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Category: Theology

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Oct122013

David Mitchell on Atheism, Agnosticism and Theism

David Mitchell is one of my favourite comedians. I see quite a bit of myself in him if I’m honest. When people discuss religion in the pub I find myself engaging in a very similar manner by trying to unpick what people are saying and see if there is much within that can be held together rationally. I much prefer his style of engagement to the blinkered sledge hammer of someone like Tim Minchin.

For many years I’ve suspected that David Mitchell was a reasoned agnostic. In this clip he gives a very good account of his position and why he is unconvinced by aggressive atheists.

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Sep162013

Vision Upon Vision, a Review

Monks are free from the social rules that everyone else has to follow and George Guiver CR has been telling it like it is for countless years. I’ve chatted with him on numerous occasions whilst at the College of the Resurrection and he has a propensity for dropping huge theological bombshells into the conversation and then wandering off for one of the monastic offices.

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Vision Upon Visions is the first of his books I have read since I was a candidate for the priesthood contemplating The Fire And The Clay. Vision Upon Vision was recommended as an important source for my research into Anglican liturgy and inculturation. Within its pages are a rather comprehensive look at the history of liturgical development and the place of worship within society throughout the ages. This may sound like a dry topic, but Guiver’s refreshing directness cuts to the heart of the matter like a surgeon wielding a sternal saw.

The midsection of the book is an inspirational exploration of the relationship between the worship of the church and the culture in which it occurs. Guiver has prompted many questions that I suspect were already unspoken in the recesses of my mind. Do we check our culture at the door and worship as incomplete expressions of ourselves? Do we allow our liturgical responses to God to critique and inform our culture? These and countless other questions I will seek to explore in the coming months.

The final portion of the book is dedicated to the future of Christian worship. In a world that is shifting culturally with ever increasing speed, what is the vision for worship in the future? Guiver asks some provocative questions about worship from all traditions as he lays a vision for worship that both inspires and challenges the worshipper whilst edifying and glorifying God.

This is by no means a lightweight read; it has a distinctly academic depth to the material covered but Guiver’s style is easily accessible. I’d highly recommend it to anyone who is involved in leading worship.

Sep132013

What is Your Congregation Like?

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“So what are your congregation like?” came the question at a dinner party.

“Oh they’re wonderful,” came Ruth’s reply, “you couldn’t hope to meet a nicer bunch of people. They are warm and welcoming and they have a real desire to see the place thy live transformed for the better”.

With a slightly puzzled look upon his face the dinner guest made his response. “I didn’t mean that, what are your numbers like?”

#truestory

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Aug82013

Equals at God’s Table

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There is something wonderful about the way George Guiver CR embodies his vocation as a monk in a way that enables him to speak so freely about the nature of The Church TM. I’m currently reading his new book Vision upon Vision: Processes of Change and Renewal in Christian Worship. I was so struck by this passage that I typed it out on my phone!

God was not to be defined first in abstract terms, but by what happens in the basilica as the Eucharist is celebrated by the gathered believers… People can be puzzled by talk of the Eucharist making the church manifest, but one way in which this is clearly true is the fact that all people gathered – from presiding clergy to rulers and magistrates, shopkeepers and urban poor – are equally prophets, priests and kings, and their relationship is one of communion, in the scriptures, in the kiss of peace, and in sharing the Supper of The Lord. The Christian liturgy is utterly egalitarian: we are all equal in the sight of God. Toffs rub shoulders with vagrants….

In subsequent history the equality of all was often violated when ruling elites came to treat the church as their possession: those creepy English village churches in the grounds of mansions, rebuilt in elegant taste and run by local gentry, are one example of this. But there has always been a gospel law by which one day they would be found wanting…

The drama of the liturgy, then, needs to be performed in such a way that it corresponds to the nature of God and is an icon of God. This way already exists, and our part is to uncover it.

This is the unease I feel as an Anglican each time I am introduced to a colleague with such qualifying phrases as “of course his father was dean at…” There was of course the time I was genuinely told that “they are one of the ‘big families’ in the Church of England nationally”. I just can’t square these concepts with the table we gather around or the Jesus movement we have signed up to.