Kierkegaard did not bestride He or su like Karl Marx or Friedrich Nietzsche. What he achieved, however, was nonetheless significant. re gave oice to unconditional, passionate and highly individual faith that relocated the focus of theology back to humanity and to the e may be, perhaps, ‘the ever heard of i eine contribution remains for all to explore. because they tended to use his work in a piecemea 1 ie Greenfield i is an Assobiate Lecturer in Religious Studies, _ Untversity Calese Chichester, / el 7 ith research interests in Radical _ From doubting to doing John Gamlin argues that the future role of the network is to move from questions to actions.
Sea of Faith is changing. It could not be otherwise if, as Don Cupitt has said, all is transient and all is contingent, so we should welcome the change as a natural and indeed necessary part of our ongoing life. The particular change I welcome here can broadly be described as turning from theory to practice, from our preoccupation with God, supernaturalism, and the current state of the Christian Church towards this earth, this life and the part we are playing both individually and collectively in its future.
I enjoy theorising as much as anyone else, but although necessary to what we are about it can never be seen as sufficient. Christians are familiar with James’s short letter to the "twelve tribes of the dispersion" with its message of the indivisibility of faith and works and with Matthew’s so-called parable of the last judgement, which shows that as far as Jesus was concerned the ultimate test of the faithful rests upon their concern for others. But if we paid-up members of the Sea of Faith believe that all we have is the here and now, there can be no alternative to linking our humanly created God to the sof 57 January 2003 LIFE oe ble humanly created concerns of our time - and trying to do something about them.
I hear you say, ‘We are already doing these things’, and I do not doubt it. Our social and pastoral involvement with those around us and our support for such organisations as Christian Aid, Friends of the Earth and CND lead us into daily contact with personal problems and the major issues of our time.
Although not expressed explicitly, there is generally an assumption within the SoF network that our developing understanding of the meaning of faith for these times will naturally spill over into our daily lives. But while I imagine that for some members, the current level of activity of the network is sufficient, attending the annual conference or turning to the SoF magazine to link us with like minds, when it comes to serving the world we look elsewhere for action and inspiration.
I have a niggling feeling that it cannot just be left it like that. Without wishing to claim too much for ourselves, I believe our sort of half-way-house position between orthodoxy and humanism enables us to reach into areas where our Human Population Growth Billions ‘000 8000 -6000 -4000 -2000 o 2000 Year supernatural-believing or straight humanist brethren feel unable to reach. Moreover, although ready to invite those of like minds into our midst, we are mercifully free of the proselytising spirit expected of mainstream Christians in their contact with non-believers. If the Sea of Faith has a part to play in putting the world to rights, we can safely claim to approach issues without pushing a pre-digested solution for all to follow.
One of these areas in which we are already active is the inter-faith conversations. By not making dogmatic claims, which would immediately set us apart from other belief systems, we can ‘open our hearts and minds’ in a free and nonjudgemental way to discover the "truths" they express. Interfaith issues come naturally to us; they fall comfortably within the world of ideas and enable us to take and use whatever we find to be of worth | as far as we : personally are ; concerned.
Nevertheless, a inter-faith dialogue ’ is still a "churchy" 4 interest, to some extent. Although there is no doubt that if the Jews and Arabs of Palestine or Catholics and Protestants of Northern Ireland could meet and meld their belief systems they would be a long way towards reconciling political differences, when it comes to other major concerns such as poverty, inequality and the environment it is necessary to move outside the language of religious belief and speak in terms which non-religious people, the great "un-churched", use as their normal means of discourse. In other words the next step is towards issues, which have no explicit or formal religious component at all.
Consider for example the issue of human populations, the great unspoken issue that together with economic growth and technological advance stands at the centre of the environmental debate. Deliberately excluded from the recent Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg because of pressure from bodies such as the Vatican, and set aside by Friends of the Earth for fear of being marginalised, the phenomenon of everincreasing human numbers is allowed to continue almost unquestioned. Environmental degradation is directly linked to human numbers; the more there are of us, the less space there is for plants and other creatures and the faster natural resources will be taken and exhausted.
