[331.1] TAKING TIME TO THINK AGAIN

"Learning to tell the truth takes time, attentiveness, and patience. Good learning calls no less than teaching does, for courtesy, respect, a kind of reverence; reverence for facts and people, evidence and argument, for climates of speech and patterns of behaviour different from our own. There are, I think, affinities between the courtesy, the attentiveness, required for friendship; the passionate disinterestedness without which no good scholarly or scientific work is done; and the contemplativity which strains, without credulity, to listen for the voice of God - who speaks the Word (s)he is, but does not shout." Nicholas Lash.

['Cacophany and Conversation', from The 2002 Prideaux Lectures delivered at Exeter University]

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[337.1] WATCHING TRUTH DECAY?

Yesterday's exchanges between Tony Blair and David Cameron in the House of Commons ('Question Time') were highly entertaining. Pure theatre, indeed. Cameron, mercifully blessed with a PR talent that has so far enabled him to avoid spelling out what the supposedly nicer Tories would actually do, laid into the government's shambolic presentation issues. And he actually managed to get an obviously rattled PM to admit, entirely inadvertently, that there are cuts ("er... changes") going on in local health services. Mr Blair, meanwhile, rehearsed his usual litany of statistics to prove that New Labour was spending more and transforming wider than any government in history. All great puppeteering fun. But let's not forget that when it comes to basic orientation (managing global capital, the war on terror, marketising society, preaching green and acting lean) these two stand shoulder to shoulder. And while investment in health and public services has increased, and the situation is neither as apocalyptically bad nor as gleamingly good in the NHS as either suggest, there are real causes for concern. Moreover, it is difficult to feel that the system is safe in either's hands when spin and point scoring seem to win out so regularly over the hard graft of politics. This is a side show on a perilously squeezed centre-ground that remains in danger of bypassing the real issues.

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[06.54 GMT] The veils governing our own thinking Oct 11, 2006 - Simon Barrow says bridges not barriers will help relations with Muslims. (A revised version of my earlier extended comment piece on the Jack Straw hijab saga.)

[10.04 GMT] As the Anglican row about sexuality rumbles on, and 'global south' primates seek a division of the Communion predicated on what they perceive to be their own unassailable rightness, other voices are making themselves heard -- rightly challenging the idea that there is a monopoly of tradition and exegetical wisdom in this group. The best known critics are from Africa -- including ex-Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and his successor in Cape Town. Nick Holtam, rector of St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, has also written this very good open letter on the theological and ecclesial issues. Hat tip to Thinking Anglicans.

[336.1] I'M AFRAID IT'S NOT ALRIGHT, JACK

Good governance needs bridges not barriers in relating to Muslims
Many people will no doubt argue that Commons leader Jack Straw has been brave and comparatively sensitive in raising the question about whether the full veiling of Muslim women is an impediment to positive community relations in plural Britain. But irrespective of the view one takes about the specific issue of coverings (and it is a very complex one), Mr Straw’s approach reveals, yet again, a subterranean negativity in its relations with diverse Muslim communities. What is being promoted is the policing of boundaries, rather than the positive building of bridges. In considering the purpose and impact of Mr Straw’s remarks, and in highlighting constructive alternatives to the government’s ‘boundary control’ strategy, it is important to see them as part of a wider pattern. Continued.


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[335.1] THE TROUBADOUR OF GOODNESS

A poem by Georgene L. Wilson

It took an indulgence of insights
And a mess of memorable moments
To grind the life-lens
That granted gazing wisdom
To Francis of Assisi's deep heart.
Once he perceived the epiphany of
"All is God"
He became the perfect mirror image of
"All is Good":
Grace grown glowing in simple grandeur!Francis disrobed himself of
Fame, fortune, and facade.
He donned habits of
'No-holding' yet All Embracing'.
He sang blessings on the creature and the Creator.
Self-empting was filled with the trusting abundance of Holy Poverty.
Perfect joy issued celebrative chants of Goodness.
Pardon and forgiveness bore the fruit of reconciling Peace.
Still now he is missioned:
To shine as light in darkness,
To breathe hope in despair,
To fathom freedom in fear, and
To channel unity in diversity
Through you and me,
As instruments of peace and goodness.
This way of seeing life is deep love:
Incarnating grace,
Engaging compassion, and
Dialoging harmony,
Is a simple spiritual practice.
Bless with beauty, truth and goodness!
Offer a heart of praise and affirmation.

Georgene L. Wilson is a Wheaton Franciscan Sister. She is poetry editor of Interreligious Insight (found in IRI V2 N3 July 2004). The (c) of 'Francis: Troubador of Goodness' is the writer's. Its insights are gifted to us all. I share it in that spirit. Many thanks indeed to Peter Challen for passing it on to me and to others.

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[20.42 GMT] TRAGICALLY HIP... Ekklesia has acquired a MySpace site, which you can visit at your leisure. The 'age' is an averaging of mine and Jonathan Bartley's.

[334.1] WHY ST FRANCIS SUBVERTS OUR LINEAR LOGIC

Heads up to David W. Critchley of Winslow, Buckinghamshire, for his letter in The Times yesterday, acutely undercutting the lastest version of various simplistic 'clash of civilization' theses. This stuff may sell airport books by the bucketload, but it doesn't help us to get to grips with the actual complexities of the world. Apart from setting up unhelpful self-fulfilling prophecies, that is... Anyway, Mr Critchley writes:

Anthony Gee argues that the world is witnessing a clash between moderates and extremists (letter, 28 September, 2006). Into which category would he place the rich young man of Assisi who took to wearing a beggar’s clothing and kissing the hands of lepers, driven on, according to his contemporaries, “by a very intoxication of the divine love”, St Francis?

Quite. As I often like to say: there are two kinds of people in the world; those who think there are two kinds of people in the world, and those who don't. I count myself in the latter category. (I should note, for those who haven't, that today is the 'saints day' for Francis of Assisi. There is a free online biography courtesy of the Gutenberg Project to be found here.)

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[333.1] A DEFINITE CASE OF SLOW LEARNING

In another fit of establishment condescension, the Church of England has put out an astonishingly disingenuous statement on church schools and their admissions policies. They seem to be counting on a small act of generosity detracting from a larger problem, and as usual will try to dismiss critics as 'bitter secularists'. But this is untrue and unfair. Faith schools have their religious critics too, and there are good theological (as well as sociological and educational) reasons for disliking the current mess.

The Church's stance remains wholly inadequate since it continues to use church-going as a way of assigning publicly-funded school places. This is not only wrong, it is also fundamentally un-Christian in principle, as far as I'm concerned.

The chair of the Church of England Board of Education, the Rt Rev Dr Kenneth Stevenson, Bishop of Portsmouth, has written to Education Secretary Alan Johnson to say that all new Church of England schools should have at least a quarter of admission places available to non-Christians but Parliament should not expect the same commitment from other faith Communities. But the heart of this policy remains discriminatory. It is nonsensical to claim that it promotes social cohesion and inclusivity, when a range of religious schools practice a variety of admissions policies with religious observance as a criterion.

