A new/old spirituality of the earth?

Posted on June 28, 2026 by Chris Goan

For a while now I have been exploring/circling around/discussing/reading about/reaching towards a new spirituality – at least to me. After all that deconstruction of the old religious paradigm so often explored on this blog, I am catching tantalising glimpses of shapes in the mist ahead… like one of those heavy days of fog when darker shadows suggest maybe an oak, or a looming rock formation. The only way to tell is go forward carefully listening intently for the odd returning echo.

There is a problem though in describing any spiritual journey, in that it can be like pinning a rare butterfly. I do so mostly through poetry these days, despite having so many books of theology on my shelves. My friend Polly (whose companionship has been so important already to this unfolding process) warns against any spiritual process than does not start in PRACTICE. She would have us all experiencing the wild, listening to the wild, allowing ourselves to be befriended by the wild, rather than the more common western religious traditions of first defining a thing in terms of head-first concepts, then only later seeking to apply these in some kind of (often disembodied) religious activity.

Why then might I persist in this process of trying to describe some of this journey?

Firstly, despite the warnings above, what brought me this far has been, in no small part, theology – very much with a small ‘t’. I love ideas – I get excited by them, and I have direct lived experience of how they can indeed be catalysts for change in my own life as well as in wider groups I am part of. It is not one or the other, rather how one relates to the other.

The way I am thinking about this just now is that we desperately need practices and principles – particularly those modeled by pioneers and edgewalkers who go ahead of us – that might allow us to find new meaning and hope in the midst of the omni-crisis we are living through. However we also need others that give us language and some kind of scaffolding for this unfolding, or it can never become a real movement for change.

We know the ‘problems’ that our faith techologies need to help us navigate in the present – climate breakdown, an age of ecological extinction and habitat destruction, accelerating wealth inequality, individualism and disconnection from each other, an age of addiction to the very things that are destroying us. Meanwhile our old political/economic/theological systems appear to offer no solutions, just answers to questions that no longer seem relevant or at least no longer precient. Alongside these failures others are deploying the old tools of hate and fear in order to distract and divide – it seems to be working too because what else is on offer?

Thomas Berry put it like this;

Even when we try to bring religious influence to bear on these issues we find thst our religious traditions have little relevance to what is happening. Our western religions exist in a different world, a world of covenant relations with the divine, a world little concerned with the natural environment or with the Earth community. Our sacred community is seen as primarily as one concerned with human-divine relations, with little attraction toward a shared community existence within the larger world of the living. Our iconoclasm is such that we hardly think of ourselves within a multispecies community or consider that this community of the natural world is the primary locus for the meeting of the divine and human.

Thomas Berry ‘Evening Thoughts’ pg 48

Does a different kind of religion exist? If not, we must invent it.

We Christians must worry a lot less about the Jesus who died for individual sin to save souls from hell and instead listen for the voice of the Christ who loves things by becoming them as that other great Catholic teacher Richard Rohr suggested. This Christ is not a ticket out of punishment for a chosen few, but rather the substance behind all substance, the great spirit who sings in the soul of everything. This Christ is not descoverable in abstract disconnection from the community of the natural world but rather by more complete connection to the mess that made us.

What might this kind of religion look like in practice? I do not mean in terms of doctine or theology, but rather the journey these things send us out on.

Thorndales Lane by Dave Hitchborne is licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.0

I believe that a different kind of religion is possible- in fact it already exists, both within the tradition and as current practice. It is not (and has perhaps never been) mainstream but I believe many are increasingly seeking this path, even if they have not yet been given a language or story that articuates the longing that they are feeling. We feel deeply the dissonance between our sacred humanity and the destruction of the community we come from and are held within.

As Berry puts it, we cannot have well people on a sick planet.

I might also say we will have no heavenly salvation without earthly communion.

Another voice saying much the same things is writer John Philip Newell;

Today we are in another era of change, perhaps the most important we have ever faced in the history of our religious inheritance. It can be called The Great Search. We are seeking healing as an earth community, and we are longing for a new sense of home spirituality.

John Philip Newell ‘The Great Search’ pg 11.

A field in Nottinghamshire, England, sprayed with herbicide prior to ploughing.

What then can be said (by me) about what this new/old religion might look like? If Newell is right, what are we all searching for? I am certainly not claiming that this search is over for me, but I am starting to see some important direction pointers. Some of these are from the ragged messy thing known as the ‘Celtic tradition’. Others are borrowed from teachers like Rohr and Berry. Others arise from the logic imposed by my own broken experiences.

From original sin to original goodness

Pelagius was silenced eventually by Augustine but not completely – in the Celtic world at least. If we stop seeing ourselves and our fellow humans as essentially evil, then how might this change our relationship with each other and with outr own souls? If we discover God in the human spirit not by addition but rather by subtraction – by peeling back our layers and going deep to that part of ourselves that is Christ – then how might we start to understand the human condition? What are the obligations of this understanding?

If we start to see others as carriers of the divine, rather than people excluded from the club of the privileged and redeemed then can we still bear to accept injustice, prejudice or the poverty and inequality imposed by empire?

From one singular ‘incarnation’ to two generalised incarnations

Christ came to us as the world, not just into it as Jesus. I am not really interested in defining this in terms of pantheism or panentheism, but these concepts and the different between them might be useful to you. In this way of thinking though, the first incarnation was creation- that great unfolding of god into all the shapes and colours that continue to explode outwards into the universe. The god who loves things by becoming them. Jesus was a further revealing of what we had failed to understand – the second incarnation. Whether this was different to the first, or merely a more specific part of the same I leave to you.

From propositional truth towards connection with the flow of the wild

If god is the substance of all that is, then how might we listen to her? How might we pray? How might we seek to understand and learn how to love? Might we learn as much from trees or the flight of birds as we can from ancient scriptures? Can we read landscape as we used to read scripture? Might we not better understand these scriptures in the light of their relationship with the wild? Of course, some teachers and prophets always knew this – Saint Francis for example. Indigenous peoples never quite forgot. The rest of us have much to re learn. It is in the seeking after community (communion) in its fullest and deepest sense that we discover who we really are. This is what love is after all.

In a world of climate breakdown – associated with economic injustice and unsustainable extraction in relentless pursuit of wealth – what is the path of love for those who are seeking full communion with the earth?

From narrow doctrinal correctness to generous praxis

The protestant project has been a tumbling succession of people proclaiming their truth to be the only truth. What if we just decided that what we believe is less important that what we do? What if being ‘right’ is not about how we shape our doctrine but how we live our lives? If this is true, then we also have to accept that god herself is open to varience and variety in both religious and spiriitual language. If we can accept this (and yes, this is in itself a doctrinal position) perhaps we might start to focus on the big things that matter not the small things that divide us. Doctine then might be more about keeping the peace, not policing our election.

