David Stancliffe writes in The Times about How an election in Sudan signals a new resurrection.
Earlier in the week, Andrew White wrote there about Iraq five years on.
Last Sunday, John Cornwell asked in the Sunday Times Are Muslim enclaves no-go areas, forcing other people out (hat tip Andrew Brown).
Christopher Howse explains in the Daily Telegraph Why the Big Bang is not Creation.
At Ekklesia Simon Barrow follows up on the article by Peter Selby linked here yesterday with Why the church needs a new foreign policy.
And he also wrote Resurrection is no Easter conjuring trick.
In the Guardian Danny Rich writes about how Purim is a timely reminder of past persecution of the Jews and the fragility of Israel in Face to faith.
Giles Fraser also writes there today, about A funny kind of Christian.
And in the Church Times he wrote about Trusting in God beyond my death.
Michael Ainsworth’s piece (Church Times 20 March 2008 p6) about the reporting of the assault he suffered deserves to be quoted I think, not least because of the question he raises about the motives and intentions of instant commentators.
Stephen Hawking said on BBC that before the Big Bang there was nothing and by that he said that he meant absolutely nothing, not even time and space. He also said that the universe has to be maintained at a critical level or it will expand into cold barren nothingness or collapse due to gravity. He has also written a book “God created the integers”. Regarding the maintaining of the universe Sir Isaac Newton said the universe has to be fine-tuned every now and then by God. Stephen Hawking is now holding the Chair that was once held by Newton… Read more »
A mixed bag for a mixed weekend. Howse annoyed me. The article makes out that the universe is easy to understand and ignores the vexatious debates that have and still occur. None of us now argue that the world revolves around the Sun, but many souls were murdered by priests for advocating this non-egocentric perspective. Similarly, whilst most souls now accept evolution, some still purport it as a myth and all the fossil evidence as some cosmic joke that they should ignore. Then we go on to contemplate the proposition that God is masculine and only the heterosexual masculine human… Read more »
It certainly is funny how certain “Christians” on this blogsite have so adamantly shaken their collective fingers at us Americans for the election of +Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire, but ignore the horrors of our civic leader in the latter’s pretense of being a “Christian”. Then again birds of a feather…..
Giles Frasier’s article is on the money.
The Ekklesia article on resurrection is churning the issue around and around. It is simpler: is the resurrection in some way objective, subjective, or postmodern (whether there is neither objective nor subjective). Objective means independently continuous with the Jesus who died, no matter how people “live” the resurrection, whereas subjective means he was dead and people “live” the resurrection as believers. The postmodern means people in cultures tell stories as ways of making reality. I go with the postmodern, but if pushed to the subjective. The objective is bodily or spiritual, the subjective is spiritual only, and the postmodern finds… Read more »
Pluralist. Enjoy your Easter weekend. Go and read the Jewish mystics and oral tradition. Jesus is either moschiach ben David or Jesus is a failure. Jesus either fulfills scripture or he makes a mockery of scripture. The Torah God created Hebrew/Judaic thinking, not Hellenic or Greek. Those who espouse Greek mental models demonstrate contempt for the God of the Torah. http://www.torah.org has a nice article this Easter weekend targetted at males who think they are “above” the feminine of this world. http://www.torah.org/learning/drasha/5756/shemini.html On your question “if there was a resurrected entity continuous with a Jesus who actually died…” There are… Read more »
Slightly O/T but John Dominic Crossan was on Terri Gross’ Fresh Air (a rebroadcast) on our NPR on Friday, talking about Jezus and crucifixion, an historcial view.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88675603
Choirboyfromhell writes: “It certainly is funny how certain “Christians” on this blogsite have so adamantly shaken their collective fingers at us Americans for the election of +Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire, but ignore the horrors of our civic leader in the latter’s pretense of being a “Christian”.” I think there are two problems with this, Choirboy. (1) The structure of this board doesn’t allow anyone but the owner(s) to introduce a topic, and therefore the only opportunity to discuss Bush, or any other politician, is if Simon posts something referring to him. (2) The board is intended for… Read more »
Hi Choirboy. Alan has made some good points. You might want to take some time and browse the internet. US Christians, and Christians generally have shown some huge shifts in their thinking in recent years. If we had to rely on winning over the ultra-conservative leadership within Anglicanism (or any other faith or philosophy for that matter), then humanity would be doomed. What we have been able to do is have the debate, expose their core paradigms that mould their thinking, and demonstrate beyond reasonable doubt their paucity. That is exactly what Jesus did to both the religious and secular… Read more »
Alan: I might have been misunderstood, but my take on the non U.S. evangelical scolding of TEC about the election of +Gene Robinson seems to fail to understand that parallel forces within the U.S. are largely supportive of Bush’s international policies, that Giles Frasier so rightly questions. I think that those outside of the U.S. do not comprehend the existence and the power of fundamentalist Christianity that has 1). eroded “mainline” Church attendance, and 2). led the way in a rightward shift of (already right of center compared to Western Europe) of politics internally here. And I am quite sensitive… Read more »
Pluralist: You may find my approach circumlocutory (I take it that’s what you are saying), but if so that is because I was very consciously trying to move beyond the inherent problems of a statement like “”if there was a resurrected entity continuous with a Jesus who actually died…”. The terms ‘entity’ and ‘conscious’ here are too closely tied to what we think of and experience as ‘thingness’ and ‘self-awareness’, whereas the whole point of God-derived resurrection language/experience, it seems to me, is that it transposes what we *think* we know (but probably don’t with anything like the “simple” force… Read more »
It was good to see a link to Canon White’s description of Iraq 5 years on. The western media seems to be totally ignoring this group of persecuted Iraqi citizens. While the news is filled with Shia and Sunni factions battling for their piece of the new Iraq, Christians are being martyred without anyone making mention.
“Christians are being martyred without anyone making mention” Given the support Bush gets from Consevos in the US, is this any surprise? To admit the mistreatment of Christians might cast doubt on what they seem to think is a latter day Crusade, and I use that word advisedly. I read a report a few weeks ago, in I believe it was Time, of Consevo soldiers who are actively hostile to non-Evangelical soldiers, and who actually say “In Jesus name!” before they open fire on insurgents! Such people are not going to acknowledge there are suffering Chrisitans, especially non-Evangelical ones, in… Read more »
“I read a report a few weeks ago, in I believe it was Time, of Consevo soldiers who are actively hostile to non-Evangelical soldiers, and who actually say ‘In Jesus name!’ before they open fire on insurgents!”
I would like to see that report. Having just spent the past 15 months there, and in the worst Baghdad had to offer, I saw nothing of the sort. What I mostly saw was frustration. In spite of that, the soldiers of my battalion were very protective of the local population. I think more so than the average person would ever expect.
“I would like to see that report.”
I’ll try to track it down.
Chaplain, I have no idea if you are still around here, much less tracking this trhead. I have been unable to find an online link to the piece I cited. Until I do, I will not make this claim any more, without support, it is mere heresay. I DID find this site: http://militaryreligiousfreedom.org/index.html which was cited in the article I mentioned. I am a Newfoundlander and am very aware, especially this time of year, how special interest groups can twist the truth to their own ends. It’s just that the things they say are so in accord with everything I… Read more »
Hello Ford,
I happened back to this thread to see if anything had turned up as to the article mentioned. I was not aware of the group you linked to but am glad to know of them. I am a big believer in watchdogs and have learned that many of our “supporters” are anything but. Regardless, you make valid points regard the grave responsibility of those in leadership and their war making decisions. May God bless our next president with exceptional discernment.
blessings,
Steve+