Contents
Covers
- Front cover image: Annibale Carracci: Jesus and the Canaanite Woman. (1594). en.wikipedia.org
- Back cover image: Thomas Cole: Expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. (1828). en.wikipedia.org
Articles
- Being Human: Preliminary Notes by Brian Mountford
- The Truly Human Being and our True Selves by Peter Francis
- Being Human: The Future of Ethical and Spiritual Leadership by Anastasia Somerville-Wong
- How it Began by Stephen Mitchell
Poetry
- Ukraine Sunflower by Peter Phillips
- Red Carnations by Peter Phillips
Reviews
- Denise Cush reviews Religion and Generation Z: Why 70% of young people say they have no religion edited by Brian Mountford
- Nicholas Peter Harvey reviews The Jesus Myth: a psychologist’s viewpoint by Chris Scott
- David Lambourn reviews Unknowing God: Toward a Post-Abusive Theology by Nicholas Peter Harvey & Linda Woodhead
- Kathryn Southworth reviews Saying it with Flowers by Peter Phillips
Regulars and Occasionals
- New Testament Poems and Proclamations: 3. The Beatitudes by Dinah Livingstone
- Letters to the Editor
Editorial
This Sofia starts with shortened versions of talks given by the three main speakers at the SOF annual conference, which took place on Zoom again in July this year. Live recordings of their full talks are also now online at: www.sofconference.org.uk/recordings.html
Each of the three speakers address the subject of ‘Being Human’ from a different angle. Brian Mountford focuses on humans as the story-telling animal and the religious animal. He refers to the scientist Rovelli’s ‘strongly holistic relational view of nature and reality’, which ‘touches upon the very insight that theologians have intuitively found in metaphors, such as the doctrine of the Holy Trinity.’ The three ‘distinct not separate’ persons of the Trinity each possess the whole divine nature and are distinguished by their ‘subsistent relationships’. If human beings, indeed the whole cosmos, share this essential character of being related, perhaps God as Trinity is a personification of that; we created God in our own image, not the other way round.
Peter Francis focuses on Jesus: ‘I still call myself a Christian despite antipathy to the creeds of the church because for me Jesus/Yeshua remains a model of a truly human (humane) being (someone who embodies life in all its fullness)’.
Anastasia Somerville-Wong, the first Humanist Chaplain to join the Multi-faith Chaplaincy Team at the University of Exeter, says we need both social enter-prises that are independent of the state with a strong focus on inclusive spirituality, ethical engagement and activism, as well as multi-faith chaplaincies attached to institutions. She explores how each of these might work.
This Sofia also contains an account by one of SOF Network’s founders, Stephen Mitchell, on ‘How it all Began’. There is plenty more, including poetry, reviews and letters. The front cover shows Jesus and the Canaanite woman (and her dog) who has just asked him to heal her daughter. Is Jesus being racist in what he says to her? Answers to this question would be welcome in a Letter to the Editor.
Below you will see a notice for our newly published SOF book, As I Please by John Pearson. Recommended!