From sacred buildings to the sacred wild

A logical progression from above is that the meaning of sacred space explored by our rituals and ceremonies must change. This does not mean taking the shape and sounds of our church services outside unchanged, rather it means creating and discovering new ways to engage with the great incarnation of the wild as both individial and collective practices. Buildings might still be useful in our climate, but we must start to migrate the centre of our practice towards the wild, in order to better understand ourselves as part of a human and non-human community or family.

From saving souls from hell to bringing heaven to earth

What is the mission of this new church we are making together? For those of us from the Christian tradition, what cross are we carrying? The mission many of us grew up with was about convincing people that their eternal souls would be punished unless they became Christian. Unpicking the whole theological machine that underpins that mission has been a long term project for many of us, but perhaps also left us with a void. What are we called to be, to do, to live our lives towards? What does redemption look like? What about salvation? What is the purpose and calling of the agents of the Kingdom (or community/insurgency/family etc) of god? This is the question we all must ask, but experience tells me that we will tend to answer this contextually, from inside the theological story that we have been given. If this story changes, then the mission must change too.

The story many of us are drawing close to is one that describes our deep sacred connection to the holy wild. We understand this connection to mean that all living things are our siblings and carry within them the same am-ness that is within us. Surrounded as we are with so many ways that humans have failed to live as siblings with both our human and non-human community then the path of love is towards redeeming through restoration, salvation through inclusion and reconnection.

I feel like I a scratching the surface here, but is this not what we have always done?

We seek goodness in small community. It is the best we can ever be.

Christus

Not Messiah, but memory –
You are what we once forgot.
Woodsmoke.
A curve of earth
Towards completeness.

Not God, but goodness -
You are what we left behind.
Compost.
A fecundity of light 
Awakes this forest floor.

Not Risen, but wide open -
We are not just the sum of skin.
Mycelium.
An animal whom, despite of evolution
Finds value most in kindness.

Not Saviour but revelator -
We search those stars in vain.
Insemination.
A pulse pounds insistently when
There should by rights be silence

CG

What will we be if the Church is no more?

Posted on March 27, 2026 by Chris Goan

I wrote this article for the Iona Community magazine, Coracle. Not sure if it will make the cut, but here it is anyway.

Photo by Adrienn Csiszu00e9r on Pexels.com

What will we be if the Church is no more?

Here is something that will upset many of you- by any measure Church is dying. I should know, because as well as all those statistics, it has died in me. I am part of the new member uptake from 2025, but I do not currently go to ‘Church’. I mean no disrespect to those who are still faithfully serving as Church leaders, priests, pastors or ministers, but my journey through different expressions of faith has brought me to a different place. Rest assured though- I am not done with community making or seeking to explore faith and meaning with others, it is just that – for now at least – I find myself outside the institution.

I am very far from alone – so I want to do my best to speak for those like me, longing for God (even as we struggle to name her.) Desperate for meaning and stories. Angry at how Church has so often been a tool of Empire and colonial subjugation. Suspicious of all attempts to bring us back inside because of our woundedness. Both drawn by – and repelled from – religion of all kinds. Refusing hard boundaries or finger pointing. Seeking deep connections between earth and soul for the sake of the planet. Desperate to see change towards grace and peace in a world that seems to be careering towards the opposite. Looking for authentic examples of how people have transcended these tramlines. Sensing the beautiful beyond in music, in poetry, in acts of protest, in old forest and longing to share this experience with others in ways that feel meaningful. You might well tell me that this is the Church you already attend, which demands the question of why those like me remain outside?

Any examination of UK statistical surveys will show us that fewer and fewer of us participate in organised religion. Recent suggestions of ‘Quiet Revival’ following research commissioned by the Bible Society (1) was seized upon by some, but the evidence continues to point in the opposite direction For example, the most recent British Attitudes Survey (2) shows that young people are not filling up our pews and decline in participation continues. The number of us here in the UK who attend Church even sporadically is now below 10% and is expected to fall further given the age profile of people within Churches. What has not changed however is 40% of Britons who self-identify as ‘Christian’. This has been pretty stable for decades. Three quarters of these people do not feel able or willing to attend Church and this has been a conundrum that we have tried to solve throughout most of my adult faith life.

In my experience, those who are active in religious circles tend to have a very low opinion of Christians like me. The assumptions made are that that we are ‘passive Christians’ or ‘luke-warm’, or ‘back sliders’. Perhaps we are, but what do I feel this calling towards something beyond Church so keenly? Why is it that something new is singing in my soul? Could it be that God is doing a new thing, and this this might not look like ‘Church’ as we have known it?

There has been helpful work done by researchers such as Steve Aisthorpe (Author of The Invisible Church (3)) and Katie Cross (from Aberdeen University) (4) pointing us to a much more nuanced – and even a hopeful – picture of what happens to those who leave Church. These people often retain very active faith, continue to make spiritual communities which explore what it means to be Christian. We might be forced to concede that the largest part of the ‘Body of Christ’ here in the UK is outside formal Church. There may well be a wide range of reasons for this but as Katie’s research has shown, there are commonalities. Many have been wounded in some way by the institution. The slowness of change and the continuance of so many conservative ideas on gender and the rights of women is also clearly a factor. Then there is the wide sense that somehow the Church is no longer relevant, not able to engage in a meaningful way with the omni-crisis of our modern times. There is perhaps too a sense that Church – despite the fine tradition of ‘troublesome priests’ Church has become like cold lava, unable to flow or change. It is like an oil tanker trying to turn in narrow water. It is like all human institutions. It is what Ivan Illich saw happening to all human tools- trending towards the unconvivial.

We do see a rise of some kinds of Churches. They were increasingly American influenced- that no-longer new empire of the self-made individual, whose personal Saviour guarantees life, wealth and happiness, and rejects anything that looks like ‘socialism’ such as collective action on climate change or poverty. If the problems of the old UK protestants often related to our Victorian origins, this new American perspective brought new corruption into the ways of Jesus. It took years to disentangle myself from it all, thanks in part to finding a movement of other people on a similar journey. Many of these too are now outside of Church – a whole generation of activists and leaders burned out on religion. The ‘Emerging Church’ language that was part of our recovery feels ancient now, but looking back, it was a movement away and against more than it ever articulated alternatives. It was about loosening the grip of old religious dogmas, deconstructing meanings and ultimately setting us free to re-imagine and re-engage with what it means to be Christian, but the energy it contained did not result in a new form of Protestantism – there were perhaps too many of these already.

