Notes from reading the book containing his talks and essays.
He is a retired vicar and member iof PCN.

Introduction.
Many retired clergy feel relief that they can now speak freely.
Church growth in the world is largely limited to the areas where education is inadequate.
In the West, growth seems to centre on a short term appeal to those wanting certainties rather than painful thought.

The church has failed to educate people into the changing understanding of its origins
Those with half a mind have abandonned the church or retreated into unthinking fundamentalism.
Are Holy Orders merely an adminstrative convenience?

Section A: .. A PROBLEM.
The true enemy of Faith is not Doubt but Certainty.

p3:. How to reconcile the crumbling certainties of childhood with the realities of adult life?
Many of us cling to the residual religious beliefs of childhood.long after we have reached maturity.
The surly bounds of earthly self-interest bind churchmen to the party line.
p4:.The traditional church has too much to lose to surrender easily.

p5:.The church, its creeds and its Bible is a human construct.
Jesus was a prophet in the Jewish tradition, who became divine through later intervention.
His was a reforming movement within Judaism, taken and extended by his followers.
p5:. John's Gospel is a meditation written about 100AD on the life of Jesus.
The accounts of the crucifixion and subsequent events are legendary.
Neither Paul nor Mark appear to have heard of the legend of Virgin Birth!

The first church scoured the scriptures for an explanation to account for the death of Jesus.
The Passion story is designed around the discoveries that they made,
but there were probably no written recodrs of their discoveries.
As the movement spread the revolutionary and anti-Roman elements of the story
became air-brushed out of the account and pro-Roman elements inserted.

Bishops did not emerge until AD 100 and the pre-eminence of Rome a late development.
The title of Augustus as "Son of God" demanded the same eminence for Jesus.
As the Roaman Empire fell apart, the church became the one stable organisation in society
so generating the state-bound clerical establishment, certain of its version of truth;
a "truth" which it sought to impose with increasing brutality and intolerance.

p10. The true enemy of faith is not doubt but certainty.
Certainty denies any need for faith.
Yet certainty is much less costly. The path is clear and well trodden.
Even if it is the wrong path.

The church is failing its communities - not the communities their church.
. Over the centuries the truth of Jesus has been increasing clothed
with an unrealistic patena of holy unreality.

The Christian religion is highly improbable, despite the endless effrots of the faithful.
The concept of life after death is preposterous (even if much longed for).
Religions, and the idea of afterlife, exist because humans can contemplate their demise.
The concepts of the Creeds are untenable, at best. Perhaps pathetic.
The churches are emptying because modern people can see through Christian doctrine.
There is no evidence that interventional prayer has ever been answered.

It has been said, with some truth, that
Religion is violent, irrational, racist, tribal, hostile to free enquiry
contemptuous of women and coercive of children.

These are extreme views, but bearing some truth.

Chapter 3. A God for the Gaps

Modern liturgy and worship is meaningless and unappealing.
We dodoge any idea that the theology which we offer is seriously flawed,
and the clergy, though aware of this, dare not educate their people to new horizons.
We run through all the good things that the church is doing, but fail to identify what it is not.

Jesus also got it wrong, in that the Kingdom, which he proclaimed, never materialised.
The church only took concrete form in the 4th century under Roman authority.
One problem is however that the aspects of God's Kingdom have taken form
outside the coverage of the church, and even despite the church.
Secular society does feed the poor, heal the sick, etc.

The issue of forms of worship, and of worship, should be peripheral.
The Eucharist is unfamilair and off-putting to all but the few.
The need of "outsiders" is for stability, familiarity, and order.
Services should be regular, not over-long and conveniently timed.

There is a common view, shared by those lost to the church. that:
* Christianity's record is pretty poor and its resistance to change deplorable.
* Christianity is not the only answer. All faiths are expressions of man's search for God.
* Missionary activity amongst other faiths should be abandonned.
* Church "mumbo-jumbo", outdated theology, and weasel words are not to be trusted.
* The church's foundation myth (resurrection, moracles etc) have little veracity.
* The church's obsessions with sinfulness and sexual mores are irrelevant.