The Church of England's latest announcement is simply a gesture towards social and educational inclusion in the face of an overall policy which is, at heart, designed to privilege church-goers over others in publicly funded schools. It is entirely inappropriate for Christians to seek to give themselves advantages of this kind. Self-interest stands in opposition to what the Christian Gospel is about. A truly "Christian school" would be one that seeks to be open to all and which pays particular attention to the needs of marginalized and poorer communities.

Remarkably, the C of E Board of Education does not even know how many of its schools actually operate discriminatory admissions policies.

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[332.1] BEYOND NATIONALISM AND CENTRALISM

[O]ur thinking about the nature of the European Union can be enriched by the kind of mutually nourishing pluralism [arising from] the theological language of our [Lutheran and Anglican]traditions. The society of states needs just the same balance between supposed autonomy and competing self-interests on the one hand and bureaucratic, rootless centralism on the other as we need in the life of the Church. And if we are to avoid centralising strategies for economic and social justice, we have to foster, as Christians, a vision of society within each state that will realise mutual responsibility and a vision of the community of states that will produce structures of co-operation and consultation, in economic life especially, capable of addressing the crises that no isolated state can cope with – the needs and rights of migrants, the control of the trade in arms, large and small, ecological pressures, the management of disease prevention as a cross-national concern and so on. If we believe in a common hope for humanity and in the possibility and imperative of mutuality in working towards this hope, we as people of faith are bound to be concerned with transnational structures in some degree, not out of utopian convictions about transnational government, but in order to discover how we specifically and concretely take responsibility for all the things that are beyond any definition of national interest alone. (Rowan Williams, from his recent Frieburg Lecture)

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[331.1] ANOTHER PEST IN THE LOCALITY

Dealing with religion can certainly mean entering "the danger zone", one way or another. So the generally fabulous St-Matthew-in-the-City in Auckland, New Zealand, have put up the notice you see before you at their front entrance. Writes vicar Glynn Cardy: "This is our new billboard, put up in conjunction with the annual SPCA service. There is of course a deeper truth here, for the God we preach does not promise security or safety." St Matthew's is in the forefront of transformational Christianity, with an emphasis on peacemaking, inclusion (welcome for all), social justice, community life, and challenging abusive thought and behaviour that uses the name of God to justify itself. It calls itself "a progressive Anglican church with a heart for the city and an eye to the world."

Way to go St M's... though [small aside] I do hate the word 'progressive' (yes, I know, we use it on Ekklesia, too, and I belong to a blogging network with that name). It is meant to indicate openness to engagement with the world, and a questioning of reactionary approaches. Which is good. But, to many, it so easily suggests a dubious attachment to the post-19th century doctrine of 'progress' or to a particular kind of centrist political agenda. Whereas the Gospel is actually about the future God gives us beyond manipulation, and the much more radical impact that can make on our present polity as church and as a community of people engaged in the public square - if we will allow it. 'Transformative' is the alternative word I'm pitching. I'm told it isn't as 'sexy' in communications terms. Too bad, I say. Let's challenge the inherited labels.

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[330.1] SORRY, WHAT'S A NEIGHBOUR EXACTLY?

In the midst of the UK political party conference season's media blandishments, the Guardian's Simon Hoggart can be guaranteed to puncture pomposity and put the spinmeisters back on a wheel of their own making. But the columnist's mockery of Bill Clinton's reference to the African concept of ubuntu (during his recent Labour speech) suggests that he lives a very solitary existence. Or perhaps on another planet. Quoth Hoggart: "It turns out to mean 'I am, because you are.' No, I haven't a clue either. But the speech was a mighty success, certainly compared to Alan Johnson's." Que? The concept of inherent human interdependence is that difficult to grasp for the champagne-drinking commentariat? Or their dictionaries don't do U, only non-U? What is the liberal left coming to... Ah well, someone give the good man a copy of Paul E. Stroble's Reconciliation: The Ubuntu Theology of Desmond Tutu (Pilgrim Press). That'll really confuse him.

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[01.54 GMT] An article on the Department for Education and Skills' statement, and the excellent US Clergy project on religion and science: Government says creationism is off the agenda in UK school science (Ekkklesia).

[329.1] CONFUSING MESSED-UP RELIGION WITH SCIENCE

It has been interesting to see the response to Ekklesia's teaming up with the British Humanist Association on the issue of ensuring that 'creationism' (what I think could fairly be termed a thought disorder within Christian and some Muslim and Jewish thinking) doesn't creep onto the science curriculum in our schools. The galvanising issue is the emergence of a well-funded group (misleadingly) called Truth in Science which has sent 'teaching packs' and DVDs to 5000 heads of science in UK secondary schools. This venture has been well critiqued by geologist and Anglican priest Michael Roberts. The Times Educational Supplement and The Times reported on our letter to the education secretary, Alan Johnson today, and the BBC has also run a story.

Meanwhile, my email inbox is stacking up. On the positive side, there's a letter from the Faraday Institute on Religion and Science in Cambridge, a 'thank-you' from a leading Christian scientist and a note of appreciation from a 'self-confessed secularist'. On the negative side there are abusive missives from people assigning me to the devil, and - this is the most interesting - puzzled letters from ordinary Christians who assume that to argue against 'creationism' (which, let's recall, is about denying 140 years of science in the name of a woefully simplistic misappropriation of ancient texts) is somehow to argue against seeing the world as God's good creation.

That otherwise educated people could be so poorly informed in thinking about God, the world, the Bible and the interaction of faith and science is a truly alarming indictment on the pedagogical failings of our churches. Christians are being ill-equipped to live in the real world, and are being cossetted in the assurance that their convictions need little intellectual effort beyond the reiteration of supposed verities - a viewpoint shared, ironically, by both secular and religious hard-liners.

Of course there's a wealth of good writing on science and theology - but most of it gets circulated among an intellectual elite removed from the pews. It's good to hear that a major science-religion education project may soon get off the ground in the UK, aimed at churches. But one also wonders why scientist-theologians and others seem so absent from the wider media discourse. I'm about to write an Ekklesia column on 'Misconstruing God and the world' - essentially why creationism and its cousin-in-a-lab-coat Intelligent Design are (no matter how gently one tries to put this) non-sense, non-science, non-biblical and theologically defective, basically. In the meantime, this from the coda to today's story:

Ekklesia points to the work of bodies such as the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion (University of Cambridge) and the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences (California) as among the major places where scientists, theologians and philosophers enjoy positive interaction.

A spokesperson for Faraday explained: “We don't prescribe a viewpoint, but we take the opportunity provided by these courses to critique ID and creationism as they come up in discussion. We also think that the education of church leaders is critical in this context, and in fact we have a course especially for them at Wolfson College, Cambridge, from 7-9 November 2006.”

Simon Barrow of Ekklesia commented: “People advocating creationism try to exploit legitimate arguments within science for their own entirely non-scientific ends, and they also mislead believers into thinking that Genesis offers a theory of origins. This is wrong on both counts. When Christian theology speaks of ‘creation’, it means that the whole world process, which we can now explore and understand through science, may be received as gift rather than as something to be manipulated or regarded as valueless.”

Ekklesia says that the job of the churches and of thinking Christians is to explore and develop such questions. “Exposing the falsity of ‘creationism’ and ‘Intelligent Design’ are issues the churches and religious communities should be confronting. But such arguments aren’t for science classrooms, where children are there to learn about findings and questions in the sciences thorough methodological investigation of natural phenomena.”

