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adical
Faith
Exploring fundamentals of faith in a changed world
Don Cupitt,
writing almost a decade ago, pointed out that young people seemed to be
increasingly secular in the way in which they thought of themselves and
of society at large. In Christianity After
the Church he wonders how the churches interpret the signs of
the times. He wonders if they have turned into salvation-dispensing
machines, and have given up on the creation of new life and lives.
An
Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple, is reputed to
have said, "The Church is the only organisation which
exists for those outside it." In The
Villains of the Story, Anthony Freeman reminds us that
we are not the owners but the tenants of the churches we worship
in.
Many secular
minded people predict that the West is approaching The
End of Religion, a time when what was once at the centre of
social life will fade away and disappear. Richard Holloway
suggests rather that we are witnessing a struggle to find new ways of
claiming value for our lives.
Beyond
the Fringe For
those who are open to venturing beyond traditional Christian
teaching, here are links to challenging viewpoints:
u People
have been trying for centuries to explain why religion seems to be the
default position for human beings, particularly when they are severely
stressed. Michael Brooks reviews some of the current research in Born
Believers: How Your Brain Creates God.
u One
of the foundation stones of the Christian edifice is the concept of
free will. But, as John Bargh explains in The
Simplifier, research over the past two decades has radically
narrowed the bandwidth of human behaviours which can be truly thought
of as freely chosen. Conversely, it seems that many of our behaviours
are dictated by the way human beings evolved over millennia. Could it
be that we are not all quite as corrupted by sin as some would
suppose?
29/06/2009
Church
Watch
Pope
Benedict XVI has announced that the tomb
traditionally thought to be that of St Paul does indeed
contain the Apostle's remains [More]
Tom Wright,
Anglican Bishop of Durham, UK, has attacked Britain's
prime Minister for dishonestly putting forward new
legislation [More]
Joe O'Reilly, a
priest of the Rosminian Order in Ireland, has been served
with a subpoena in a case alleging rape and beatings in a
Catholic care home [More]
The Catholic Society of Pope Pius X has defied
a Vatican order not to ordain three priests [More]
A Catholic nun has been appointed Dean of the San
Francisco Theological Seminary, a school of the Presbyterian
Church of the USA [More]
A Catholic priest from Ohio, USA, has died after being
stabbed in the heart with a needle [More]
A California appeals court in the USA has ruled that a local
congregation may not take Church property with it
when it quits the Anglican Diocese of Los Angeles [More]
The newly-launched Anglican Church in North America will ban
women and homosexuals from becoming bishops [More]
Obiter
Dictum Pope Benedict XVI has begun the Catholic Church's
"A Year for Priests" with a homily calling for the
hearts of priests to be set on fire with pastoral charity