These problems derive from two outdated ideas:
* The Bible as the inerrant Wordof God.
* The divinity of Jesus.
Discarding these two obstacles would clear a lot of the debris.
However such ideas have been kept secret from congregations.
The church is now reaping the inheritance of its dishonesty.

The laity have never been taught what modern scholarship has discovered,
about the Bible, including the New Testament, and Church history .
As a result, fundamentalism and superstition have thrived.

Chapter 4. The State of the Church

The recent (2024) resignation of the Archbishop, and the scandals of paedophile priests
emphasise the problems of an organisation that has lost its way
and is struggling on with an outdated theology.
The author "despairs at the dead hand of the church's teaching".
We must find a new way of talking about God and Jesus.
We are not fallen people. We are risen apes!

The young have largely and sensibly abandoned the traditional churches,
leaving them to simple minded fundamentalists.
The true mission of present churches is to disappear.

The Protestant heritage can best be expressed by the same freedom of thought
and rational criticism of authority , that lie at the heart of the story of Jesus.
The courage to formulate such an approach is remarkably lacking in the church leadership
who seem terrified that knowledge of recent biblical scholarship by the laity
would undermine the whole theological assumptions of the organisation.

Chapter 5. A New Inquisition

(a Letter to the Bishop)

A dying organisation is stupid to try as heretics
those who hold divergent, liberal, views of doctrine.
(see "Recent Church History")

In the ancient world, the attributes that we give to Jesus
were commonly applied to other heroes (eg Hercules, Augustus).
The difference is that modern evangelicism tends to take these things literally.
The idea of "saving the world" from the wrath of a vndictive deity
(or even of a composite wrathful deity)
is an archaic superstition.

That Jesus saved the world, points to the potential of his message,
if we, humanity, had followed its teaching.

The tragedy is that the church's doctrine is still wrapped in 1st century wrappings.
People in the 21st Century have lost the ability to think symbolically.
The analytical scientific method, careful of the detail,
does not suit the poetic/symbolic mode of description.
The detailed study of biblical texts is thus largely counter-Christian
though much valued by the evangelical wing.

In affirming the divinity of Jesus, we are speaking in 1st Century terms.
We would benefit by accepting his prophetic role as teacher.

Whilst the church, in its present form, needs to die,
it may be that new thoughts and a fresh approach
could lead to resurrection.

Chapter 6-7. Changing Lives/Fresh Expressions

Reorganisation is the first resort of poor leadership
to any fundamental problem.
The Church does need to be reorganised
for it is overstaffed in inessential areas
and unwilling to make serious use of unordained.
Like any closed shop it defends its boundaries to the end.

Changing Lives is a function of faithful witness in the world,
a process to which the ordained are, by their office, excluded.

The Fresh Expressions Course could have been an exploration
of the underlying theology of the Christian Faith,
seeking for a better understanding of the divine interface.
Instead it is a fresh process of church reorganisation.
However no amount of repackaging will sell out-dated or shoddy goods.
Rather than rethinking its sales techniques
the church needs to reexamine what it is selling.

The idea of fallen humans needing redemption by sacrifice
is meaningless to ordinary people, though much loved by the church.
If, by any means, we do persuade people back into church
we will not persuade them to stay unless we change our ways,
and the fundamentals of what we say and do.
The whole concept and presentation of the Communion Service
is such as to militate against such a principle.

Perhaps a problem is that the secular world has replaced
the organisation and leadership role of the church.
(the "Church Fete" has become the "Village Fete" etc)
Mission, or Evangelism, has become and outdated concept,
left over from the time when the church had somethng to offer,
other than a fear driven doctrine based on untenable concepts.

Chapter 8-9.Church

The church as it stands is no longer fit for purpose.
That is also something that Jesus stated in his time.
Jesis is reported as saying:
God is spirit and those that worship him must worship in spirit and truth.
Not in superstition and noise and the clanging of guitars.
The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
We need to discard the focus on Sunday worship for a 24/7 format.
Know the truth and the truth shall set you free.
The church is terrified of the truth.
It has fought against every dicovery of science and scholarship.
In my Father's house are many mansions
We need to abandon the idea that Christianity is the only way to God,
and the empire-building mission concepts that go with it.