He continued: “Without doubt, ‘creationism’ is a serious religious problem. In essence, as the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams has said, it’s a category mistake. Genesis wasn’t written to explain how the world comes into being, it was written to contradict other ideas in the Ancient Near East that regarded the world as bad. Also, it has no one ‘literal meaning’. That idea is nonsense. If you read it, you discover it has two main accounts which differ in detail, and several other poetic ways of inviting us to see the world as God's gift. To read it as a modern propositional account about how the universe unfolds is illegitimately to impose (very narrow) modern expectations on an ancient, figurative text."

Concluded the Ekklesia co-director: “In Christian history biblical texts about creation have been understood allegorically. In modern times careful theologians have understood the contingency of the evolutionary process as giving us the freedom to invest it with meaning and value – or not. Human beings are constantly confronted with life or death choices.”

See also: Theologians and scientists welcome Intelligent Design ban; Schools minister says creationism has no place in classroom science; Exam Board rules out creationism in UK classrooms; Vatican astronomer says creationism is superstition; Archbishop of Canterbury criticises teaching of creationism; US churches celebrate 'Evolution Sunday'; Creationists target schools and universities in Britain; Dawkins attacks creationist plans; Faith schools may allow extremists in, say critics; Creationists plan six more schools; Christians to explore values in science and technology; New Christian academy rejects creationism as 'rubbish'.

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[328.1] THE DANGEROUS DESIRE FOR VICTORY

... is spread far and wide today, both among the faiths (many forms of Christianity included) and among the non-religious too. Christendom is about 'winning'. Calls for the Pope's humiliation are about 'winning'. Richard Dawkins' attempt in The God Delusion to traduce all religion (as if it was all the same kind of thing, and with more heat than light) is about 'winning'. Not necessarily about flourishing, enduring, and life-giving - which demand more of us than triumphant rightness. With regard to Islam, Rowan Williams put it well a few years ago (2001, to be precise). His final comment is not, I think, a hidden arrogance - it is saying that, if it means anything, trinitarian language is about endless divine dialogue, which (I'd add) can elude Christians as much as anyone else.

"Islam has a wonderful vision of divine majesty, generosity and glory,and its demand for unreserved loving obedience has great nobility. But it is a faith that cannot readily find room either for the idea that God longs to share his [sic] very life, or for the vision of a God who can only win through defeat. It is not intrinsically a violent faith, but it is one that sets high store by victory. And it is not able to pray to God in God's own 'voice', to say 'Father' in the Spirit of Jesus."

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[19.15 GMT] ON A LIGHTER NOTE...

"To be is to do." -Socrates
"To do is to be." -Sartre
"Do be do be do." -Sinatra

[327.1] WAGING HOPE ON TERROR

This from policy analyst Michael T. Klare, Professor of Peace and World Security Studies at Hampshire College and the author, most recently, of Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Dependence on Imported Petroleum (Owl Books) as well as Resource Wars, The New Landscape of Global Conflict:

"...[S]uccess in the global struggle against terrorist movements can only be achieved by a multilateral effort entailing the vigorous application of police-type investigative methods and a moral campaign designed to invalidate the legitimacy of indiscriminate violence against innocent people. The unilateralist, shoot-first-ask-questions-later approach of the Bush administration has demonstrably undermined such efforts. The upshot is bound to be but more terrorism and a greater risk to American lives. Only by cooperating with other countries on an equitable basis can we diminish this risk.

"A retreat from empire would also force us to use oil more sparingly and this, in turn, would enable us to address another critical threat to American security: the danger of catastrophic environmental damage caused by global climate change. As Hurricane Katrina demonstrated, our shores are highly vulnerable to powerful hurricanes; and higher ocean temperatures, caused by global warming, are producing increasingly violent ones. Global warming is also contributing to the extreme drought and susceptibility to voracious forest fires in many areas of the American West.

"By reducing our petroleum consumption and relying more on ethanol, bio-diesel, wind power, solar, and other domestically-produced, alternative sources of energy - but especially by putting our money into the development of such alternatives rather than to imperial expansion around the globe - we can, in the long run, reduce our exposure to violence abroad and to environmental catastrophe at home." More here.

Some of us will remember Klare from back in the days of the Coalition for a New Foreign and Military Policy.

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[00.47 GMT] Good piece called The death of debate, by Sunny Hundal from Pickled Politics, on the debilitating decline of sensible public discourse on the BBC (and elsewhere).

[326.1] RISK, SECURITY AND THE FOOLISHNESS OF THE CROSS

I am very grateful to Johan Maurer for pointing me in the direction of Emmanuel Charles McCarthy's extraordinary booklet, The Stations of the Cross of Nonviolent Love, now available as a PDF file here. Here is a brief excerpt:

It is easy to find hope, security and a future in the GNP, a national anthem, a football team, military technology, Disneyland, drugs, fashion and alcohol. It is nearly impossible in a capitalist society to find hope in the patient, secret commitment to the omnipotence of Christic love. Such a use of life is incontestable folly by all standards except one—Jesus’ teaching that the cross of nonviolent love is the power and the wisdom and the will of The Source of all Reality.

To those who do not believe in Christ’s cross of nonviolent love, its truth is folly, a scandal, an unrealistic waste of life’s time. To those who believe, it is nails, thorns, spears and suffering for others until the blind can see, until the lame can walk, until the imprisoned are freed, until the hungry are fed, until the oppressed are liberated, until the naked are clothed, until the sick are healed, until the rich are saved, until the homeless are at home, until the unlovable are loved, until all sins are forgiven. The believer in Christ’s nonviolent cross breathes in deeply the sufferings of humanity and breathes out freely his or her happiness in order to spread the healing power of nonviolent love as Divine Yeast in the dough of humanity.

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[10.18 GMT] Here's a cluster of pieces from Ekklesia, relating to my article on the Pope and his Muslim critics. The first two include some additional comments from me. 'Christendom ideology' hampers Christian-Muslim relations, says think tank 22/09/06; Cardinal faces criticism on Turkey-EU issue 22/09/06; Mennonite seeks dialogue on Iranian president’s letter to George Bush 22/09/06; Christians and Muslims meet for religious dialogue in Iran 21/09/06.

[325.1] WHY CHRISTENDOM IS THE POPE'S REAL FALLIBILITY

Amid the acres of comment about Benedict XVI’s remarks concerning Islam in his recent German university speech, very little has been said so far about the core issue – the continuing confusion of Christianity with the dominant assumptions and institutions of Western society.

Instead, while noting obvious historical wrongs, the analytical stress has been on trying to add up the balance sheet of this particular pope’s opinions on questions such as Christian-Muslim relations. The difficulty with this is that it places too much emphasis on an individual (albeit a rather crucial and highly symbolic one), and demonstrates little comprehension of the power nexus out of which that leading individual speaks... Continued.

See also: Redeeming Religion in the Public Square, by Simon Barrow; and Faith and Politics After Christendom: The church as a movement for anarchy, by Jonathan Bartley]

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[21.47 GMT] Jim Wallis of Sojourners has entered the world of blogging with a high-profile space on BeliefNet. Part of the agenda is to enter into dialogue with those on the religious right, as well as promoting the progressive agenda of Call to Renewal. SojoNet is also promoting various new mailings, including a daily digest and the reflective Verse and Voice.

