Faith is a matter of the tenacious commitment of somebody at the end of his tether - in darkness and pain and bewilderment - not knowing what the hell is going on, but refusing even so to give up on what he sees as the source of his faith and love. If you want an image of faith then look at the crucifixion. It seems to me again that the awful, blasphemous thing about somebody like Dawkins is his smug and self-satisfied belief in the essential goodness of history so far. His very Victorian belief in Progress (with a very large P)... Christian faith says if you want an image of history, at least so far, look at the reviled and tortured body of an executed political criminal. The Romans, of course, reserved crucifixion for political figures. Thats an image of history, and if you start from anywhere else, from some thing smart, bright (and unreal) - and we live in a society that is absolutely rife with hope, positivity and idealism, where the very idea of negativity in the United States is almost a thought crime: everybody has to be up-beat and bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. It seems to me the Gospel says thats not where you can start from. It says, either you can look upon this body and live (and thats very difficult) - and then you might see its not quite the last word (death isnt the end) - or you cant, in which case you turn to some nice kind of ideology, like Progress or the American Dream or whatever... ---------------------------------- A conversation between Terry Eagleton, author of Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate (Yale University Press), and Arnold Eisen, Chancellor, Jewish Theological Seminary. Terry Eagletons witty and polemical Reason, Faith, and Revolution has caused a stir among scientists, theologians, people of faith, and people of no faith, as well as among general readers eager to understand the current God debate. Eagleton takes aim at what he calls the truly shocking ignorance of religion displayed by Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens in their best-selling atheist manifestos. His own account of the tragic humanism at the center of the Western religious tradition includes provocative reflections on death, suffering, and love; on revelation and reasonable belief; on the relationship between science and rationality; and on the peculiarly modern tension between the claims of civilization and culture. youtube/watch?v=BgMB_jSx3lk&list=PL27CC4E76AE754298
Posted on: Fri, 25 Oct 2013 01:11:58 +0000
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