In the decades since all those earnest discussions, blog posts and social media storms, a lot has changed in the world outside organised religion. Here in the rich north we are increasingly excarnate, finding life and meaning through online avatars shaped by algorithms and AI processes we barely understand. A pandemic came and went. The world seemed ever more cruel and heartless. Our politics and our economics offered no new solutions. The climate continued to break down. Inequality got worse. The loudest versions of Christianity became less Jesus-like and more wedded to fascistic politics that serve best the powerful.

Photo by levan simonshvili on Pexels.com

Can the institution of Church respond to this new reality? How many reports and conferences have you been to that have explored this question in the last decades? How many books have your read or even written? How can those good people still active within Church ever find energy to do more work than they are already doing, looking after their aging flocks, running food banks and creches, visiting the sick and ministering to weddings and funerals? What do we do with all these empty buildings?

And what of the diaspora of Church leavers/survivors like me? Are we a lost and aging resource that need to come back into the fold? Or might we yet be part of a new movement? There are so many unanswered questions. Here are a few more.

If people do not attend Church, what does community-making look like? Might it be more ephemeral, more hybrid, more fluid? How do we do this in an excarnate world? What does authenticity look like? What stories bring us together? What stories keep us apart? Can community be made without membership or belonging? What about the children? How do we add power to each other through collective action if we stay apart?

Without the hierarchy of Church how do theological ideas and stories get made and shared? Who keeps all this safe? Who can we trust? Can we influence and inspire without the power or wealth of institution? Without paid clergy or regular meeting spaces?

What does a good life look like in our context? What do we celebrate? How do we live out the counter-cultural kingdom here and now? Where do we need to make peace and proclaim jubilee? Where does justice need to flow like rivers? Where is Jesus calling us to be salt or light?

Who are our prophets? Are these the musicians, the film makers, the poets? Who is seeking to give these people a platform and to celebrate with them? Whose work will light up our souls?

Who are our priests? Are these the networkers, the creators of temporary community spaces, those who carry mercy in their souls and offer radical hospitality?

Where are our cloisters? Where are those seeking to live out radical lives that explore alternative ways of being followers of Jesus? How do we network, support and include these people?

Who is looking after the activists? Who patches them together after imprisonment or tear gas exposure?

Who is offering people ways back into the Cathedral of the forest? How do we make our dogma and practices subservient to Celtic way of the community of all things? How do we provide ways for a mostly urban population to experience this once more, for the sakes of their mental health and the sake of the planet?

I don’t have clear answers to most of these questions but I no longer worry about Church- it belongs to God after all. I am done with trying to save it, or expecting it to be something it is not We still need the formal institution of Church and I always will, but we should also expect the Spirit of God to be at work in new ways. In other words, the title of this piece is redundant. We will never be without church. But we might be without Church- many of us already are.

All of which brought me to the Iona Community, currently exploring full membership. At my application interview, I was challenged about my non-attendance of Church, and I expect to be challenged again – in fact, I look forward to lots of late-night conversations with some of you.

But there is no doubt in my mind that dispersed community has a part to play in this new paradigm that we find ourselves emerging into. By accident we have a vehicle that engages and interacts directly with some of those questions above. I think that is exciting and I hope you do also.

Notes

TFT Christmas card 2025

Posted on December 23, 2025 by Chris Goan

The journey is not over

Another Christmas, is upon us dear friends.

I heard someone say recently that the journey is often something we treasure more than the destination. This seems more true of advent than most things – not because I do not wish your Christmas to be full of beauty love (I most certainly do) but because this journey is about finding light, despite the darkness. Finding hope despite all evidence to the contrary. An invitation to faith not as destination but as process.

It is all there in the Christmas story. A nation longing for a different kind of Messiah than the one born in a stable. An on-going occupation. A despotic king. A clueless pair of parents who have only the slenderest hold on what they have brought in to being. Homelessness. Refugees fleeing violence. Rich men who promise solutions but merely reveal the vast inequality gap.

This year, let’s try to remember that we are not the first generation of Advent travellers to fear the way things are going. The journey is not over though, even if the destination remains so very far away. Let’s keep walking.

Thanks to all of you who have walked with me. May we make more miles together yet.

This year’s poem was written on the shortest day of the year, that time when our ancestors marked the turning point towards light. I stand in their shadows.

Comes a time

.

Comes a time when dark seems darkest

When things can fall no further

Comes a time when the day is shortest

When everything that might break has already been broken

When I reach out into the darkness

For I need you more than ever

.

Comes a time when we can again conspire

Towards the rediscovery of kindness

Comes a time when we hold each other close

When we can stitch our common thread into

Hoods that hold the warmth from its retreating

When we hang lights

.

Comes a time when the daylights must be brighter

Turning dusk to reluctant amber

When the embers of this fire seem to linger longer

Comes a time to make this new beginning

To plant our seasons longing

In spite of all our losing

.

Comes a time…

Fear and loathing in Los England…

Posted on October 26, 2025 by Chris Goan

I am just back from York, where I was attending an Iona Community event. I have started the two year discernment process towards becoming a full member of the community, and this event had two parts- firstly time spent with other new members examining one of the four ‘rules’ that form the basis for membership-

Working for justice and peace, wholeness and reconciliation in our localities, society and the whole creation.

(By the way, if you are interested in the work of the Iona Community, let’s have a chat.)

After this came a day with around 80-90 of the existing full members as we heard from Paul Parker, Recording Clark of the Quakers in Britain. The Quakers don’t have a ‘leader’ – rather Paul’s role is to seek to create good processes for the 450 worshipping groups of friends. He spoke powerfully about quiet diplomacy and the Quaker colective process of testing concern together to develop collective courage. He contrasted the ‘prophet’ role (calling out injustice) from the ‘reconciler’ (seeking to listen and love) role- how they sometimes need to be employed in different ways and in different circumstances. In other words- the two hands of non-violence, in which one is the hand held aloft to say STOP, and the other is open to say ‘I love you, can we talk?’

This discussion inevitably makes me think about the divided and splintered shape of our society just now. How do we engage – as either prophets or reconcilers? Where are the spaces in which either of these things are possible?

And even if we find these places, how will I find the courage?

Meanwhile, there is another fear project going on at full tilt. Fear as a political instrument to create division through hatred and scapegoating of the outsider.

As you might expect, I have been trying to explore some of this through poetry. Here is what I am working on…

Be not afraid

I know you are afraid love -
Who can blame you? This broken world
Wobbles so hard it might
Shake us all off.
And all those purple-faced men 
Looking for someone else to blame -
If they run out of brown people
They might wave their flags at us.