[02.05 GMT] For what it's worth, here (Why Rowan Williams helps stem the drift to idiocracy) is my take on the current argument about the Archbishop of Canterbury's Nederlands Dagblad interview, documented well on Thinking Anglicans.

[14.22 GMT] School student interest in religion raises problem of complusion (Ekklesia, 28/08/06) - including my comments on the situation of Religious Education in schools. Once again, the policy debate is unhelpfully fixed by those who want to push a particular religious or anti-religious line in public education. Or those who confuse the role of educational institutions in a plural society (which is to provide a phenomenological understanding of the belief systems that shape and influence us) with the role of faith communities (which promote formation in, and communication of, specific traditions). We all need some better ways forward.

[12.16 GMT] Liberation after Christendom October 13-15, 2006 - A d-i-y style weekend on subversion, spirituality and struggle. All welcome. Email me for more details.

[12.18 GMT] Life in the political twighlight zone. The UK parliamentary recess is often used to allow policy to go under the radar, as with the current war on terror and Middle East questions. What's more, the notion of 'a break' rarely extends to more than a brief respite in the debilitating round of backbiting politics-as-usual. The recess, whch now runs from July to October, could be developed in a much more radical way, this article argues ... by reflecting on the now-hidden meaning of the Jewish and Christian Sabbath tradition. And by thinking about civic, not just parliamentary, forums.

[11.00 GMT] Snakes on a plane, flies on a plain... a small contribution to what, in Britain, is called 'the silly season' for journalism. Hopefully the long-suffering residents of Wiltshire will not feel too cheaply dealt with.

[324.1] TELLING IT LIKE IT IS

Rowan Williams identifies 'the religious issue' with typical clarity and vigour in a review article in The Tablet, 10 November 2001: “Freud was wrong. The fundamental problem we human beings face is not how to negotiate with the voice and image of the Father, but how to stop ourselves regarding our brothers and sisters as displaced 'fathers'. We have one real Father, the transcendent source of our identity: a father who is not part of the competitive world in which the power of one means the weakness of another. What we must learn is how to live fraternally with human beings. The chief task of human maturing, therefore, is to get beyond ascribing sacred authority to other human beings, with all the rebellion and resentment, the longing to invert existing power relations rather than transform them that this involves, and rediscover the inclusive and hospitably eucharistic love – fraternity, in other words – that allows us to live together without murder. This is precisely what Jesus once and for all makes possible by his teaching, his death and his resurrection. This is the Gospel; this is what the sacraments enact.”

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[05.34 GMT] I may have quoted this before, but it bears repetition - and reminds me that I must go and see the new(ish) movie Silent Voices about the tragedy of El Salvador in the 1980s and the extraordinary resilience of the human spirit. "Even when they call us mad, when they call us subversives and communists and all the epithets they put on us, we know we only preach the subversive witness of the Beatitudes, which have turned everything upside down"— the late Archbishop Oscar Romero

[21.18 GMT] ON LETTING GO... "Our invitation as we go out into the world, is to lay down our fear and love the world. Lay down our sword and shield, and seek out the image of God's beloved in the people we find it hardest to love. Lay down our narrow self-interest, and heal the hurting and fill the hungry and set the prisoners free. Lay down our need for power and control, and bow to the image of God's beloved in the weakest, the poorest, and the most excluded."
Presiding Bishop-elect of the Episcopal Church, USA, Katharine Jefferts Schori

Christian Peacemaker Teams activists face court charge for Israel military aid vigil and protest (Ekklesia).

[323.1] TALKING SENSE ON ASYLUM

Following on from yesterday's post... the "asylum debate" in the UK rumbles on ominously: the latest instalment being new Home Secretary John Reid's hectoring stance towards those (a minority, so it's good to see they have some impact in Daily Mail-land) who believe that many of the assumptions of the "debate" are brutal, ignorant and racist -- which, frankly, they are.

One of the many disturbing features of the news coverage about migration, refugees and asylum in the papers that shape governing opinion on the subject in Britain (the tabloids and the conservative broadsheets) is the extent to which they overlook both global trends and the particular stories and experiences of people at the sharp end.

For the stories behind the news, you need to see publications like CTBI's Asylum Voices (by Andrew Bradstock and Arlington Trotman)... or go to the website of the aforementioned Praxis, the admirable multi-agency centre for displaced people in East London - the location, by history and tradition, of those placed 'outside the gate' by kings and rulers in the capital.

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[322.1] GETTING THE WIDER PICTURE

The London agency Praxis, which is inclusive of people of all faiths and none in its way of working, runs a series of stats and facts on refugees and asylum seekers across the banner on its site. They are very apposite and read as follows:

* 95 per cent of refugees worldwide never reach wealthy nations like Britain.
* Refugee population of Middle East and North Africa – 43 per cent. Sub-Saharan Africa – 22 per cent. South Asia – 18 per cent. And Europe? … 8 per cent.
* Of the 12 million refugees in the world, 7 million have been confined to camps or segregated settlements.
* In 2001, Canada granted protection to 97 per cent of Afghan asylum seekers. Britain granted protection to 19 per cent.
* Under the 1951 United Nations Convention on Refugees, anyone has the right to apply for asylum and remain until a decision has been made.
* There is no such thing as an ‘illegal asylum seeker’.

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[10.47 GMT] Christian think tank says government should stop propping up religion (Ekklesia). Yes, I know that sounds negative. But the sad fact is that if we headlined it "think tank calls for revolution in Christian thought and practice", the secular media would yawn and the religious media would ignore it. Well, they'll probably ignore this, too, but it's worth a go. It is curious that genuine nonconformity is so rare and exotic these days - either that or largely sectarian. OK, let's see what happens next...

[09.53 GMT] Redeeming Religion in the Public Square - a discussion paper on the issue of faith and politics, especially in relation to the campaigning stance of churches and the issue of governance - has finally gone up on the Ekklesia site. This has been a major focus of mt work over the past week or so. A news release will be going out fairly soon. Comment welcome. It follows on, and devlopes some thought beyond, Jonathan Bartley's Faith and Politics After Christendom.

[09.54 GMT] Norman Kember urges the churches to embrace non-violence (Ekklesia, UK). Encouraged by the way that campaigning for his release had brought together peace movements and faith groups, [Kember]called on the Churches to continue to speak up for non-violence. “The churches praise Martin Luther King, but they don’t put what he said into practice,” he reflected.

[08.44 GMT] London launch for controversial faith and politics agenda - tomorrow (13 June, 2006 - 6.30pm at St Mathhew's Church House, Westminster, near the Houses of Parliament. If you want an invitation, please use the email detailed in this Ekklesia story - not the Yahoo one that links from this blog.

[321.1] GOD OUTSIDE OUR CHURCH BOX (OR ANY BOX).

Someone cautioned me the other day about post-Christendom (as distinct from post-Christianity, note) being "a new-fangled concept". I don't think they meant that in a positive sense! Actually, however, the consciousness of an ending of the Christendom era -- the one in which the church sought its identity and security in symbiotic relationship with government and the dominant culture -- is one that has been around for a long time. Consider, for example, the amazing quotation (from 1968) in an essay by David E. Jenkins which is the penultimate paragraph in this post.

