I decided not, in the end, to put this first novel for Hanif on the book club reading list for the Book Club I run.
It is a very readable, fast moving and humorous novel and it is well written.
It is an attempt to answer the question as to why a Hercules C130 aircraft carrying Pakistan's military dictator, General Zia ul Haq, crashed without explanation.
Weaving a series of plots and stories which, at times become confusing and occasionally difficult to follow - the novel is a good introduction to this part of the world.
It's a good book for the train or the bus - and leaves you asking a lot of questions about humanity and humour.
Friday 26 November 2010
Monday 22 November 2010
Update
It's been a great few weeks.
Busy at work, enjoying lots of parish events - and spending lots of time with friends as well.
Saw Stephen today and we did some filming together in Derbyshire.
Attending Derby Diocesan annual conference after preaching at the Feast of Christ the King last night.
Busy at work, enjoying lots of parish events - and spending lots of time with friends as well.
Saw Stephen today and we did some filming together in Derbyshire.
Attending Derby Diocesan annual conference after preaching at the Feast of Christ the King last night.
Monday 8 November 2010
Bishop Michael Ramsey on The Transfiguration
This is a transcript of a conversation I had with Bishop Michael Ramsey whilst a student in Durham in 1982.
We discussed The Transfiguration of Jesus and it was captured on an old tape.
Here is a transcript of
Michael Ramsey on the Transfiguration.
RM: The Feast of the Transfiguration is not given the prominence it deserves in the Church of England is it?
MR: It is not in our Church of England but the Eastern Orthodox Church makes a great deal of it. It is one of their three or four top feasts. And the Church of Rome makes more of it by keeping it in Lent on one of the Sundays in Lent as does our new ASB. It is a good place for the Transfiguration on the way towards the Passion.
RM: What about the theories of Bultmann and Boobyer and Riesenfeld?
MR: Bultmann’s idea that the Transfiguration is a misplaced resurrection account can, I think, be discounted altogether.
Boobyer’s idea that the Transfiguration is a prefiguration of the Parousia is true. In a sense, any visible manifestation of glory would be a forecast of the Parousia.
Riesenfeld’s view is too definitive and speculative to be convincing.
RM: What about your book, Bishop?
MR: Thinking on it now I am struck by the difference between Mark’s presentation and Luke’s presentation. I do not think that Mark’s Gospel gives us a kind a biographical narrative of the Lord’s mission. Mark’s Gospel is a set of episodes or pericopes but sometimes there are links and Mark’s narrative is linked with what has gone before by those words ‘after six days’.
That links the narrative with the prediction of the passion and links them in such a way that I think the Transfiguration narrative says ‘Yes in spite of the forthcoming passion Jesus is in glory’. Jesus is in glory with perhaps the thought that this is a prefiguring of the glory which he predicted after the Passion.
RM: What about the divine voice and the cloud:
MR: Here I think the presence of Moses and Elijah is a sign according to traditions of the time and the reappearance of these figures means that the Day of the Lord is here on the earth.
The cloud I read as a sign of the divine presence: it is the cloud of the presence and it’s just that the disciples are overwhelmed with the sense of God’s presence. God is here. God is here. God is here. Stop talking God is here. Especially as St Peter has been making some rather unprofitable remarks. The cloud says to him ‘Stop talking God is here’.
The voice proclaims the sonship. I think that the point is that at the baptism the voice has proclaimed the sonship to Jesus himself according to Mark. Now the voice the sonship through the disciples. It tells them God’ son has unique authority and they have to listen to him.
RM: Where in the OT do you think the words of the voice come from?
MR: Well I don’t know that the words need to come from anywhere. The point is that Jesus is proclaimed to be Son. It’s the Son language that we get in Psalm 2 but I don’t think that it need come from anywhere. It’s just a testimony to the sonship in its own right.
There is no need for everything to come from anywhere. These parallels merely indicate that it’s rather meaningful language
RM: What about other references to sonship in Mark?
