Contents
Articles
- Democratic Christian Humanism, Don Cupitt
- My Name is Miracle, Alison Webster
- Jesus: A Peasant with Attitude, Duncan Park
Reviews
- Not Top of the Popes, Tim Woodcock
- God is Dad, David Boulton
- Cupitt: Serious Thinker or Practical Joker?, Leslie Griffiths
Regulars and Occasionals
Editorial
My Name 1s MIRACLE... 12 Leslie Griffiths takes Don Cupitt a short story by Alison Webster to task Jesus: A PEASANT WITH ATTITUDE 22 Duncan Park introduces the Jesus Seminar REGULARS MAKING SENSE 3 PHoTto SPECIAL 7,9&11 Editorial Three pictures from Peter Holzapfel’s recent exhibition BEACHCOMBER 21 REVIEWS PosTBAG 24 Your letters Not Top OF THE PoPEs 15 Tim Woodcock reviews the Pope’s latest CD PosTCRIPTS 26 by Seafarer EDITORIAL Sea of Faith The quarterly magazine of the Sea of Faith Network Hobsons Farm, Dent, Cumbria LA10 SRF Editor: David Boulton Making Sense least, no definitive answers which end the conversation. “What is Religion for?” is one such. No surprise, then, that few of the two hundred of us who asked ourselves this question at our annual conference in July will have come away with the sense of satisfaction we get when we think we have solved a difficult riddle.
The satisfaction we do feel is of the kind that comes from open engagement with the big issues where no final closure is sought because, self evidently, no final closure is possible.
Avoidence of closure, of pat answers, was nowhere more evident than in Alison Webster’s keynote opening address. Alison has distinguished herself as an academic theologian in three distinct fields: theologyand-sexuality, theology-and-politics, and, in her present job as social responsibility officer for the diocese of Worcester, the practical theology of care for others in the real world. But she chose to address the question not with argument or polemics but with a story: the made-up-story of a waitress named Miracle who had left institutional religion behind, but remained alive to the miracle of every-day living, alive to the miraculous in the ordinary, and who dispensed cappucino as an act of holy communion.
Although religion-as-story is fundamental to Sea of Faith’s outlook, some of Alison’s listeners expected something different: premises, propositions, and... closure. Perhaps they would have been less baffled had the conference opened in a more ordered way, with the theme set up and signposted more carefully. Alison was even left to introduce herself and test the inadequate sound amplification system before plunging us into the story-world of Miracle. But for those with ears to hear, the messy start was soon forgotten. Readers can judge for themselves what Miracle’s story says about what religion is for, as we print it on page 12.
The feast of the unexpected continued on the second day. Those who thought that S= questions have no answers: at “What is Religion for?”: to make sense of life. Fine - but no closure there. How does religion make sense? What kind of sense?
Chakravarthi Ram Prasad would plunge us into the colour and romance of the Hindu story were instead treated to a challenging analysis of realism, nonrealism and antirealism from a perspective and a tradition unfamiliar to most of us. Ram reminded us that these distinctions had been debated by contending schools of Hindu philosophy from the 6th to the 9th century CE!
He challenged nonrealists to consider whether, in participating in traditional worship, prayers, liturgy and ritual, they are “doing the same things” as those realist believers with whom they are worshipping.
If so, is not the distinction between realists and nonrealists meaningless? And if nonrealists insist that the difference is real and important, what are they doing singing from the same hymn-sheet as the realists?
Is religion-understood-as-a-wholly-humanconstruct in any way, or at any level, the same thing as religion-understood-asderived-from-God? Ram’s address was unscripted, but we carried a preview of it in our last issue.
As has become our custom, we asked Don Cupitt to address us on the final day.
He put before us what he called “the Radical Christian World-View”, one which has come to terms with the “relentless secularization” of the western world, not by trying to put the clock back to premodern ways of looking at things, but by embracing the secular - and making it sacred. The old “cruelly-authoritarian Church Christianity” has to be replaced by “a new this-worldly and democratic Christian humanism”. And that is what Sea of Faith is for.
Don’s address and Alison’s story beautifully complemented each other, with Ram’s challenges making the savoury filling in the sandwich. A huge choice of twenty workshops, ranging from “Reality and Meaning in Music” to “Spirituality and the Teletubbies”, from “Naughty Bits: Sex and Violence in TV” to “Visceral Visions:
Art as Religion”, completed the richlycoloured picture. Lloyd Geering, Anthony Freeman, Patti Whaley, David Paterson and David Hart were among the workshop leaders. Those who wished to worship or “worthship” could perambulate the Botanical Gardens with Penny Mawdsley, do Qi Gong exercises with Anthony Gimpel, circle dance with Nicola Greenwood, or retire to the Quiet Room with nobody. There was even - a welcome innovation - free time! And, of course, a well-stocked bar.
