FaithInSociety

2010-12-25T03:53:00.000Z

A PARADOXICAL (CHRISTMAS) GIFT

"The paradox of God's 'Yes' spoken to creation in Jesus Christ is that it throws the world into a crisis of judgement. It is spoken, not from the lofty heights of Christendom's power, but from the depths of dereliction, a cry of protest against all Empire. Absolute and vulnerable, God proclaims life as a free gift. No market can buy it, no state can enlist it, no church can own it. It is common wealth."- Steven Shakespeare.

2010-11-04T01:09:00.002Z

TOO MUCH RELIGION

“If religion is characterised by the recruitment of God to serve our agendas, and faith is about putting our agendas at the service of God, then clearly there is too much religion in the world, and not enough faith.” – Bishop John Saxbee.

2010-10-28T03:34:00.000Z

THE TWO SIDES OF CHRISTIANITY

27 and 28 October are key dates in Christian history. Constantine's 'vision of the Cross' in 312, and his attribution of military victory at the Battle of Milvian Bridge the next day to God, was the beginning of Christendom in Europe - an era which mixed civilization with bloodshed, saints with militarism, and faith with often brutal sacralised-secular power. But there is another story to be told of Christianity as a non-imperial, liberating and post-Christendom force. More here.

2010-04-08T17:53:00.002Z

READ ALL ABOUT IT...

2010-04-07T19:48:00.001Z

AN INSURRECTION OF LIFE

"We have longed to taste the resurrection... the insurrection of life... We have longed to welcome its thunders and quakes, and to echo its great gifts. We want to test the resurrection in our bones. We want to see if we might live in hope instead of in the ... twilight thicket of cultural despair in which ... many are lost." - Daniel Berrigan, Catholic priest and radical peace activist

2010-04-02T22:50:00.003Z

A DEMANDING CALLING

"The followers of Christ have been called to peace. And they must not only have peace but also make it. Christ's disciples keep the peace by choosing to endure suffering themselves rather than inflict it on others. In so doing they overcome evil with good, and establish the peace of God in the midst of a world of war and hate." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

(a quotation and a vocation that has recently inspired peace activists in Australia.)

See also my article, 'Peacemaking after Christendom', on Ekklesia.

2010-03-30T19:15:00.001Z

A SEARING LOVE

"Romantic love is blind to everything except what is lovable and lovely, but Christ's love sees us with terrible clarity and sees us whole. Christ's love so wishes our joy that it is ruthless against everything in us that diminishes our joy. The worst sentence Love can pass is that we behold the suffering that Love has endured for our sake, and that is also our acquittal. The justice and mercy of the judge are ultimately one." - Frederick Buechner (courtesy of: www.sojo.net)

2010-02-13T00:01:00.001Z

ECHOES AND INTIMATIONS

One of the more depressing aspects of trying to write about 'religion' in cyberspace, especially when you have (whatever your faults and limitations) spent a huge amount of time examining it and thinking about it, is that so many people want to dismiss and point fingers -- but not necessarily to consider the question of whether their own vocabulary and syntax on the subject might need expanding. I certainly find myself constantly aware of the limits of my language, and grateful to those who help me enlarge it, however painful that process may sometimes be.

Then there are the shafts of light and encouragement. One such came across my Mac's desktop yesterday evening, in the shape of a post entitled Religions as Schools on a very stimulating site called, evocatively, Echoes of the Name. It follows on from another piece about Keith Ward's book, Images of Eternity.

The author, Kyōshin, picks up on Nicholas Lash's insight that it would be more fruitful to conceive of religions not so much as "collections of beliefs" or propositions, as "schools whose pedagogy has the twofold purpose of weaning us from our idolatry and purifying our desire.” That includes our misshapen ideas about God as a kind of 'superbeing', rather than the transcendently free source of being. It includes a quotation from my own What difference does God make today? and an acute observation from Chris Ward of Triple Gem - the Buddhist Foundation. You can read the post yourself. I will simply reproduce here my own appreciation and response:

Many thanks for this, and for your last post - and, indeed, the site as a whole. Fascinating. I can sympathise with Chris Ward (and you). However, my experience, which includes a good chunk of time as an adult Christian educator, is that those in the churches who are keen to develop a spiritual discipline, and especially those who perceive the connection that Dorothee Soelle makes between 'resistance and mysticism' (q.v.), begin instinctively to move away from the constraining 'God as superbeing' picture. This occurs precisely through the process of shared pedagogy by means of worship and reflection that Lash describes as having the purpose of weaning us from our idolatry and purifying our desire. One also needs to be aware of the possibility that while the language of popular religion can be rough and ready (or unready!), the hearts of those who use it may be much more capacious than their presenting rhetoric. The need, of course, is to discover a language and a pattern of echoes in life that can sustain and develop this capaciousness. Equally, I know many 'simple believers' who, though they might not put it this way, know that they are speaking in metaphors - while their (academic) critics do not! Sara Maitland's book A Big Enough God is an excellent bridge in all this. On the issue and concern about "anthropomorphism", I have written more in 'What difference does God make today?' - though, once again, I am in eternal debt to the wisdom of Nicholas Lash. Grace and peace to you.

Echoes of the Name is a group blog whose contributors focus primarily on the Jōdo Shin stream of Pure Land Buddhism but also write from time to time on other subjects including Christianity, Philosophy and Zen. I wish there were more Christian websites that demonstrated a similar capacity to reside deep within their own tradition while being open and engaging towards others.

Interestingly (to me, anyway!), one of the as-yet-unrealised book projects I have in hand, on 'God after Christendom', has the working title The Unfamiliar Name, drawing from a phrase of T. S. Eliot's in Little Gidding. There is an interesting consonance between the apophatic way within Christianity and elements of philosophical Buddhism, though we may finally diverge (as I do also from Derrida, who I nevertheless love) on the designation of 'the real'. Aquinas, Bonhoeffer, John Caputo, Michael Barnes, Richard Kearney (The God Who May Be and The Wake of Imagination), Nicholas Lash (The Beginning and the End of 'Religion'), Ruth Page and the more mystical Anabaptists are some of the lights to my negotiation of this intriguing area of prayer and intellectual discourse.

2010-02-12T22:51:00.003Z

REFLECTING, REDACTING, REDIRECTING

When I was in Exeter recently, a friend asked me why I had been so silent on FaithInSociety of late - and, to be honest, for about the past 12 months and more, since my 'post' rate was only about one-a-week last year, after a fertile period between 2005-8. The answer, of course, is "the distraction of life, and related matters." Well, that and Twitter, where I may be regularly if fleetingly found, my work blog on Ekklesia, my regular column, together with various other national and international media interventions. Oh, yes, and Facebook, more for the networking, and Only Just Offside (for therapy). Put that together with other work and domestic commitments, reading and bits of recreation and you can see why less really is more. Cyberspace can become an unhelpfully all-encompassing reality if you allow it, especially if, as with Ekklesia, it is the basic coinage for what you do.

From a purely technical point of view (though these things are never "purely technical" if you have any level of self- and other-awareness), the issue is how to consolidate. I don't really believe in cross-posting, and certainly not in using tweets to update your Facebook status. Either use each medium for what it's best at, and originate originally, or don't. That said, I have been wondering whether to roll this space into my Ekklesia blog. But that is more issue-based or researchy (or would be, if I wrote more about research issues), whereas this offers an opportunity to be more personal, reflective and theological, and to have the odd conversation (sic!). So I think I will try to use them both in those distinct ways. But with the proviso that (as I often say) if you start to worry about "not posting enough" then something is seriously wrong in terms of life balance. Writing, in whatever form, and to whatever audience (or lack of audience) ought to be an effervescence not a chore, and other things in life ought to take priority. So if I'm here I'm here, and if I'm not I'm not, I guess.

All of which takes me to Lent, which is impending, and which, as I observed in my recent sermon The world's storms waiting to be stilled, "is a period within the Christian tradition which is all about reassessment and renegotiation. What and who are we living for? Where and with whom is the true value of life to be found? What shall we keep hold of and what shall we let go of? What is it that sustains us in the face of want, or of excess?"