MR: I agree. I think the stories of the baptism and the transfiguration have a kind of structural place. I don’t think that the narrative is consecutive. But there is a string of pericope and there are certain pericope which come with a certain kind of bang.
Baptism – Son. Transfiguration – Son. Crucifixion – Son.
The novelty being that it is in his death that the sonship is supremely revealed. I don’t think that Mark’s Transfiguration story specifically links it with the death apart from simply the note ‘after six days’. It is the Jesus who is going to die that is proclaimed the son.
In the artistry of Mark there is a son theme in which the Baptism, Transfiguration and Calvary are all kind of stages.
RM: What elements do Matthew and Luke add?
MR: In Matthew I see, first of all, just a little making explicit of the Old Testament imagery. For instance, Matthew says his face shone as the sun. That’s a contrast between the brief reflected glory of the face of Moses and the sort of authentic glory in the face of Jesus. I think that the contrast is there. Another point in Matthew is the shining cloud. That identifies it more explicitly with the cloud of the presence. Then there is just this difference. In Matthew it’s the voice that makes them afraid and Jesus bids them not to fear. I don’t know that there is very much significance in this but it’s just a way of bringing out the luminous character of the event a bit.
In Luke, the word Transfiguration is avoided and the word Glory is explicitly brought in.
‘Transfiguration’ is avoided maybe simply because Luke thinks he can say it as well by bringing in the word ‘doxa’. Some commentators have said that Luke was avoiding what might sound like a pagan kind of word. That is possible. I think the point is that Luke makes the same point as the others. He does not have ‘transfigured’ he has doxa’ and that links it with a doxa theme which we have in Luke.
In Luke the key point is that they spoke of the ‘exodus’. This means not just the death but all that follows. The going forth to glory. And I link it with Luke in the post resurrection episode. Jesus says “Behold did not the Chris suffer these things and enter into his glory”. I think that with the exodus. Luke sees the Transfiguration in terms of a theme of Jesus is moving from suffering to glory. The glory being already anticipated. In a kind of way, Mark links it with the theme of his Gospel by direct link with ‘after six days’ and by the term ‘son’ which as we have seen comes at these very significant terms. Luke links it with his story rather more with his theme of the movement of Jesus through death to glory.
Luke brings this out dramatically. He sets his face towards Jerusalem. He is aware of his movement towards Jerusalem.
Mark is rather ‘Here is Jesus’ manifested as the Son and particularly manifested in the Son in his death. Luke is rather the movement of a story in which the Transfiguration is an episode in the movement.
RM: What about the relationship between the Kingdom and the Transfiguration?
MR: The reference to ‘here’ is more explicit in Matthew than in the other two. Mark 9.1 says there are some standing ‘here’.
RM: What about Boobyer?
MR: I think the point in my mind is simply that a theme of Mark is that after the Passion the Son of Man will be seen in glory. No more and no less than that. I don’t think that it is necessary to find a specific explanation for the story because I think that the motifs of the story – of Jesus in glory and of Jesus the Son are sufficient. It doesn’t require any particular imagery to explain it. In a sort of way Booyber is making rather a fuss of it.
Boobyer treats it all as Parousia picture. I am saying that it is not only a foretaste. I am saying that the glory will be here. I would say that. It’s a bit difficult to be absolutely precise. I am just assumed that law and prophecy are witnessing to fulfillment.
Have I just been sermonising nicely.
I have noticed that the order is reversed in some Gospels. Elijah is given priority in Mark but I am not sure about it.
RM: What about Peter?
MR: Well Peter was the spokesman and Peter often is the spokesman in Mark’s Gospel and elsewhere. It depends on what one’s outlook is. We can say that from the beginning a strong tradition that Peter used to always make comments or you can say that there was an ideology about Peter in the early Church that produced these stories.
