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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

Essays on Church censorship