Whatever the case, I sometimes wish that Cupitt reflected in his work more explicitly the profound emotional experience offered by the artists and thinkers who so clearly explore the same'territory as he does, rather than continuing to work within thv stringent framework of 'ideas'. 1.Cupitt, Radicals and the Future of the Church (SCM 1989) pp 62-3 2.Sea of Faith Magazine (Autumn 1990) p 11 3. 'Introduction', William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (OUP 1975) p ix 4. Christopher Hill (ed.), Winstanley : The Law of Freedom and Other Works (Pelican 1973) pp 54-5 5. Tippett, Moving into Aquarius (Paladin 1974) p 6.Ibid, p 155 7.Tippett, The Mask of Time (Schott & Co 1983) 8.Moving into Aquarius pp 155-6 SPRING 1991 PAGE 5 SEA OF FAITH MAGAZINE DON CUPITT'S NOTEBOOK (1) THE ETHICS OF VALUE CREATION (Don Capht has kino'4/ prom/deo' a set of outlines of talks he%/ giving during 1991. We reproduce some of these :snapshols' of Ns thinking in this year's SOF magazines. -Ed) THE SEARCH FOR FOUNDATIONS A feature of the modern period : people demand some kind of rationale or metaphysical basis for their values and beliefs - in just the period when it's becoming clear that such a thing is not to be had.
MARXISM WAS STILL TOO THEOLOGICAL Since the rise of pressure group ethics (and revolutionary or progressive politics) our outlook has become less metaphysical (= it's all laid on for us) and steadily more activist and pragmatic. We make language, culture, history. We are responsible for current beliefs and valuations. We are to blame for our world ; if we don't like it, it's up to us to change it. So morality goes critical. It appraises current valuations and changes the ones it doesn't like.
In liberal protestant society we discover new campaign topics, and struggle for the recognition and entrenchment of new rights. Society becomes self-correcting, self-steering. But, contraMARX, nothing guarantees that we'll succeed, or even that there is such a thing as success. Nothing guarantees that all positive valuations are consistent, or that there is One True Morality, or one best way to happiness, or one best political set-up. Nothing guarantees that it all adds up, or will all come out right.
GIVING UP MORALITIES OF PERFECTION We should give up those moralities that seek to perfect the self, or to build up a perfect society on earth, or that concentrate on purifying the self in preparation for a perfect world elsewhere. Instead, and more modestly, we should choose a rational ethic.
A RATIONAL ETHIC Life has only the value that we manage to give it. Our current valuation of life is written into our language ; it can be heard in the ways we speak about things. It is rational to pursue that course of action which leads us to value each person, aspect of life and bit of the world as highly as is generally possible. Such an ethic may be called a Green Christian humanitarianism. We look continually for new causes, new rights, new upgradings. Different people specialize in different areas.
TURNING AWAY FROM THE SELF The old moral theology of self-purification involved sin, contrition, penances, grace, sanctification. It was timid and self-absorbed, and too other-worldly. We are not immortal souls destined for another world : we are mortals, good at symbolic communication.
PUBLIC VALUE-CREATION The good person is not the one who makes herself good, but the one who enriches the world a bit, by raising values. The old ethic devalued life, led almost to nihilism. Now we've got to talk up values again.
THE DYING AND RISING CHRIST Christ's exaltation from lowliness to glory is a model for the Christian's revaluation of things by redescribing them.
DON CUPITT is Lecturer in the Philosophy of Religion, Cambridge University, and Dean of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.