Exile: take the power back?

A Christian British Airways (BA) employee has lost her

appeal against a ruling which allowed the airline to stop her wearing a cross at

work.

...Nadia Eweida says she was placed at a

disadvantage due to her beliefs.

Hype: the cemetery of dreams?

Despair: a coping strategy

Despair, too, presupposes hope. ‘What we do not long for, can be the object neither of our

hope nor of our despair’ (Augustine). The pain of despair

surely lies in the fact that a hope is there, but no way opens up

towards its fulfilment. Thus the kindled hope turns against the one

who hopes and consumes him. ‘Living means burying hopes’, says Fontane in one of his novels, and it

is these ‘dead hopes’ that he portrays in it. Our hopes are

bereft of faith & confidence. Hence despair would seek to

preserve the soul from disappointments. ‘Hope as a rule

makes many a fool.’

Hope: the christian myth

In pre-Christian Europe, History was a series of cycles, with no overall meaning. Against this pagan view, Christians understood history as a story of sin and redemption. Humanism is the transformation of this Christian doctrine of salvation into a project of

universal human emancipation. The teaching of Jesus was that the old world was about to come to an end

and a new kingdom established. There would be unlimited abundance in the fruits of the earth. Those

who dwell in the new kingdom – including the righteous dead, who will be raised back to life – would

be rid of physical and mental ills. Living in a new world that is without corruption, they will be

immortal. Jesus was sent to announce this new kingdom and rule over it. There is much that is

original and striking in Jesus’ ethical teaching. He not only defended the weak and powerless as other

Jewish prophets had done, but he also opened his arms to the outcasts of the world. Yet the belief that

a new kingdom was at hand was the heart of his message and was accepted as such by his disciples.

The new kingdom did not arrive, and Jesus was arrested and executed by the Romans.

Security (blanket): a sneaking suspicion?

sociological power seeking justification

#suspicion?

psychological weakness seeking

consolation

moral weakness seeking revenge

Faith: no reasons, just causes

Resurrection: take it or leave it?Take it away, and Karl Marx was

probably right to accuse Christianity of ignoring the

problems of the material world. Take it away, and Sigmund

Freud was probably right to say that Christianity is a wish-fulfillment religion. Take it

away, and Friedrich Nietzsche was probably right to say that

Christianity is a religion for wimps. Put it back, and you

have a faith that can take on the postmodern world

Joy: the Christian revolution

Entering the suffering of the world most fully & testifying to the love of God

Faith: fools’ gold?or more precious than gold? We are showing today that we

are willing to invest assets our country has to strengthen the banking system. But the most

precious asset of all is something that if lost can only be restored not by words but by actions...the asset of trust and confidence. Confidence

about the future is needed for confidence todayGordon Brown, 13 Oct 2008

If I say “I have faith in Gordon”, what am I saying? What restores faith? What is the proof of my faith?

Witness: do we fear what they fear?

“We need to witness boldly and clearly but not with anger and fear; we need to show that we believe what we say

about the Lordship of the Risen Christ and his

faithfulness to the world he came to redeem”