Sunday 7 March 2010
Methodists with a white past and a black future
I have just finished the book, 'Methodists with a white past and a black future' by Simanga Kumalo - having borrowed a copy after my own 'went missing'! Simanga Kumalo led our synod devotions last year and I first heard the title of this book when they introduced him to us. I was already feeling quite insecure being in a very small white minority at synod and the title of this book really made me want to give up and go home. There was clearly, in my mind, no space for white people in the Methodist Church. However, it might have been better if Rev Kumalo had put a question mark at the end of the title of his book, because if his book is an answer to that question, then the answer is 'No'. Methodists are not a people (in South Africa) with an only white past or an only black future. Both people have been active throughout Methodist history in Southern Africa. The first half of the book is basically a history of Methodism in South Africa, especially in KwaZulu-Natal. The second half is the history of the Central Methodist Church in Durban from about 1960 until now. The first part is interesting as a summary of Methodist history and particularly as it details the struggles around apartheid. The second part is a really honest look at black/white dynamics within the Methodist Church - and also at black dynamics. For anyone who is interested in the Methodist Church or in doing 'multi-cultural' church this is a very good book to read.
Tuesday 26 January 2010
'Chaos' - James Gleick
One of the things which most struck me about James Gleick’s book Chaos was its age. In part, writing conventions have changed over the two decades since it was written. More significantly, though, I wondered why I knew so little about the exciting new science he discusses. Why hadn’t I been taught about fractal dimensions, universality and chaotic bifurcations? They were so interesting to read about, and so very useful – essential, in fact – to science.
In due course, I realised that it was just as well my high school teachers hadn’t tried to introduce me to chaos theory. I was still trying to figure out how a battery worked: the mathematical properties of the electrical oscillations it might produce were (and still are) years of study beyond me. This exciting new science is not a science that can be used by the everyday man or woman on the street.
What Gleick achieves in Chaos is to make it a science that I could almost understand and definitely appreciate. He exposes the mathematical structure and elegance behind measles epidemics and hurricanes; he points out the scientific background of beautiful fractals.
By the end of the book, I was half-convinced that I wanted to be a theoretical physicist. Not only would I get to understand chaos theory properly, but I would lead the interesting life of one of the book’s characters. Practically, of course, we can’t all discover new sciences and Gleick only includes the most interesting academic episodes in his book. Nonetheless, those characters do very much make the book.
Gleick may be writing about chaos, but he does it through stories of people: an awful lot of people, but real and interesting people. When the interactions became very complex, I wished that Chaos, like my copy of The Silmarillion, came with an index of characters. I was losing track of who each of the dozens of scientists were. As a story, the book would be easier to understand with fewer characters; what the broad cast certainly does achieve is to point out that the application of chaotic studies is equally broad.
Chaos is not light or easy reading, but neither is it dull. It takes the reader behind the scenes of the oxymoronic simple complexity of our world. It’s a heavy drop of water to help fill the bucket of insatiable curiosity.
In due course, I realised that it was just as well my high school teachers hadn’t tried to introduce me to chaos theory. I was still trying to figure out how a battery worked: the mathematical properties of the electrical oscillations it might produce were (and still are) years of study beyond me. This exciting new science is not a science that can be used by the everyday man or woman on the street.
What Gleick achieves in Chaos is to make it a science that I could almost understand and definitely appreciate. He exposes the mathematical structure and elegance behind measles epidemics and hurricanes; he points out the scientific background of beautiful fractals.
By the end of the book, I was half-convinced that I wanted to be a theoretical physicist. Not only would I get to understand chaos theory properly, but I would lead the interesting life of one of the book’s characters. Practically, of course, we can’t all discover new sciences and Gleick only includes the most interesting academic episodes in his book. Nonetheless, those characters do very much make the book.
Gleick may be writing about chaos, but he does it through stories of people: an awful lot of people, but real and interesting people. When the interactions became very complex, I wished that Chaos, like my copy of The Silmarillion, came with an index of characters. I was losing track of who each of the dozens of scientists were. As a story, the book would be easier to understand with fewer characters; what the broad cast certainly does achieve is to point out that the application of chaotic studies is equally broad.
Chaos is not light or easy reading, but neither is it dull. It takes the reader behind the scenes of the oxymoronic simple complexity of our world. It’s a heavy drop of water to help fill the bucket of insatiable curiosity.