We should beware my love
For there are those for whom your fear spells opportunity. 
They nurture it in toxic tubes, so
To spore the very air they feed us, and
None of us are immune because 
Even those of us with those lumps in our throats
Must still breathe.

So, forgive my riding high on this highest horse 
Because I need to tell you this;
If we always fear of what you do not know
It will rob our future of hope
It will tuck us up in defended spaces
Seeking only safety
Watching the world through narrow arrow slits
Flexing that persistent itch in our trigger fingers
But if we always fear the stranger
How will we ever make new friends?

I know you better my beloved -
Your heart beats beauty on your sleeve.
I know you would mend the broken if you could 
With that clever glue called kindness.
I know you would never eat alone
When someone close was starving.
I know you were never made for hatred 
When  the core of you is love;
When the heart of you is love;
When at the bones of you is love;
When in the mess of you;
Is love.

So love.

On that thing called prayer…

Posted on September 27, 2025 by Chris Goan

Hasan Baglar’s ‘Danlock’ has been crowned the grand prize winner of this year’s Cewe Photo Award (Image credit: Hasan Baglar)

I have been thinking a lot about prayer recently. I am starting a 2 year discernment process towards a decision of becoming a full member of the Iona Community. I will be committing myself to doing my best to keep the ‘rule’ of the community- which includes the following;

Daily prayer, worship with others and regular engagement with the Bible and other material which nourishes us.

Prayer is something I have never been ‘good’ at, even in the days when I tried hard to be good at it. In more recent times, I have moved to a point where I mostly do not pray – at least not in the way I used to understand what it was and what it was for.

I grew up with an understanding of prayer as a means to persuade God to aid our cause. The degree to which God was willing to accede to our entreaties and lists of requests was always something of a problem. It was very tempting to over-claim – or to build castles of consequence on shaky coincidences. Those times, for instance, when God miraculously granted us a free parking space, or a friend to talk to just when we needed them.

My wife Michaela was prayed for by good people for years because of her experience of chronic illness which left her ill and unable to participate in many things others took for granted. Some even suggested her lack of healing was due to unconfessed sin, or lack of faith.

Then her illness got better, overnight. It confounded medical people and confused us…

…particularly as my theological journey has taken me to a place where I no longer believe in an interventionist God. My current way of trying to resolve all of these contraditictions is through process theology – or sometimes open relational theology.

But this is all very ‘head first’ stuff.

For any theology to be real, it has to sing in our souls. The complexity of open relational ways to try to describe the way that a divine being might interact with our broken humanity is beyond more of us, particularly during the inevitable struggles and challenges of our lives.

What part has prayer to play in these struggles?

How might I/we concieve of a spiritual practice of prayer that is meaningful, relational, dynamic and useful?

I saw this quote from a new book the other day;

On the strength of this quote alone, and in the shadow of my own struggles with prayer, I ordered the book.

But these are not new questions for me, so I have some other provisional answers about what I think of as prayer now. They have broadened out to include this list (which is not in any kind of order)

Breathing
Seeking connection in forest
Singing
Caring and hoping for friends
Dancing
Looking for resonance in art
Hoping
listening to bird song
Deep talk around a fireside
Making art
Seeking goodness
Listening to people who are hurting
Pilgrimage

You may well think that this list is a good list, but not a prayerful one…

Above all, my current thinking is that I need to pray with a pen in my hand (or more commonly a keyboard under my fingers.) For me, my poetry is above all, prayer.

So I finish with this poem, which I wrote this morning;

I will not pray

I will not pray for miraculous intervention

But I will try to pray for those

Who cannot pray

I will not sing those hymns of adoration

Yet still I sing for those

Who cannot sing

I will not seek your soul to save

But I will search the wildest places for

The beautiful but broken

I will not rend my clothes to mourn

Instead, I mark those names that

Were never known

I make no promise as a lover

Except to look in love for those

Whose love has been emptied

I will not pray for favour, or for better weather

But whatever roof I have is

Yours to share

Hyper-polarisation and political violence…

Posted on September 14, 2025 by Chris Goan

Even from here in rural Scotland, the death of a 31 year old hard right Christian gun advocate has been inescapable. Perhaps it was the horrific irony of the moment of his death- shot during a discussion about gun violence, or the controversial nature of many of his views, most of which where framed in Christian language as if from some kind of MAGA prophet.

For many on one side of the political divide, he is a martyr for his faith, achieving the Protestant equivalent of sainthood. His ’cause’ is a like a flag to be picked up on the battlefield against rising hoards of athiest islamic left-wing nut-jobs massing at the border seeking to replace the great American theocracy with trans-gender abortion and lesbian weddings.

Meanwhile, over in the other camp, people are actively celebrating Kirk’s death. A young father, aged 31, cut down in his prime is an evil that has been greeted with glee. There have been righteous protestations of condemnation of violence, but always these have been posed alongside discriptions of the outrageous things that Kirk said and represented. The message is clear- he brought this down on himself.

What might this moment represent to us with the hindsight of history? Might it be the moment when we realised that the politics of polarisation an only ever lead towards violencehat – that this kind of language, when used quite deliberately as a political strategy to breakthrough democratic deadlock, might destroy our fragile peace?

Or will it instead mark the point when that destruction entered a new phase towards the end game that was to come? Only future-us can know the answer…

Two important issues stand out to me. The first is this one;

Hyper-polarisation

Perhaps this article from back in 2016 – which already feels like an age ago – is a good place to start in understanding this phenomenon.

Bringing all of this together in Why Washington Won’t Work, Marc Hetherington and Thomas Rudolph paint a picture of a nation overwhelmed by dislike and distrust of the other side and, consequently, a political process incapable of compromise and mired in gridlock. It is easy to see how this sort of distrust and dysfunction manifests itself in assumptions about the motivations (malice, greed, bigotry, moral bankruptcy, or most charitably, naiveté) of those on the other partisan team. Those on the other side no longer just disagree about the issues, they are bad people with dangerous ideas. This paves the way for efforts to delegitimize electoral outcomes and the leaders they produce by way of conspiracy theories and claims of fraud and rigging. Perhaps most dangerously, it also can be used to justify nearly any effort to thwart the opposition.

Let’s be clear- this phenomenon is not going away. In some senses this is because it is a deliberate political strategy- create division using simplistic fear-based stories then exploit this opening by offering a ‘solution’. This is pretty much the whole strategy of The Reform party in the UK, but you can find plenty of examples on the left too. The Cambridge Analytica saga should have been the moment of awakening on the danger to our democracy of this kind of politics, but this seems to have been largely forgotten. Rather than choosing to find ways of regulating and reforming, we moved on.

