When Peter kindly sent me this book, there was a postcard reading ‘Adoramus te, Domine’.
This is a book about a personal journey, ‘in and out of the Church’, from Peter’s Oxford days reading philosophy and his fifty years of making films. ‘Not for nothing have I lived’ and ‘not for nothing have I remained a Christian.’ In no more than 100 pages, through eleven chapters, Peter systematically works out a coherent position on the Christian faith. But this book is far more than another book offering a rational Christian faith – this is Peter’s journey; and for me, that makes a difference. There is an honesty in the writing, maybe even a sense of personal struggle to secure his faith and find meaning in the world.
The starting point in a quest to discover that life is ‘not for nothing’ begins with an underlying sense that many have lost a sense of meaning.
And yet, there’s a dichotomy in what Peter has witnessed and what he feels, for as a film maker he has witnessed the loss of meaning in people’s lives, whilst at the same time acknowledging that in his own life, the world about us, and the universe, as he sees it, appears purposeful. This is a discovery not through logical reasoning but through ‘feeling’, ‘human creativity’ and ‘deep, deep love that is central to my life’.
Of course, this is not a proof that there is ‘something more’, for many people of many faiths or not, can appreciate that visceral feeling of joy or peace when listening to the music of Bach, or standing in front of a waterfall. But here’s the ‘crucial step: ‘If I can only live my life on the basis that the world has ultimate meaning and purpose, then what cosmic framework must there be in order to be the foundation of that meaning and purpose?’ To that meaning and purpose Peter gives the name God – the unknowable God.
The unknowable God is far from the God as one’s ‘highest aspirations’ p26, as Don Cupitt writes in one of his books. And it is so much more than a call to ‘carry on “as if” life has meaning’ p27, for Peter asks: is this just ‘pretending’?
Therefore, having concluded that the two primary non-realist pathways of ‘highest aspirations’ and ‘as if ‘ offer no starting point for a solid foundation for meaning, Peter moves on to outline his position that God is the ‘unknown dimension that underlies the meaning of everything’ p28. There is no proof to the assertion that life has an ‘ultimate’ meaning and purpose, and Peter acknowledges this, but chooses to believe, and constructs a religious meaning around his assertion.
Peter makes this assertion – acknowledging criticisms from Freud and Marx and Pascal – because what Peter does well is to point out that whether ‘God exists’ is always a matter of opinion – and a matter of opinion is always a matter of choice. Thus the real question is why do people embrace what they choose to embrace? ‘Everything we grandly call Theology is a way of arranging tentative Lego bricks of metaphor onto this foundation of meaning, of a belief that ‘this is not all there is’ p31. But: ‘If language is about God, then we need new metaphors’ p56.
Peter concludes his book by explaining his ‘Christian agnosticism’ differs from the ‘so-what agnostic’ p82. If it [belief in God] means anything, then it means everything. Peter does not leave his academic background behind, for he uses his theological and philosophical education to present a position that is not only accessible but enormously satisfying.
Simon works as a Community Pastor, and is a member of the Methodist Church.