New Atheism and political stupidity
This article is a good read. An article by an atheist who claims to be "modest in his unbelief" on why Dawkins et al are not helping the cause of secular atheism. Go read.
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Maggi has kept a blog since September 2003, writing about theology and faith, the arts and literature, and a little about life and random nonsense...
In an increasingly secularised society few people have a good working knowledge of the Bible. Yet a great deal of our culture is built on stories or ideas that come from the Bible. Literature, art, music, language and even the fabric of our society - such as our justice system - are built on Christian concepts and biblical references. The Writing on the Wall provides a fascinating introduction to the Bible's best-known, and most influential, stories. Each chapter gives some background to the text of the Bible, and shows how the stories have become enmeshed in Western culture. Adam and Eve, the ten plagues of Egypt, The Prodigal Son and Mary Magdalene all feature - along with how the Bible has influenced everyone from Shakespeare to Monty Python, and Caravaggio to Banksy. 
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This is Maggi’s bestselling book of daily readings for each day of Advent, Christmas and Epiphany. Advent is the beginning of the Church year, and marks the anticipation of the coming Messiah. These readings explore how beginnings and endings in our own lives are illuminated by the different Gospel narratives of Christ's coming.
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Great minds
http://banksyboy.blogspot.com/2009/10/rolling-bones.html
PB
That’s a sad statistic.
It made me think back to when I realised that the Sunday collection contributes almost entirely to administration costs, I felt disappointed and my initial reaction was rejection of this practise. However, on reflection, going to church and contributing to the collection may work in other ways. For example, by encouraging us to help those around us in our own little ways and focusing our awareness on the needs of others.
If St Therese’s relics work to focus prayer (even if it does not effect an immediate transformation or solution to the social problems in our society) to slowly heal spiritual wounds that act as barriers to action, or, to turn people’s thoughts out into the world and to help us see how in our own way we can make a difference, I cannot see the harm in that.
Not to mention poor Therese – I’m sure she’d have disapproved mightily. It’s horrible & sad, though all too easy to see how it might happen.
Maggi, interesting post but I am inclined to offer another view. I’m not sure that you can compare people’s devotion to St Therese to how much the Big Issue bloke got! I’m sure the nearby McD’s did a roaring trade too.
I visited the relics in Portsmouth at the start of the tour and I was very moved by the experience. I marvelled at how the relics had drawn all these 1000s of people from all churches and none into that sacred space. People were searching for hope and healing, and many priests and nuns were hoping to make that tangible connection with a saint who had a profound influence on their lives.
I had no sense of reverence for the bones themselves rather for God who was drawing me into an amazing, prayerful experience that transcended my usual practice of worship. Relics are buried beneath most of the ancient altars in English churches (since the Council of Nicaea of 787 AD) and they are part of that thin thread of continuity with our catholic and apostolic past.
Of course any of us could give the money to worthy causes (or Big I sellers) that we would otherwise spend on a trip to Walsingham, Rome, Geneva or John Bunyan’s museum in Bedford. Perhaps this Sunday we should forego contributing to the collection at our Church and give it to the homeless inside.
I think the tour of the relics has been a success and has earned very little criticism, even for their stay in York. Roll on the visit of Benedict XVI and the beatification of the great John Henry Newman!
Thanks for an alternative point of view, Andy, that’s good to think about
I think that anything that gets people thinking about spirituality has to be a good thing although it’s a shame when that thoughtfulness doesn’t extend to those who need help.
What amazes me is that it’s this saint that provokes such devotion. I’ve read her autobiography and found it pretty dull because her life was pretty dull and so was she.
Martin I know what you mean and in a way this is exactly why Therese has become so popular. She was just an ordinary young woman who felt called to the religious life at 14. Sadly she died from TB at the age of 24 but her writings speak of a ‘little way’, a simple love for God and the world, and it is this that has resonated with so many people. What is probably most surprising is that she was designated ‘Doctor of the Church’ thereby putting her in the same bracket as St Augustine!