Polarisation is also an emergent property of our increased reliance on social meda, both in terms of the way that algorythms feed us ever more extreme versions of what it feels will engage our interest, and also because of how we increasingly export a part of our ‘selves’ in the form of on-line avotars that then become places of disembodyment and almost ritualistic tribal defence and offence cycles.

Polarisation perhaps also emerges from our own fragile bruised humanity. This from here;

central theoretical assumption is that ideological extremism is rooted in a psychological quest for personal significance: A desire to be respected and to matter in the eyes of oneself or important others (Kruglanski et al., 2014; see also Webber et al., 2018). People can acquire such a sense of personal significance through the combination of many sources, such as family, work, and the pursuit of meaningful goals. Sometimes people may experience a loss of significance, however, when they encounter grievances such as humiliation, injustice, or insecurities. Such grievances prompt a sense of meaninglessness, and therefore stimulate a desire to restore a sense of personal significance through a worldview in which perceivers are focally committed to specific ideological goals. Put differently, extreme ideologies help perceivers to restore a sense of significance through a worldview in which they appear to be supporting a meaningful cause.

Some studies have pointed out the way that this ritualistic process might be compared to religion, in the way that it becomes a set of goggles – or a hermaneutic – through which all facts or opinions become mediated, and this takes us to the second of the issues that occupy my thoughts in relaiton to this dreadful shooting.

Christianity and extreme ideology

Kirk’s avowed and much proclaimed Christian faith has been a central part of both his political activities and the subsequent narrative around his death. As someone with many friendships and social media contacts with people across the spectrum of the Christian faith, I was still a little shocked when I read a post this morning that said something along these lines;

So touched by his life and story. At his heart was communicating deeply held truth and wisdom in many matters, in spite of the flack, and the risk. He might have been outspoken but to me he clearly had a heart to teach, demonstrate and guide a generation of whom so many are lost. When society is chaotic and unstructured people suffer, when we accept God’s ways for life there is joy, peace, security. Above all of his debating he said faith and finding Jesus is most important. Tonight I’m praying people once again find their identity in Christ, who is a firm foundation to build our lives on. Praying Christians can speak the truth in love to a world that needs to hear it.

My first response to this was through the lens of my own place on the polarised spectrum. Had this person not seen all the lies, the misogyny and racism? Had they no concerns about the rise of American Christian nationalism? Surely they must recognise the disconnect between the way of Jesus and the politics Kirk espoused?

Then I stopped and started to think about how extreme narratives are pulling at us all, particularly in the religious sphere. We, above all, have to find ways of building bridges, not barracades. It seems that – sadly – we religious people are very much part of the problem. This from here.

Conservative and liberal Christians, like all liberals and conservatives, are inclined to denigrate those on the other side of the political spectrum; and each side is convinced that the other side is treated more leniently than their own side in the media, and by other third parties that try to give an objective account of matters under dispute (36–39). However, how have Christians on the two sides of the political divide dealt with discrepancies between their own political positions and the apparent dictates of their faith? Some, no doubt, have felt pressure to moderate their positions to achieve greater congruency with traditional Christian teachings. Others may have narrowed their reference group and, for those whose faith is highly central to their personal identity, engaged in attempts at persuasion and proselytism. However, we argue and attempt to demonstrate empirically, contemporary American Christians also have adjusted their perceptions of Christianity itself. More specifically, they have adjusted their perceptions of the political positions that Jesus of the New Testament would hold if he were alive today.

A provocative series of studies by Epley and colleagues showed that the egocentric tendency to believe that others share one’s beliefs is more pronounced when individuals are asked about God than when they are asked about the average American or various prominent individuals (40). The present research is distinct from those studies insofar as its focus is more specifically on such “projection” in the views and also the priorities that liberal and conservative Christians attribute to Jesus Christ. Our specific hypotheses are very much in the dissonance tradition (26). The dissonance researchers reversed conventional formulations by focusing not on the effects of attitudes on behavior but on the effects of behavior on subsequent attitudes. We essentially reverse conventional formulations by focusing not on the effects of religion on political views but the effects of political views on the content of religious beliefs.

What can we do about it?

There is the question.

The egotistical polariser in me wants to call out the lies and wrong doing of the other. The peace maker in me wants to draw us all back towards compassion and the way of love as a precurser to all things. I want the latter to win, in me as well as the world…

… and so I choose to tread carefully. I try not to do battle, particularly one line. When I do so, I try to make sure that I react in service of justice for others, not myself.

And I fail, regularly.

The ‘quiet revival’ – what does the research REALLY say?

Posted on July 5, 2025 by Chris Goan

Leeds Minster (interior) by David Dixon is licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.0

The Bible Society commissioned a survey from Yougov – a legitimate and credible polling organisation – which they claim ‘busts the myth of church decline’.

You can download the full survey here.

Here are the headline claims, using the somewhat bombastic language from the Bible Society itself.

Key findings from The Quiet Revival

Co-author of The Quiet Revival Dr Rhiannon McAleer says the report shows that what people believe about Church decline is no longer true. ‘These are striking findings that completely reverse the widely held assumption that the Church in England and Wales is in terminal decline,’ she said.

‘While some traditional denominations continue to face challenges, we’ve seen significant, broad-based growth among most expressions of Church – particularly in Roman Catholicism and Pentecostalism. There are now over 2 million more people attending church than there were six years ago.’

More men than women go to church

The Quiet Revival shows that men (13 per cent) are more likely to attend church than women (10 per cent). And as well church decline being reversed, the Church is also becoming more ethnically diverse, with one in five people (19 per cent) coming from an ethnic minority. Close to half of young Black people aged 18–34 (47 per cent) are now attending church at least monthly, according to The Quiet Revival.

It’s also great to see that Bible reading and confidence in the Bible have increased as well as church growth. Some 67 per cent of churchgoing Christians read the Bible at least weekly outside church.

This is the key statistic. It would seem to point to a massic uplift in church going, particularly in the 18-24 range. Young men now seem four times more likely to go to church than pre pandemic – at least according to this survey.

(For the statistics geeks, the actual data collected by the survey is here.)

Church Services by Alan Stewart is licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.0

This rather startling survey has been greeted by some with incredulity. It seems to be describing a trend that has reversed a decades long decline in church attendance in the UK. Many have greeted it with rejoicing. Could this really be true?

There have already been webinars and conferences that are using the term ‘quiet revival’ to describe what people are claiming as a ‘move of God.’ The lesson, it is claimed, is that this is the beginning of an awakening of spiritual seeking in younger generations, and evidence of the fact that yound men in particular are searching for meaning.

This all sounds like a good thing, right?