Much more important than "am I blogging enough / not enough /too much." Though I see that David Keen over on St Aidan to Abbey Manor has just started a useful conversation, entitled That'll Do, on giving up his blog for Lent. So, yup, that's St Aidan of Lindisfarne in the picture - thank you, David.

2010-02-12T17:31:00.002Z

A BALLOT-LOAD OF POSSIBILITIES

Over 50,000 people have voted so far in the Power 2010 poll. Join them by clicking the button.

2010-01-22T19:32:00.000Z

QUEST FOR THE HIGHEST

"The society which scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity, and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because philosophy is an exalted activity, will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water." - John W. Gardner

2010-01-21T05:20:00.003Z

ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE

"Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love." - Martin Luther King Jr.

Another World is Possible from LOVE146 on Vimeo.

Anti-slavery activist Rob Morris Speaks on MLK and his dream of the impossible world. Music from Aaron Strumple. Courtesy of Social Media Today.

"I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered [people] have torn down [people] other-centered can build up. I still believe that one day [humanity] will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive goodwill will proclaim the rule of the land." - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech, December 10, 1964

2010-01-19T07:42:00.003Z

RECONSIDERING THE SECULAR

This is an ongoing research, reporting and action project from Ekklesia, with a number of overlapping elements, including cooperation with academic and civic bodies. The aim is to work in conversation with others towards the development of an inclusive vision of secularity in the public square - one based on dialogue and free expression; a proper distinction between religious and public authorities; and maintaining a fair civic arena for the widest range of public actors, both religious and non-religious. This brief was first published in 2007 and revised in January 2010.

It is our conviction that conscious attempts are needed to engage thinking people of both non-religious and varying religious persuasions in considering models of secular/religious life which may be received as an invitation rather than a threat, as plural rather than monolithic, as inclusive rather than exclusive, and which move from 'thin' to 'thick' descriptions of "the good" as part of a rigorous but respectful conversation between different traditions of reasoning.

More here.
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2010-01-14T03:10:00.001Z

AFTER THE DECORATIONS GO

"When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone, when the kings and princes are home, when the shepherds are back with their flock, the work of Christmas begins: to find the lost, to heal the broken, to feed the hungry, to release the prisoner, to rebuild the nations, to bring peace ... to make music in the heart." - Howard Thurman, American author, civil rights leader, and theologian (1899-1981)

2009-12-23T23:59:00.000Z

RESTORING THE WORLD

"Believers have made a choice. This is a good world marred by evil rather than an evil world occasionally challenged by goodness against the odds, so we have more to be thankful for than to disparage, and by gratitude we can restore what cynicism has devalued." - Colin Morris

2009-10-28T18:13:00.001Z

A LARGER STORY

"We live limited lives until we 'cross over' into the concrete world of another country, another culture, another tradition of worship ... I have left forever a small world to live with the tensions and the tender mercies of God's larger family." - Joan Puls, from her book Every Bush Is Burning (WCC).

2009-10-14T23:31:00.003Z

GAG SHOOTS ITSELF IN THE FOOT

Wonderful news that the new media has helped to scupper one of the most outrageous attempts at a gag in British history - oil trader Trafigura's injunction through law firm Carter-Ruck against the Guardian newspaper, which for a time prevented them from reporting... a parliamentary question. That's right, a question asked by an elected member of a democratic assembly. The free speech implications of this were and are monumental. In fact, the company has succeeded only in drawing millions upon millions of people's attention to its nasty practices concerning pollution and the Ivory Coast - the opposite of its intention. Barclays and Tesco are among those who have used legal action against the Guardian in the past for gagging purposes. It is vital that such attempts to misuse corporate power fail. And ordinary people can help by defying them and using the technology at their disposal to do so. Now Gordon Brown is calling for reform of super-injunctions. Here, for the record, is the follow up to the original parliamentary question (no. 61) Transfigura wanted to keep quiet. Let the noise continue.

2009-10-12T10:31:00.002Z

BACK IN THE WRITING POOL

As a friend remarked not so long ago, I've been rather "blog-lite" recently, other needs and priorities having interrupted the flow. However, I'm prompted back into action by a slight pang of guilt at being described as a "regular" blogger in a biographical note that appears in the programme for the conference I'm attending at the moment - 'Religion in the News' at Cumberland Lodge (pictured). Guilt is not a good spur for this particular medium, however. There's already too much pathology in cyberspace. "Be there for a positive reason or be somewhere else" would be my watchword. And as it happens I'm running a workshop/seminar this afternoon on the 'new media'. About which (and this gathering), more anon.

2009-07-27T19:31:00.000Z

THORNS BEFORE THE ROSE

"In today’s world, poverty and humility should be a thorn in the side of secular society and the church, a dangerous recollection of Jesus and a threat to the status quo of church institutions." - Karl Rahner (hat-tip to Roy Dorey)

2009-07-27T19:03:00.002Z

PRETTY IN PRINT

It was good talk today to Roy Dorey, a Baptist minister with a long track record in church and community development. We were liaising over a future book about the recovery of church vision and practice in a society in which dominant understandings of power and its use have disabled (and in some cases corrupted) the Christian understanding and doing of local community. Along with our prime publishing partners in Edinburgh, Shoving Leopard, Ekklesia intends to get into quite a bit more book production over the next few years.

In addition to my Fear or Freedom?, the book I edited with Jonathan Bartley, Consuming Passion (DLT), two titles from Jon himself and a further one due next March from our new associate Symon Hill, called The No-Nonsense Guide to Religion (New Internationalist Publications), we have a number "on the boil".

However, my latest book, Threatened with Resurrection: The difficult peace of Christ remains very, very late. It should be with you all fairly shortly. But I'll be a bit cagey until I can be sure of the publication date. Whereas I throw out articles, both journalistic and academic, rather quickly, when it comes to books I want to keep changing my mind, angle of approach, selection of material, and so on. Probably some illusion about "completeness". Still, as my own harshest critic, I'm reasonably pleased with the way it has developed (even if embarrassed at the delay). But it will be the readers' opinions that really count. That's the terrifying thing about committing yourself to paper with a cover round it, an ISBN, and an entry price.

Good job the leopard doesn't bite. Well, the one in Edinburgh, anyway.

2009-07-25T12:43:00.002Z

A RADICAL CHRISTIAN FUTURE?

What role does Anabaptism have to play in renewing Christianity in the new century? How do we appropriately take our past into the future? Can Mennonites and other peace churches make a serious impact on inherited and emerging church in the UK? The forthcoming London Mennonite Theology Forum, on 10-11 September 2009 will take place at the Guy Chester Centre in North London. The keynote speaker for the forum will be Ted Grimsrud, theology professor at Eastern Mennonite University and author of the recent book Embodying the Way of Jesus: Anabaptist Convictions in the 21st Century. Other presenters include Simon Barrow (co-director of Ekklesia), Anne-Marie Visser (Mennonite representative on the advisory committee for Inter-Religious Encounter for the Dutch National Council of Churches), James Jakob Fehr (director of the German Mennonite Peace Committee) and Vic Thiessen (theological consultant, and until recently director of the London Mennonite Centre).

For more information and booking, click here.

2009-06-21T02:43:00.002Z

THE NOISE OF ART

A cruciform tree, a radiating Cain eyed by a simmering Abel and a doveish floating vision: these are just a few of the images you will see as part of the vital and (until recently) little-known Methodist Art Collection, which has now gone online.

The collection is an extraordinary achievement of quiet but committed curation, and includes some very well-regarded twentieth century artists, as well as a number of less publicly profiled (but equally evocative) contributors.

How did one of Britain's historic denominations end up with a rotating and touring collection of some of the finest examples of contemporary art exploring the pain and poetry of spirituality in a troubled world? Read my short article about it here.