Of course my friend was right in his suspicion of the automatic self-sufficiency of "the new", the zeitgeist. Or of "the old", for that matter (though we might not see eye-to-eye on that). In fact we are always tempted, as human beings, to seek refuge is some unattainable future-ness and/or past-ness to give comfort or authority to our struggles in the present. Either that or we give the contingency of the present absolute authority, perhaps thinking that "what we make with our own hands, now" will somehow be sufficient to ensure that we are not deluded. If only.

Constructed nowness as the only viable path is the conviction of many good humanists, who have (rightly) rejected the god of human creation, yet wrongly deduce that this is "all there is to it" and hope that "we have the power in ourselves" to make it all right. If only. The evidence around and before us, when considered without romanticism, is not encouraging, however. Which is why it may be good news that God is not the 'God' we developed through our infancy and continue to project in our adolescence - and is therefore not, in fact, "ruled out" by the rejection of religion or the gods or metaphysics.

For as David Jenkins has also pointed out, the God who we meet in both the promise and perversion of the biblical world is not a prisoner to that world - but challenges it (and us) from within and beyond... subverting (especially) those who thought they had "pinned down" the divine in a text or a dogma. This is the truth the text demonstrates and yields to, at every turn. In fact, therefore, the "real" traditionalist is the person who recognises the dynamic movement and un-fixability of the God who refuses to be our possession or creation. And in the Christian experience, God is known decisively in a fleeting person not an immovable text -- flesh that is vulnerable, killable and abusable... but which we discover, by experience, to be joined to the uncapturable divine life in a way that defies description and reverses the domain of death. (That, not zombie ideology or mere narratology, is what is "meant" by resurrection).

Likewise, this God who is, by definition, ahead of us and all our schemes and ideologies will not, by definition, be captured by our projections and fantasies about the future - especially if they involve our own elevation and quest for domination. The kingdom (or kin-dom) of God's uncontainable love is neither built by us nor established by force against us. It is sheer gift, touched and tasted (but never fully realised) in temporal moments and events where we sense a love and grace beyond all reasoning - but which truly is "the heart of things", in spite of the mess and brokenness of a radically free universe.

This, for me, is why believing in (or in-to) the God who is beyond the world of mere gods is mostly antagonistic to human efforts to capture it as religion. And why it is the only unharnessing way to gain the perspective and gentle persuasion precisely to dis-believe all the claims to power and authority (whether religious, political or secular in guise) which demand to be treated as "absolute truth" or "sole worth".

Atheism is a good stab at this dis-believing business. But it won't do, because it can only reject what we make ourselves, and refuses any possibility of an unconditioned life-giving within what it touches, sees and feels. That's OK for recognising things as things (say), but not much good for receiving them as possibly more than thingness. Because what it kills is not God (who is immune to our attempts at deicide through religion, and other means) but the possibility of that which is beyond our human capacity to define possibility. This is a terrible loss. And it is as unwarranted by "the evidence" as any creation of a god-for-us is.

The alternative to this atheism of overbelief (based on the false idea that we know who and what God is, and are thus able to dispose of 'him') is not abandoning hope or setting up another god in our own image (whatever image that may be). Rather, it is entertaining a subversive hope that comes from the realisation that neither theology nor humanism, neither politics nor economics, can abolish the daily tragedy that blights our joy at being alive. That is, strictly speaking, an impossibility, and therefore the work of what Merlod Westphal calls 'Divine Excess: The God Who Comes After' (in John D. Caputo, The Religious). Phenomenologically, Caputo relates this excess, named in relation to God, to what he terms the axiology of the impossible - something explored further in his new book [of which more anon].

But under the conditions of Christendom, the kind of faith* (trust) that is willing to see people, events and even things as gifts-of-unfathomable-love (and therefore refuses to manipulate or be manipulated by them) is very, very difficult - because Christians have been offered (and have taken) "the kingdom, the power and the glory" for themselves -- in exchange for Jesus' way of freedom which is so threatening to the powers-that-be that it ends in the confrontation of the cross. Or so the Empire would like you to think.

See also blogs on: God is not a convenient commodity; Derrida Among the Theologians, and Derrida, Caputo and the weakness of God.

*Note: 'Faith' is commonly used these days to mean "an antonym of reason". For me it is the embracing of reason as love beyond reasoning. That is why 'trust' is a slightly better rendition.

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[320.1] CHANGING THE 'RELIGIOUS' AGENDA

See: Change faith versus politics standoff, says Christian think tank (Ekklesia, 04/07/06), which is based around the launch of the new book Faith and Politics After Christendom - officially published on Saturday 1 July at Selly Oak in Birmingham, with a conference coordinated by the Anabaptist Network. Speakers included Jonathan Bartley, myself, Stuart Murray and Andrew Bradstock of CSM. Alan Storkey was stuck in the Netherlands, sadly. There is a notice about the book in The Economist already, I'm told. I also did a BBC interview in Scotland and another in West Midlands.

Pleasing that we have avoided London (the imperial capital) so far... though not for long. The next leg of the launch is at the Westminster Forum on 13 July 2006. Less pleasing was the lack of gender balance on the platform n Birmingham - not usually an issue for AN, but something that raises interesting questions about who engages with "this sort of thing", and why. Christendom is, of course, thoroughly patriarchal. The move away from it cannot and should not be... but epochal transitions are rarely uncomplicated or logical.

For more information about ‘post-Christendom’ see Postchristendom.com and After Christendom - The Series. For new perspectives on religion and is relation to politics see God and the Politicians and Subverting the Manifestos on Ekklesia. And, I guess, my own Does Christianity kill or cure? and Keeping the wrong kind of religion out of politics.

Of course, 'faith' and 'religion' are, in reality, inchoate concepts which are used far too broadly to make much sense. Which is part of the reason why media debate about 'religion' is so stuck between warring factions who are not able to question the linear assumptions of their standoff. But that's part of the next wave of the discussion. In the meantime, we will be launching a policy-shift document on 'redeeming religion in the public sphere' as a practical follow up.

Oh, yes... The picture captures the brief appearance of Mark Wallinger's subversively simple Ecce Homo statue in Trafalgar Square. The church it faces (in an askance kind of way) is St Martin's-in-the-Field, a rather good example of transforming part of the Christendom legacy while embodying and emblemising it. The encounter between Jesus, whose sheer humanity takes us to the heart of God-beyond-'gods', and a building whose architectural freezing of divinity has become a service point for humanity, constitutes a visual parable with multiple meanings and no easy 'resolution'. Just as it should be.