Tuesday 12 January 2010
"Living in Sin" - John Shelby Spong
It's interesting that at a time that the same-sex debate is raging in the MCSA once again, Jenny and I both happen to be reading books on this issue. However, this one by Spong seems to be at polar opposites to the one by Webb.
I must confess that I was hesitant to read this book, given that some of Spong's views, not only on sexuality, but on the interpretation of Scripture in general, are - shall we say - "controversial". And I probably would not have read "Living in Sin" had it not been sent to me. Then again, I've always maintained that one cannot offer commentary honestly on something that one has not read/seen, so it was with this in mind that I pressed on...
So onto the book itself. One can gather from the subtitle, "A Bishop Rethinks Human Sexuality", that this is not likely to be a volume that reaffirms the traditional position of abstinence of sex outside of marriage, marriage as being solely between a man and a woman, and so forth - and so it proved.
The book is divided into three main parts.
Part I ("The Revolution") covers topics such as "A Biblical Call to Inclusiveness", in which Spong asserts that his re-think on human sexuality is not so much about the sexual act but about discrimination against those who hold to different sexual mores than the mainstream. Indeed, with the sexual revolution in the 1960s, the spiralling divorce rate, and the increasing phenomenon of couples living together outside of marriage, those holding onto the traditional view are fast becoming a minority. Spong argues that, by continuing to "swim upstream", the Church has become a place of exclusion.
In Part II ("The Bible"), Spong turns to Scripture itself - more specifically, the misuse of Scripture to advance a particular point of view. Warning against a literal interpretation of the Bible, Spong traces our "faith story" back to its origins - about 4000 years - when the first of what is included in today's Bible was recorded, and compares this to the presence of human life (albeit in primitive form) for around a million years, he argues that since our "faith story" is so relatively young, one has to wonder "why a gracious God would leave human beings in both ignorance and sin for 99.9 percent of the time that they have inhabited the earth". It is for this reason, states Spong, that Scripture contains many passages that would appear to be in conflict with an understanding of a loving God. Given this background, one begins to understand why Spong is heavily critical of what he terms the Biblical attitude towards women, as well as its pronouncements on homosexuality, viewing these as the product of a patriarchal hetrosexual-dominated society rather than pronouncements of God. Indeed, Spong argues further that the Bible is not the Word of God, but words that lead to the Word, Who is God.
In the final part - Part III (Some New Proposals") - Spong deals firstly with marriage and celibacy. Arguing from the point of view that people are marrying a lot later in life nowadays, he sees no reason why sexual expression should be excluded from relationships formed prior to marriage. He then turns to the issue of the Church and divorce, and puts forward a proposal for an order of service in which the end of a marriage is formally acknowledged (in a similar way to life's end being acknowledged through a funeral service. The next chapter deals with the blessing of gay and lesbian commitments, which Spong is in favour of - not surprising, given what has been written in this book thus far. Also covered are sexual relationships among "post-married singles" such as those who are divorced or widowed. His argument here is that divorcees may wish to avoid remarriage because of past hurts, while widowed persons may risk losing certain benefits (such as spouse's pensions) should they remarry; however, this does not take away the need for physical intimacy. Finally, this section deals with women as clergy - something that is still not widely accepted by a number of churches.
The book concludes with an epilogue entitled "Enduring the Present to Claim the Future", in which Spong declares that today's controversies may well be tomorrow's norms, and invites his readers to endure the storms that will surely erupt when adopting a new attitude towards sexuality. Finally, included is a report of a task force (in which Spong participated) on changing patterns of sexuality and family life.
If your thinking on sexuality follows the more traditional approach, this book will be likely to jar your thinking - anger you, even. I can't say that I felt particularly comfortable with its content, and find it strange that someone who claims to have devoted his life to the Bible seems to spend so much energy in trying to refute its contents. But it is probably worth ploughing through once, even if only to get a glimpse into what the "liberal thinkers" are basing their arguments on concerning changing sexual attitudes and the interpretation of Scripture around this subject.
I must confess that I was hesitant to read this book, given that some of Spong's views, not only on sexuality, but on the interpretation of Scripture in general, are - shall we say - "controversial". And I probably would not have read "Living in Sin" had it not been sent to me. Then again, I've always maintained that one cannot offer commentary honestly on something that one has not read/seen, so it was with this in mind that I pressed on...
