Ruth Gledhill - Times Online - WBLG

Faithbook on Facebook

'Faithbook, a new social networking facility for people of different faiths on Facebook, goes live tomorrow,' said the press release yesterday. I'm sorry to say I didn't get too exercised. Surely this was just one more of many thousands of groups on Facebook, my own included.  But in fact it is much more than that, as our news story shows. Senior members of the nine main faiths, including Judaism, Islam and Buddhism, have signed up and are contributing to discussions. The group, set up by the Movement for Reform Judaism with the help of Simon Cohen of Global Tolerance, is also taking the scriptures of each faith seriously,  with illustrations and plans for analysis of the common ground between the faiths as found in the scriptures. See Dave Walker's interesting take on it in The Church Times.

 

Comment of the Day: Radical Orthodoxy

From Tom on Radical Orthodoxy:

'Having read a pile of RO books, I would like to agree with the characterization of it as "liberal Protestantism." It would probably be fairer to call it an anti-modern version of liberal Protestantism. No doubt there are some intelligent people doing this work. But--and here's the important point--it really has nothing to do with Christian theology. They've produced almost no dogmatic theology. "Theology and Social Theory" is Platonism. It is very interesting and imaginative, to be sure, but it has nothing to do with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Or at least so far as I can tell.'

Read it all here.

Radical orthodoxy rising on 'the third way'

John Milbank, founder of the increasingly-influential Radical Orthodoxy movement, is here receiving communion from a Catholic Ukrainian bishop, Hlib Lonchyna, at a conference in Lviv in 2006. Check out the Centre of Theology and Philosophy at Nottingham which he heads, and you can also read the paper, Paul against Biopolitics, that he delivered at the Lviv ecumenical conference. Technically, of course, as an Anglican, he was not allowed to receive communion at a Catholic service. But perhaps that is partly what Radical Orthodoxy is about - remaining orthodox while breaking some of the rules.

(Update: Peter Carrell has written an interesting post picking up on a comment on this blog.)

The root of creation is ... God

Or perhaps, C=Ge ² where C = Creation, G = God and e = mc². That is my own attempt to explain, with the help of my 'A' level maths, what Professor Michael Heller is about.

I'm offering a bottle of Times champagne to whoever can come up with the best mathematical formula of their own for God, Creation or the Universe. (For the symbols, go to programmes-accessories-characters.)

'God is in the detail' is how Professor Heller's theories were explained to me. He has won the Templeton Prize, worth nearly £1 million but no longer the world's largest individual prize, just its largest academic prize. The new MoIbrahim prize is now the world's largest, worth a cool £3 million-plus over a lifetime. For all the info and biog detail you need about Professor Heller, this essay by Stanisław Wszolek is pretty complete. He survived exile to Siberia as a child, and was a friend and frequent guest at Castel Gandolfo of the late John Paul II. I've attempted to understand what he teaches and believes, and explained it in my own words in this story.  But his own statement given at the press conference in New York today is also quite useful, so I'm reproducing it below. To understand the actual quantum mechanics behind it all, go to this fascinating paper.

There is also this page from one of his books. And a special thank you also to maths teacher Mr Mundy of Thomas Alleyne's school in Uttoxeter, celebrating its 450th anniversary this year, for equipping me with the skills to enable me to write this blog and its related story.

Did Jesus really rise from the dead?

In the latest New Directions, Father Geoffrey Kirk writes about Rowan Williams' recent lecture on Islam and the law. 'A friend of mine attended one of Rowan's lectures in Cambridge which ended up as his book, The Resurrection of Jesus,' he says.

'Well, was it all right?' the lecturer asked, as the two walked together out of the building. 'Marvellous,' my friend replied, 'but answer me one thing. Did he really rise from the dead?'