2009-06-16T17:06:00.000Z

RE-CONNECTING

"In life we receive more than we give; therefore it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

2009-04-30T22:59:00.004Z

INTELLIGENT SIMPLICITY

"Negativity is not intelligent. It is always of the ego. The ego may be clever, but it is not intelligent. Cleverness pursues its own little aims. Intelligence sees the larger whole in which all things are connected" - Eckhart Tolle (hat-tip to Janet Lynn Kroeker)

"Those who can combine simplicity and intelligence can prevail. But what is simplicity? What is intelligence? Simple is the one who in the transfiguration, confusion and twisting of all concepts keeps the simple truth of God in focus, who is not double-minded, not a person in two minds (James 1.8), but has an undivided heart... Because simple people do not look past God to the world, they are in a position to look freely and naturally at the reality of the world. Thus simplicity becomes intelligence. Intelligent is the one who sees reality as it is, who sees the foundation of things... The perception of reality is not the same thing as knowledge of certain external processes; it is, rather, seeing the essence of things. The most intelligent are not those who are the best informed." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Ethics (1940-43), p.67-8.

[Image: (c) faulkner.biz]

2009-04-23T11:01:00.003Z

WHAT KIND OF LOYALTY?

Today is St George's Day. In the past this has been misused in England as an excuse for narrow nationalism, bigotry, xenophobia and imperial self-regard. It doesn't have to be like that. Sadly, however, those traits are still around. In an uncertain, conflicted world, identity remains important. Who are we and who or what are we loyal to? Trying to "re-invent Englishness" without questioning our past, present and future amounts to attempting to fashion national cohesion without honesty and humility. It is not only flawed but dangerous, given what is lurking (rather openly) in the shadows. One place we could start is by looking at what we have done to the myth of St George himself. I've flagged that issue up (so to speak!) this morning. Ekklesia took a more lengthy look a couple of years ago in When the Saints go marching out? St George for a new era.

2009-04-22T23:26:00.002Z

STANDING OR FALLING

"Christianity stands or falls with its revolutionary protest against violence, arbitrariness, and pride of power, and with its plea for the weak. Christians are doing too little to make these points clear ... Christendom adjusts itself far too easiliy to the worship of power. Christians should give more offense, shock the world far more, than they are doing now."- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

2009-04-10T21:43:00.004Z

WHAT WOULD JESUS TWEET?

Trinity Wall Street in New York, a leading Episcopal Church, has streamed a Passion Play via Twitter.

I've run the embedded link at the foot of this site...

2009-04-09T23:48:00.007Z

WATCHING AND WAITING...

Thursday was a day that brought together many strands of my life. 9 April is my father's birthday. He died in 1997 (The book Fear or freedom? Why a warring church must change which I edited last year is dedicated to him, and to my mother, who passed away in 1978.) It is also the anniversary of the execution of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, whose life and work is one of my inspirations. Though not one that casts me in a particularly good light! There is a family connection, in that I discovered Bonhoeffer through Eberhard Bethge's classic biography on my father's bookshelf, though I think he rather preferred the cautious Otto Dibelius. The new and expanded edition of Bethge is so much better, by the way.

There's no Holy Thursday night vigil around these parts, so instead I have decided to re-watch Martin Doblmeier's moving film Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Pacifist, Nazi Resister, about his life and influence. The theological dimension gets a look in as well, with an interview from South African writer John de Gruchy - whose stimulating review of Stanley Hauerwas' Performing the Faith: Bonhoeffer and the Practice of Nonviolence can be found here. Doblmeier gives an interview about the project on the film website. I must also pick up Geoffrey Kelly's reading guide (pictured) to the Fortress Bonhoeffer works edition at some point. Fresh perspectives are always welcome, and I am far from complete in my reading.

Thinking of the Maundy Thursday vigil: the Eucharist and the stripping off the altar at the Church of the Annunciation in Brighton, where I lived for five years (in the town, not the church!) was always an extraordinary occasion. The then priest, David Wostenholme, who is now in Glasgow, would turn the lady chapel into a flowering garden of waiting and remembrance, complete with the Host and the shadow of the tree of betrayal. It generated a tremendous sense of prayer and suspense before the abandonment of Good Friday. Some people who know the Anabaptist, and especially modern Mennonite, influence on my theological thinking are sometimes surprised that the liturgical and aesthetic dimension of the Catholic tradition is important to me. But as far as I am concerned they are wholly congruent. As Dorothee Soelle once put it, mysticism and resistance are two complementary paths to meeting the Other in the midst.

One final thought, on foot-washing. I was intrigued by today's news that it has been temporarily reincarnated as shoe-shining. Actually, that's quite a creative idea. I'm delighted that money is going to Zimbabwe, too. But in another sense it would be wonderful if church leaders could go out onto the streets and serve for no reward at all. In our commodified culture, "random acts of kindness" are regarded with suspicion, though. Debt rather than grace is the way society is ordered. The church as well, all too often, in contradiction of its calling. So it is worth reflecting again (since I have certainly mentioned it before) that whoever asked: 'what might have happened differently if foot-washing had been the primary Christian sacrament?' posed one of the most important post-Christendom questions of all. Perhaps it will be picked up more and more in the 'new monasticism' (which of course goes back to Bonhoeffer) and in 'emergent' circles?

2009-04-09T21:50:00.004Z

A VOICE FROM THE MARGINS

How gratifying to discover that Ben Myers, who maintains the fine Faith and Theology blog ("for theological scholarship and contemporary theological reflection") has developed an affection for the dissenting Episcopal theologian William Stringfellow (pictured left), who died some 25 years ago... but whose insistent critique of injustice, bold commitment to Christian discipleship and iconoclastic vision continues to resonate when it is given a hearing. Ben's full stock of Stringellow posts may be explored here. (There are a couple on here, as well, relating to the book I'm about to mention again...)

In 2000 I was involved in a conference in Oxford celebrating and examining his life and work. There were some fine speakers, and Rowan Williams gave a good address at the end. His contribution is included in a volume that I also have an essay in: William Stringfellow in Anglo-American Perspective, ed. Anthony Dancer (Ashgate 2005). Ben cites a bit of it. Unfortunately, as with other academic-oriented titles that could actually find a wider audience, it is only available in hardback and for £45. Libraries and aficionados only, effectively. When I met Rowan at a reception a year ago he said that his name could be mentioned in relation to a proposal for a paperback. But I've lost touch with Tony, the editor. One for the (rather long!) 'to do' list.

2009-04-09T15:03:00.001Z

APPROACHING GOOD FRIDAY...

“We must learn to regard people less in light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer.”– Dietrich Bonhoeffer (executed by the Nazis on 9 April 1945)

“God, for me, represents the holiness of otherness. Through an encounter with the divine Other I come to value the encounter with the human other. What I ask God to do for me, God asks me to do for others: listen to them, empower them, believe in them, trust them, forgive them when they betray that trust, and love them for what they are, not what I would like them to be. More than we have faith in God, God has faith in us, and because [God] never loses that faith, we can never lose hope. God is the redemption of solitude.” – Jonathan Sachs, chief rabbi, reflecting in the New Statesman

“[Christ] was executed by people painfully like us, in a society very similar to our own ... by a corrupt church, a timid politician, and a fickle proletariat led by professional agitators.” – Dorothy L. Sayers (1943)

2009-04-04T12:21:00.002Z

AN UNDIVIDED HEART

"Only through the bringing together of head and heart – intelligence and goodness – shall we rise to a fulfillment of our true nature." - Martin Luther King Jr.

2009-04-01T16:57:00.001Z

SOMETHING AFOOT

“When the forms of an old culture are dying, the new culture is created by a few people who are not afraid to be insecure.” - Rudolph Bahro

2009-03-29T08:02:00.000Z

REALITY CHECK

The Talmud reads, "Never pray in a room without windows." Never pray without the world in mind, in other words. The purpose of the spiritual life is not to save us from reality. It is to enable us to go on co-creating it. - Sr. Joan Chittister

2009-03-19T20:15:00.002Z

DANGEROUS THINKING

"Love is an act of sedition, a revolt against reason, an uprising in the body politic, a private mutiny." - Diane Ackerman

"We are all bound up together in one great bundle of humanity, and society cannot trample on the weakest and feeblest of its members without receiving the curse in its own soul." - Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Proceedings of the Eleventh Women's Rights Convention (1866)

2009-03-18T04:26:00.003Z

TURNING AWAY FROM ANTI-JUDAISM

'Repentance, Renewal and Reconciliation: How One Denomination Has Come to Terms with its Anti-Judaic Heritage' is the title of a forum taking place this evening in the Seabury Auditorium at the Episcopal Church's General Theological Seminary, New York, where I'm staying at the moment.