So onto the book itself. One can gather from the subtitle, "A Bishop Rethinks Human Sexuality", that this is not likely to be a volume that reaffirms the traditional position of abstinence of sex outside of marriage, marriage as being solely between a man and a woman, and so forth - and so it proved.
The book is divided into three main parts.
Part I ("The Revolution") covers topics such as "A Biblical Call to Inclusiveness", in which Spong asserts that his re-think on human sexuality is not so much about the sexual act but about discrimination against those who hold to different sexual mores than the mainstream. Indeed, with the sexual revolution in the 1960s, the spiralling divorce rate, and the increasing phenomenon of couples living together outside of marriage, those holding onto the traditional view are fast becoming a minority. Spong argues that, by continuing to "swim upstream", the Church has become a place of exclusion.
In Part II ("The Bible"), Spong turns to Scripture itself - more specifically, the misuse of Scripture to advance a particular point of view. Warning against a literal interpretation of the Bible, Spong traces our "faith story" back to its origins - about 4000 years - when the first of what is included in today's Bible was recorded, and compares this to the presence of human life (albeit in primitive form) for around a million years, he argues that since our "faith story" is so relatively young, one has to wonder "why a gracious God would leave human beings in both ignorance and sin for 99.9 percent of the time that they have inhabited the earth". It is for this reason, states Spong, that Scripture contains many passages that would appear to be in conflict with an understanding of a loving God. Given this background, one begins to understand why Spong is heavily critical of what he terms the Biblical attitude towards women, as well as its pronouncements on homosexuality, viewing these as the product of a patriarchal hetrosexual-dominated society rather than pronouncements of God. Indeed, Spong argues further that the Bible is not the Word of God, but words that lead to the Word, Who is God.
In the final part - Part III (Some New Proposals") - Spong deals firstly with marriage and celibacy. Arguing from the point of view that people are marrying a lot later in life nowadays, he sees no reason why sexual expression should be excluded from relationships formed prior to marriage. He then turns to the issue of the Church and divorce, and puts forward a proposal for an order of service in which the end of a marriage is formally acknowledged (in a similar way to life's end being acknowledged through a funeral service. The next chapter deals with the blessing of gay and lesbian commitments, which Spong is in favour of - not surprising, given what has been written in this book thus far. Also covered are sexual relationships among "post-married singles" such as those who are divorced or widowed. His argument here is that divorcees may wish to avoid remarriage because of past hurts, while widowed persons may risk losing certain benefits (such as spouse's pensions) should they remarry; however, this does not take away the need for physical intimacy. Finally, this section deals with women as clergy - something that is still not widely accepted by a number of churches.
The book concludes with an epilogue entitled "Enduring the Present to Claim the Future", in which Spong declares that today's controversies may well be tomorrow's norms, and invites his readers to endure the storms that will surely erupt when adopting a new attitude towards sexuality. Finally, included is a report of a task force (in which Spong participated) on changing patterns of sexuality and family life.
If your thinking on sexuality follows the more traditional approach, this book will be likely to jar your thinking - anger you, even. I can't say that I felt particularly comfortable with its content, and find it strange that someone who claims to have devoted his life to the Bible seems to spend so much energy in trying to refute its contents. But it is probably worth ploughing through once, even if only to get a glimpse into what the "liberal thinkers" are basing their arguments on concerning changing sexual attitudes and the interpretation of Scripture around this subject.
Monday 11 January 2010
Slaves, Women and Homosexuals - William J Webb
I've had this book for just under a year, recommended by Stephen Murray, but my Masters got in the way and I never read it. I picked it up now, thinking it would challenge my ideas about what the Bible says about homosexual relationships. I am not sure that it will - the writer seems to read my mind in terms of my understanding of a good Bible hermeneutic. It is amazingly affirming when one picks up a recommended book and finds it saying all the same things that you are! I am only two chapters into the book, so I may yet be surprised.
Chapter 1 -talks about cultural analysis. Familiar material on how the Bible was written from within a culture and that preliminary application needs to come from that understanding.
