The Monastery

I finally have started watching a BBC series called The Monastery. It was a 3 part series which was broadcast in 2005 and brought 5 men to a Benedictine monastery for 40 days with challenge for both communities to meet each other in a meaningful way through the disciplined life of a praying and working community away from the distractions and pace of 21st century life. It was through the grace of a Brother James that I can see the complete series.

The strange thing was listening in on the conversations and also the realization that the abbot and monk responsible for novices were teaching very simple spiritual truths and challenging exactly the academic/scientific/materialist approach to faith and belief which has no real meaning. My favourite philosopher Gabriel Marcel posits that the real issue is we are trying to turn a mystery into a problem (problems can be solved, mysteries not). The real issue is that we are standing on the sense data and therefore cannot actually separate ourselves from the very subject we're trying to understand. More about the series and the monastery itself here.

atheism and the argument for it?

Last year when I had a working tv, I happened to switch on the program Big Ideas and hear Alistair McGrath on Richard Dawkin's book The God Delusion. Well I took a few notes and this last week I came across them while spring cleaning. Time to post them.

McGrath states Dawkins has 4 prime assertions.

1. Belief in God is irrational (read immature) like belief in Santa and the tooth fairy
2. Science demonstrates there is no God
3. Faith can be explained
4. Faith leads to violence

Alister McGrath, Professor of Historical Theology at Oxford University is a former atheist and scientist turned theologian and well qualified to confront Dawkins with his own book The Dawkins Delusion. He argues this is a weak book which is -

"marred by its excessive reliance on bold assertion and rhetorical flourish, where the issues so clearly demand careful reflection and painstaking analysis, based on the best evidence available. Attractive precisely because it is simplistic, Dawkins demands the eradication of religion. Only when it is eliminated can the human race rest secure! Get rid of religion, and the world will be a better place. It is a familiar theme, if stated with greater fervor than before.”

It seems to me both Dawkins and McGrath are working in a charged environment and both are working from faith positions. The more unfortunate is that Dawkins cannot see that his position is not only NOT a neutral position but in fact his also a faith position. Richard Dawkins, in the earlier The Selfish Gene, developed the idea of the meme which is a unit of sociocultural information, such as a practice or idea (or even belief), that gets transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another. Religion and belief and the idea of meme seems to be viewed negatively. Are we not seeing Dawkins with a meme in action? Working out of a faith tradition?

You can find an mp3/podcast of the program here if you're interested.

The fool says in his heart,"There is no God." Psalm 14:1, Psalm 53:1

What is your orientation?

Who are the unchurched people you rub shoulders with on a regular basis? How will you cultivate redemptive relationships with them?

What prevents you from effectively building relationships with unchurched people?

Does you church keep you and your members too busy to develop relationships with the unchurched? If so, how can that change?

At what stage in the process of trusting in Jesus Christ are those people with whom you are developing a relationship?

How can you help your Christian friends to build relationships with pre-Christians? In what ways are you helping new converts reach their network of friends, relatives and associates?

I found these questions in one of my blogs I subscribe to. In one way I am encouraged by them and the intentionality they expose but in another way I am troubled when I put them in juxtaposition with Rob Bell's observation that loving people has no agenda other than love. Motivation is an important reason and measure for why you or I are doing things.

The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart. 1 Samuel 16:7

a week gone by

Spring has swung by and the cleaning has started at long last but still so far behind. The heavy rain and things going wrong damped my spirits a lot. But in the clearing up I got to opening mail from February. Yes I know it's May now. Perhaps it is the reality of how low and depressed I got this last winter. I survived and now I found a cheque which is a bequest from my Uncle Eric who passed away almost 3 years ago. A dear man who was my godmother's husband... so in many ways was a godfather. Anyhow watch this space to how carefully I will use it to remember him.

Sunshine brings hope, grace last week with another year under the belt and a couple of little meals with students to celebrate quietly. A bizarre moment when you discover that a student is exactly 31 years younger!
What synchroncity! What a divine moment of care with someone I have been caring for in difficult times! Life goes forward. Sometimes it sucks and I get really wet but at least for moments the sun comes out.

A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? Ecclesiastes 2:24-25