Sea of Faith Christchurch Group

On Friday 27 August, David will introduce us to the book “The Ascent of Money” by Niall Ferguson. He writes:

This book talks about the  “Boom and Bust cycles” that have gone on for ever and was written after the start of the current financial “bust”, so it is very topical.

“The Ascent of Money” does not say much about religion, but it implies a lot about the reality of human behaviour despite centuries of religious belief about the essential “goodness?” of man.

The book brought home to me how many world events are triggered by financial events and considerations. For instance the American civil war was lost, not by the superior forces of the North or the moral force of its cause, but by the fact that the South ran out of credit before the North did. The South’s bonds were backed by the future sale of cotton, which for a reason totally unrelated to the war, suddenly dropped in value.

Another observation from reading the book, is that whilst moral values have existed through out time, when it comes to money, moral considerations are of little concern on the list of factors that finally decide the issue of the day.

Which raises for me the huge gap between “Sunday values” and  “Weekday values” which has been evident throughout time.

At our next meeting, on Friday 13 August, Hugh Thorpe will present a brief review of James Hansen’s recently published book: “Storms of my Grandchildren, the truth about the coming climate catastrophe and our last chance to save humanity.”

Ian Crumpton will outline the objections to this argument, raising sound scientific reasons that show “global warming” is a myth propagated by those, among others,  who seek a change in the power structures of our culture.

In the middle of winter, traditional Maori celebrated Matariki.  This was the beginning of a new year; time to celebrate with a special hangi and then to begin planting kumara.

In the middle of winter, ancient Romans celebrated the winter solstice.  Venerators of sol invictus, the invincible sun, they marked the turning point when the sun ceased becoming weaker and colder, gaining in strength and showing light triumphing over darkness.

The early Christians took over such winter solstice celebrations, turning them into a celebration of the birth of their savior and applying what had been cyclical truth based on the seasons of nature to the one-off of that birth.

But what about us moderns? Are we so cocooned in our neon-lit, climate-controlled rooms that we have no sense any more of the rhythms of nature? Living in the shadow of the free market and global capitalism with its relentless competition, is there no place for the unproductive purposelessness of ritual and ceremony? Has Christmas, transposed to a different season here in New Zealand, lost its religious significance and become a time of family togetherness, excessive food consumption and commercial exploitation?

Our meeting on Friday 25 June is an opportunity to informally explore such questions.  Please feel free to bring and share any thoughts or ideas.

On Friday 11 June, we will look at what Christians call the Old Testament with the help of Claus Westermann, a German expert. For most people, the bible is a book that begins with the story of creation. Scholars, however, give us quite a different perspective.

First, the Old Testament is not a book but a library of books, one that increased and evolved over a thousand years.

Secondly, this library began in the time of the Israelite kings (Saul, David, and Solomon). The first “book” recorded events at court, especially surrounding the succession from King Saul to King David and then from King David to King Solomon.  Later, a preface was added, committing to writing a bundle of oral traditions that pre-dated the kingship; stories of wandering nomadic clans, of oppression in Egypt, of the infiltration of Canaan.  Even later, another preface was added in front of the first preface, that extended the pre-history of the kingship right back to the beginning of time, drawing on a mix of mythical and legendary traditions.

Later, when the Israelites were in exile, a priestly group added their variants of the main stories to this library, merging them with the originals. Other items were added; a collection of temple songs (the psalms), stories and words of various prophets, and wisdom literature such as Proverbs and the book of Job.

From cave painters to modern day philosophers, theologians, scientists, and people generally, K.A. surveys all the writers and schools of thought on God and ultimate reality.

While K.A`s focus is necessarily a narrow one, on particular views about God, she looks at each one’s impact, reaction and development on current and later peoples and societies, on the emergence of orthodoxies of all kinds and every changing response and reaction to them.
There is much to suggest this book is about mankind’s need for certainity, that the universe and all life is not a meaningless chance occurance, about an obsession with God. Continue Reading »