There was in the Church a tradition of dialogue between Peter and Jesus and we have specimens of dialogue between the two.
RM: What about historicity?
MR: if this Transfiguration notion were known to be a prominent notion in the Early Church then it’s something that you might expect to get written up in the Gospel tradition. But it does not seem to have been a dominant theme. There is only 2 Peter to go on and that’s very late.
If Jesus is Son there is something unique in the tradition. The content of Peter’s confession is something unique. The claim of Jesus to be inaugurating the Kingdom of God is unique. The claim of Jesus that through his death the kingdom of God is unique. It’s something unique, not isolation, but it is amongst a series of unique concepts. Are these concepts derived from the mission of Jesus or are they imported into the mission of Jesus either by oral tradition or by editing?
RM: What about the concentration of motifs?
MR: The fact that there is such a concentration of motifs can make it a little suspicious.
The Transfiguration is not a parable, it’s not a miracle, and it’s a bit of both in a funny kind of way. It’s supernatural and literal. The motifs on offer are simple motifs. Prophecy is being fulfilled. Jesus is Son. Jesus is in glory – a glimpse of the glory that is going to be. Meanwhile there is going to be the suffering.
In Mark the important context is the Baptism, Peter’s Confession and the Passion.
Luke gives it much more of a context as editor and biographer.
The turning point in all of the Gospels is Peter’s confession. The transfiguration just gives it more of a dramatic headline.
In all the traditions from Caesarea Philippi, it’s known that the Passion is coming, it is predicted and the Transfiguration is a bit more an interpretation of the Passion. I think that the turning point has already happened. Jesus has already begun the journey towards his death.
RM: And the Exodus imagery of the OT?
MR: I think that it’s possible that there may be an exodus motif there already in the tradition. Luke is not inventing it, it was probably there already. The motif was there already in Matthew in the tradition. Matthew makes it explicit.
Whether we would have realised that if we had only Mark’s story I am not sure.
RM: What is the message of the Transfiguration?
MR: Well the message of the Transfiguration is this. That Jesus, on his way to death, is in glory. And what is in glory is the mission of Jesus to die. And the message for us is that glory, now and in the future, is not apart from the vocation to suffer and die. And that is something that the disciples did not realise at the time but came to be realised in the concept of the Transfiguration of suffering which we do find in Christianity and in the New Testament in so many ways. John’s account of the Passion is one instance. The treatment of suffering by Peter in I Peter is another instance; in St Paul there is a good deal about suffering transfigured. I think that the transfiguring of suffering is a great Christian theme that appears on a number of ways in the New Testament.
I don’t think that it consciously related to the Transfiguration story but I think for us Christians, the Transfiguration is a great focusing of the theme of suffering aglow in the mission of Jesus and suffering and glory in the Christian life.
We rightly use the Transfiguration as the sort of Festival of a great Christian theme without necessarily saying that there is a plausible connection.
I think there is a good deal of Transfiguration theme in the New Testament which makes it more significant.
I think it’s a theme in its own right. It’s linked with the passion. It has very little relation to the resurrection as such. That’s why it’s very unlikely to be misplaced resurrection story.
The book was published in 1949 – over thirty years ago. My recollect on that the story appealed to me as a piece of biblical study that had been rather neglected and also that the theme appealed to me very strongly as an aspect of the Christian life.
I [preach about it very often but I use it more often than not. I use it on clergy retreats which I do from time to time. I go on using it. It has become a spiritual theme.
Rob Marshall London 2010
We discussed The Transfiguration of Jesus and it was captured on an old tape.
Here is a transcript of
Michael Ramsey on the Transfiguration.
RM: The Feast of the Transfiguration is not given the prominence it deserves in the Church of England is it?
MR: It is not in our Church of England but the Eastern Orthodox Church makes a great deal of it. It is one of their three or four top feasts. And the Church of Rome makes more of it by keeping it in Lent on one of the Sundays in Lent as does our new ASB. It is a good place for the Transfiguration on the way towards the Passion.