A measure of God

However God is defined, fewer Americans are believing. The Pew Forum's groundbreaking report, which we cover today, shows a surprising decline in religious affiliation in this most God-fearing nation of all. God is on the public agenda here too. Britain's Charity Commission will tomorrow publish its consultation on religious charities. Religious charities will have to prove public benefit to justify their charitable status. But the Commission is also looking at how to define what followers or adherents of a religion must believe in. Clearly what we need in Britain is a US-style   God-o-Meter that could help the Commission with this eternal problem. The meter is currently looking at how Barack Obama is winning the faith vote. We must get one of these metrical devices for our own faith page! Today, Prince Harry would come out on top. I've no idea what his beliefs are, but he surely is showing 'divine principle' in action in taking on the Taliban in Afghanistan, a story broken today by America's Drudge Report.

Why do we believe in God?

The phone rang.'Hello Ruth, this is the Pope speaking.' A German accent.

My, my, my, Melitius

Engaged in a bit of religious skullduggery the other day, I was not too surprised when a monkish cleric whispered mischeviously in my ear: 'Ruth, remember the Melitian schism.'  Which one, I wondered? There were two, both in the fourth century. But I assume he meant the first. The world's leading expert on Melitius and his co-conservative, Arius (both pictured here) is of course none other than our own Father Rowan Williams. This is relevant today because of the debates sparked at StandFirm and Thinking Anglicans by the publication of the St Andrew's draft of the Anglican Covenant.

John Henry Newman to be saint 'soon'

This is an original nineteenth century photograph of Father John Henry Newman (1801-1890) taken in around 1865 by RW Thrupp of Birmingham, from the archives of the Birmingham Oratory, Edgbaston. It was one of three given to Pope Benedict XVI by outgoing Prime Minister Tony Blair MP at the end of a his private audience with the Pope in the Vatican on Saturday 23 June 2007. Newman was created a Cardinal by Pope Leo XIII in 1879. The picture, used here courtesy of the Fathers of the Birmingham Oratory, does indeed show Newman in a saintly pose and his numinous expression reminds me here of the late Cardinal Basil Hume, another saintly figure of the English Church.

Elaine Storkey: 'Don't shoot the heretics.'

My first sight of Elaine was at Greenbelt many years ago, at the old venue in Northants up the M1. Relatively new in this job, I was struggling with many aspects of the faith I'd been born into. Seeing this compelling, charismatic and striking young woman preach during the eucharist was a vital affirmation of the possibility of faith. It seemed scarcely possible back then that this visibly free spirit, laughing and dancing on the stage before a crowd of thousands breaking bread, could be an 'evangelical'. And now a judge is to decide, in effect, whether she can be. After her victory on Monday over Wycliffe, with unfair dismissal payment now pending of £20,000, another case in June is to look at whether she was the victim of religious discrimination. The judge has assigned a whole day for the tribunal to read papers on what constitutes a 'conservative evangelical' and what an 'open evangelical'. Once they've succeeded in doing in a day what no bishop has managed to do in two millennia, they will then decide whether it is possible for the 'conservatives' to discriminate against the 'opens' under the new religious discrimination regulations. Then they will decide whether this is indeed what happened to Elaine,  forcing her out of her two-day-a-week job after four years at  Oxford's top theological college. And all this in the middle of Gafcon and just before Lambeth.

Opponents of women bishops could be 'conscientious objectors'

One option being considered by the Church of England to meet the needs of opponents of women bishops is 'conscientious objector' status similar to that granted to pacifists during war time. The Group for Rescinding the Act of Synod has submitted proposals to the General Synod's legislative drafting group outlining how this might work. I've reproduced the full paper below so you can read their arguments for yourselves.

Creative cuts to Sir David Attenborough

It is both alarming and amusing to watch this video and see how the Dutch evangelical boadcaster EO has removed all references to evidence of evolution, such as fossil dates, from Sir David Attenborough's 2002 documentary The Life of Mammals. I interviewed Sir David this afternoon and have reported the results.

The Church's Unfoundation

A bit naughty this, but it made me laugh so I'm going to post it. This new 'TEC hymn' is circulating on a number of lists, so I thought some of our readers here might like to see it too. Read on...

Is covenant a route to Papacy?