All three main speakers, when pressed in the final session, gave the same shorthand answer to the question “What is Religion for?”: to make sense of life. Fine - but no closure there. How does religion make sense? What kind of sense? Is not the purpose of philosophy, poetry, mythology, music, dance, drama, painting, history, biography, psychology, ethics, cosmology and science to “make sense of life”? Are they, then, all parts of religion, or is religion just one part of culture, just one of many ways of making life intelligible, giving it meaning and purpose? Is it something we abandon at our peril, or take leave of at the hour of liberation? More questions. More conferences. More stories. ? » NOTE: Most of the quotes on _ religion scattered through the following pages were collected for display at Conference by the North West SoF Group, which has produced a 40-page booklet, “Off The Walls”, £2.50 inc p&p, from Andy Kemp, 12 Sandringham Avenue, Hoylake, Wirral, Cheshire CH47 3BZ - cheques payable to “Sea of Faith ) North West group”.
Patti Whaley, Letters Editor, Sea of Faith, 145 Petherton Road, London N5 2RS Or e-mail them to: 101335.3561@compuserve.com LETTERS Credo in Ludo may be alone in finding Alison Webster too hard on Ludovic Kennedy (“Ludo’s Credo”, Sea of Faith, Summer 1999).
I have not Alison’s prior knowledge of the author as a “phenomenally intelligent and articulate man” and so was not disappointed by this new work. It says all that needs be said: a simple affirmation, with just enough evidence, of all I have believed for so long.
I do not know Kennedy’s intended audience; not, I suspect, academics who are dissatisfied unless the patently obvious is dressed up with lengthy, clever proofs.
Far better for “an old man who feels he has not long for this world” to write simply, drawing upon a few highly approachable tales. The book deserves to sell, and I hope it is homely enough to sell very widely.
— John Pearson, Spital Tongues, Newcastle upon Tyne
JOHN PEARSON 3 Belle Grove Place, Spital Tongues Newcastle upon Tyne NE2 4LH read with surprise and disappointment the review of Ludovic Kennedy’s All in the Mind. I had not found parts of the book “mostly just embarrassing” or “sadly predictable” and agreed with Alison Webster on one point only: we do indeed need to be reminded of Margaret Knight’s 1954 BBC lectures.
Like those broadcasts, Kennedy’s book was aimed at the largest possible number of “doubters everywhere” and not just the select few who “know all this”. The objectives of the Sea of Faith will be helped and not hindered if the book is widely read.
— Harold Dowell, Mindhead, Somerset
Haro_D DOWELL 14 Higher Park, Mindhead, Somerset TA24 8AP Dissent on “ascent of man” im to David Boulton for his exemplary exploration and promotion of religious faith as a human creation (Editorial: “Hallelujah, Bang the Drum!”, Sea of Faith, Summer 1999) confronting the human tragedy of Kosovo with Blake’s human values of mercy, pity, peace(making) and love.
But is he justified in calling the evolutionary moral ascent of humankind a “shattered illusion”? Is not David himself promoting our power to choose Blake’s higher human values? And if he really believes our moral ascent is a shattered illusion, why does he promote that choice by saying “we have to do better in the next millennium, or perish in the attempt”?
Yes, the Somme, the Holocaust, Hiroshima, class and ethnic murder and ethnic cleansing have rightly shattered many illusions of quick evolutionary moral ascent. But were not public crucifixions, public burnings at the stake, public tortures and public slave trade symptoms of even worse morality? Surely the right response is not despair, but to be all the more committed for ourselves and the future generations to finding better ways to global justice, peace and happiness on earth, however many centuries it takes.
And to realise that humanity has only begun moral progress on earth, compared with the billions of years of biological evolution, which have only given us humans the power to make moral choices in the most recent blink of evolutionary time. Can we not make it our faith and purpose to try to “build Heaven (on earth) in Hell’s despite”, fully recognizing our own dark powers to build Hell instead?
To find out how to build nearer Heaven will be many lifetimes’ tasks and adventures, certainly with many mistakes and setbacks, and will need a strong faith.
Dark events, big and small, will cast their shadows, but will they not surely lead us to redouble our efforts to find alternatives?
— John Jackson, Golders Green, London
JOHN JACKSON : 18 Woodville Road, Golders Green, London NW11 9TN A mystical Church was profoundly impressed by Teresa Wallace’s “On Finding a New Church” (Sea of Faith, Summer 1999). That the idea of a mystical Church coexistent with the physical one and composed of those who have been regenerated by the Spirit should be applied in this original way to each individual’s network of significant relationships is exciting.
During my life I have enjoyed making relationships with those I have come to know in the course of job, social and family life. Since retirement these people have come to mean more to me and I have learned to appreciate the depth and experience and richness of the stories they live in. We can indeed find a modern and meaningful application of the doctrine of the mystical Church in this personal and unique way. This idea could help us in the Sea of Faith towards a clearer definition of a way forward, towards a commitment to a life based upon human values, focused on action and individuality, and with a continuing link to the ideas of community which were so useful in the past.
