Book description
I believe, because it is impossible' (Tertullian, 2nd century)
Some of the statements of belief that Christians are required to
assent to, such as the Virgin Birth and the bodily Resurrection of
Jesus, are driving many of them out of the Catholic and Protestant
churches--and preventing new people from coming in. Yet those
statements were formulated nearly two thousand years ago, in a time
when people understood the world very differently. For over 150 years
theologians of all denominations have been warning the Church that, if
it is not to become extinct, it needs to look for the truths that lie
behind those ancient formulations, and find new ways of presenting
them. But their words have been ignored by the church authorities and
by priests and ministers, preferring not to disturb the present faith
of their congregations. And so the gap between the theologians and the
people in the pews continues to widen. Now many Christians are taking
their beliefs into their own hands. Increasingly, they are meeting in
small groups and communities, without formal leadership and without
formal doctrine, ignoring denominational differences yet bringing the
best of their various traditions with them. Is this the Christianity
of the future? In this book Hilary Wakeman, a recently retired priest
in the Church of Ireland, talks about the difference between
right-brain and left-brain approaches to faith and religion, and
considers some of the ways that the core doctrines of Christianity can
be re-stated so that they can be expressed with honesty and integrity.