The church needs to gain the courage to become, rather thann just to be;
to welcome an debate fresh ideas; to abandon its power-based dominant position;
to discard the clerical closed shop; to educate it congregations.

Section B: .. GROUNDWORK.
Axioms are set-evident truths. Hypotheses are starting points for investigation.
In discussion, we need to agree on what is axiomatic or argument is pointless.
In many religious discussions what is seen as axiomatic by one is seen as hypothese by another.
Establishing the axioms forms the groundwork of any reasoned debate.

Chapter 10 Towards Belief

God
The idea of God is common to all cultures, but is not proven fact.
God is hypothese not axiom, despite the views of reigious fundamentalists.
It is important to discover whether God exists and God's nature.
Man.
Man is a risen ape, not a fallen angel,
but is unquely eqipped with self-awareness.
The Bible.
The Bible is a record of the spiritual journey of a set of people,
written by men and women for men and women.
It includes many forms of writing - many metaphoric.
Jesus .
Jesus was a normal human being - not born of any virgin.
Most of the tales of Jesus embrace poetry and religious imagery.
Jesus was deified as was common for key figures inhis day.
Resurrection.
Resurrection myths are common in ancient religions.
It was a spiritual event experienced by his followers
but described, as was common practice, in physical terms.
The Church.
The church is a human organisation not a divine creation.
The Creeds of the church (like the Ten Commandments before them) are human products
designed to impose the will of human leaders.
Priests maintain a closed shop sanctioned by tradition.
Scholarship and History
Modern scholarship transforms our understanding of the Bible.
However distressing to the faithful church goers, it is important to understand its findings.
What purports to be the teaching of Jesus has been adjusted to fit the ideas of the church.
Such legends and myths may carry unlining truths, though history and the Bible is written by the winners
in the light of their own prejudices and beliefs and under contemporary preceptions.

Chapter 11-13 The Basisof Certainty perhaps

.The basis for religious certainty is a person's consciousness.
Certainty based on external authority has only a temporary value.
Real faith lies in trusting thatwhich is, pesonally, axiomatic.
Once a second-hand faith is accepted from any authority
a person has surrendered their purpose in life, until that faith
has een sifted and analysed and made one's own.

Any statement about Christ is going to be symbolic, and volatile.
Mankind has always invented Gods and still does so,
but does it matter in what form we see divinity?

We have a sense of belonging to something greater, or a need to do so,
but is the presence and nature of that something axiomatic, even though comforting.?

Eternal Life
The traditiional Christian (and Muslim) concept of paradise caries no conviction.
The corrolary could be that our mortal life is all there is.
Yet, if there is a God, a supernatural element to existence,
then our continued existence within it seems a possibility.

Man may have evolved his ideas of God to counter his fear of the unknown,
or to fill the gaps in his understanding of the world around him,
but the existence of a form of life beyond our comprehension
remains a viable, if perhaps irrelevant, possibility.

Perhaps the only way to find out about divinity
is, first, to assume the possibilty.

Chapter 14-15 Salvation

Is this but a Christian cliche inherited from our traditions?

To be "saved" requires something to be saved from.
This could be "moral decay" or death, or delinquency.

In the Old Testament salvation implied
divine preservation from present danger, by God being on "our" side.
This requires that God responds to prayer, which is another fraught concept.
War-leaders have always wanted to believe that God is on their side.
It is a primitive principle that projects into less combative environments.

In Isaiah, we find the glimmerings of the idea that salvation depends on righteousness.
From this flows the concept that afflictions flow from unrighteousness.
We are punished by God for our sins. Obey or suffer!
However God may be appeaed by sacrificing, in some form.

These are features of all the ancient religions.
But it is a process that is constatntly open to corruption
to the befit of those who perform the sacrificial rituals.

The role of Jesus as Messiah would have fitted this scenario,
if he had gathered the people and attempted to drive out the Romans by force.
However that was something that, confusingly, he refused to do
and, worse still, he was then captured and crucified.

Instead of the simple principle of
disobedience followed by retribution
obedience leading to reward
the good seem to have lost out.

The feudal idea (derived from Anselm)
that the death of Jesus allowed God to forgive sin,
imposes unrealistic (indeed blasphemous) constraints on God.