RM: What about the theories of Bultmann and Boobyer and Riesenfeld?
MR: Bultmann’s idea that the Transfiguration is a misplaced resurrection account can, I think, be discounted altogether.
Boobyer’s idea that the Transfiguration is a prefiguration of the Parousia is true. In a sense, any visible manifestation of glory would be a forecast of the Parousia.
Riesenfeld’s view is too definitive and speculative to be convincing.
RM: What about your book, Bishop?
MR: Thinking on it now I am struck by the difference between Mark’s presentation and Luke’s presentation. I do not think that Mark’s Gospel gives us a kind a biographical narrative of the Lord’s mission. Mark’s Gospel is a set of episodes or pericopes but sometimes there are links and Mark’s narrative is linked with what has gone before by those words ‘after six days’.
That links the narrative with the prediction of the passion and links them in such a way that I think the Transfiguration narrative says ‘Yes in spite of the forthcoming passion Jesus is in glory’. Jesus is in glory with perhaps the thought that this is a prefiguring of the glory which he predicted after the Passion.
RM: What about the divine voice and the cloud:
MR: Here I think the presence of Moses and Elijah is a sign according to traditions of the time and the reappearance of these figures means that the Day of the Lord is here on the earth.
The cloud I read as a sign of the divine presence: it is the cloud of the presence and it’s just that the disciples are overwhelmed with the sense of God’s presence. God is here. God is here. God is here. Stop talking God is here. Especially as St Peter has been making some rather unprofitable remarks. The cloud says to him ‘Stop talking God is here’.
The voice proclaims the sonship. I think that the point is that at the baptism the voice has proclaimed the sonship to Jesus himself according to Mark. Now the voice the sonship through the disciples. It tells them God’ son has unique authority and they have to listen to him.
RM: Where in the OT do you think the words of the voice come from?
MR: Well I don’t know that the words need to come from anywhere. The point is that Jesus is proclaimed to be Son. It’s the Son language that we get in Psalm 2 but I don’t think that it need come from anywhere. It’s just a testimony to the sonship in its own right.
There is no need for everything to come from anywhere. These parallels merely indicate that it’s rather meaningful language
RM: What about other references to sonship in Mark?
MR: I agree. I think the stories of the baptism and the transfiguration have a kind of structural place. I don’t think that the narrative is consecutive. But there is a string of pericope and there are certain pericope which come with a certain kind of bang.
Baptism – Son. Transfiguration – Son. Crucifixion – Son.
The novelty being that it is in his death that the sonship is supremely revealed. I don’t think that Mark’s Transfiguration story specifically links it with the death apart from simply the note ‘after six days’. It is the Jesus who is going to die that is proclaimed the son.
In the artistry of Mark there is a son theme in which the Baptism, Transfiguration and Calvary are all kind of stages.
RM: What elements do Matthew and Luke add?
MR: In Matthew I see, first of all, just a little making explicit of the Old Testament imagery. For instance, Matthew says his face shone as the sun. That’s a contrast between the brief reflected glory of the face of Moses and the sort of authentic glory in the face of Jesus. I think that the contrast is there. Another point in Matthew is the shining cloud. That identifies it more explicitly with the cloud of the presence. Then there is just this difference. In Matthew it’s the voice that makes them afraid and Jesus bids them not to fear. I don’t know that there is very much significance in this but it’s just a way of bringing out the luminous character of the event a bit.
In Luke, the word Transfiguration is avoided and the word Glory is explicitly brought in.
‘Transfiguration’ is avoided maybe simply because Luke thinks he can say it as well by bringing in the word ‘doxa’. Some commentators have said that Luke was avoiding what might sound like a pagan kind of word. That is possible. I think the point is that Luke makes the same point as the others. He does not have ‘transfigured’ he has doxa’ and that links it with a doxa theme which we have in Luke.
