What do you think of the Bible?

The Future of the Church

This is going to be a quick blog post, as I am on holidays, but I felt the motivation to write this. I have had a few encounters recently where people’s orthodox views have come into competition with some of my more liberal approaches to understanding Christianity. Because of this, I felt the need to explain briefly what it is that I do exactly, with the hope of shedding some light on the situation and resolving any conflicts. 

I believe that the pursuit of understanding God has been an ever-changing practice throughout history: From polytheism to monotheism, from tribal religions to archaic religions, etc. I think that from a Christian perspective, it is still important to acknowledge that our need to pursue an understanding of God didn’t end with the book of Revelation. I don’t believe God changes, but I believe our understanding of him does, and we need to be open to that.  Anyway, I don’t want to drag on the details of this message but wanted to let people know why I am comfortable with academic studies of religion. If you have questions feel free to send them my way. 

 

Regards,

Nathan.

The Future

I am currently in the studio with my band This Harbour, so my ability to blog has been hindered. That said, I’ve come up with a short list of some of the ideas I want to tackle as this blog picks up. Some of these topics are also things that professors I am in contact with will be discussing, so look forward to some clips from that dialogue as well.

Topics

• Religious war- is religion actually the cause or is it just the excuse?

I will be reviewing both the psychological and religious factors involved in religious violence. A similar question that may be answered is: Can you replace religion with something else that would serve the same purpose?

 

• How do we respond to religious war across the world (Syria, Kenya)

In the west, where multiculturalism is flourishing, it is hard for us to imagine the motivations for what is occuring in the middle east and throughout Africa. How should we be responding?  What does the use of force (or threat thereof) show the east about western culture? I see a lot of overlap between this and the first question on the list.

 

• Aboriginal beliefs in North American society.

1.  What about other beliefs in Canada that are not given the same freedoms? Do we allow everyone to express their religion fully or do we limit them all to the confines of societal law?
2. Why has aboriginal spirituality (a tribal religion) persisted in the west when it is often eliminated in other parts of the world?

 

• Psychology and religion

1. Is religion evolving out or just taking a different shape? Is evolutionary theory replacing the spirituality of religions but serving the same functions?
2. What are the flaws of memetics?