Re-Imagining our Faith in the 21st Century
1. Moving Beyond Inherited Beliefs:
– Cerebral, heady propositions
– A distant, judging God
– A Three-tier universe
– A perverse anthropology
– Salvation only via the Church
2. Faith in an Evolutionary Context:
– Science illuminates the mystery of all life
– God works with big time-scales
– Everything in creation is ALIVE
– God’s creativity is revealed first in Creation.
– God works with us in our capacity as Earthlings!
3. God’s Faith in Humanity:
– Our humans story is much longer and deeper than we have been taught
– There was never a perfect template in the past
– Fundamentally we are creative creatures, and not fundamentally flawed
– We have been spiritual for several thousand years.
4. Towards a New Integration of Faith
– God who loves us unconditionally – the starting-point we must never betray or compromise.
– God’s love is mediated firstly through creation.
– God’s love is mediated for us in and through our status as Earthlings.
– God’s primary mode of co-creating is relational, not individualistic.
5. Christianity in a New light:
– From an Imperial Christ to a relational Jesus
– From a heroic martyr to a relational prophet
– From condescending love to empowering eco-justice
– Beyond the power of the Cross to empowering communal discipleship.
6. Wise Elders in Mission:
“When the level of our awareness changes, we start attracting a new reality.”
Gaston Saint Pierre.