is about Britishness) and Karen Armstrong writes about Old world order.
The Tablet has a very interesting report on an aspect of New Orleans not reported elsewhere in After the deluge by Nicole Pepinster Greene and and also an article about Christians, Muslims and Jews in London studying scriptures together, in Three in one by William Taylor.
Giles Fraser discusses The benefits of Babel in the Church Times.
0 CommentsIn The Times Geoffrey Rowell writes about Orthodoxy and Buddhism in being Aboard the Trans-Siberian Railway to a world of religious renaissance.
Both the Telegraph and the Guardian have columns about Islam.
Christopher Howse writes about an article on “The Remembrance of God” by a learned Shi’a Muslim, Ayatollah Muhsin Araki in The anatomy of God’s presence.
David Self writes that Christians and Muslims share a journey.
In the Church Times Giles Fraser asks Where is God at the wedding?
The CEN has a piece by Rowan Williams THE RECORD: Urbanisation, the Christian Church and the Human Project
1 CommentThe BBC Today programme had a segment this morning on the theories of Clare Asquith, listen here (Real Audio, 5.5 minutes) to her and to Professor Stanley Wells who is unconvinced.
On Sunday, the Observer had this story Shakespeare was a political rebel who wrote in code, claims author
This earlier article The Catholic Bard in Commonweal gives more detail of her views.
The Washington Post published this review: Papist Plots
3 Comments(This is a bank holiday weekend in England.)
Christopher Howse writes his Telegraph column about the Pope in Cologne, The revolution of the Magi.
For another view of the TV documentary mentioned by Howse, see Simon Barrow REFLECTING ON ‘GOD’S ROTTWEILER?’
The Guardian godslot is by Fred Sedgwick and is about the Book of Common Prayer, Prayers for today while Natasha Walter questions “evangelical” schools in Divine and rule.
Stephen Plant writes in The Times about the recent British school exam results, The tide is turning in favour of theology and the study of religion while Jonathan Romain writes about Jewish/Muslim relations, Making friends in Abraham’s family.
Giles Fraser in the Church Times has another view on the school exam results in Why schools need to look for their lost sheep.
The Spectator has an article provocatively entitled America: not a Christian country (easier to read printer-friendly version here).
EXTRA
As it is also Greenbelt this weekend, I offer two thoughtful posts from Paul Roberts who recently visited South Barrington:
A Brit in South Barrington 1
A Brit in South Barrington 2
where as Maggi Dawn says: Paul has been joining in with a Willow Creek conference, and is asking intelligent questions… like what can we learn from this phenomenon, even if it’s not our cup of tea?
The Tablet has an appreciation of Brother Roger by Alain Woodrow A man of peace cut down.
In the Telegraph Charles Moore thinks that Westminster Abbey was right to reject Hollywood’s 30 pieces of silver, while Christopher Howse discusses government attitudes to religion in A game that the Romans played, and a leader column discusses The Pope’s duty.
Dwight Longenecker writes in The Times about Roman Catholics in the USA: Roman road leads South to a brighter future.
More interesting than today’s godslot on Bible translation was the Guardian’s report yesterday Call to end state’s link with church. More about this is at the Fabian Society’s website, and the full article is Religion and the British state: a new settlement. Earlier in the week, Giles Fraser had written The idolatry of holy books which explores the parallels between Islam and the Christian reformers. He concludes:
For there can be few more chilling examples of theocratic fascism than Calvin’s Geneva. In toppling the authority of the clergy, he made it the responsibility of the civil magistrates to enforce the word of God. Spon, in his History of Geneva, writes: “In the year 1560, a citizen [of Geneva], having been condemned to the lash by the small council, for the crime of adultery, appealed from its sentence to the Two Hundred. His case was reconsidered, and the council, knowing that he had before committed the offence, and been against caught therein, condemned him to death, to the great astonishment of the criminal.” Elsewhere, Picot observes, “There were children publicly scourged, and hung, for having called their mother she-devil and thief. When the child had not attained the age of reason, they hung him by the armpits, to manifest that he deserved death.” Quite clearly, the fear that western liberals have of sharia law can hardly be appeased with reference to a reformed polity.
Rushdie’s suggestion that a reformed Islam might find a way beyond the besetting sins of anti-semitism, sexism and homophobia is also, alas, unlikely. Luther himself was famously and virulently anti-semitic. The Reformation did little for women, and the place to find the most neanderthal religious homophobia in Britain today is in an organisation called Reform. Until the Reformation finishes its work and trains its powerful commitment to iconoclasm on the sources of its own prejudice it will hardly be a model to hold up for other religious traditions to follow.
One of the most interesting articles this week is in the Church of England Newspaper: The hidden Bible – Mark Ireland asks why evangelists are neglecting the Bible. This reveals that:
One of the strange rules of thumb I’ve discovered, visiting many churches in my role as a diocesan missioner, is that the more evangelical the church is, the fewer verses of the Bible you are likely to hear read in worship. When I go to a church in the central or liberal tradition, I will always encounter two Bible readings. When I go to one of the catholic parishes in the diocese, I will usually hear four pieces of Scripture read – Old Testament, Psalm, New Testament and Gospel – with the words printed out on the service sheet for the people to follow. However, when I visit an evangelical parish, I will usually hear only one passage of the Bible.