In Luke the key point is that they spoke of the ‘exodus’. This means not just the death but all that follows. The going forth to glory. And I link it with Luke in the post resurrection episode. Jesus says “Behold did not the Chris suffer these things and enter into his glory”. I think that with the exodus. Luke sees the Transfiguration in terms of a theme of Jesus is moving from suffering to glory. The glory being already anticipated. In a kind of way, Mark links it with the theme of his Gospel by direct link with ‘after six days’ and by the term ‘son’ which as we have seen comes at these very significant terms. Luke links it with his story rather more with his theme of the movement of Jesus through death to glory.
Luke brings this out dramatically. He sets his face towards Jerusalem. He is aware of his movement towards Jerusalem.
Mark is rather ‘Here is Jesus’ manifested as the Son and particularly manifested in the Son in his death. Luke is rather the movement of a story in which the Transfiguration is an episode in the movement.
RM: What about the relationship between the Kingdom and the Transfiguration?
MR: The reference to ‘here’ is more explicit in Matthew than in the other two. Mark 9.1 says there are some standing ‘here’.
RM: What about Boobyer?
MR: I think the point in my mind is simply that a theme of Mark is that after the Passion the Son of Man will be seen in glory. No more and no less than that. I don’t think that it is necessary to find a specific explanation for the story because I think that the motifs of the story – of Jesus in glory and of Jesus the Son are sufficient. It doesn’t require any particular imagery to explain it. In a sort of way Booyber is making rather a fuss of it.
Boobyer treats it all as Parousia picture. I am saying that it is not only a foretaste. I am saying that the glory will be here. I would say that. It’s a bit difficult to be absolutely precise. I am just assumed that law and prophecy are witnessing to fulfillment.
Have I just been sermonising nicely.
I have noticed that the order is reversed in some Gospels. Elijah is given priority in Mark but I am not sure about it.
RM: What about Peter?
MR: Well Peter was the spokesman and Peter often is the spokesman in Mark’s Gospel and elsewhere. It depends on what one’s outlook is. We can say that from the beginning a strong tradition that Peter used to always make comments or you can say that there was an ideology about Peter in the early Church that produced these stories.
There was in the Church a tradition of dialogue between Peter and Jesus and we have specimens of dialogue between the two.
RM: What about historicity?
MR: if this Transfiguration notion were known to be a prominent notion in the Early Church then it’s something that you might expect to get written up in the Gospel tradition. But it does not seem to have been a dominant theme. There is only 2 Peter to go on and that’s very late.
If Jesus is Son there is something unique in the tradition. The content of Peter’s confession is something unique. The claim of Jesus to be inaugurating the Kingdom of God is unique. The claim of Jesus that through his death the kingdom of God is unique. It’s something unique, not isolation, but it is amongst a series of unique concepts. Are these concepts derived from the mission of Jesus or are they imported into the mission of Jesus either by oral tradition or by editing?
RM: What about the concentration of motifs?
MR: The fact that there is such a concentration of motifs can make it a little suspicious.
The Transfiguration is not a parable, it’s not a miracle, and it’s a bit of both in a funny kind of way. It’s supernatural and literal. The motifs on offer are simple motifs. Prophecy is being fulfilled. Jesus is Son. Jesus is in glory – a glimpse of the glory that is going to be. Meanwhile there is going to be the suffering.
In Mark the important context is the Baptism, Peter’s Confession and the Passion.
Luke gives it much more of a context as editor and biographer.
The turning point in all of the Gospels is Peter’s confession. The transfiguration just gives it more of a dramatic headline.
In all the traditions from Caesarea Philippi, it’s known that the Passion is coming, it is predicted and the Transfiguration is a bit more an interpretation of the Passion. I think that the turning point has already happened. Jesus has already begun the journey towards his death.
RM: And the Exodus imagery of the OT?
