DENIS GILDEA 35 Lovelace Road, Dulwich, London SE21 8JY creations of history, culture and language. The eeds, liturgies, formularies, rituals can still be made to make sense, they say, either by revision or by radical reinterpretation and translation. And the does-Goddst question can be answered by “it depends what mean by God, and what you mean by exist”. __ And then we have those who have taken leave of the churches as well as the gods, who see the project not as _ reforming the hopelessly unreformable but as finding new ways of exploring the wholly human spirit, new ways of creating and living by wholly human values, lrawing on the rich heritage of religious language and culture where it helps, and chucking the baggage overboard where it hinders. __ All these positions (and those which try to keep a foot in all three camps, which is quite difficult unless you are a three-legged stool) have a vital place within the wide circle the Network has drawn for itself. “Radical theology”, “nonrealism” and “religious humanism” will remain useful, not mutually exclusive, labels. Me, I’m a critical-postmodernist-postrealistpostchristian radical religious humanist... At least, | was ~ in October. What I'll be tomorrow, only the “God” I _ don’t believe “exists” knows. But I’m sure I'll still be an _ explorer and adventurer on the high seas of faith. postscripts Don’s travels Don Cupitt should just about be back in Britain when is issue comes out, after a gruelling “missionary” tour of Australia and New Zealand. (I’m tempted to say that, _ to all the other stages of his development, we should now add the missionary position - but I won't). He’s agreed to write about the three SoF networks - Australian, New Zealand, UK - and discuss their different responses to their different national aad cultural contexts. Watch this space.
Blasphemous and _ beautiful To the Edinburgh Festival to catch the last erformance of Steven Berkoff’s Messiah: Scenes from a ucifixion on the Fringe. Jesus is an angry young man, leader of a gang of rebels, certain of his mission, uncertain of his success. Long before the crucifixion, he has come to believe that his God has forsaken him if, indeed, there is a God to do any forsaking. He knows what must be done: it is all foretold in the scriptures. But what if the scriptures are man-made? _ What if they’ve got it wrong? What if God is a human creation, and his promises human fantasies?
In that case, Jesus concludes, he must make happen what God was supposed to make happen.
He must follow the script, see it through. He knows _ that religion is theatre and theatre is religion.
Humankind needs the Big Story, the Great Performance. So he engineers his confrontation with ilate, plots his betrayal by Judas, invites his own crucifixion, and briefs his followers to spread the news of his resurrection: “Witnesses will die, but legends last for ever”.
Berkoff very nearly ruins it by indulging the idea for too long. It will be a great play when he has lopped half an hour off (and would make a wonderful reading at a SoF conference). But it has intensely moving moments, not least the Virgin Mary’s wonderfully erotic account of her own less than immaculate conception. And some telling humour too, as when Pilate falls in with Jesus’ plot, condemns him to death as required, then turns to the audience to say: “I wash my hands. People love gestures. That's why they come to the theatre.” And why they go to church.
If Messiah is blasphemous, as Edinburgh's outraged fundamentalists spluttered, its blasphemy is beautiful. This is the way - one way, anyway - to tell the old story for our own times.
Jesus’ plan works. As he dies on the cross, he cries “I am alive!” Berkoff makes us believe it. a Unfair to Blair Tam reproved by a reader, who asks me not to publish his letter, for my “sour and inappropriate” comments about Tony Blair (SOF 43, September 2000). I questioned the argument in the latest Political Theology that the prime minister is distinctive among modern political leaders by his “rich and stimulating” use of theological language, and I particularly upset my correspondent by quoting the journal's assertion that Blair “has led a major reforming project” and adding “Ho-ho, very satirical”.
Some time soon, SOF will need to make a fuller, more evenhanded assessment of the Blair project, and my correspondent may be right in suggesting that this rag-bag of postscripts is not the most appropriate place to do that. But at least I spelt Blair correctly, which is more than I did for William Hague, whose surname I confused with a mediocre blended whisky, and Ann Widdecombe, to whom I ascribed the fourletter version of her first name. Sorry for my carelessness.
Pe all Start to Finnish I bring greetings from Hannu Saloranta and Dr Jarmo Tarkki in Finland, who enlivened our Leicester conference. Hannu has been telling me about Finland’s nearest equivalent to SoF, the Erkki Niinivaara Society, founded at the same time as SoF in the 80s. “The society chose the name”, says Hannu, “because Erkki Niinivaara (1907-1985), a pastor, thinker and writer, represented the experiences of many people, the extensiveness of thought, the openness of mind and the willingness and readiness to change”. 86% of Finns are nominal Lutherans, but “for many of us who were employed by the Evangelical Lutheran Church, the situation resembled a psychological: impasse: on the one hand one must maintain a public face, and on the other hand one must be critical about the same issues. Intellectual dishonesty cannot be a presupposition of religion, and if it is, then it is worse both for the intellect and SOF 44 / November 2000 “religion is theatre for religion.” Familiar stuff.
Their magazine Vartija (“Watchman”) has reported Don Cupitt’s Leicester 2000 lecture, “Christianity after the Church”.
Says Hannu: “The society is trying to maintain discussion of theological issues and of our attitudes to life without commitment to any creed and without fear of becoming labelled as being for or against a particular school of thought. We are trying to follow the discussion and investigation of modern Biblical scholarship and of modern life and science as well. We have almost 200 registered members (population in Finland is about 5 million). The speakers at our meetings - three or four a year - are well known theologians, writers, philosophers, historians and scientists. We have had four seminars during cruises between Helsinki and Stockholm, each one with more applicants than there are berths!” Now there’s a new idea for SoF: a floating conference, faith at sea... Hannu and Jarmo can be contacted at hannu.saloranta@ev1.fi De ea a ca rl Doubtful Thomas I don’t know what to think about R.S.Thomas. At our religious humanism conference a week before his death in September he was listed among the pantheon of contributors to our rich religious heritage, and his religious poetry has been praised by conservative Christians and radical SoFers alike. Scmeone posted his poem “Via Negativa” to the SoF email list: “Why no! I never thought other than That God is that great absence In our lives, the empty silence Within, the place where we go Seeking, not in hope to Arrive or find...” Very SoF... but Thomas's poetry always seemed to me to reflect a black and bleak faith. The bleakness was etched into his face, so that one wondered what a faith was worth which made its holder seem so relentlessly miserable.
I lost faith in him (without ever losing my sense of wonder at his way with words) when, as a fervent Welsh nationalist, he defended the fire-bombing of English-owned second-home cottages. When it was objected by more moderate members of the Welsh Language Society that someone could be killed in that campaign, Thomas is said to have replied “What is a human life compared with the survival of the Welsh language?” How then do we square the poet and the man? Or do we need to? a Religious humanism We'll be carrying a full report in our next issue of our sellout one-day conference, including texts of the talks, and what Anthony Freeman would have said if he hadn’t been prevented from coming. Make sure you've renewed your membership subs for 2001!