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[17.31 GMT] Thanks to Ed Metzler for this: "I arise in the morning torn between the desire to save the world and the desire to savour the world. That makes it very difficult to plan out the day." ~ E.B. White

[00.33 GMT] It's been a long fortnight, and I'm too tired to write very much about the good news of the election by the Episcopal Church USA of the Rt Rev Katharine Jefferts Schori, the Bishop of Nevada, as its next presiding bishop. Forget, for a moment, all the frantic media scribbling about divisions, plots, conservatives and liberals. Here is a person of substance - a scientist married to a mathematican, a thinking Christian, a reconciler, a woman of conviction and prayer. In the short run she is probably destined to be referred to as a 'spoke in the wheel' by those who seemingly cannot accept a Gospel that breaks down the barriers that divide us - at least when it comes to the potent mixture of gender, priesthood and sexuality. In forty or fifty years time we will look back on these arguments in a rather different way, I suspect; though the churches have a long history of struggling to get the point of their calling - mistaking for orthodoxy (a right disposition of praise towards God's freeing of the world, ortho-doxology) a rather leaden institutionalisation of selected elements of the Christian tradition. In truth this has little to do with the labels that get thrown around, or even theology, and much more to do with the uneasy psychology of adapting to a world where Christian people are increasingly vulnerable rather than powerful, in the Way of Christ. To understand this, and to embrace each other and dis/agree without fear, we need guidance. And that requires Spirit-motivated people like Katharine... and, though he increasingly seems a prisoner of a dysfunctional institution, Rowan Williams. It may seem feeble to say 'bless them', but nothing greater could be asked right now. Apart from not forgetting to laugh, too. (I enjoyed penning that one).

[319.1] POLITICAL LIFE AFTER CHRISTENDOM

The long-awaited third book in the 'After-Christendom' series from Paternoster Press is about to be published, and is already receiving vigorous commendations from academics, politicians, journalists and religious leaders. Love it or loathe it (and people will do both), it raises some key issues.

Faith and Politics After Christendom: The Church as a Movement for Anarchy by Ekklesia's co-director (and my good friend and colleague) Jonathan Bartley comes out later this month, and is launched at a conference in Birmingham on July 2006. Addressing diverse issues from blasphemy to religious violence, the Iraq invasion, church schools and the establishment of the Church of England, it invites a realistic and hopeful response to challenges and opportunities awaiting the church in twenty-first century politics.

In particular, the book suggests that where it has previously defended the social order, the church now has a brand new opportunity to exercise its prophetic role, challenging injustice, shaking institutions and undermining some of the central values and norms on which society is built.

"With his background as a former political adviser at Westminster and now director of the Ekklesia thinktank, Jonathan Bartley, one of the smartest young evangelicals around, offers compelling insights and suggestions, based on deep thought and clear-headed research." - Stephen Bates, Religious Affairs Correspondent, The Guardian

That 'evangelical' label is interesting. Ekklesia is also accused of being 'liberal'. It prefers to try to change the terms of the debate and be radical - in the seense of being rooted in order to venture towards the frontiers.

"At a time when the whole relationship between faith, government and public policy is undergoing a historic change in every part of the world, Jonathan Bartley has made a highly intelligent contribution to a debate which citizens of all creeds, and of none, ought to be following" - Bruce Clark, The Economist

"In a ‘post Christian age’, Jonathan Bartley questions the role of institutions both political and ecclesial. He bids us consider what it is to live in a multi cultural , even secular society, where Christianity is stripped of its traditional protections of both establishment and its attendant political authority. This is not so much a book of answers but of pertinent questions. It deserves a wide reading." - Rt Rev Peter Price, Anglican Bishop of Bath and Wells

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[10.56 GMT] Christian think-tank raises radical questions about marriage Ekklesia, 17/06/06. This will certainly test whether the 'post-Christendom' notion is getting through. Difficult stuff to communicate, given dominant assumptions, but worth a try, we think. The fragile fabric of our social order and the messy state of the church makes it an important issue, certainly. Hopefully it will attract serious reflection, not just knee-jerk responses. There's a discussion area on the BBC's story here. And here is the Google News trail on the story.

[12.08 GMT] ... ‘We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.’ George Bernard Shaw

[06.14 GMT] Restoring our faith in free speech (Third Way and Ekklesia, UK). Simon Barrow explains why Christians should shun censorship...more

[01.02 GMT] Contesting the theft of Jesus Todd Huffman says the US is now a nation of two Christianities. No doubt friends in other faith trdaitions can speak of their own experiences of felony...

[318.1] A WORD DEVOID OF FLESH

...is what hits me with deadening force whenever I am within radar of a satellite TV and chance upon the 'God' channels. Celebrity perfume to erase the smell of the soul; or what one might call, to adapt the title of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's best-known book, "the cost of non-discipleship."

Jim Wallis summed it up well, and personally, when he described the impact of his first encounter with Bonhoeffer through his written legacy: "I realized that what I had mostly experienced was an American Christianity without Christ, a religion highly conformed to its culture and mostly uncritical of its nation."

(From the foreword to A Year With Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Daily Meditations from His Letters, Writings, and Sermons, published by HarperSanFrancisco in January 2006.)

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[17.57 GMT] Christian peace worker says al-Zaqari death will not halt violence; Israelis demolish Palestinian buildings, say Christian peacemakers (both Ekklesia, UK)

[317.1] KEMBER SPEAKS ABOUT POST-IRAQ LIFE - EXCLUSIVE

Norman Kember, the 74-year old peace activist whose kidnapping with three colleagues in Baghdad catapulted the work of Christian Peacemaker Teams from obscurity to global media exposure, joined the group’s UK supporters earlier this week to discuss both his experience and the future work of CPT. Dr Kember, a retired radiation physicist and college professor, attended the second day of a British Christian Peacemaker Teams gathering for members and supporters held at the informal Just Church and Soul Space centre in multi-religious Bradford, northern England, from 4-5 June 2006. Exclusive report here.

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[16.58 GMT] Loney feels terror suspects being unfairly judged (CTV.ca, Canada}; Former Iraq hostage to join protest march (CTV.ca, Canada); Ex-captive blasts security measure (Toronto Sun, Canada); Ex-captive joins rally (Ottawa Sun, Canada); Kidnapping had 'moments of kindness': Loney (CBC.ca, Canada); Former Iraq hostage joins protest for detainees (Guelph Mercury, Canada); Ex-hostage aids protest against detainee system (London Free Press, Canada).

[10.22 GMT] UK Christian Peacemaker Teams meet to plan future (Ekklesia, UK).

[12.13 GMT] CPT KIDNAPPINGS IN IRAQ - A back-review selection of stories and editorials by Mennonite Weekly Review staff and others drawn from nearly 120 days of captivity for a group of four Christian Peacemaker Teams activists kidnapped in Iraq on 26 November 2005. Also, a timeline of the CPT hostage crisis.

[21.53 GMT] More church agencies gear up aid for Java quake zone. Including donation links.

[316.1] PEACEMAKERS TO REMAIN IN IRAQ

Despite misleading media reports, including one in The Times recently, Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) are remaining in Iraq for the time being - though they are operating outside Baghdad, and only with full-term workers, not short-term (ten day) volunteers like Norman Kember. The full details are here. There are two CPTers inside the country at the moment, though their location cannot be disclosed for security reasons. CPT has worked to expose prisoner abuse, to bring Sunni and Shia factions together, to promote human rights, to highlight alternatives to war and occupation, and to help establish a Muslim Peacemaker Team. The group have also responded sympathetically and factually to a recent criticism on Premier Radio from Dr Kember, concerning the visit to the Sunni mosque which led to the capture of four CPTers in November 2005. He has been very traumatised by his experience. CPT supporters in the UK are meeting in Bradford next weekend. More on that later.

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[10.46 GMT] Canterbury Cathedral invited to turn tables on war games and
Bible supports gay partnerships, says leading Anglican bishop (both Ekklesia, UK).