MR: I think that it’s possible that there may be an exodus motif there already in the tradition. Luke is not inventing it, it was probably there already. The motif was there already in Matthew in the tradition. Matthew makes it explicit.
Whether we would have realised that if we had only Mark’s story I am not sure.
RM: What is the message of the Transfiguration?
MR: Well the message of the Transfiguration is this. That Jesus, on his way to death, is in glory. And what is in glory is the mission of Jesus to die. And the message for us is that glory, now and in the future, is not apart from the vocation to suffer and die. And that is something that the disciples did not realise at the time but came to be realised in the concept of the Transfiguration of suffering which we do find in Christianity and in the New Testament in so many ways. John’s account of the Passion is one instance. The treatment of suffering by Peter in I Peter is another instance; in St Paul there is a good deal about suffering transfigured. I think that the transfiguring of suffering is a great Christian theme that appears on a number of ways in the New Testament.
I don’t think that it consciously related to the Transfiguration story but I think for us Christians, the Transfiguration is a great focusing of the theme of suffering aglow in the mission of Jesus and suffering and glory in the Christian life.
We rightly use the Transfiguration as the sort of Festival of a great Christian theme without necessarily saying that there is a plausible connection.
I think there is a good deal of Transfiguration theme in the New Testament which makes it more significant.
I think it’s a theme in its own right. It’s linked with the passion. It has very little relation to the resurrection as such. That’s why it’s very unlikely to be misplaced resurrection story.
The book was published in 1949 – over thirty years ago. My recollect on that the story appealed to me as a piece of biblical study that had been rather neglected and also that the theme appealed to me very strongly as an aspect of the Christian life.
I [preach about it very often but I use it more often than not. I use it on clergy retreats which I do from time to time. I go on using it. It has become a spiritual theme.
Rob Marshall London 2010
Friday 5 November 2010
Thought for the Day cancelled
A bit of a first tonight.
I was due to present Thought for the Day on the Today programme tomorrow but due to the BBC strike the slot has been cancelled.
So - a bit of extra time I didn't know I was going to have!
I was due to present Thought for the Day on the Today programme tomorrow but due to the BBC strike the slot has been cancelled.
So - a bit of extra time I didn't know I was going to have!
A good week
It's a been a good week this week.
Having led a training course for recently ordained clergy in Chesterfield on Tuesday it was on to a Conference on Addiction in central Leeds on Wednesday.
Back into London to face a tube strike on Wednesday night and then a couple of days catching up in London but making super progress!
Having led a training course for recently ordained clergy in Chesterfield on Tuesday it was on to a Conference on Addiction in central Leeds on Wednesday.
Back into London to face a tube strike on Wednesday night and then a couple of days catching up in London but making super progress!
Alan Sugar :What you see is what you get
I didn't know what to expect when I bought a copy of Sugar's autobiography in Oban to read at the end of a disrupted pilgrimage.
But this is one of the best, honest and fast moving personal stories which I have read for a very long time.
You can hear Lord Sugar speaking every word. We hear of the humble beginnings, his frustration and being employed rather than working for himself; and then of the formidable and quite remarkable rise of his small electronics empire into Amstrad and all that follows.
"You can't buy entrepreneurial juice" Sugar keeps on saying: you either have it or you don't. That is classic Sugar throughout this book.
But apart from the rise and rise of his Empire there are two other stories which dominate this narrative. The first is his buying of Spurs Football Club. The shocking revelations of the pain and frustration at being involved in the commercial world of football makes you wonder why anyone would ever want to get involved in the first place?
The other is the advent of The Apprentice. The way Sugar tells this story - with such honesty (again) and clarity - you realise that he never expected the programme to change his life in the way that it did and also gain some insight into the magical editing job which is done on the programme to ensure that it turns out as good as it does.
Other bits of Sugar wisdom include "I'd discovered that as soon as any new business idea is born, up springs the competition" and his less than sympathetic description of a Daily Mail journalist: "a pathetic loser who does nothing in life other than engage in spiteful sniping to cover his own lack of achievement."