In the OT days, the idea of salvation was clearly from enemy tribes or disease.
Death was a fact of life, though later the idea of morality appeared.
Mystery religions then promoted the concept of post-mortal existence,
and the two concepts merged to form the coherent whole with which we are familiar.
Yet we are only saved by Jesus because he showed us the right way to live,
for salvation from the fires of hell has lost its sell by date.

Chapter 14 A New Christology

"Our highest truths are but half-truths. Think not to settle down forever on any truth.
Treat it as a tent in which to pass the night, but build not a house of it, or it will be your tomb.
When you descry a dim counter-truth looming up, give thanks.
It is the Lord whispering "Take up thy bed and walk."
Arthur Balfour (PM 1902-1905)

The church fails to offer an intellectually coherent faith in a modern world.
Intelligent people are alienated by the spurious modernism of the church's worship.
Why modernise the presentation without modernising the content?

Certainty is dangerous and breeds intolerance.
Uncertainty brings humility and a willingness to face new ideas.
The certain take refuge in their intellectual infancy.

Science without religion is lame, but religion without science is blind.
Albert Einstein

A study of ancient religions finds much in common with Christianity.
Most of the Christian images are echoed in other religions,
where such concepts as gods coming down to earth was quite normal.
The foundational stories of Christianity run true to form
but remain historically untenable.

Just as the tales of Homer were built on centuries of folklore,
so the biblical stories seem likely to derive from many sources.
Modern research has begun to expose fresh knowledge about them.

Our approach to religion is too often through childish literacy>
The Bible and our Christian expressions of faith are full of poetic images,
which orthodoxy too often takes as literally factual.
Terms such as "Son of God" were acceptably indefinite in ancient times,
and might be applied toany great man, but now need explanation.
Too foten the church claims as truth doctrines inappropriate
to the form of truth that it proclaims.

The five stages of religious development.
1. Superstition
This is closely tied to magic and the manipulation of natural forces.
Its divinities are largely female.
Its residual practice is all around us.
2.Anthromorphology
This arose in the 1500sBC as migration brought tribes and races intocollision.
The Gods became recognisably human and masculine, surplanting the nature-goddesses.
Warfare replaced the peacful and settled earlier times, which were also prosperous
and thus an attractive target for the acquisitive masculine society.
These were the familiar Gods of classical mythology.
The familiar three-tiered universe emerged.
Only in their multiplicity, were the Greek Gods diifferent from the Christian.
The same was expected of them and they expected much the same of their adherents.
3. The Axial Age
This was a time when men realised their mutual dependence
and when new ideas gave birth to the sciences and the nature of existence.
Old certainties crumbled. There were no longer any absolutes.
The more that you knew, the more you doubted.
This sounds familiar, for we, too, are in the midst of an intellectual revolution.
Traditional value systems have become a matter of individual choice.
Opinion replaces knowledge; authority and objectivity are dead.
The Olympic Gods, like modern church leaders could not provide any answer.
Here began the eternal battle between science and theology.
In this stage the Olympian religion had become seen as intellectually indefensible
and the more thoughful had begun to seek a different solution to the meaning of life.
New philosophies (Stoicism, Epicurianism and Cynicism) became predominant.
4. The Failure of Nerve
This was signalled by a loss of hope and self-sufficiency;
a Cry for certainty and infallible revelation.
The role of a good man became to find pardon and to suffer for his sins,
instead of being to live justly and to serve society.
There was an increasing belief in visions, revelations and esctatic expeience;
in mysticism and the redeemer gods.
This is, of course, the frame for early Christianity,
though overlaid by the dominant structures of the Roman state.
5. Synthesising Mysticism
This maintained universal religious toleration and a realisation of the singularity of divinity.
As Queen Elisabeth said "Ther is only one faith. The rest is arguing over trifles".
It was a concept that was swiftly rejected by religious, and state, authority.

What lessons can we learn?
As mankind evolves so must the religions that it sustains.
Religions that remain fixed are condemned to a lingering death.
Yet clergy today seem combined in a conspiracy of silence
over modern scholarly opinion.
The world, and our knowledge of it, is changing at a vast rate
but Christianity remains in the anthropomorthic niche of ancient Rome.

SECTION C:.. HISTORY