GREET THE DAWN:
N h ed GIVELABOUR ITS CHANCE ele ae day conference on Sealey October 27, I'm Talking About Jerusalem, is a brand new departure for SoF, in more ways than one. For starters, it will be the first time that Tony Benn has - spoken on one of our platforms - and the first time too for Leslie Griffiths. Neither would wish to be described as cardcarrying members of SoF, though Tony Benn has written appreciatively of the magazine's "ten hypotheses", and Leslie Griffiths has contributed book reviews. — focuses on politics from a radical faith perspective. And new again in that it is jointly sponsored by this magazine and by Political Theology, which is associated i the Chetan Socialist Movement.
With a heavy cloud of disillusionment hanging over New Labour politics, this seems the right time to ask what our vision is and what must be done to make a reality of it. Ever since the Romans razed the old Jerusalem to the ground, a "New Jerusalem" has symbolised the good society of the future. Blake dreamed of building it in England's 's green and pleasant land.
Arnold Wesker reinvented it in his 1960s play I'm Talking About Jerusalem. But despite "New" Labour and Blair's "New" Britain, - the new Jerusalem seems as distant a prospect as ever. but "things can only stay the same"? Tony Benn has defied the familiar regress from leftish youth to conservative maturity, shifting ever further to the left as his parliamentary career lengthened. His inspiration is the early Quakers, Levellers and _ radicals of the English revolution. Leslie Griffiths - a former a social radical with his feet on the ground, who believes in “critical engagement" with a left-of-centre government. They will discuss the tension between idealism and pragmatism, prophecy and practicality. They'll be joined by activists and Heorists and, | hope, by yo Dovals on page 4. than another is upon us. The one- The conference is also a new departure for SoF i in that i ip Is that the nature of things? Not "things can only get better” President of the Methodist Conference - might be described as Is nothing sacred?
But we're not the only show in town. New Zealand SoF holds its annual conference from September 21 to 23 and we hope to get reports in due course. Details at http: / /sof.wellington.net.nz Nearer home, the Humanist Philosophers' Group asks "Is Nothing Sacred?" at a one-day conference at the Waterloo campus of King's College, London. "Are the things most dear to us valuable only for instrumental reasons, because they satisfy human needs or desires? Or are some things special because they have value in themselves? Without religion, can we justify the idea that anything is sacred?” Good questions, to be discussed by Professor Richard Norman, Dr Nigel Warburton and Dr Alan Howorth. Details from Marilyn Mason, BHA, 47 Theobalds Road, London WC1X 8SP. dad@hvn God, it seems, has bought himself a mobile phone and can now receive text messages of up to 160 characters.
Our competitor Ship of Fools recently ran a competition to convey the Lord's prayer as a text message and the winner was a guy from York, whose prayer went: dad@hvn, ur spshl.we want wot u want&urth2b like hvn.giv us food&4giv r sins lyk we 4giv uvaz.don't test us!save us!bcos we kno ur boss,ur tuf&ur cool 4 eva!ok?
Get the full story at http://ship-offools.com/Features/RFather.html Ah'll want fer nowt If text messaging is not your thing, how about the 23rd Psalm in Yorkshire dialect (translated by the late Kit Calvert): "The Lord is my shipperd, Ah'll want fer nowt. He lets m'bassock i’ t'best pastures an’ taks m' bi't watterside whar o's wyet an’ peeaceful. He uplifts m'soul an' maks things seea easy 'at Ah can drew wiats reet an’ gloryfy His name. Evan if Ah cu't deeaths deursteead, Ah's nut be freetend, fer He'll bi’ wi' me, His creuk an’ esh plant'll uphold me. Thu puts on a good meeal afoor me, reet anenst them'at upbrraids me. Thu ceuls me heead wi' oil an’ Ah'v meeat an'drink t' spar. Seurlie Thi goodniss an'mercy ‘al bi mine fer o' t'days o' mi life, an Ah'll belong t' t'hoose o' the Lord fer ivver." Nah then, did yerivver ear 'owt like it, like?
SOF 49 / September 2001 Devout sceptic Bel Mooney's absorbing BBC Radio 4 series Devout Sceptics, broadcast on Thursdays at 9am and repeated at 9.30pm, featured Philip Pullman on August 9. Pullman is the author of the phenomenally successful trilogy of modern morality tales His Dark Materials, the third book of which, The Amber Spyglass, was published earlier this year (Scholastic Books, £11.99). He is of particular interest to SoF as he has agreed to be one of our principal speakers at next year's annual conference (which is on the theme of "Faith and Fantasy").
Philip Pullman: speaking at next Pullman was brought year’s conference up by a kindly grandfather who was rector of a Norfolk parish. But young Philip soon took leave of God and the church. He told Mooney that for him the church and all forms of institutional religion are "a form of evil, an ugly, ugly spectacle". His morality tales assume that "our world is here and now, and we don't have to die to reach it. He preaches "optimism and love of life". Our task is "to build the republic of heaven here".
He is particularly scathing of C S Lewis's Narnia books, to which his own have sometimes been compared. "They offer one of the nastiest descriptions of Christianity Buddha on his deathbed I've ever heard". They are "a betrayal and negation of life", not least because their message is that the real world is not here and now but somewhere else and in the future.
Mooney suggested he had "a strong sense of the divine, but no belief in a divinity". Pullman demurred: "I'm not sure I'd use the word 'divine'. I believe we are born into a world without meaning, but our problem is that we long for meaning. That's why children love the books. Children and young people ask the big questions, and are not so easily satisfied with glib answers." As Reform magazine commented in reviewing The Amber Spyglass, "The accusation that he levels at religion (and politics to some extent) is that it offers no hope for the present, merely fantasy for the future; but that we have grown out of needing to be told what to do by some invisible authority...As there is no reward in heaven, we should be striving to achieve it here in our own lives, working with others to make the world a better place”.
Amen! Should be a lively conference again next year! whew of the East | this, from ew Zeala | “chair Noel Cheer,