Sea of Faith Christchurch Group

At our meeting on 14 May, Laurie will continue telling his story. This involved a new career, a new marriage, and a new family; such a dramatic change that it felt like another life.

The younger generation could be forgiven for thinking that “Christian music” is exclusively evangelical or charismatic. However, back in the 60s, when guitars and drums began to make their appearance in Church, there were musicians such as the English Quaker Sydney Carter, the Australian Anglican Jim Minchin, the German Roman Catholic Peter Janssens, and the American Lutheran John Ylvisaker, who had a liberal, provocative and questioning approach to religion.  Continue Reading »

Briefly, the results of the group’s evaluation of the meeting suggestions are:

Most popular suggestions:

1. Charter of Compassion
2. My Story
3. Karen Armstrong
4. All Heretics’ Day

Interestingly, the suggestions about which we were most divided were:

1. Looking at the Bible Again for the First Time
2. The Greatest Show on Earth (Richard Dawkins’ latest book)

At our next meeting, on Friday 9 April, we will take a look at Karen Armstrong’s proposal for a charter of compassion.

At our next meeting, on Friday 26 March, we will take a last look at the BBC TV series “The Sea of Faith.” This features the C19 German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and also the C20 philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. Nietzsche is famous, among other things, for his parable on the death of God, and Wittgenstein for his insights into the nature of language. Enthusiasm for Wittgenstein has somewhat waned, but I suspect he was at the time of the TV programme, Cupitt’s ideal of the truly modern, rational philosopher.