I strongly recommend this book. It's a great read and, whilst I might have had reservations about Alan Sugar prior to reading it - I finished the book with a sense of gratitude that I had taken time out to read it in the first place.
But this is one of the best, honest and fast moving personal stories which I have read for a very long time.
You can hear Lord Sugar speaking every word. We hear of the humble beginnings, his frustration and being employed rather than working for himself; and then of the formidable and quite remarkable rise of his small electronics empire into Amstrad and all that follows.
"You can't buy entrepreneurial juice" Sugar keeps on saying: you either have it or you don't. That is classic Sugar throughout this book.
But apart from the rise and rise of his Empire there are two other stories which dominate this narrative. The first is his buying of Spurs Football Club. The shocking revelations of the pain and frustration at being involved in the commercial world of football makes you wonder why anyone would ever want to get involved in the first place?
The other is the advent of The Apprentice. The way Sugar tells this story - with such honesty (again) and clarity - you realise that he never expected the programme to change his life in the way that it did and also gain some insight into the magical editing job which is done on the programme to ensure that it turns out as good as it does.
Other bits of Sugar wisdom include "I'd discovered that as soon as any new business idea is born, up springs the competition" and his less than sympathetic description of a Daily Mail journalist: "a pathetic loser who does nothing in life other than engage in spiteful sniping to cover his own lack of achievement."
I strongly recommend this book. It's a great read and, whilst I might have had reservations about Alan Sugar prior to reading it - I finished the book with a sense of gratitude that I had taken time out to read it in the first place.
Monday 1 November 2010
Thought for the Day 30th November
Copyright is with the BBC )www.bbc.co.uk/religion)
For better or worse, the clocks go back tonight and the darkness is about to get deeper. The Celtic Festival of Samhain was celebrated about now. It marked the end of summer and the official start of winter. The arrival of short days and long nights represented that moment in creation when the boundary between this world and the next was said to be at its thinnest. So the evil spirits, which could easily transfer from one world to another had to be fended off by lighting fires, eating special foods, dressing up. The Celts had faith that the light would persist.
The link between Halloween and Samhain seems obvious, though the actual name Halloween seems to have derived from a corruption of the Scottish festival of “All Hallows Eve”. And that’s because Christians also use this time of the year to celebrate All Saints and All Souls. The great saints of the church are commemorated followed by those all those souls whose example is a source of inspiration to us.
I personally have no problem with Halloween. It’s now a 21st century heavily marketised campaign about the battle between light and darkness. What’s wrong, particularly in teaching our children, that we look for protection from darkness with a longing that the light always shines through; that truth and justice might always overcome the ways of evil?
But it’s back to that that Celtic notion of now being the thinnest time between this world and the next which intrigues me most. Of all spiritual questions – what happens next? – where does this life lead us? – are amongst the most prevalent when I talk to people about faith.
Next week, the British Museum presents a new exhibition featuring the 3000 year old Egyptian Book of the Dead. It is evidence that even a thousand years before the Incarnation people were asking exactly the same type of questions and trying to influence where they and their loved ones would end up: The Exhibition will show that questions should as “What happens in the afterlife? What can I hope for? Why am I afraid?” have always been part of the mystery of life and death for every human person.
When St John writes in his Prologue that the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it, he underlines that much of Jesus’s teaching deals exactly with these kinds of questions. Faith is interpreted as a pathway through all the periods of doubt and darkness which affect every human spirit. Faith is not a way round them.
At this thin spiritual time of the year when the religious and secular join together in waging war on all that is evil – it is to those very saints and souls who have gone before us that we look: they are more than a source of encouragement and example.
