thedeepchurchproject

Rod Dreher in his seminal 'The Benediction Option' (2017) identifies the emergence of Nominalism in the later part of Medieval civilisation as the start of all our troubles with modernity. It is no easy thing to describe what Nominalism is but it appears to be the first of four intellectual movements which have brought us to a post-Christian Europe. As Matthew Arnold claimed in his 'Sea of Faith' poem we are witnessing the receding of shores of belief. Of course, the yarn we are sold is that the Church's demise is due to the superiority of the scientific worldview, the moral failings of the clergy and poor marketing. However, notwithstanding this criticism I want to suggest that Nominalism was from the start a big cause for the Christian worldview to collapse in the West. Basically, Nominalism views that stuff is stuff and the world is not a magical or supernaturally charged place. God is therefore one of many beings and it just happens that he is very bi...

Consider the words of Metropolitan Kirill one of the Patriarchs of Russia which came out of the November 2017 joint meeting with the Archbishop of Canterbury in Moscow.   “There is an expulsion of God from human life, ignoring the Divine moral law. And especially devastating is the fact that ignoring the Divine moral law is clothed in the form of state law. This is a very dangerous trend. If people force the state law to try to commit a sin or to associate themselves with sin, then we will enter into some kind of apocalyptic reality.”  This 'Apocalyptic reality' was strangely absent from the official Anglican press releases on the visit.  Were the Patriarch's strong words of concern not deemed politically correct for our home readership?  The battle lines are ideological when it comes to secularisation (Ephesians 6.12). It is a battle of ideas, a fight for the base code of what it means to be human and to exist in Christian civilization. ...

Last week at the Gospel Choir evensong I said in my short talk, "In the end, we are all Republicans - really," I hold to this, even for the most ardent of fans of our British monarchy.  And so, having left you all in suspense here is my development of that idea... As modern people who take pride in our independence, we are all allergic to kings and do not want anyone to 'long reign over us.' I defy anybody who wants to be subject to an autocratic rule. Are we not after all democrats where the people, rather than the accidents of a medieval bloodline, are sovereign? A constitutional monarchy is a wonderful compromise and does not really impose its will upon us. Our last instance of autocracy is given in the lyrics of a Monty Python song: The most interesting thing about King Charles the First  is that he was 5 foot 6 inches tall at the start of his reign,  but only 4 foot 8 inches tall at the end of it. Of course, this is not simply to focus on Charles the Fi...

For once I find myself in theological agreement with John Humphries - Radio 4's TFTD is mostly boring. I know, I know, there are some great religious minds that go on the show and I do not want to demean them BUT I find myself using its regular 7.50am prompt to switch off the radio and go and get dressed.  It's just so annoyingly anodyne and the biased toward nice liberal progressive speakers who seem to say nothing more than shouldn't we all just be nice to each other. Now, there is nothing wrong with saying that live on radio - but really it's so bland and samey. It feels as if almost every broadcast begins with some drippingly earnest antiphon like "In the UN today....". The portrayal of religion is therefore not much more than a sort of top-up for life, like having chocolate sprinkles on your cappuccino. A nice extra option but not too demanding.  This "progressive" theological voice buys into the myth behind modernism. Every society...

“I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” Philippians 3. 8 Sermon for Proper 22 Year A Exodus 20. 1-20 ‘Ten Commandments’ Philippians 3.4b-14 – I count as Loss Matthew 21. 33-46 – Parable of the Tenants of the Vineyard In 2004, the then Foreign Secretary Jack Straw participated in a debate about the inclusion or otherwise of the Judeo-Christian roots in the new constitution of the EU. The constitution, drafted by former French president Giscard d’Estaing referred only in passing to cultural, religious and humanist inheritances. At a meeting of foreign ministers, Straw told reporters, aware of the feeling of Muslims that it would be insensitive to make reference to one religious tradition at the exclusion of another.   The inclusion of ‘God’ and ‘Christianity’ never came, even with the intervention of the philosopher pope Saint John Paul II. Could it be that at that moment something of a new quasi-religion, a sec...

Yesterday a terminally ill man took me aside after a church service and said to me, "You preached at my son's wedding and I've never expected a sermon like that. You created a bridge between science and religion.  Being a man who has struggled with this issue I wanted to walk across that very bridge."  Now, I know that some of you will say that preaching like this is opportunism. I recall as a teenager a visiting preacher who came to our church at Midnight and did a thumping homily on Jesus saves.  It came over as if he was 'pushing' Jesus like a manic salesman. Not very Anglican! This was not what I did. What I did was not dissimilar to the talk that Dr. Michael Lloyd, the Principal of Wycliffe Hall gave to us at the Diocesan Clergy Conference back in September. He urged us as preachers and teachers to firmly park our cars on the war of ideas that involves the culture and the Gospel. Fundamental to this was the concept of love. Perhaps, this now b...

Are you unsettled by the chanting of Oh Jeremy Corbyn to White Stripes? I know I am.  I suppose you have admire the political genius of it all AND it is not as indigestible as the last adoption of a pop song by "New" Labour - 'Things Can Only Get Better' (by D:Ream).  It's very very catchy and I can imagine that even dear old Jacob Rees-Mogg has found himself whistling it, even if in ridicule.  Yet, this troubles me. This because I cannot help wonder when does such adulation begin to border on worship and a personality cult? What does this adulation do to the psyche of a person in high office? It cannot be good for the ego? Furthermore, what I do not understand with Jeremy Corbyn is why he has allowed this to go on? He must be aware of the pitfalls. How does he square this mass singing of his name with his supposed humble exterior? What astonishes me is that in this video clip his understated response is to talk of this as  'very touching'.  L...

Some schools have decided to ditch 'Before Christ' and 'Anno Domini' for the more politically correct Before Common Era and, yes you've guessed it... Common Era.  This includes East Sussex Educational Authority. History teachers are informing classes that BCE and CE are now be to be the norm so as not to offend non-Christians. I wonder what happens when a student in conscience refuses to adhere to this?  In all my years of ministry, I have yet to find this constituency of disgruntled masses. The same goes for the corny relabelling of Christmas to 'Winterfest'. I have certainly not met an Iman or Rabbi who protested about this... quite the reverse. Are you the reader upset by AD and BC? If it is so upsetting why not fix year zero to another date and be truly neutral? A whole list comes to mind from Union of Crowns (1603) to the founding of the European Parliament (1952). Maybe we will reset the caldendar to something akin to Star Trek...star date 231643....