Growing Together in Unity and Mission has been published by ACNS along with accompanying commentaries. That by Bernard Longley, an auxiliary in Westminster, is particularly interesting. He floats an idea that might explain why my (admittedly slightly over excited) reporting of this document in the midst of the Primates' meeting at Dar es Salaam back in February provoked such a flurry of hostile comment. Bishop Longley says that some Anglicans will have concerns that the proposed Covenant will need a jurisdictional framework 'and that this might fall within the pastoral care of a re-received ministry of universal primacy.' In such circumstances, he asks, how might the 'legitimate patrimony' of Anglicans be honoured, preserved and promoted? David Sims at Covenant Communion, the new Anglican body aimed at encouraging reconciliation through the covenant, has already picked up on this.

Dow, Decadence and the Deluge

I had a little fun yesterday revisiting the past to write about the Bishop of Carlisle, Graham Dow, who has been making headlines by linking the recent floods in Britain to the moral decadence of our society. In my piece I referred to a booklet, Explaining Deliverance, which was sent to me in 1992 by a friend after he became Bishop of Willesden. However, when I looked through my dusty book collection here, some barely touched in my 20 years at the paper, I dug up all kinds of extraordinary eschatological fossils but not the Bishop's booklet. So a hat-tip is owed here to Andrew Brown for a piece he wrote about it in 2003 and which I was able to access online.

Anglican fight back at 'Nasty Party' slurs

At about the time the Wycliffe Hall story was broken in the Guardian, 'Inclusive Church' Putney vicar Giles Fraser wrote: 'Anglicanism is fast becoming the nasty party at prayer, with traditionally inclusive theology being submerged by a bargain-basement prejudice that damns to hell all those who disagree.' One of the aspects I've been enjoying about this story is the holy, inclusive unity it apparently confirms there to be between Giles, scourge of the conservative evangelicals, and 'open evangelical' Fulcrum vicar Graham Kings, of St Mary's Islington. (Does Graham Kings know that in one article on Giles' Inclusive Church website, Jim Naughton is cited describing him as 'odious', along with Bishops Wright and Scott-Joynt? Praise indeed I should say.) Graham Kings has behind the scenes been defending Fulcrum chair, the popular Elaine Storkey, broadcaster and Wycliffe staff member, who is under disciplinary action and has brought grievance procedures against Richard Turnbull, evangelical principal of Wycliffe who has been bearing the brunt of the attacks. The latest is a letter calling for him to resign sent by three past principals including the extremely eminent Alister McGrath, demi-scourge of Prof Dawkins. Dr Turnbull could be forgiven for wondering who really is the 'nasty party' in all of this. Now a fightback is beginning, with a strong open letter of support for Turnbull posted this lunchtime on the AM website.

Dawkins transcendent

Richard Dawkins had requested no photographer for our interview at his Oxford home last week, so instead artist Paul Winner came along and produced this numinous illustration. The results of the interview appeared in T2 today, as the cover, which was thrilling for me. Bloggers are already following it up, with one describing it as "refreshing". There's also a lively debate going on Dawkins' own site. More links to Dawkins copy on the TimesOnline Faith Page. (Updated: If you go here and scroll down, you will see a videolink. Dr Dawkins has written a defence of his own in The Times, and William Rees-Mogg has replied.)

Call for laws to protect holy relics

The sale of relics on eBay has been contested by the International Crusade for Holy Relics (ICHR) for ten years but since a boycott and cyber-petition against the online auction site got underway on Good Friday, the campaign has turned political. Three US Senators, and a US Supreme Court judge have lent their support to ICHR.

Chocolate Jesus

With only two days of Lent left, this may be enough to make you give up chocolate all year round. This statue of Jesus, cast in chocolate, was meant to be in New York's Lab Gallery this Good Friday but protest from Christian groups called off the exhibit. 

No penalty, no atonement

When asked my own religious adherence, my stock response is 'Church of England'. This means everything and nothing, and my interrogators always know exactly what I mean. I've never yet come across anyone who did not think that it was possibly to believe more or less what you want to in the esablished Church. Still, until relatively recently it has been understood that the clergy, at the very least, should more or less follow an orthodox line. So the question I am now asking myself is, are the views of the Dean of St Albans, Jeffrey John, orthodox or not? Substitutionary atonement, penal atonement, call it what you may, it is still pretty incomprehensible to the average person in the pew. Lots of links to this story on Thinking Anglicans.