And finally, the Financial Times reports on what happened when Jonathan Miller visited St Mary’s Primrose Hill: True disbeliever.
12 CommentsChristopher Howse writes in the Telegraph on the Foundations of fundamentalism
… ‘Without saying as much in so many words, fundamentalism actually invites people to a kind of intellectual suicide.” Such a judgment would be unremarkable in the letters page of the Independent, perhaps. It is more surprising in a document for which Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was responsible before he was elected as Pope Benedict XVI…
In The Times Roderick Strange writes that Our understanding of Mary no longer need divide the Christian creeds
Ian Bradley writes in the Guardian about the British TV programme Songs of Praise, Praise, my soul, the king of heaven
The Independent may no longer have a godslot, but Andrew Buncombe reports on a visit to Lakewood Church in Houston: Jesus Inc. Welcome to the world’s biggest church
Philip Crispin writes in the Tablet about Faith’s French revolution which will sound rather familiar to English Anglicans
With the number of priests in steep decline, the laity is keeping the Catholic church alive in rural France. It’s a dramatic transformation borne of necessity…
A week ago, the Church Times carried this article by Kenneth Leech, Beware the bureaucrats. Here’s how it starts:
NEARLY ten years ago, an article by the then Bishop of Chichester, Dr Eric Kemp, “Following the example of Mammon”, appeared in the Church Times (17 November 1995). It warned about the centralisation of power in the Church of England, and the danger that archbishops would come to be seen as managing directors.
The following day, Professor Richard Roberts, writing in The Independent, described Archbishop Carey as “the John Birt of the Church of England”, and the Church as a managed, product-driven organisation.
These words still haunt me. They seem to confirm my worst fears about the Church. I am not attacking central institutions, or even bureaucrats as such, but questioning where our priorities should lie.
And an earlier article in Christianity Today by Doug LeBlanc about Peter Akinola, entitled Out of Africa
0 CommentsFor the weekend:
Giles Fraser writes in the Church Times about the CofE bishops and civil partnerships, Why you need love and more
Paul Oestreicher writes in the Guardian about The message of Hiroshima
George Coyne the Vatican’s chief astronomer writes in the Tablet about evolution in God’s chance creation
In The Times Jonathan Sacks has a column entitled ‘A clock seems to tick in the history of religions, sending crisis’
Damian Thompson writes in the Telegraph about Ancient fantasies that infect the internet and inspire suicide bombers and Christopher Howse has Christianity’s top 10 ideas
4 CommentsThree related items:
Christopher Howse in the Telegraph asks Who are the ummah?
Oliver McTernan in the Guardian discusses The textual analysis of terrorism
And from Fulcrum Graham Kings writes London Bombings:Warnings and Support
In The Times Geoffrey Rowell writes that The truth of Christian faith prevails in even our most faltering words
Also in The Times, an article by Nick Wyke on the Cammino di San Francesco (the URL within the article is wrongly spelled)
7 CommentsFrom The Times
Christian conservatives find a common crusade by Gordon Urquhart
We must continue in joy and hope — astonishingly optimistic or not by John Wilkins
From the Guardian
Fundamentally speaking by Giles Fraser
From the Telegraph
Islam: cut out and keep by Christopher Howse
From Fulcrum
General Synod Reflections July 2005 by Francis Bridger
From the Church Times
Feelings, nothing more than feelings? by Giles Fraser
From the Tablet
Islam’s ‘heart of darkness’ by Abdal Hakim Murad
Tom Wright writes in the Guardian on a Reason to be cheerful. This is mainly about the General Synod debate on women bishops, and what was wrong with it.
…Much of our contemporary discourse – I sat through two days of general synod a week ago – has degenerated into a competition between the relative woundedness of people’s feelings. I am not saying that wounded feelings do not matter, only that saying “I’m more hurt than you are” cannot settle an argument on a point of principle. Unfortunately, since victimhood is the only high moral ground left after the collapse of reasoned discourse, speeches become harangues, name-calling replaces respectful engagement and party spirit trumps public wisdom.
Not for the first time, the Church of England has copied the surrounding culture, greatly to its disadvantage. True, “reason” is sometimes overemphasised. Like “clarity”, it needs something to work on; in Christian thinking, scripture and tradition. But you would have thought we could at least apply it to our own documents.
Last week’s debate about women bishops mostly consisted of people making passionate speeches on a question that was not on the order paper. The official question was about a way of proceeding, not about whether we approved of women bishops. If people had wanted to debate that, they should have amended the motion…
Roderick Strange writes in The Times, Pray within your own solitude – however noisy it is
Also in The Times Jonathan Romain writes about The silliness and brilliance of religion on the box.
Christopher Howse writes in the Telegraph about Jews, Christians and Muslims.
6 Comments