For better or worse, the clocks go back tonight and the darkness is about to get deeper. The Celtic Festival of Samhain was celebrated about now. It marked the end of summer and the official start of winter. The arrival of short days and long nights represented that moment in creation when the boundary between this world and the next was said to be at its thinnest. So the evil spirits, which could easily transfer from one world to another had to be fended off by lighting fires, eating special foods, dressing up. The Celts had faith that the light would persist.
The link between Halloween and Samhain seems obvious, though the actual name Halloween seems to have derived from a corruption of the Scottish festival of “All Hallows Eve”. And that’s because Christians also use this time of the year to celebrate All Saints and All Souls. The great saints of the church are commemorated followed by those all those souls whose example is a source of inspiration to us.
I personally have no problem with Halloween. It’s now a 21st century heavily marketised campaign about the battle between light and darkness. What’s wrong, particularly in teaching our children, that we look for protection from darkness with a longing that the light always shines through; that truth and justice might always overcome the ways of evil?
But it’s back to that that Celtic notion of now being the thinnest time between this world and the next which intrigues me most. Of all spiritual questions – what happens next? – where does this life lead us? – are amongst the most prevalent when I talk to people about faith.
Next week, the British Museum presents a new exhibition featuring the 3000 year old Egyptian Book of the Dead. It is evidence that even a thousand years before the Incarnation people were asking exactly the same type of questions and trying to influence where they and their loved ones would end up: The Exhibition will show that questions should as “What happens in the afterlife? What can I hope for? Why am I afraid?” have always been part of the mystery of life and death for every human person.
When St John writes in his Prologue that the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it, he underlines that much of Jesus’s teaching deals exactly with these kinds of questions. Faith is interpreted as a pathway through all the periods of doubt and darkness which affect every human spirit. Faith is not a way round them.
At this thin spiritual time of the year when the religious and secular join together in waging war on all that is evil – it is to those very saints and souls who have gone before us that we look: they are more than a source of encouragement and example.
All Saints and All Souls
It's been another one of those weekends. Busy but rewarding.
Saturday, I presented BBC Thought for the Day. Former Chancellor Norman Lamont was in the Green Room before the broadcast and we chatted about various things. Evan Davies and Justin Webb give the Saturday Today programme a good feel. Evan is particularly relaxed with ad libs before and after set pieces.
So I wondered how he would link an informative piece on Druids with my "Thought" on Pagan festivals of increasing darkness and the Christian understanding of All Saints and All Souls? It went well in the end.
Had a good weekend of cooking and relaxing along with a busy morning at St Mary Abbots. Preached at a service marking the Battle of Britain ending on 31st October 70years ago.
One of the highlights of the week was Nani's amazing goal for Manchester United v Tottenham. One of the lowest points of the week was the X factor. Cowell has ruined this programme with his sycophantic comments to Cheryl Cole. Thank the Lord for DM.
Schools are back today so I did the St James Senior Boys School Assembly in Ashford today and the celebrated Mass for All Saints.
Relaxing evening with family before heading off to Derby tonight.
Saturday, I presented BBC Thought for the Day. Former Chancellor Norman Lamont was in the Green Room before the broadcast and we chatted about various things. Evan Davies and Justin Webb give the Saturday Today programme a good feel. Evan is particularly relaxed with ad libs before and after set pieces.
So I wondered how he would link an informative piece on Druids with my "Thought" on Pagan festivals of increasing darkness and the Christian understanding of All Saints and All Souls? It went well in the end.
Had a good weekend of cooking and relaxing along with a busy morning at St Mary Abbots. Preached at a service marking the Battle of Britain ending on 31st October 70years ago.
One of the highlights of the week was Nani's amazing goal for Manchester United v Tottenham. One of the lowest points of the week was the X factor. Cowell has ruined this programme with his sycophantic comments to Cheryl Cole. Thank the Lord for DM.
Schools are back today so I did the St James Senior Boys School Assembly in Ashford today and the celebrated Mass for All Saints.
Relaxing evening with family before heading off to Derby tonight.
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