We might not have noticed it, but are we seeing an actual revival?

So why do I feel a deep sense of scepticism? Is this just my post-church cynicism? I am on record as having very mixed feelings about the word ‘revival’ (this from 11 years ago for example) after being previously part of expressions of religion that saw this as the only valid aim of Christian activity.

I think it is much more than that, however. A long time ago I was a social science graduate, and if we had come accross a piece of research or a survey that had suggested a social phenomenon that was different to all other sources of data, we would have immediately placed it on the ‘need more examination’ pile. We would have to look at other sources of evidence and test any conclusions that might be made by exposing them to wider scrutiny and comparison. One survey is never enough to declare a brand new social trend…

…particularly when other sources of information seem to directly contradict this survey.

For example, the British Social Attitudes Survey – the largest and most authorative survey of social trends in the UK – found no evidence of an increase of religious attendence, noting instead a continual decline.

It seems I am not alone in my sceptism. More or Less, the BBC radio 4 programme that explains – and sometimes debunks – numbers and statistics used in public life spent some time examing this issue today- it is well worth a listen.

Next, let me point you to this excellent piece on The Church Mouse Blog.

Here is how the Church Mouse frames the problem some of us have with this survey;

The most extraordinary claim is that, in the past six years (i.e., since just before the pandemic), the Church in England and Wales, across all denominations, has grown by more than half, from a total of 3.7 million regular worshippers to 5.8 million. The report says that it is largely the young who are driving this, in contradiction to our previous assumption that every generation is less religious than their parents.

The evidence for these claims comes from a large survey undertaken by a highly respected polling organisation, YouGov, that whether they had attended a church in the past month, among other questions. The same question set and methodology six years previously reveals a 56% increase in attendance.

And none of us noticed.

The Church Mouse goes on to say this.

Some of the churches where the Bible Society reported significant growth actually count the number of people who walk through their doors, and the numbers don’t match.

The most robust data set by a UK denomination is from the Church of England. Each church counts the number of worshippers during the same period each year, and the numbers are compiled to create a robust, consistent data set. The data shows that over the past six years, the Church has shrunk by between 10-20%, depending on how you count it…

…The same methodology can be applied to the data for the Catholic Church, the next largest denomination. The report said that it has grown from 23% of attendees in 2018 to 31% in 2024, meaning it would have grown from around 850,000 regular attendees in 2018 to 1.8 million in 2024, spectacular growth of almost a million regular worshippers.

The Catholic Church in England and Wales reported regular mass attendance down around 20% from pre-pandemic levels, to 555,000 in 2023 from 702,000 in 2019.

Between them, these two denominations have reportedly grown their regular attendance by almost 1.5m people, out of the total reported growth (According to the Bible society survey) of 2.1m, or over 70% of the total growth. But Church attendance data simply does not back that up.

Is this all hot air intended to inflate church ego? (Sorry, could not resist in relation to the photo above.)

The simple answer is that we do not know.

But either way we need to explain why this survey is so different. Here are the possible reasons for this as I see them just now.

Data collection problems/survey bias

Yougov knows its business, but rougue findings from one-off polls and surveys are certainly possible.

Many have pointed out that saying you go to church is not actually the same thing as going to church, and people do seem to exagerate their church attendence. Might the fact that apparently more people have exagerated their attendence in itself be an indication of church being a more desirable option?

Or perhaps there was an error in earlier surveys, and in pew numbers collected by churches? All of them? Over decades?

Timescale

Has the survey picked up sometihng interesting that has happened in the last year? has the decline flattened out? Is there a new trend? The comparison figure of actual numbers collected by churches are all earlier. This seem implausable but…

What does ‘church attendance’ actually mean?

Must we include the many on-line expressions of faith – apps, streaming, etc etc? If so, perhaps people are now exposed to wider digital forms of church and so are including these in their answer?

What about Churches that don’t collect or publish stats?

Perhaps the increase is all in the non conformist, independent churches? There is other evidence that some of these are indeed growing, particularly independent and evangelical churches. The trouble is, this is from a lower base, and the Bible Society survey asked people to list their religious affiliation- leading to the claim of growth in mainline churches that simply is not evidenced by other sources.

Young men?

I have a slight discomfort about this, in that there appear to be other trends happening in that age group. There’s a growing divide between young men and women, with men increasingly drawn to conservative, traditionalist or right-wing political movements (while women tend to lean more liberal.) This trend, linked ot the influence of ‘Celebrity Christians’ such as Jordan Peterson is not one that I find comfort in. Might this be the reason for young men apparently seeing Church in a more positive light? The attraction here might then be narrow moral certainty rather than the teachings of Jesus.

Church of St James the Great, Salt by Alan Murray-Rust is licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.0

My conclusions then…

This survey is interesting, but we need to treat it with a great degree of caution. There are major difficulties with drawing any conclusions based on this one survey, and the Bible Society itself has used language and great fanfare that I find highly questionable.

Whatever is going on is not revival.

It might hint at a change to come, but only time will tell.

ARTISTS CALL – weekend exploring the theme of Mycellium, with Proost.

Posted on June 23, 2025 by Chris Goan

Here is a quick update on the Proost meet up for artists in Glasgow. First, the key details;

PROOST MEET UP, 2025

Date: 3rd October 2025 (6:00 PM) to 5th October 2025 (4:00 PM)
Location: St Oswald’s Episcopal Church, King’s Park, 260 Castlemilk Rd, Glasgow G44 4LB

Hosted by: Proost, in partnership with local Episcopal and Church of Scotland Churches
Cost: The gathering is free, with the aim of making this gathering as accessible as possible for all.
Accommodation: Informal hosting options are available for those who need them, and we’re happy to provide guidance on nearby accommodation options to help you make your stay as comfortable as possible. Let us know how we can assist you!

WHAT IS IT ALL ABOUT?

Many of you will remember Proost as it used to be- a publishing platform established on the edge of what we used to call ’emerging church’ or ‘missional groups’ or ‘alt worship’. It gathered a community of creatives who made poetry, art, video, music, liturgy and much more. For many of us, it gave a sense of belonging and connection – and ways to collaborate with other artists in both gathered and dispersed events. We live in different times now, but if anything, creatives need these connections more than ever.

We need art that engages, that challenges, that allows us to go deeper.

We need to hear from people who are otherwise marginalised.

We need to speak of justice and peace, so challenge where appropriate.

We need to take allow our art to connect with the deep spirituality of the earth.

The landscape of faith and culture has changed a lot in the decades since Proost first came on to the scene. Communication technology has made publishing easier, yet at the same time so much harder because of the sheer volume of content being produced. Funding streams and generating income is a massive challenge. Against all this, we have a powerful tool called community.

