Saturday 25 July 2009

CONTEMPORARY RELIGION

It was the great Reformed theologian Karl Barth who once observed, for spiritual leaders, that they ought to preach (or teach) "with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other."

I keep turning that idea around in my head, as I work as an ethicist. It seems that need to speak to the real questions that people are asking, or think they are asking.

One of the frustrations that I find is that, when people talk about Christianity, they often have little or no idea of what basic Christianity is about. They have the strangest notions in their heads -- and link to Christianity things that are completely foreign to that understanding of life or the world.


Now that's a challenge.


9 comments:

The Blog Fodder said...

I suspect if the founders of the great belief systems were to return today they would shake their heads in disbelief and disavow any relationship to any of it.
There seems to be a giant disconnect between the basic tennets of every belief system and what people actually do. I am reading a history of Christian vs Muslim and Jew in Spain. Good God!

Rosaria Williams said...

A start. You got my attention. Let's pull a chair and break bread.

Renee said...

I am very interested.

Let's go.

Love Renee xoxo

Rob-bear said...

® Thanks for your interest, friends. But right now, I'm so far behind, I think I'm in the lead.

I'll be back on this soon enough. IN the meantime, I'm having conversations with a lot of Americans about Canadian health care. Seems there is a lot of misinformation being tossed about. So people ask me to give information.

Anonymous said...

No. You can't jump off the stove before you're "done". Now get back here and finish what you started.

Snowbrush said...

I guess I too am vague about what basic Christianity is about. Not just different individuals but different churches seem to have mutually exclusive ideas.

Rob-bear said...

® Dana and Snowbrush: I'm felling really "done in" at this point. But I'll be back.

Snowbrush said...

"I'm felling really "done in"

Well, Rob-bear, at least you're beyond being half-baked, and what's a few singes around the edges among friends.

Rob-bear said...

Precisely, Snowbrush.

About the icon of St. Anthony . . .
The icon comes from Eastern Christian Supply Company. With thanks!