Believe Differently

Large Christian gatherings normally freak the Jesus out of me - literally! But I absolutely love Greenbelt. I have just got back from this year’s festival – well actually, I got back Tuesday but this is the first chance I have had to write on my blog – and I thought I would point you in the direction of some of the speakers /talks I particularly enjoyed.

Brian McLaren

Brian McLaren is my hero. When my studies sent me down the post modern route, and caused me to doubt all of what I had come to believe, it was McLaren that brought me back. His book, “A New Kind of Christian”, made me realize that, though I had accepted the post modern epistemology, it did not mean I had to throw out all that I had come to believe.1 Discovering McLaren was a major turning point for me. Here was a significant Christian leader, respected, though not always agreed with, by other Christian leaders, who validated my own thinking. In a sense, discovering McLaren gave me permission to explore thoughts which till then had been forbidden within a fundamental Christian mindset.

The two talks I enjoyed most: “Rediscovering Christian faith as a way of life”; and “Postmodern and Postcolonial”.

http://www.greenbelt.org.uk/shop/talks/speakers/47

I really liked what McLaren had to say about truth and it is sits well with my own thoughts.  I find I am tired of rationalistic theological categories that first conceptualize and then hypostatize such that God is made to be something less.

Keith Ward

Keith Ward has taught philosophy at Glasgow, St. Andrews, Kings College, London and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and was Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford for twelve years. His talk entitled “Why there is almost certainly a God” is a direct response to the forth chapter of Richard Dawkins’ book “The God Delusion” entitled: “Why there certainly is no God”.2

Unlike other responses to “The God Delusion”, Ward attacks Dawkins’ minimalistic materialistic understanding of reality. Dawkins adopts a position rejected by nearly all modern day philosophers and in the process demonstrates a profound lack of understanding.

I am not certain I agree with all of Ward’s talk but I suspect that is more due to him tailoring the content to his audience. For me it seems he curtails too much to the authority of scientific discourse and makes far too much reference to “scientific fact”.  Also, he makes reference to the sense of smell being the result of an electromagnetic wave. Although, in a way, because fundamental particles can be considered as waves and the sense of smell can also be thought of in terms of the interaction of reality modeled as such, I suspect, really, he simply meant to say that colour, taste and smell have something in common, in that they are all constructs of our mind.

Anyway, aside from that, his talk is well worth a listen.

http://www.greenbelt.org.uk/shop/talks/speakers/928

Frank Schaeffer

In these talks, Frank Schaeffer shares his story of how he and his father helped shape the modern American political landscape and helped found the Religious Right – something he now deeply regrets! His story is very interesting and I particularly enjoyed his reflections on doubt as a necessary component of creative inspiration.

http://www.greenbelt.org.uk/shop/talks/speakers/1065

Nigel Varndell

Nick Varndell works as the Interfaith Manager at Christian Aid. I really enjoyed his talk provocatively entitled: “Slavery is biblical”. If you read my blog regularly you will know I hate the word “biblical” as, as far as I am concerned, to label something “biblical” is effectively to make a meaningless statement.

http://www.greenbelt.org.uk/shop/talks/speakers/32

1. Brian McLaren, A New Kind of Christian (San Francisco: Jossy-Bass, 2001) [↩]
2. Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (London: Bantum, 2006) 111 [↩]