In 1994, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America issued a 'Declaration to the Jewish Community' in which it repudiated Martin Luther's anti-Jewish writings, expressed its sorrow for their baleful effects in subsequent generations, and affirmed its "urgent desire to live out our faith in Jesus Christ with love and respect for the Jewish people."

Franklin Sherman,who chaired the committee that prepared the Declaration, will be discussing how it emerged, how it was received, and how it has been followed up in the years since. Dr Sherman is Director of the Institute for Jewish - Christian Understanding at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

The event is being presented by the General Seminary’s Center for Jewish-Christian Studies and Relations.

2009-03-17T15:37:00.002Z

STRUGGLING FOR HUMANITY

The Still Human, Still Here campaign highlighting the plight of tens of thousands of refused asylum seekers who are destitute in the UK is one I passionately support. A few years ago I was involved in providing bail for asylum applicants. Those I met had been through some terrible experiences, and were treated humiliatingly by the 'justice system' here. My wife also sees what is going on as a lawyer.

As Ekklesia associate Vaughan Jones, CEO of Praxis, commented recently, in a broader context: Does the migrant have a human right? Are migrants fully human? Do they have, in the old language, souls? The answer as it currently appears from government is “unfortunately they are human, but we will do everything we possibly can to stop them from being so.”

2009-03-14T05:12:00.002Z

HEART IS WHERE THE HOME IS

“[M]utual service and attention are the basic elements through which the human world becomes transparent to [God]. The realising of that transparency is… the beginning of happiness – not of a transient feeling of well-being or even euphoria, but of a settled sense of being at home, being absolved from urgent and obsessional desire, from the passion to justify your existence, from the anxieties of rivalry. And so what religious belief has to say in the context of our present crisis is, first, a call to lament the brokenness of the world and invite that change of heart which is so pivotal throughout the Jewish and Christian Scriptures; and, second, to declare without ambiguity or qualification that human value rests on God’s creative love and not on possession or achievement. It is not for believers to join in the search for scapegoats, because there will always be, for the religious self, an awareness of complicity in social evil.” – Rowan Williams (more from his lecture on Ethics, Economics and Global Justice - see below, 12/03/09).

2009-03-13T19:50:00.003Z

TALKING ABOUT RELIGION AND LIBERTY

The full online audio from the 'Faiths and Freedoms' session at the Convention on Modern Liberty in London on 28 February is now available here. It lasts about 1 hour 15 mins and features me (chairing and doing an introduction), Vaughan Jones (Praxis), Keith Kahn-Harris (New Jewish Thought) and Savi Hensman (equalities adviser and theological commentator). Edited and amplified text versions of what they said are available at Ekklesia - under features (9, 3 and 1 March) and in my column. A Muslim contribution will be added soon.

2009-03-13T16:03:00.002Z

HOPEFUL SCHOOLING

It's good to see that integrated schooling in Northern Ireland is getting a little more publicity at the moment -- though sadly in the wake of attempts by hardline sectarian groups to revive the bloody conflict there. It has much wider ramifications, however. See also the article by the Rev Jeremy Chadd, which highlights why selective denominational education runs counter to Christian testimony as well as cross-community development.

2009-03-12T05:02:00.002Z

A MATTER OF ETHOS

“Ethics is about negotiating conditions in which the most vulnerable are not abandoned. And we shall care about this largely to the extent to which we are conscious of our own vulnerability and limitedness. One of the things most fatal to the sustaining of an ethical perspective on any area of human life, not just economics, is the fantasy that we are not really part of a material order – that we are essentially will or craving, for which the body is a useful organ for fulfilling the purposes of the all-powerful will, rather than being the organ of our connection with the rest of the world. It’s been said often enough but it bears repeating, that in some ways – so far from being a materialist culture, we are a culture that is resentful about material reality, hungry for anything and everything that distances us from the constraints of being a physical animal subject to temporal processes, to uncontrollable changes and to sheer accident.” – Rowan Williams, from a stimulating lecture on Ethics, Economics and Global Justice given recently at the Welsh Centre for International Affairs in Cardiff.

2009-03-11T20:37:00.002Z

BANKING ON THE FUTURE?

Here's a short reflection on Adrian Pabst's recent article about the collapse of free-market fundamentalism and the challenge to communities of faith arising from engagement with economic alternatives.

2009-03-10T16:17:00.002Z

DARWIN AND THE CHURCHES

In this online audio programme from The Economist magazine, I am interviewed (in the second half of the segment) by Bruce Clark. The download is here. Incidentally, the "battle of ideas" I referred to was in the US, and refers more to a political battle than an intellectual one. On the same site there's also an interesting interview with Cambridge-based evolutionary palaeobiologist Simon Conway-Morris, who has a particular interest in religion-science discussions. His latest book tackles the question of convergence, in ways that annoy those who take a very reductive programme of gene-centred materialism to be essential to Darwinian theory. More about him here and here.

2009-03-03T18:11:00.002Z

LEARNING TO SEE ARIGHT

"There remains an experience of incomparable value ... to see the great events of world history from below; from the perspective of the outcast, the suspects, the maltreated, the powerless, the oppressed, the reviled - in short, from the perspective of those who suffer ... to look with new eyes on matters great and small." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, After Ten Years

2009-02-28T16:18:00.004Z

HOPE IN A SHAPE-SHIFTING WORLD

Faith needs a freedom agenda (My contribution to the Convention on Modern Liberty). Genuine faith – in God, in the good, in people and in the future of our planet – grows through freedom, depends upon freedom to keep it honest, and can contribute to the shared openness and strived-for equality that is part of our free flourishing.

More on Christianity and the limits and opportunities of 'rights'-based discourses and practices here.

2009-02-28T10:08:00.001Z

WATCHING LIBERTIES

The Convention on Modern Liberty, a huge alliance of civil society groups in dialogue with parliamentarians and policy makers, is underway across Britain this morning. The live webcast of events can be watched on the Convention website. Proceedings began with a speech by Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, who warned that the erosion of civil liberties is happening incrementally in Britain, and other parts of the world. She highlighted government compromises on fair trials, free speech and privacy - as well as state collusion in torture in the name of a 'war on terror'. A new discourse on 'fundamental human rights for all human beings' is needed, she declared. Ekklesia is coordinating a conversation on 'faiths and freedoms' as part of the Convention gathering at the Institute of Education in London - 11.45 today, with speakers Keith Kahn-Harris (sociologist, New Jewish Thought), Savitri Hensman (equalities adviser, Christian commentator) and Vaughan Jones (CEO of Praxis) plus a wide range of participants from faith and non-faith backgrounds.

2009-02-25T13:34:00.003Z

CHANGING HEARTS AND MINDS

Evangelicals who love their gay neighbours - Guardian Comment-is-Free, Simon Barrow. 25 February 2009. There is a growing movement among Christians normally seen as conservative to affirm the rights of gay people.

In Britain, pro-gay evangelicals have also been "coming out". A few years ago veteran Methodist preacher George Hopper published an online book that sums up the difficulty of the shift, but also its hopefulness. It is called Reluctant Journey – A pilgrimage of faith from homophobia to Christian love. /continued...

2009-02-25T02:25:00.000Z

SPEAKING UP FOR CHANGE

2009-02-19T00:09:00.001Z

MORE THAN REALPOLITIK

"Expediency asks the question: Is it politic? Vanity asks the question: Is it popular? But conscience asks the question: Is it right? And there comes a time when you must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular - but you must take it simply because conscience tells you it is right." - Martin Luther King Jr., 'To Chart Our Course for the Future' (1968)

2009-02-15T23:55:00.003Z

MY BUS SAYS...