This is our dream for a new Proost- the means by which we combine our voices, our creativity and our resources to transcend the limitiations imposed by our context in service of justice. We think this is a holy pursuit, made ever more urgent by the crises gathering around us- wars, climate breakdown, inequality and political/economic impotence.

Much of this discussion has been taking place via two podcasts…

The main feed

The poetry feed

… and we have made a start with some collaborations around Advent and Lent.

But we feel that community also needs to make physical connections. We need to come together in one place, to share stories, to make plans and art together.

WHAT WILL WE DO?

The idea is simple- choose a theme and then invite people to respond to it using their art – music, poetry, painting, dance, pottery, photography, animation, video – or anything else.

We will make space for as many contributions and expressions of creativity as we can comb together in the form of installation or performance. The only limitation is that you need to bring those contributions in person!

We are so grateful to St Oswald’s Episcopal Church (King’s Park, 260 Castlemilk Rd, Glasgow G44 4LB) in partnership with local Episcopal and Church of Scotland Churches for generously hosting this weekend.

Installation space will be in and around the St Oswalds. (This will include a large mushroom-related ceramic offering!)

Performance opportunities will be via 1. A great big Ceilidh on Saturday night – dancing, hopefully interspersed with all sorts of other poems, songs and stories. 2. Sunday afternoon event. Both will be open to local people.

We want to keep Saturday day-time for discussion and chat amongst Proostians – working out together what seems important, and how this project might progress. There will be themed discussions led by different members of the team.

WHY MYCELLIUM?

This is the theme we have chosen for our meet up. Some of the reasons for this will already be in your heads, but here are some ponderings that might help unleash your own creative responses.

Soil science is advancing rapidly – we now need to stop thinking of soil as just inert dirt. It might be more accurate to regard it as a living entity all on its own – but if that is a little fanciful surely we need to understand that it is a complex ecosystem- one which almost all other land based life on the planet depends upon. Without soil, we die. Crucially, the role of mycelial networks in connecting, communicating and making communalities is increasingly being understood to be so much more important than previously thought.

Mycelium is the way that trees ‘talk’ to one another. Think about that- one life form relies upon another lifeform in order to share nutrients, warn of disease and so much more.

We modern humans tend to think about the natural world as being characterised by competition, the elimination of weakness and ‘survival of the fittest’. We have taken Darwinian ideas, misunderstood them and used them to justify our economics, our politics – even our spiritualities. The more we understand about mycelium, the more we need to think again.

Perhaps the ‘survival of the fittest’ might better be understood to mean that we survive best when we seek to fit with our context – when we seek connection and community.

What are we connecting with? Does mycelium only represent a way to understand human interrelatedness – with both each other and with the wider natural world? I would argue however that we might consider this connection to be much deeper than that.

These ideas have always been at the heart of the Christian story, not least the mystical traditions and the Celtic wisdom traditions, both of which have long emphasised that it is through God that all things live and have their being. In the Celtic understanding, God is to be found at the centre of everything, even us. We encounter him by going deeper.

Richard Rohr, in his magnificent book ‘The Universal Christ’ show us a different window into this way of understanding, in which the Christ is ‘another name for everything’ – the cosmic consciousness through which the universe expanded and came into being. We are all held in this commonality and invited to participate according to the deep truth of love.

As followers of Jesus, there seem to me to be so many other resonances here.

Unity and Oneness:

Jesus called for a unified community, where individuals, despite their differences, are “perfectly joined together” in their minds and judgments.

Body Analogy:

He used the image of a body with many parts, each playing a vital role, to illustrate the interconnectedness and interdependence of his followers.

Love for Neighbour:

Jesus emphasized the importance of loving one’s neighbour as oneself, which encourages cooperation and mutual support within a community. Compassion and love are a natural law that we need to be drawn towards.

Serving Others:

He demonstrated the importance of serving others, highlighting the value of helping those in need and working together for a common good.

Collaboration and Partnership:

Jesus encouraged his followers to work together, emphasizing the importance of partnership in living as agents of the Kingdom of God.

HOW TO GET INVOLVED?

We need ideas, songs, poems, film, images, dance, liturgies. We will ‘curate’ these in advance and include as many as we can. HOWEVER- this is about community, so we need you to bring your ideas, not just to send them. We will make the event together.

We have some very limited funding, and the offer of some accommodation. We don’t want money to be an obstacle for anyone.

This is the start of a new thing. Come and help shape it. On saturday we want to explore ideas together- to talk of Poesis and dream of how art and spirituality move togther and miight lead us forward.

If this is interesting to you, what you can do is

This will not commit you to anything- we will keep you informed, that is all.

If you have ideas you want to talk through,or want to know more, or have questions, we would love to hear from you- you can get in touch via the website, or drop me a message via the comments below, or send me an e-mail at thisfragiletent@com

Antichrist…

Posted on March 1, 2025 by Chris Goan

I was thinking about the book of Revelation today – perhaps the most controversial book in that library of books that we know as the Bible. I grew up in a kind of religion that took this book and used it as a lens to understand world events, particularly (but not exclusively) what has happening in the middle east.

This was before all the current madness, stemming from things like the Left Behind series of books, and all the American Christian Zionism.

Back then, we had people like Hal Lindsay and The Late Great Planet Earth. It was the same stuff and it earned him a fortune.

I still know people who live within this bizarre world view, in which world events are viewed through a particular, modern, Capitalist and elitist interpretation of scripture. In some ways this is the first and ultimate of conspiracy theories- ground zero. All the ingredients are there- the special secrets that will open your eyes to ‘reality’, the sense of being part of a special selection, the cataclysmic alternatives, the network of others who see things like you do and constantly reinforce your world view.

There is also the unforunate side effect of how these ideas, now almost mainstream in the US, have made victims out of already oppressed people and become a wierd distraction for many at best, perhaps actually morally corosive.

Perhaps these ideas are even antichrist.

I will not be deconstructing end times eschatology in this post. If you are interested in digging deeper into this, then I would recommend this podcast;

Keith Giles – Ending the End Times (N264)

Back to my cogitations on Revelation. I was thinking about how we might (as with Keith Giles’ account) better approach this book as a confusing veiled analogy of the danger of Empire.

How powerfull, charismatic and despotic individuals can first seem like messiah, but then turn out to be beasts.

We do not have to look far to see examples of these kind of individuals. Ones for whom death, destruction, exploitation and subjugation are just political tools, used casually for personal power and profit.

But I will not name any person ‘Antichrist’. I have heard Christians name many people this way over the years. The Pope, Gorbachev, Putin to name but a few.