[00.33 GMT] Java quake response: Donations can be made to Christian Aid and CAFOD. For more information see: Churches respond immediately to Indonesia earthquake and Christian Aid and CAFOD respond to Indonesia tragedy.

[315.1] A MODERN CANTERBURY TALE

On the day that marks the anniversary of St Augustine of Canterbury’s death in 604, England’s most famous Cathedral – which is dedicated to him – has been urged to turn a public spat with a computer wargame manufacturer into an opportunity to promote global peace. UK Christian think tank Ekklesia is suggesting to Canterbury Cathedral that instead of trying to get Koch Media to withdraw their War on Terror game, which uses the building as one of its backdrops, they could mount an exhibition on initiatives in non-violence – and ask the manufacturer to promote it to their customers. Continued here.

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[14.23 GMT] Sarah McDonald discusses trip with Christian Peacemaker Teams (Kalona News, Indiana, USA); Condoleezza Rice faces anti-war protests at Christian college (Ekklesia, UK); Jim Loney's Complex Thank You (Embassy, Canada); Ramallah Invasion (International Solidarity Movement, Palestine); A Stronger UN: Human Rights —Getting in the Way (PeaceJournalism.com, Nepal).

[02.49 GMT] Recovering a healthy grassroots vision - This is an expanded version of my article looking at wider lessons from the English local elections which appears in the June 2006 issue of Third Way magazine.

[314.1] LIVING THE PASSION

From a small collection of daily Dietrich Bonhoeffer readings called The Narrow Path (edited by Aileen Taylor, foreword by Edwin Robertson) which I picked up on holiday in a small bookshop in Fowey, Cornwall:

"The cross is the only power in the world which proves that suffering love can avenge and vanquish evil... It looked as though evil had triumphed on the cross, but the real victory belonged to Jesus. Jesus calls those who follow him to share his passion. How can we convince the world by our precahing of the passion when we shrink from that passion in our own lives? ... Jesus addresses his disciples as [those] who have left all to follow him, and the precept of non-violence applies equally to private life and official duty." (The Cost of Discipleship, pp. 127-30)

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[15.28 GMT] Witness Against Torture repeats Guantanamo closure call; Christian Peacemaker Teams gain peace prize; Palestinian priest to receive Episcopal Peace Fellowship prize (Ekklesia, UK).

[07.59 GMT] Norman Kember given standing ovation at 2006 Baptist Assembly and Mennonites and Anglicans work to overcome violence in northeast Uganda (Ekklesia, UK). See also the fascinating article Dialogue contrasts Islamic approach to peace, Christian nonresistance By Jewel Showalter (Mennonite Weekly Review, USA).

Please note that FinS will be having a break for a week. Feel free to search the archives in the meantime!

[313.1] LOOKING FOR LEADERSHIP?

"Where are the activist priests and ministers who took strong stands during the Vietnam War and hit the streets with their protests?" asks Helen Thomas of the San Francisco Chronicle, in the current most regularly e-mailed mirror article on Common Dreams. Aside from her curious assumption that people of faith are all clericalised, it's a good question. And a look at the National Council of Churches' website, or CPT, or Sojo.Net, or Christian Alliance for Progress... or a host of other alternative media outlets would provide the answer. The problem is, progressive Christians (whether evangelical, Catholic, ecumenical or whatever) just don't make news. And then media pundits who rarely stray outside the mainstream assume that nothing is going on. That isn't to say, of course, that there isn't truth in what she goes on to write. Most clergy probably are holed up in the assumptions of God Bless America. But there are an awful lot who aren't. Writes Thomas: "Three years into the war against Iraq, the silence of the clergy is deafening, despite US abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and a reported American policy of shipping detainees to secret prisons abroad where, presumably, they can be tortured. There are US chaplains of many faiths serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, ministering to the men and women in uniform and reaching out to local religious leaders in both countries.
But here at home, the clergy seems to be in the same boat as the news media and most members of Congress: they are victims of the post-September 11 syndrome that equates any criticism of US policy with lack of patriotism." Look a bit further, Helen...

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[15.44 GMT] Kember deserved to be kidnapped, says Tim Collins By Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent (Daily Telegraph, UK) - quoting CPT UK via Ekklesia. First test of UK's anti-torture agreement with Jordan (Islamic Republic News Agency, Teharan, Iran). Playing Armageddon as a video game (OpEdNews, USA). And Christina Gibb, a Quaker from Aotearoa New Zealand, has returned to Hebron with Christian Peacemaker Teams

[312.1] THE ARMY GOES AFTER KEMBER AGAIN

Though you might imagine that they had better things to worry about, having a go at kidnapped-and-released Christian peace activist Norman Kember seems a military priority at the moment. The latest to take aim is ex-Colonel Tim Collins (pictured left), who eulogised lyrically about British soldiers "treading gently" in Iraq before reportedly unleashing white phosphorous gas on its citizens. He now says the war has failed, but doesn't much like its critics or those who try to provide an alternative. The stories so far are: 'Kember got what he deserved,' says Colonel (Telegraph.co.uk, UK); 'Hobnobbing' UK peace activist Kember 'got what he deserved' (24dash.com, UK); Ex-army colonel says Kember got what he deserved (Scotsman, Scotland). The PA and The Independent will run with more soon.

Ekklesia and Christian Peacemaker Teams UK have promptly responded (Colonel Collins' attack on Kember misplaced, say Christian peacemakers): Colonel Tim Collins, who came to fame for an ‘inspirational’ speech on the eve of the 2003 Iraq war, has been told by Christian peacemakers that his savage attack on kidnapped Iraq activist Norman Kember is inappropriate, misplaced and ill-informed.

Described by media pundits as a “cigar-chomping ex-soldier with the Hollywood-style good looks”, Colonel Collins, who is promoting his new book, today launched an unprovoked assault on the 74-year-old former medical professor.

Collins said that Dr Kember, freed on 23 March with two other Christian peacemakers, was “bloody naïve”, went “hobnobbing with the Sunni extremists”, “should have stuck to helping Christian groups forced underground” and “got what he deserved”.

But supporters of Kember, including the religious think-tank Ekklesia and the UK branch of Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), have described Colonel Collins’ tirade as “dishonourable”. They say he is demonstrably wrong about the facts and appears naïve himself about what is involved in making peace rather than war. Full story here.

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[311.1] NONVIOLENCE IS IMPLIED BY BAPTISM

From: Christians join global war resisters gathering in the USA (Ekklesia, UK) - At a World Council of Churches’ global mission gathering in May 2005, German Mennonite leader Fernando Enns made an ecumenical appeal to the churches to make the refusal of violence a “key identity marker” for followers of Jesus.

Ekklesia's Simon Barrow agrees. He says that for Christians, refusing violence has deep theological roots: “It isn’t just about being nice or highlighting a few biblical texts – it is primarily about witnessing to an alternative way of life made possible by the life, death and resurrection of Christ – about tapping the power of God’s love to overcome the destructive love of power."

Though pacifism is a minority tradition in Christianity, non-violence advocates in the churches say that the majority just-war tradition (which involves seeking to limit violence) is increasingly becoming war resistant – citing the powerful anti-war sentiments expressed by the two most recent popes.