Why spend money dissing other people's beliefs / non-beliefs on public transport, when you can subvertise with the free bus slogan generator and give the money to something useful?

2009-02-12T07:46:00.004Z

HARVESTING DARWIN

Over on Ekklesia we've published a number of pieces to mark the 200th and 150th anniversaries (of Charles Darwin's birth and the publication of On the Origin of Species, respectively). There's Dr Denis Alexander's Why Christians should celebrate Darwin and Professor John Hedley Brooke's Darwin and Religion. The latter has quite a few additional links appended. There's also a summary of responses from the British churches and related academics or agencies, and an education angle from America.

As my comment indicates, I really don't buy into the 'rescuing Darwin' schtick, as it seems to me to feed that which it contends, and to distract attention from the common purpose of harnessing good science to meeting needs and enhancing understanding. Also, interactions between science and theology premised on trying to redress, reassert or reassess the conflicts of the past are in danger of being over-determined by what they should be letting go of or transcending. Oh, and the ComRes survey was rather counterproductive. It generated a problem through flawed questioning, and possibly inadequate attention to sampling errors.

Meanwhile, here's a relevant anniversary / bicentenary blog swarm. And an interesting post on, er, post-Darwin from Bob Cornwall.

2009-02-06T04:20:00.003Z

ROLLING NEWS

For those of you who use Twitter, and for those who might want to try it, Ekklesia has just started tweeting here. We'll be running links to our content as it goes up, through RSS, and adding one or two extras as well. My own Twitter is scrolled on the right-hand column here.

2009-02-05T01:29:00.000Z

UP AGAINST IT

"Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced. " - James Baldwin, writer and civil rights leader

2009-02-04T19:12:00.004Z

CHRISTIANITY REDISCOVERED?

My experience of being a Christian is that of a surprising, continual and contested process of reformation and rediscovery - personal, intellectual, spiritual and political. It feels far removed from the kind of faith that many zealous believers and non-believers seem attached to. This essay on Being Christian in a sceptical climate draws on previously published material, but I've prefaced it (substantially) and modified it in the light of an interesting exchange as part of a meeting I spoke at recently, organised by the Central London Humanist Group. I've also included some links below to related articles on the theme of 'believing in God in post/modernity' which I have written in the last 18 months or so. There are overlaps, of course. But hopefully they can be viewed as looking at the same tantalising mystery from slightly different angles.

* What difference does God make today?
* Three ways to make sense of one God
* Rescuing God from our attempts at belief
* Which Jesus are we expecting?
* The God elusion
* Theology, science and the problem of ID
* Facing up to fundamentalism
* Turning God into a disaster area
* Re-thinking Christianity
* Why we need to rid ourselves of 'the god of the slots'
* Resurrection is no Easter conjuring trick
* Coming under liberating judgement

2009-02-04T01:38:00.002Z

CORPORATE CULTURE

"[We need] to embrace a "new bottom line" in which corporations, social practices, government policies and individual behaviours are judged rational, efficient or productive not only if they maximize money or power, but also to the extent that they maximize love and caring, kindness and generosity, ethical and ecological sensitivity, enhance our capacity to treat others as embodiments of the sacred and to respond with awe, wonder, and radical amazement at the grandeur of the universe." - Rabbi Michael Lerner

2009-02-02T19:24:00.004Z

CONVICTIONS NOT TAKEN ON TRUST

Oh dear. It's not hard to imagine the depressing forward trajectory of the story that broke this morning about a nurse in Somerset who was suspended on a disciplinary charge after she offered to pray for somebody she was caring for who took exception and reported her. The context was a publicly-funded nursing role. I've tried to respond on behalf of Ekklesia by calling for a non-confrontational approach to resolving this, and trying to look at the wider changes which are bringing about more of these situations. My media comment was:

"One hopes that an issue like this might be resolved in the joint interests of patients, carers, institution and staff without turning it into a huge legal and political issue. But this incident clearly illustrates the 'culture clash' that can emerge in our public institutions as the Christian faith loses its predominance within a society that has previously been shaped by its story.

"With the demise of Christendom, people who do not believe in a particular way often find the presumption that they should or might do so troublesome. On the other hand, Christians who have been used to different implicit 'ground rules' feel that their identity is being eroded by the requirement to maintain a clearer boundary between what they might do in a voluntary capacity (including praying for people), and the culture of restraint being developed in publicly-funded bodies where people of no faith and other faith may see things very differently.

"This is something that needs much more debate and constructive discussion. There is a tendency for disputes of this kind fairly rapidly to descend into confrontation. One can almost predict that some campaigners will try to turn this into another case of 'Christians being persecuted', while others will say it is about 'Christians trying to force their beliefs on people at the taxpayers' expense'.

"That kind of row gets nowhere. Instead we need to look at adjusting to change and redefining roles."

2009-02-01T04:23:00.003Z

CONTRASTING CHURCH ATTITUDES TO HUMAN RIGHTS

Savi Hensman has produced another very useful research essay for Ekklesia on different church attititudes and stances towards human rights for all. Since 1948 Christians have played a significant role in extending personal and societal respect for human dignity, including promotion of the UN Declaration. At the same time, church leaders have also questioned and denied rights-based precepts and practices in a number of instances. In this paper, Savi traces these discontinuities while pointing to the substantial traditional theological and spiritual resources that can be deployed in producing and developing shared commitments to freedom and justice.

The publication of this document coincides with the Primates of the Anglican Communion meeting in Egypt from 1-4 February 2009, the upcoming Church of England General Synod discussion on the Human Rights Act, the Convention on Modern Liberty in the UK, and recent comments on human rights from the Vatican, from Evangelicals and from the new Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Kyrill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad.

See also from the same author:
* Being on the side of the crucified
* Developing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
* Human rights are not just for individuals
* The Christ child, the vulnerable and human rights
* Tradition, change and the new Anglicanism
* Prayerfully seeking justice and mercy

2009-01-31T23:17:00.002Z

Click here.

2009-01-27T02:33:00.001Z

HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY 2009

2009-01-26T02:14:00.000Z

THE DEC GAZA APPEAL

2009-01-20T12:03:00.003Z

BISHOP GENE ROBINSON'S INVOCATION

It didn't make it to live television, but Bishop Gene Robinson's powerful invocation on Sunday has been put up on YouTube by the evangelical magazine Christianity Today - to its credit, since many of its readers probably do not share its strong convictions (full text here). It appears to be a 'home video'. Some of the comments underneath are abusive and unpleasant, you should be warned.

2009-01-17T11:09:00.003Z

ON THE TELLY

If you are in Britain and near a television on Sunday 18 January you can catch my Ekklesia co-director Jonathan Bartley on BBC1's Big Questions at 10.00am discussing, among other things the inauguration of Barack Obama, and on Michael Portillo's Christianity: A History on Channel 4 at 7.00pm, looking at the impact of Constantine. To support Ekklesia's work with the media you can donate through PayPal here, by the way.

2009-01-13T11:40:00.003Z

GIVING PEACE A HEARING

A leading advocate of practical non-violence begins a two-week, 20 meeting tour of Britain from Friday 16 January through to 1 February 2009, offering case studies of achieving peace without guns in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Gene Stoltzfus, US founder and director emeritus of the Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), will be on tour in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland to share his field experience in global peacemaking.

The visit is organised by Christian Peacemakers Teams UK and is backed by the religion and society think-tank Ekklesia. CPT came to global prominence in 2006 during the Iraq hostage crisis. More information here and here.

2009-01-06T13:09:00.003Z

EYELESS IN GAZA

I have now listened to many, many media interviews about the Gaza tragedy in which dropping bombs, sending in tanks (Israel) or launching rockets (Hamas) has been justified "as a legitimate response" to "what the other side is doing". On some occasions the "eye for an eye" aphorism has been directly used - or, rather, abused. One should not forget the key questions about occupation, dispossession and disproportion, of course. The futile politics of what is going on is frightening - and rather well summarised by Peter Beaumont. But the issues of the destructiveness inherent in endemic revenge go deep into the human psyche and point us toward a root sickness. This is an issue I have tackled in a short Ekklesia piece, On not being left eyeless in Gaza. It also provides an opportunity to begin to plug the forthcoming Gene Stolzfus visit.