What I think I can call antichrist are those things that are against the teachings of Jesus – those things that are contrary to a movement towards goodness otherwise known as ‘the Kingdom of God’.

There seems to be a particular kind of antichrist-ness that uses the Bible as a means to achieve its aim. I find myself loathing this most of all – Jesus did the same. He seemed to reserve a special kind of anger for the religious people who were users, profiteers, division-creators, victim-blamers and hate dealers. Think about these examples;

The Sermon on the Mount:Jesus directly challenges the teachings of the Pharisees by emphasizing the importance of inner motives and true righteousness over outward actions.

“Woes upon you, scribes and Pharisees”:In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus delivers a series of pronouncements condemning the religious leaders for their hypocrisy and self-righteousness.

Cleansing the Temple:A dramatic act where Jesus drove out those selling animals and money in the temple, criticizing their commercialization of a sacred space.

There is danger here of falling into that same old dualistic us/them, good/bad, holy/profane trap in which we retire into a trench built of sandbags full of our own rightness. But despite this danger, after conversations this week I am going to say this. Christians have no monopoly on Christ. We are all capable of being antchrist. This is true in the small things and the big things.

Lets subjugate everything to love, to kindness and to compassion – particularly towrds the weak, the poor, the broken. Anything else is empire. Anything else is antichrist.

Things like this

Remaking religion 7: a return to that word ‘hermaneutic’…

Posted on January 31, 2025 by Chris Goan

This is a continuation of a series of posts in which I have been grappling with the religion I have inherited but often find myself deeply at odds with. I have this idea that what is happening to Christianity in the western world is not an end, but a transition. Lord knows, we need our holy stories more than ever to lead us towards better, to inspire the next generation and make leaders out of the old one. In these posts, I have been trying to describe what I think the shape of this transition might look like, sometimes through observation and discussion with others and sometimes by striving to get beyond my cynical frustration and letting loose hopeful imagination.

You can find the old posts by using the search box above- try ‘remaking religion’ as your search criteria…

…or if you are not in the reading mood then we have discussed some of the issues on a podcast, here.

Hermaneutic

I have spoken about this word on this blog over the years. I have usually tried to define it this way; the set of googles/telescope through which you view the world.

The optical distortions within these goggles- acknoledged or not – affect what we see and how we understand what we see.

I think this word is central to how we approach any renewal efforts towards religious story making.

I will start with a confession – I have developed a bit of a youtube habit. I would like to pretend that this arises from my deep interest in ideas- philisophy, economics, history, sociology, religion etc., but the algorithm does not lie. It knows me better than I know myself. Each twitch of the finger over the remote control is recorded as if as my unguarded conscience. So it is that alongside some material that does relate to high minded pretentiousness, there is a whole lot about car renovation, cricket, metal detecting, oppositional American politics, sailing and all sorts of other nonsense which allows me to switch off and not think. However, the algorithm sometimes serves up pure gold and the other day this came in the form of a video from the Centre for Action and Contemplation, of Richard Rohr talking about how Jesus used and quoted scripture.

Now perhaps you would have skipped along the feed towards something less cerebral – I almost did but I gave it a try, as much to save it for later. Instead I watched the whole thing, all one hour and eight minutes, despite all the other things I should have been doing.

It turns out that Richard Rohr – who I believe offers a vital prophetic, apastolic perspective to our generation – had things to say that were of great importance to my quest for a renewal of religion. He does this with a playful gentle kindness that always makes me listen all the harder. Here is the video in question;

There is so much about what RR has to say here that I find myself saying a soul-deep YES to… but towards the beginning he says something like this;

You must define and clarify tour hermeneutic- your science of interpretation. If you don’t have a consistent hermeneutic, you can make scripture say whatever you want. If we don’t make clear at the beginning how we approach scripture and the way we give it authority, then we are really not worth listening to because it will just end up being ‘opinion’. You will then just find texts that affirm your opinon.

Richard Rohr

Even the most faithful of my critics – with much justification – might point to this Remaking Religion series and accuse me of doing exactly what RR warns us against. I am expressing opinions then, if I seek to anchor this in scripture at all, then I do so only in ways that justify my opinions.

Some might chucle and suggest that my hereneutic is youtube!

Perhaps my critical friends might go even further than this, and point out that my failure to base most of my arguments on scripture is indicative of my wearyness, my cynicism towards the scripture itself and there would be truth in this criticism. I feel as though I have escaped from what I now view as a a prison in which the iron bars were made out of scripture. No wonder then that I, and others like me, are less interested in ‘proving’ or ‘evidencing’ truth based on narrow versions of scripture because the whole idea of ‘biblical authority’ feels like a prison gate. Having said that, any cursory read of this blog will notice that I am certainly not done with the bible, neither do I in any way reject the treasure and wisdom it contains.

What RR does in this video – and many others have done alongside him – is hold a mirror up to the religious traditions we were parented by in our faith and in doing so, pointing out that they too had substantial unconscious bias arising from their hermaneutics. They too then backwards interpreted scripture in such a way as to confirm these biases.

Worse than this, the bigger and more ‘successful’ these hermeneutics became, the more invisible they were, the more unasailable, the more they were given the authority of ‘truth’. The more they were seen as coming directly from God himself, as if on a velvet cushion from the sky. (Strange then, that this truth often seemed to fit well with a set of priorities that confirmed the power structure of the empires they grew within and continued to support.)

The continuing attempt to preserve the crumbling remains of the 13thC Dunkeld Cathedral

What do we do with this insight?

What might it mean as we try to remake our religion in our shifting changing context?

I think we have to refuse to get back in theological prison, and instead start to use scripture in a very different way, which involves reading it through a deliberately different hermeneutic – one that remains faithful to tradition, but free from it also.

JESUS

RR does a brilliant job in trying to describe how Jesus approached scripture, and how this seems radically different to the way we have read it. Selective quoting from just 4 OT books are recorded in the gospels- sometimes miss-quotes! Actively disagreeing/wrestling with scripture

HIERARCHY OF TRUTH

As Pope Francis puts it, not all truth is equal. Some comes first. Not every sentence in scripture can or should be given equal merit as if it were heavenly law.

INCLUSION

Jesus always includes. Critique the in-group, make the outsider the hero.

MERCY

Always Jesus started with love, continued with love and ended with love

PEOPLE OVER DOCTRINE

I loved the way that RR described the difference it makes when we engage with theology though connection to people as opposed to approaching people through theology.

PRINCIPLE OVER FINE PRINT

Back to that hierarchy of truth thing- if we can ‘prove’ something using ancient scriptural texts then we must also subject that text to the bigger principles that the text contains. We know this as Christians because that is what Jesus did.

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