— Geoff Newton, Tonedale, Wellington, Somerset
GEOFF NEWTON Ernan, Crosslands, Tonedale, Wellington, Somerset TA21 OAT More women, please TT you, Teresa Wallace. Without intellectual wrangling or emotional torment Teresa shows how she is living out a profound truth: that women (in particular) find fulfilment and meaning through connectedness. Like myself, and I suspect so many other women in the Sea of Faith, she feels she is in her own church in many moments of her everyday life - in particular (and I felt this reading her article) “when...suddenly the flash of a real person comes through the torrent of words”. More articles by women, please: what is obvious to us may come over to others as full of freshness and deep meaning.
— Helena Woppis, Weybridge
HELENA WoppiIs Flat A, Heatherfield, 181, Queens Road Weybridge KT13 OAH Poetry as heresy have just joined the Sea of Faith Network, Ir the week that the Church of England announced that it was considering reintroducing heresy trials for errant clergy. I am appalled by this bigoted and unChristian move.
The Church’s earliest creed was “Jesus is Lord” - an act of commitment with no specific beliefs attached. So much for the Trinity, the virgin birth, etc. It seems to me that nonrealist Christians can be more orthodox than more cautious liberals: the latter believe some things but not others, but when you’ve thrown the lot out as objective truth, you can take it all back again as poetry.
— Stephen Horsfall, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire
STEPHEN HORSFALL 45 Masons Road, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire HP2 4QS The map is not the territory | ae if other SOF members have noticed parallels between NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) and nonrealist philosophy? NLP can be described as the psychology of personal excellence, a model LETTLERS of how we communicate to ourselves and others. By changing the way we represent the world within ourselves, we change our ability to deal with the world outside us.
Examples of NLP’s applications include therapy, improving business performance, and sports training.
A particularly interesting NLP presupposition from a Sea of Faith point of view is that the map is not the territory - ie. the words we use are not the event or the item they represent. People respond to their map of reality and not to reality itself.
The obvious parallel is with the nonrealist idea that language so filters our reality that language itself becomes our reality. The Word (language and signs) is God (ultimate reality). Like non-realist theology, NLP places great emphasis on the power of metaphor to help people redraw their map of the world. NLP’s emphasis on the power of language to shape reality resonates particularly well with nonrealism.
It may even offer some clues to a practical application of nonrealism. For me, the biggest challenge of a nonrealist perspective is how it can help people have greater satisfaction in life. Nonrealism seems to find it easier to describe the problems with other approaches rather than the positive benefits of its own. Seeing the parallels between the NLP model and that of radical, open theology may help us communicate the benefits of our religious approach more effectively and show us new creative possibilities for applying nonrealism in everyday life.
— Anthony Cash, Greenwich
ANTHONY CASH 34a Enderby Street Greenwich SE10 9PF Wild, wild godesses e Goddess (“Janis, Me and Bobby McGee”, Sea of Faith, Summer 1999) is not a wishy-washy Jehovah in drag, nor a meek and submissive Virgin Mary doing what Jehovah expects of her. She is an anthropomorphic representation of the immanent life force in all that exists, and of the eternal cycle of birth, growth, reproduction, decline, death and rebirth.
The many goddesses of the various mythologies are aspects of Her Being. Their common characteristic is that they are all passionate and fierce. Aphrodite, Ishtar, Parvati, Oshun and all the other love goddesses are passionately proud of their sexuality and unashamed of their desires. Isis, Demeter and other consort and mother goddesses are passionately loyal to their mates and protective of their young. Kali, with her necklace of human skulls, and all LETTERS should be sent to Patti : wiey at the address on page 24, : REVIEWS a are edited by is Webster, and books and crane Se SRF or e-mailed tor ae avidBoultoni @compuserve.
Fi nal copy deadline tor December issue: 31st October or ae sarlier the better). : the other dark goddesses, are ruthlessly destructive of all that is lazy and tired in our lives, including outdated religious paradigms.
— G.F Stewart Ellens, Santa Monica, California, USA
FREDERIC LAMOND Moosweg 3, Trabenig, A9241 Wernberg Austria New member? | See that the Pope has recently said publicly that Heaven is not a place, but means union with God! He added that, Hell is made by sinners for themselves and is not inflicted upon them by God’s judgement! Has His Holiness recently become a member of SoF?
— Frederic Lamond, Trabenig, Austria
G.F STEWART ELLENS PO Box 1578, Santa Monica, California 90406, USA Lincs links ith the very considerable help of Christopher Hobson of Lincoln, we plan to relaunch the Lincolnshire SoF Group on September 25 at 2.30pm in seminar room 11, University of Lincolnshire & Humberside, near the Brayford Pool off the AS7 near the centre of Lincoln. I will attempt to lead the first session on Reconciliation from an SoF perspective.
— John Edmondson, Louth, Lincolnshire