2009-01-01T00:44:00.002Z

STARTING OUT AGAIN

It may be hard to feel a great sense of natural optimism about 2009 given the war in Gaza, the global economic crunch, environmental degradation and much more. But... we can still celebrate human community and possibility, wage peace, and resolve to encourage and transform. New Year greetings to one and all, with the assistance of the fireworks from central London!

2008-12-26T11:41:00.000Z

NOT BY MIGHT

A short Christmastide reflection on the God who defies our expectations of 'godness' in the vulnerability of the Christ child.

2008-12-24T14:45:00.003Z

A DIFFERENT REGIME

A very happy Christmas to one and all. I hope I'll be able to get up to speed with FaithInSociety by the New Year. In the meantime, here's an Advent/Christmastide reflection ('Which Jesus are we expecting?') and an excerpt from a poem...

"In the days of Caesar, when his subjects went to be reckoned,
there was a poem made, too dark for him (naive with power) to read.
It was a bunch of shepherds who discovered
in Bethlehem of Judah, the great music beyond reason and reckoning:
shepherds, the sort of folk who leave the ninety-nine behind
so as to bring the stray back home, they heard it clear..."

From 'In the Days of Caesar', The Poems of Rowan Williams (The Perpetua Press, Oxford, 2002)

2008-11-28T16:05:00.002Z

THE DIFFICULTY OF ADVENT

“We’ve lost the ability to hold our breath. Everything is instantly available, regardless of longer-term costs, and the damage we do to ourselves and our planet is immense. So we get into debt, we produce more emissions and become unhappy if we are not immediately gratified.” - Ann Pettifor

2008-11-27T10:52:00.002Z

WHAT LIES BEHIND THE MUMBAI TRAGEDY?

The carnage in Bombay (officially known as Mumbai), in which gunmen have killed over a hundred people, injured many more and taken hostages, has shocked the world. It has thrown a spotlight on religious extremism of various kinds. Savitri Hensman has written a very useful piece looking behind the headlines and asking deeper questions about who and what might be 'responsible' for this carnage.

2008-11-24T20:07:00.002Z

INVESTING IN HOPE

Oikocredit shows that microfinance, fairer finance and small scale investment in impoverished communities and ground-up creativity can make a difference way beyond its size on paper. More so when big capital is turning sour.

2008-11-24T18:10:00.002Z

WELCOME TO THE CULTURE CLUB

My column in this month's Third Way magazine (Political capital out of culture spats?) heads for the weird and makes-you-wonder way politicians get caught up in public moral panics about celebs, when they're not trying to bask in the reflected glory of Barack Obama. There's a theological twist at the end. And a work-in for John Sargeant and 'Strictly Come Dancing'. What more could you want on a dark winter's evening? Russell Brand Live, maybe...?

2008-11-21T09:51:00.001Z

DETACHMENT AND AFFECTION

“We do not detach ourselves from things in order to attach ourselves to God, but rather we become detached from ourselves in order to see and use all things in and for God.” – Thomas Merton (Catholic religious and mystic)

“The lack of a caring community that incarnates the Word makes us more and more incapable of being heard.” – Melba Maggay (Filipina evangelical theologian)

2008-11-20T17:07:00.003Z

MIGRATING FROM REALITY

I've been involved in the mini-debate provoked by Phil Woolas' inept comments about asylum, the law and the work of charities and human rights organisations. Ekklesia's response was 'Immigration Minister has wrong target on asylum'. My other press comments are collated here. That a Minister of the Crown should make it publicly plain that he will not accept the verdict of the law in this area is quite stunning. These days there are often calls for resignations when politicians make gaffes. Mostly they are driven by partisan advantage. That there are no such calls in this instance is a significant commentary on warped priorities and the depressing consensus between government and main opposition that exists around this issue. The statement by the Free Churches moves in the right direction, and at least one senior Anglican figure has been working very well behind the scenes in relation to those seeking refuge from Zimbabwe. I also wrote about 'Migration's real meaning' for Guardian CIF some time back. Caroline Slocock of the Refugee Legal Centre has made an excellent response to Woolas here.

2008-11-18T11:55:00.003Z

CREDIT WHERE IT IS DUE?

The New Statesman asked me to write something about faith and economy in the context of the present situation. I penned The Church in the crunch, published today... Following huge losses during the financial crisis, can the Church of England and other churches return to the Christian principles and practices of using material wealth for the common good, and especially in favour of the most vulnerable? (Yes it can, to coin a phrase. Whether it and we are willing for the tough decisions and actions involved is another matter.)

2008-11-17T01:18:00.003Z

A MATTER OF JUDGEMENT

I prefaced my remarks in this sermon at St Stephen's, Exeter (Coming under liberating judgement) yesterday with the observation that, in addition to not working with animals and children, you shouldn't give 'texts of terror' to visiting preachers, lest they try a "hit and run" sermon. I don't think that's what this is, and I'm not a visitor - though I'm much less regular at the Central Parish of Exeter than I would like, due in large measure to the strange kind of geographical limbo created by existing between Devon, Birmingham, London and various other places... most notably Manchester, for the World Christian Student Federation Europe region theology conference on faith and pluralism, this week. [Icon of the Last Judgement provided by ΕΚΔΟΣΗ και ΕΠΙΣΚΟΠΟΥ , ΓΑΛΑΚΤΙΩΝΟΣ ΓΚΑΜΙΛΗ ΤΗΛ. 4971 882, ΕΚΤΥΠΟΣΗ Μ. ΤΟΥΜΠΗΣ Α.Ε.]

2008-11-14T19:05:00.000Z

LEST CONFUSION REIGNS

"If the love within your mind is lost, if you continue to see other beings as enemies, then no matter how much knowledge or education you have, no matter how much material progress is made, only suffering and confusion will ensue." - the Dalai Lama.

2008-11-11T13:56:00.003Z

REMEMBERING... HOPEFULLY

Today is Remembrance Day. But what is ‘remembering’ in human and Christian terms? How can we probe beneath the emotion and ceremony associated with this poignant public occasion in order to discover (and practice) something life-affirming as we recall the tragedy of war? This article has been excerpted and adapted from a considerably longer chapter ('Remembrance as radical anticipation') in my forthcoming book, Threatened With Resurrection: The difficult peace of Christ, which will be published in December 2008. A day seminar on its themes is due to be held on 26 November 2008 at the London Mennonite Centre. Meanwhile, my colleague Jonathan is taking some stick after the BBC reported his own article as an "attack" on the churches. Rather than as a suggestion that they might expand, revise and develop their practice in terms of a fuller memory and a more concertedly Christian practice. Some of the emails we are getting are not pretty, but they kind of illustrate the point we are trying to make. (Actually, Ekklesia hadn't done anything to publicise this, other than some very low-key blogging, but since the 2006 furore it seems we are now on the 'events' calendar as the source of a nice media bust up. [image courtesy and (c) of Taringa]

2008-11-10T19:05:00.002Z

TAKING THE POSITIVES

On his own blog, Jonathan Bartley reflects positively on recent Remembrance developments. He is due to be in discussion with the Anglican Bishop of Manchester, Nigel McCulloch, chaplain to the British Legion, at 08.45am on the BBC R4 'Today' programme tomorrow, by the way. Also worth watching tonight will be Channel Four's documentary on conscientious objection in World War one, presented by Private Eye editor Ian Hislop.

2008-11-10T11:31:00.003Z

REMEMBERING DIFFERENTLY

Unless the agenda changes (and it can) my colleague Jonathan Bartley will be on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme tomorrow morning, discussing how the relationship between church and state impacts on war remembrance. He also has a piece on Ekklesia (The default politics of Remembrance), and one coming up on Guardian Comment-is-Free. My forthcoming book, Threatened with Resurrection: The difficult peace of Christ, has a chapter called 'Remembrance as radical anticipation', which looks at the decisive theological character of re-membering, specifically in terms of Eucharist and our memory of the execution of Jesus and his vindication beyond violence. There is an accompanying seminar on 26 November at the London Mennonite Centre. The problem we need to address is that of partial remembering, fuelled by an often unacknowledged ideology of war as salvific.