Chapter 2 - presents the idea of a 'redemptive movement' hermeneutic. In many ways this seems to be a restatement of what I have always understood as progressive revelation. Webb says that the Bible does not present guidelines to an ethically perfect Utopian society, but rather draws the reader further on into a 'better' ethic in manageable steps. For example, the Biblical teaching of slavery needs to be seen in the context of the slavery at the time. Although we see discussion about slavery as very backward, the Bible was moving people to a more humane form of slavery - and there we see the redemptive movement. We could just leave it there, or we can ask how this movement would and should progress - in this case ultimately to the abolition of slavery and beyond that to good and humane working conditions for all. So that the Biblical description is not final and what is indicative is the nature and direction of the movement away from the local culture.
Chapter 1 -talks about cultural analysis. Familiar material on how the Bible was written from within a culture and that preliminary application needs to come from that understanding.
Chapter 2 - presents the idea of a 'redemptive movement' hermeneutic. In many ways this seems to be a restatement of what I have always understood as progressive revelation. Webb says that the Bible does not present guidelines to an ethically perfect Utopian society, but rather draws the reader further on into a 'better' ethic in manageable steps. For example, the Biblical teaching of slavery needs to be seen in the context of the slavery at the time. Although we see discussion about slavery as very backward, the Bible was moving people to a more humane form of slavery - and there we see the redemptive movement. We could just leave it there, or we can ask how this movement would and should progress - in this case ultimately to the abolition of slavery and beyond that to good and humane working conditions for all. So that the Biblical description is not final and what is indicative is the nature and direction of the movement away from the local culture.
Wednesday 23 December 2009
Out of the Silent Planet - CS Lewis (Post 3)
This is what the God-like, but not-God, character says near the end of the book.
'I see how the lord of the silent planet has bent you. There are laws that all hnau [human-like beings] know, of pity and straight dealing and shame and the like, and one of these is the love of kindred. He has taught you to break all of them except this one, which is not one of the greatest laws; this one he has bent until it becomes folly . . .'
I think one of the greatest strengths in this book is the way that Lewis redescribes some of the things that we value to show how ridiculous they can seem.
'I see how the lord of the silent planet has bent you. There are laws that all hnau [human-like beings] know, of pity and straight dealing and shame and the like, and one of these is the love of kindred. He has taught you to break all of them except this one, which is not one of the greatest laws; this one he has bent until it becomes folly . . .'
I think one of the greatest strengths in this book is the way that Lewis redescribes some of the things that we value to show how ridiculous they can seem.
Monday 21 December 2009
Out of the Silent Planet - CS Lewis (Post 2)
I am struggling to find time to read at the moment. I am enjoying this book still, although I find it more demanding to read than more contemporary fiction (so although I may have found it escapist when I first read it, I find it less so now). Ransom has wrestled with the possibility of three dominant inteliigent species on a planet who seem to co-exist and co-operate most wonderfully. He realises that maybe human beings have got some things that they could learn. He is now on the way to 'Oyarsa' some God-like figure who is not God. Every planet has an 'Oyarsa', but not Earth and maybe this is why Earth-dwellers are more 'bent' than those who live on Malacandra.
Hopefully his meeting with Oyarsa will reveal what Lewis is thinking about the nature of good and evil on Earth.
Hopefully his meeting with Oyarsa will reveal what Lewis is thinking about the nature of good and evil on Earth.
Wednesday 16 December 2009
Out of the Silent Planet - CS Lewis (Post 1)
I am rereading this, as I have been meaning to for a couple of years. It is quite old fashioned in style (hardly CS Lewis' fault given that he wrote years ago). I sometimes struggle to enjoy the books that I enjoyed when I was younger (Isaac Asimov for example), but I seem to be getting into this one. I enjoy the way that the author lets us see the struggles that are going on inside the hero's head.
So far, the hero (Ransom) has found himself on the planet Malacandra and has settled in with a native civilisation and is being astounded by the fact that beings different to him can also be intelligent and civilised. Ok, not quite so trivial as that, but I guess it's the bottom line.
[Charli, I know that compared to me you are an expert on CS Lewis - feel free to comment critically!!!]
So far, the hero (Ransom) has found himself on the planet Malacandra and has settled in with a native civilisation and is being astounded by the fact that beings different to him can also be intelligent and civilised. Ok, not quite so trivial as that, but I guess it's the bottom line.
[Charli, I know that compared to me you are an expert on CS Lewis - feel free to comment critically!!!]
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