Although I read the articles in the magazine with great interest, I have always clung on to some element of realism. However, the Sea of Faith may be in danger of setting up another ‘truth’ — ‘Exploring and promoting religious faith as a human creation’. Whilst this statement acts as a guide to membership, my worry is that SoF could become another sect of like-minded people.
Of course, a human element is pervasive in all religions. In Christianity, one has only to look at all the different interpretations that have been proposed, starting with the different slants and emphases of the first three gospel writers. The first Christians argued about the exact way forward - in Acts we have the conflict over whether Christianity was to be a development of Judaism, or whether it was radically different and should include gentiles. Later on, the Church agonised over what was truth and what was heresy.
Perhaps a more helpful way forward is to say that we all have some hints of ‘The Truth’. Each of the main religions has its different sectors: orthodox, reformed, liberal, radical and so on. All have been influenced by the cultures or religious traditions that they have been exposed to, as well as the modern secular approach with its tendency to scepticism. We all now know about the postmodern strand of philosophy underlying this, which puts major question marks against any meta-narrative that tries to explain everything. So ‘truth’ is always relative in this view.
A strong support for any particular faith stance is the continuity argument. When a religion has persisted over millennium there may be some aspects of it which have stood the test of time and have been found to answer some of the profoundest questions that living in this world sets us. Religions come up with frameworks, but they need constant updating in the light of current ideas.
New scientific discoveries require major reformulations, and biblical criticism means that we tend to use the Bible in quite a different way. It is no longer treated as the ‘Word of God’. Instead, it provides themes and insights, based on the experiences and contexts of the writers.
The Bible is also a record of the experiences that people have had, which they have interpreted as encounters with God. Similarly, the Koran contains profound insights derived from the experiences of Muhammad.
When witnesses describe an accident their views on exactly what happened may differ but they all agree that there has been an accident. Likewise, ‘witnesses’ to a power beyond themselves will disagree about the details but believe that there is a power there to be discovered.
In the end, it seems to me that the Sea of Faith has adopted a rather narrow view of reality if it is committed to non-realism, cutting out much wisdom upon which we can draw.
Tim Bayes worked for 24 years in Industrial Mission, within an ecumenical team in Manchester, trying to determine how Christianity can make sense to working people.