On Saturday the Telegraph got a pre-emptive strike in, with an editorial which condemned us - for what we are not saying. Back in 2006 both the Times and the Express reported (wholly inaccurately, and in defiance of very clear statements to the contrary) that Ekklesia was wanting to scrap red poppies. In fact, we were (and are) calling for churches to enlarge remembrance symbolism to include white poppies alongside red ones, so that it is possible to honour the search for non-military means of addressing conflict alongside honouring those who have died as a result of war. Corrections were refused, as were letters from a number of people pointing out the 'mistakes'.

When your cause has to be defended by insistent falsehood, surely something has gone wrong? But this just goes to show what a difficult issue war remembrance is, and how rationality plays second fiddle to emotivism in any attempt to address it in a way that is seen as falling outside an acceptable consensus.

2008-11-07T16:17:00.002Z

SCARIFYING AND SANCTIFYING OBAMA

Of all the media blather I've read (and contributed to) over the past few days, this article by an African-American priest in the USA is most interesting, in many respects. From an excellent Jesuit e-zine. Some years ago I was briefly on the staff in the Institute of Spirituality at Heythrop College, University of London, so I'm biassed, of course...

2008-11-07T05:32:00.005Z

DIVERSE CONFERRING ABOUT RELIGION

On Monday 10th November I will be taking part in a conference on equality, human rights, religion and belief in London. This is an area where new and creative thought is much needed, especially from the institutional churches. They have been far too defensive and negative.

I won't be involved in the HealthServe HIV-AIDS gathering on 1 December 2008, though I know a few people who will and wish it well. I cringe somewhat at the title 'Christians leading the way', however, which seems crass and insensitive given the ambiguous reality. Bold humility would be more helpful, perhaps.

Meanwhile, Teachers' TV has done a survey which purports to demonstrate that many science teachers are unhappy with government guidelines on the teaching of creationism, namely that they shouldn't. What it seems to show, however, is that if you conduct a self-selecting survey and ask imprecise questions you will most likely get an unreliable picture, which nevertheless will get into the papers because people like a good row about something they haven't quite grasped. Oh dear. Must try harder.

The week after next, incidentally, I'm talking about the changing demography of faith at a theology conference in Manchester and Sheffield organised by the Europe Region of the World Student Christian Federation. Then I'm speaking alongside Professor Bernard Crick and others about "Living with difference" at a Sea of Faith event in London (22 November). I'm also preaching twice in the Parish of Central Exeter (St Stephen's and St Mary Arches) and doing a day seminar around the themes from my upcoming book, Threatened with Resurrection, at the London Mennonite Centre (26 November).

In early '09 I'm conversing with humanist groups in Durham and London and some progressive evangelicals in the Midlands, then doing a Lent talk on the Gospel and money in Birmingham. All go. But it's an honour to be involved in such wide-ranging exchanges. [Image courtesy of the International Society for Science & Religion]

2008-11-06T20:51:00.004Z

BEING IN THE BOX, BUT NOT OF IT

The exuberant optimism and idealism I expected. The world-weary cynicism, too. But the advent of Barack Obama raises interesting questions about the nature of hope (as distinct from wishful thinking), not least for Christians. The prevailing Christendom mindset seems to me, simultaneously, to invest far too much in "the powers that be" (and the 'new guard') while displaying thinly veiled scorn for the possibilities of change arising from what seems vulnerable and the unexpected (if one does not see the divine potency in it). This is primarily because we Christians do not believe in the Gospel, or we have turned it into self-serving ideology, or we have split its principle concerns off from arenas like politics and economics, or we have projected it all into a conveniently abstract future.

The alternative is to let practice reshape our theory. To re-invest ourselves in the difficult work of peacemaking, sharing resources, extending hospitality, deploying forgiveness, acting for justice, truth-telling... and many other concrete actions which can then enable us to see and develop a different polity, as well as to recognise the source of our (and the church's and the world's) potential transformation in learning to "live beyond our means". This is what Archbishop Oscar Romero spoke of in what remains my favourite prayer-poem.

All that said, it would be as dangerous to underestimate what Obama may open up for us as it would be to believe that a new dawn will be birthed in the White House, rather than some grubby stable.

2008-11-05T19:29:00.002Z

SOMETHING UNUTTERABLY GOOD

"Occasionally in life there are those moments of unutterable fulfillment which cannot be completely explained by those symbols called words. Their meanings can only be articulated by the inaudible language of the heart." - Martin Luther King Jr., Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech, 11 December 1964. (Thanks to Sojourners)

2008-11-05T19:22:00.003Z

THE CONTINUING CHALLENGE

"We campaign with poetry, but we govern in prose." - Mario Cuomo

"Bad news is news, good news is advertising" - an old, cynical adage from which news editors are far from immune

But even so, the dream persists in seeking to take shape.

"I see myself standing at the cusp of something wonderful." - Jim Gabour, film director and writer, from in New Orleans. See his article 'Living the American movie' on OpenDemocracy.

2008-11-05T15:14:00.003Z

COMMENTATO ERGO SUM

"I comment, therefore I am". Well, Descartes may have got it wrong in trying to resolve existence and identity in the autonomous subject rather than persons-in-relation, but it is our culture (of which I am a clearly culpable part) that is in danger of reducing everything to commentary. Then again, communication is of the essence of humanity and change. Oh, I don't know. Maybe I should go for a walk and have another cup of tea, not necessarily in that order...

2008-11-05T13:42:00.004Z

A NEW DAWN? OR A NEW POSSIBILITY?

Well, yes and no to the former. Here are some astute immediate comments from the Amnesty International blog on human rights and Obama. There is also a broader mobilisation occurring. A number of them, in fact. My friend Michael Marten, who is a Middle East expert, is preparing some reflections on the new US presidency and the Palestine-Israel situation. I am mulling the theology of change, and how the mechanisms we place our hopes in are not always the ones that bear the kinds of truths and realities we seek. This is not a moment for pouring cold water, but nor is it one for facile optimism. The space available for leaders within established orders to change is very small, in reality. But small shifts can be significant, not least for those at the margins. Plus they signal the possibilities of a wider set of changes in hearts and in the fabric of our polis and economia which we need to act on rather than just talk about. He says. The real question is always, "who and what are we putting our trust in - and why?" Not principalities and powers at the end of the day, though they can work for good as well as ill. [There are further initial ponderings here]

Meanwhile, an American friend of mine, a peace worker, has just written to say: "Before, we said 'yes we can.' Yesterday, we cried 'yes we did.' Today, it's 'now we will.' The work continues."

2008-11-05T06:07:00.000Z

IT'S THE IRISH LAD WOT WON IT

2008-11-05T05:10:00.001Z

WISE WORDS

"This victory is not the change we seek, it is only the chance to make that change" - Barack Obama, upon becoming US president-elect.

2008-11-05T04:35:00.002Z

OBAMA WINS THE US PRESIDENCY

Senator Barack Obama is making his victory speech at just after midnight Washington DC time, after winning the presidency of the USA in dramatic fashion tonight. Whatever the challenges that lie ahead, including the enormous constraints built into the political and economic system he will inherit, it is hard not to be moved by this immense sea-change, especially for millions of African-Americans. Expectations among Obama's supporters in the US and across the world are inevitably very high. His majority in the popular vote will likely be around 53 per cent, alongside a large victory in the electoral college (some 370+) and major gains for Democrats in the Senate. This is a significant mandate. But a huge number of people also voted against Obama, indicating that historic divisions of opinion continue, and crucial swing voters remain more pragmatic than idealistic. President Bush has been decisively rejected, but by those with different views about what needs to happen instead. In the longer run, what has not changed in the US may prove as significant as what has changed. But tonight the possibility of "making a difference" nationally and globally is rightly at the centre of our attention. As a voice from Chicago commented on the BBC: "[Obama] appeals to the world, we have to start thinking in different ways."

