thedeepchurchproject

After the  infamous January 15th vote in Parliament the Environment Secretary, Michael Gove, quoted the TV Series Games of Thrones  ‘Winter is coming.’  However, I was immediately mindful of the receding winter of Narnia in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe because ‘Aslan is on the move.’ As the fictional Christ-like lion and his army march forward snow melts and gives way to Spring. C S Lewis, the author wanted to pick up on that sense of longing we have not only for warmer climates but also our longing for our deepest existential and spiritual needs to be met. Though I think that the Brexit gridlock has to be solved and hopefully some acceptable solution can be found – it would be easy to forget that we have another homeland too.   I am reminded of the transcendent second verse from Cecil Spring Rice’s  I Vow to the Thee My Country. It is based on Proverbs 3:17. And there's another country, I've heard of long ago, Most dear to them that...

I had a nightmare last night about being given charge of a strange alien time vortex machine that looked like the Hadron Collider and could push time back and forward in endless frenzy.  The whole thing went into some demonic overdrive. I woke up sweating, heart racing. Our son, Nat, burst into our room seconds later  saying he too had had a nightmare. I was too creeped out to ask if it was the same nightmare. That really would be a glitch in the Matrix!  Or, at this present moment should I rephrase that as a glitch in the "Maytrix." Could I be tapping into some Jungian greater collective subconsciousness? Did we all have bad dreams last night? Well, I do not want to be too fantastical but it strikes me that the current political deadlock touches some very deep undercurrents in our society, much deeper than perhaps even the media and the politicians realise. So, part of me obviously sees the idea of having a monster time machine that goes out of control even...

Some are forecasting that in the near future that Christians will not be allowed to participate in any meaningful way in the public space. If you think I am getting hysterical or alarmist then are plenty of instances of this happening across Europe and in our own land. I am not going in this short article to list a long litany of how we are losing the culture wars but here is a recent instance from Oxford University. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/11/john-finnis-oxford-university-academic-freedom-law  I have included the Guardian article because it astonishingly argues for the removal of Professor John Finnis from a Philosophy faculty because of his upholding of the Roman Catholic and general orthodox views on marriage. He had written a number of complex pieces which were quite erudite on the Medieval scholastic idea of the human person and sexuality. This is not some uber alt.right campaigner but a modest shy academic inhabiting (like C S Lewis) the gen...

Apparently there is scientific evidence to show that we motivation decreases very quickly over time when it comes to exercise and the New Year. We join a gym and within a few weeks we've lost that interest and we end up cancelling the direct debit six months down having perhaps only gone half a dozen times. Will power is not enough. There has to be something that locks us in - like really enjoying doing it. There is a similar pattern when it comes to disciplines of prayer, but there is also a negative spiritual thought that needs to be addressed. This negative thought is that if personal prayer during the week cannot be done at for a substantial chunk of time then there is no point doing it all.  If you have read the Screwtape Letters by C S Lewis then you will be familiar with negative thoughts like this. The book imagines correspondence between a senior and junior devil who are trying to "redirect" a new Christian - "the patient" - by the subtle implantin...

When people ask me about my take on Brexit my reply is, "Isn't it strange that the four horsemen of the apocalypse are a bit quiet recently?" Dawkins, Harris, Dennett, and Hitchens called themselves this because they were in their minds the upcoming death nell of religion, the unstoppable charge of reason, the virus that would kill of faith, etc., etc, bla, bla. Okay, Christopher Hitchens is dead and Richard Dawkins had a stroke, but even so, their supposed tidal wave of New Atheism seems a bit well...flat of recent.  I'm almost disappointed. What has demise of New Atheism to do with Brexit? I would argue quite a lot actually and here is why. This is more of a gut feeling and I have little in the way of empirical evidence. I sense that what I am saying is also more than wishful thinking on my part as a religious practitioner.  Watching the Cumberbatch Brexit movie I was struck at how the Vote Leave strategist Dominic Cummings had similar "gut" feelings ...

I was not that surprised by the interview of Dr Rowan Williams, former Archbishop, on BBC2 Newsnight a few nights ago because it seemed so hallowed and predictable. Our  self-confessed 'Guardian reading' grand prelate spoke in quiet tones and was barely given the sort of roasting that most get on that show. They were literally whispering at one point as if sitting in church. Made me chuckle. Has the Beeb has decided to go to the ivory towers of Cambridge to consult the Delphic Oracle. Don't get me wrong. I love +Rowan. He's deeply intellectual and probably the brightest ABC we've had since Saint Anselm sat on Augustine's chair. His theological works on the human person in relation to Christ is stunning and should rightly be seen as part of the modern deposit of faith. During his time of office he was second only to Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict, indeed - they were personal friends and apparently the Holy Father would consult him as "Myr deer Rowan.....