Is there anything Sea of Faith can offer to raise the profile of the population issues? Yes, there is; we can seek to separate birth control from religious dogma in the way it is practised in Catholicism. A sensitive subject to be sure, but many would argue that the official Catholic view on this matter has long been discredited and is the cause of considerable suffering, particularly in countries of the Third World. Although not denying its ethical component, population control is fundamentally a political rather than moral issue. The choice is clear; either mankind seeks to control human numbers or in due course "nature" will in some way rectify the situation by famine, pestilence or the sword.
Technological advance and economic growth are almost indivisible. Each feeds the other and both are seen as vital components of human development and ‘progress’. At the same time both threaten the future of the planet and clearly cannot continue indefinitely in their present form. There is a saying that wherever man has been he leaves behind a desert, and deserts we will continue to produce if we fail to turn away from our fascination with more money and new things. The phrase ‘sustainable development’ sounds fine - until we realise that those who use it have in mind much of the same with one or two minor adjustments to remove the more obvious rough edges such as environmental pollution and conspicuous waste. ‘We have only one earth and any faith for the future must seek to conserve it’. While this is not a direct quotation from Lloyd Geering, it more or less sums up his belief on the matter.
So no more the God of Genesis instructing humankind to "be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it". The charge that Christianity invites humanity to fill and despoil the earth must carefully and thoroughly be refuted. Some Christian voices have already spoken; bishops John Taylor and Hugh Montefiore began writing on these matters way back in the 1970s. Sea of Faith can follow in their tread.
Horace Dammers is another cleric we must thank. Under the banner inviting all to "live simply that others may simply live", he founded the Life Style Movement. It is a small body of (mainly) Christians committed to reducing their personal demand upon the environment and passing the message on to others. Non-monastics may not wish to embrace a life of chastity and obedience, but observance of the third vow with some kind of relative poverty is commendable for a number of reasons, no doubt obvious to us all.
Population control, long-term environmental sustainability, and living simply - none of these are popular causes, but Sea of Faith is not in the business of following the crowd or pushing on open doors. To follow through the ideas that affirm this life and to develop the Network into areas suggested above may be to invite suspicion and hostility. But the advantage we have over secular groups that already labour in these areas is our heritage of faith and continuing belief in spirituality. We may individually abandon the historical idea of God but not, I suggest, the sense of strength and purpose that come from faith and the importance of religious belief.
I am of course mindful of what we are - not a pressure group but an organisation with no set agenda and (in spite of attempts at one time!) no clearly defined statement of principles or purpose. We are "exploring and promoting religious faith —" and my aim here is to suggest our exploration continues beyond belief into its natural, accepted and (for probably most of us) familiar consequences.
L use the word "natural", as I have laboured in this area for many years, and the environmental thing sums up for me so much of what is wrong with the world mankind has made. As far as we know there never has been such a rapacious or destructive creature as mankind on this earth, and in more recent times, armed with the power to amass or destroy at an unprecedented rate. The search for peace and reduction in the levels of poverty and inequality - all no doubt commend themselves to us, but the cause of the environment seems somehow different. It has an inclusiveness about it that brings together many matters we hold to be important.
It is also one that the mainstream churches now recognise, but continue to do little or nothing about. "Pie in the sky when you die" may no longer be a favoured theme from the pulpit, but hope to reside in some place of everlasting bliss after our oh so brief spell here must in some measure detract from putting to rights its discomforts and uncertainties. Not so, Sea of Faith; this is all we have, now and forever. We must look after it.
For details of the Life Style Movement, please see www.lifestyle-movement.org.uk, or write to the Secretary, Keith Taplin, 78 Filton Grove, Horfield, Bristol, BS7 OAL Suggested reading Dammers H. Life Style, a parable of sharing, Jon Carpenter Publishing, 2001 Geering L. The World to Come, from Christian past to global future, Bridget Williams Books, N.Z. 1999 Montefiore H. Taking Our Past into Our Future, Collins, 1978 Enough is Enough, SCM Press, London, 1975 sof 57 January 2003 Taylor J.
John Gamlin, is a former college and university lecturer in electrical engineering. A labourer in the environmental movement since the 1960s he has written on matters concerning technology, society and the environment. He is a resident member of Old Hall, a farming community of some 55 people in Suffolk growing organic vegetables, and the Honorary Treasurer of the Life Style Movement.