“When Christians are baptised they are received into a community which is meant to embody the way of Jesus. Surely a minimum requirement of this is for Christians to recognise that they should not kill one another – and then to extend that logic to the neighbours they are called by the Gospel to love?” declares Barrow.

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[11.02 GMT] When living your faith means risking death - an April article from TMCNet (which I missed earlier). This from Miroslav Volf, Director of the Centre for Faith and Culture at Yale University, who recalls meeting Christian eacemakers during the war in Bosnia... "[Yugoslavia] had compulsory service; I was interrogated for months and threatened with years in prison. But the call of the Christian faith, properly understood, is to love one's enemies, to resist evil in such a way that the humanity of the other is redeemed and understanding can be established."

[10.38 GMT] Muslim Peacemakers Team now working in Iraq (Arab American News, MI, USA); Peacemaking in a Troubled World and For God and Our Father Abraham: Towards a More Inclusive Witness (American Muslim, MO, USA).

[310.1] A CALL FOR HOLY DISORDER

Christians have to recover the sense of mass participation and divine disorder in their Easter celebrations next time round, according to theologian Theo Hobson, an Ekklesia associate – and author of two books on subversive Christianity: Against Establishment, An Anglican Polemic and Anarchy, Church and Utopia: Rowan Williams on the Church. His arguments chime with a forthcoming book from religion commentator Jonathan Bartley, which argues that the ‘Christendom era’ of top-down denominationalism is at an end, and that Christianity must rediscover its radical roots to flourish in a plural society. (See: Put the anarchy back into Christianity, say religion analysts and Faith and Politics After Christendom)

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[22.15 GMT] German hostages released in Iraq (BBC News, UK).

[309.1] WHAT DO WE REALLY MEAN BY ‘GOD’?

During the past four hundred years ‘God’ has been rendered practically and imaginatively almost irrecoverable, suggests Nicolas Lash in Holinesss, Speech and Silence: Reflections on the Question of God (Ashgate, 2005) – perhaps one of the most helpful small-scale theological statements to be published in the last twenty years.

This loss began when the early-modern search for human mastery (through the definite ‘ends’ produced by cause and effect) led to the word ‘god’ being used, “for the first time, to name the ultimate explanation of the system of the world.” But natural science soon saw that the world as such did not require any single, overarching, independent, explanatory principle. So the word ‘god’ could be dispensed with, and modern atheism was born.

Before modernity, ‘gods’ were understood relationally, as whatever people worshipped, and resided in occurrences, activities and patterns of behaviour. “The word ‘god’ worked rather like the word ‘treasure’ still does. A treasure is what someone... highly values. And I can only find out what you value by asking you and by observing your behaviour… There is no class of object known as ‘treasures’… valuing is a relationship.”

However, with the dominance of instrumental reason ‘gods’ became, correspondingly, things (objects, entities, individuals) of a certain kind, a ‘divine’ one. Analogously, the ‘home territory’ of God-understanding shifted from worship (the assignment of worth-ship) to description (the assignment of properties)

This double shift of meaning and affection fundamentally corrupted and disabled the modern comprehension of ‘God’ – because God is, logically and necessarily, beyond definition (delimiting) and categorisation. God is not a ‘thing’ belonging to a class of things called ‘gods’.

“Christians, Jews, Muslims and atheists all have this, at least, in common: that none of them believe in gods.” Religions are best considered schools in which people learn to worship by not worshipping any thing – not the world nor any part, person, dream, event or memory of or in it.

God is rendered ‘unbelievable’ today because we have forgotten this. People “simply take for granted that the word ‘god’ names a natural kind, a class of entity. There are bananas, traffic lights, human beings, and gods. Or perhaps not: on this account… ‘theists’ are people who suppose the class of gods to have at least one member… ‘atheists’ are those who think that, in the real world, the class of ‘gods’ is, like the class of ‘unicorns’, empty.”

This is a basic category mistake with lethal consequences. As Denys Turner says, following Thomas Aquinas: “In showing God to exist reason shows that we no longer know what ‘exists’ means.”

Similarly, the modern mind readily supposes that technical and abstract language (‘ineffability’, ‘transcendence’) is inherently superior to the ‘concrete anthropomorphic imagery’ of biblical thought, ascribing the latter to the simple-minded. This is nonsense. It ignores the fact that all language is humanly generated. Everything we say of God, in whatever register, is metaphorically said – and speech or writing that is conscious of this is less likely to deceive itself by attempting a ‘fix’ on ‘what God looks like’. God-talk is immensely difficult and requires both imagination and the disciplining of it that we call theology.

Another modern misunderstanding is the idea that God is ‘supernatural being’. This is a misapplication of a word originally used adjectively or adverbially to designate a creature acting beyond the categories of its nature by the grace of God. (A rabbit playing a violin, say, or a person behaving truly selflessly!) In these terms “God, alone, cannot be supernatural, cannot act supernaturally, for what would graciously elevate or heal God’s nature?”

What, then, does it mean ‘to believe in God’? Developing Augustine, Nicholas Lash distinguishes three possibilities based on the Latin: Credere Deo (to believe what God says), Credere Deum (to believe God to be truly God); and the creedal formula Credere in Deum (to believe ‘godwardly’ or ‘into God’, as in incorporation and godly behaviour).

It is the third sense that best expresses what is offered and required in Christian believing – the language of appropriate relationship embodied in Holy Mystery, by which we non-idolatrously and wholeheartedly give ourselves to the truth, flourishing and freedom to which we are called.

Part of a larger summary which I am currently working on for a discussion group in Exeter.

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[308.1] RESURRECTING THEOLOGY

Some seasonal words (below) from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who I keep coming back to again and again: a theologian of unquestionable commitment whose intellectual and spiritual gift was to recognise that faith without critical questioning tends towards religious illusion – but, equally, questioning without critical cognisance of tradition leads to humanistic hubris. Both theological ‘liberals’ and theological ‘conservatives’ would be wise to observe this critique. What we need instead, beyond the traditional battle lines drawn up by neo-orthodoxy and classic modernism, is a renewed Christian radicalism of both roots (radix) and routes (frontiers).

Moreover, within Bonhoeffer’s observation about the ‘beyond’ of God being other than the 'beyond' of either cognitive capacity or epistemological transcendence, lies - I believe - the central clue to the recovery of articulable theological meaning for the conditions of postmodernity. That is, to 'resurrecting theology', in both senses of that term.

“I find all this talk about human limits [boundaries] questionable... I always have the feeling that we are merely fearfully trying to save room for God; I would rather speak of God at the centre than at the limits, in strength rather than in weakness, and thus in human life and goodness rather than in death and guilt. As far as limits are concerned, I think it best simply to remain silent and to leave the unresolvable unresolved. The belief in resurrection is not the 'solution' to the problem of death. The 'beyond' of God is not the 'beyond' of our cognitive capacity. Epistemological transcendence has nothing to do with God's transcendence. God is 'beyond' our lives. The church is found not where human capacity fails, at the limits, but rather in the middle of the village.” (Tegel Prison, 30 April 1944)

“It is not from avoiding death but from the resurrection of Christ that a new, purifying breeze can blow into the present world …. If even a few people were really to believe this, much would change. To live from the perspective of the resurrection: this is Easter.” (Tegel Prison, March 1944)

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