2008-11-04T21:29:00.005Z

MOMENTS OF DECISION

It's an event that's all over the web and crawling out of every conceivable televisual orifice, but if anyone wants to follow the BBC's live text feed on the US election throughout the night, here it is. A less reverent affair is the live blog on Liberal Conspiracy. Or if you just want a single headline result and can't bear the agony of detail, try this. (I've been live-tweeting in a light vein.)

2008-11-04T08:59:00.003Z

A TURNING POINT FOR AMERICA?

As I write, some 29 million people in 30 states have already voted in the US elections, with a record turnout anticipated and the polls still predicting a win for Barack Obama. When he was about to be chosen as the Democratic candidate, I was sceptical as to whether he had the experience to take on McCain. The campaign has proved otherwise. I shall be very happy to be proved wrong at the ballot box. Though I remain less convinced than many that a win for Obama will bring the sweeping change many hope for, it will certainly revamp the general 'mood music' of American and global politics, and open up positive vistas and pressure points which have not existed in recent years. At one level this can only be good, though the reaction of others can never be predicted. Nevertheless, we shouldn't kid ourselves. In a modern, money-driven, corporate-led, technocratic age, there is a sense in which the old anarchist slogan remains true: "It doesn't matter who you vote for, the government always gets in." The former premise is not validated by the latter, however. It matters. If it provides an inch for people to live in when they might otherwise perish, it matters. Only those who have the luxury of retreating to their armchair are privileged to think otherwise and adopt a feigned neutrality or a hip cynicism. Go, Barack. And go those who at the grassroots who will be there to hold him to at least some of his practical ideals.

2008-11-03T10:03:00.003Z

CHURCH BUILDINGS IN THE COMMUNITY

The government has been commenting on alternative community use of church (mainly Anglican) buildings declared redundant. The issue is complex and often over-simplified. I have made a brief comment on behalf of Ekklesia. The Telegraph's report said that "Andy Burnham, the Culture Secretary, has suggested churches with low attendance could be turned into gyms, restaurants and multi-faith centres." This fascinating construction equates churches primarily with buildings (rather than people, prayer and purpose) and reduces the issue to attendance. But the question of use and sustainability is larger than congregational size, as is the question of what kind of buildings and what kind of arrangements for space are needed in post-Christendom. The real conversation has only just begun. And its current assumptions are ill-fitting to the reality.

2008-10-28T00:00:00.000Z

ONE AND ALL

"The good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our common life." - Jane Addams [With thanks to www.sojo.net]

2008-10-27T09:32:00.002Z

LIVING SKILFULLY

“[If] people’s beliefs – secular or religious – make them belligerent, intolerant and unkind about other people’s [beliefs], they are not ‘skilful’. If, however, their convictions impel them to act compassionately and to honour the stranger, then they are good, helpful and sound.” - Karen Armstrong

As it happens, I reached page 392 in Karen's stimulating book The Great Transformation at the same time as someone sent me a link to this. See also 'Empathy in a polarised world'.

2008-10-25T10:15:00.003Z

A FRIEND IN DEEDS

Two days ago I heard the very sad news that United Methodist Church minister and research psychologist Andrew J. Weaver has died in the USA. I never met Andrew, but we were due to get together in person in New York next Spring, having corresponded for nearly two years, on and off. We connected because of his principled campaign, alongside others, to try to stop the historic Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Texas from dedicating a George W. Bush library and research centre. He became a good friend of Ekklesia and wrote for us on a number of occasions. We subsequently discovered, perhaps unsurprisingly, that we had a number of friends in common, including John Lee in the Church of England and the late, great religion writer and Christian feminist, Monica Furlong. Andrew was a colourful and committed character, by all accounts, and left an abiding footprint for the Gospel of justice and peace in troubled times. It would have been wonderful to lunch with him at the Met. He will be in my heart and memory when I travel to the Big Apple in March '09, by God's grace. I believe I have at least one article from Andrew in my Ekklesia 'pending' folder. May he rest in peace and rise in glory.

2008-10-24T13:59:00.001Z

EVERYDAY REVOLUTIONS

"There is no justice we don't make daily like bread and love." - Marge Piercy, from the poem The Ram's Horn Sounding.

"The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope." - Barbara Kingsolver, novelist.

2008-10-23T09:01:00.002Z

FOR ONE NIGHT ONLY

Living in a Multi-conviction Society: Conversion, Conversation & Co-existence, with Simon Barrow - St Ethelburga's Centre for Reconciliation and Peace, 6.30 - 8.30pm, Thursday 23 October 2008, 78 Bishopsgate, London EC2N 4AG. Entry free. All welcome.

That's "conviction" as in "belief", by the way. It's not about the different number of prison sentencing options available!

2008-10-23T00:01:00.000Z

BACK ON THE BUSES

There have been some good blogosphere comments on the 'atheist bus campaign'. I have highlighted some in Cold water, buses and shared humanity. Among others I have discovered since, referring to my Guardian article, are a supportive one from a doctoral student in Manchester, and a constructively critical one from Iain Clark ('Storm in a Teacup'). I think Iain has misunderstood a couple of my points - and certainly the underlying point about rationality and God-talk. But that may well be my fault, not his. I hope to respond shortly.

2008-10-22T09:02:00.003Z

POLITICIANS 'DOING GOD'?

Earlier this month, I wrote a piece for the Baptist Times about some recent research into references to religion, faith and God occurring in the conference platform speeches of major British politicians. A version of this has now been published on Ekklesia as Beware politicians and God-talk. The history of distorted speech in the two-way mirror that is religious and political power-broking has a long and inglorious history; one which is regularly recapitulated across the Atlantic, I fear. But before we cheer or boo politicians talking about faith, let's look at the content.

"At its core the Gospel is about God’s suffering servant opening the door to a new kind of life not circumscribed by ‘the powers that be’. It involves speaking and acting act for personal and social transformation in ways that may prove deeply uncomfortable to both political and religious elites [...] Significantly, none of the political speeches Theos surveyed mentioned Jesus’ disruption of the status quo, and few sermons do either. But what if faith is not a flag to be waved? What if it is a call to conversion – starting with us?"

My colleague and friend is in action about this tonight, by the way: "God bless America? Should Politicians 'Do God'?", with Jonathan Bartley - at the crypt, St James Clerkenwell from 7pm, Weds 22 October 2008, Clerkenwell Close, London, EC1R 0EA.

Also, a reminder for: "Conversion, Conversation & Co-existence: Living in a Multi-conviction Society", with Simon Barrow - St Ethelburga's Centre for Reconciliation and Peace, 6.30 – 8.30pm, Thursday 23 October 2008, 78 Bishopsgate, London EC2N 4AG.

2008-10-22T00:01:00.001Z

A JOURNAL OF DISCOVERY

"How do I know what I think until I see what I say?" - Saunders Lewis.

Thanks to Sze Zeng (Singapore) for that quotation. He also said some kindly positive things about the work I've been involved with on post-crunch economics. The Lewis quotation rings very true with me, though more so in the arena of the written word, where I probably feel most at home. (Well, OK, I can talk for Britain, too ... but radio and TV soundbites are not me, because I like to unpack ideas with others rather than flash them and instantly move on.)

I recall also a delightfully honest (and typically convoluted, but illuminative) quotation from David E. Jenkins, I think from his very fine 1967 Christology book, The Glory of Man (SCM Press), where he says something to the effect of, "I'm not at all sure that I know what it is that I think I am trying to say about this, even as I reflect on writing it." And then there is autodidact lyricist Jon Anderson's injunction: "Look in the light of what you're searching for", which contains the idea that the object of our attention may effect our way of seeing. This is true not just in physics, I find.

2008-10-21T19:32:00.003Z

BUS TO NOWHERE?

The immediate fundraising hit of the 'atheist bus' is more evidence of the changing nature of our multi-conviction society, and the challenges this poses to all of us - and to a form of Christian witness which is about love that embraces and challenges suffering (in the spirit of Jesus), rather than imposing itself as yet another power ideology in a competing 'supermarket' of beliefs (in the pattern of church-of-power Christendom).