zaidagal Posted June 16, 2011 Share Posted June 16, 2011 Ive just discovered him, and Im loving his writing! Im a bit confused though. I know he has left the "church" but does he still define himself as a Christian? The book Im reading now, written in 1974, is so eloquent and beautiful and inspiring about Christ, but Im wondring if he would still stand by what he wrote in this book! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kayatl Posted June 16, 2011 Share Posted June 16, 2011 A quick click to Wikipedia gives a provocative view of this former Bishop of the Scottish Episcopal church who is now described as a "gentle atheist". I guess he is being compared to some of the strident atheists like Hitchens, Dawkins, etc. I am fascinated by the former fundamentalist/literalist people who entirely loose their faith or have a more progressive faith. It sounds like Holloway completely lost his. I am investigating another former theologian,present free thinker/trapeze artist Sam Keen. He is also an atheist but he is married to a Congregational minister. I noticed his Wikipedia entry was incomplete, so I have decided to do this.So many books, not enough time. Kay Editted for broken link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zaidagal Posted June 20, 2011 Author Share Posted June 20, 2011 Kay! YES - so many books so little time!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neon Genesis Posted June 20, 2011 Share Posted June 20, 2011 Interestingly, Dawkins referenced Bishop Holloway in one of his articles, Atheists for Jesus: http://richarddawkins.net/articles/20-atheists-for-jesus This week I had a public conversation in Edinburgh with Richard Holloway, former Bishop of that beautiful city. Bishop Holloway has evidently outgrown the supernaturalism which most Christians still identify with their religion (he describes himself as post-Christian and as a 'recovering Christian'). He retains a reverence for the poetry of religious myth, which is enough to keep him going to church. And in the course of our Edinburgh discussion he made a suggestion which went straight to my core. Borrowing a poetic myth from the worlds of mathematics and cosmology, he described humanity as a 'singularity' in evolution. He meant exactly what I have been talking about in this essay, although he expressed it differently. The advent of human super niceness is something unprecedented in four billion years of evolutionary history. It seems likely that, after the Homo sapiens singularity, evolution may never be the same again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NORM Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 The link no longer takes you to the article. Is there another link? Here NORM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NORM Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 Ive just discovered him, and Im loving his writing! Im a bit confused though. I know he has left the "church" but does he still define himself as a Christian? The book Im reading now, written in 1974, is so eloquent and beautiful and inspiring about Christ, but Im wondring if he would still stand by what he wrote in this book! When I was a child, I was taught that a Christian was one who followed (as in emulated; lived like) Christ (Jesus). I've since learned that this definition is woefully inadequate. Being a Christian, it seems to me, means believing in the supernatural and various, sundry theological machinations developed around the "character" of Jesus. It no longer matters whether or not you behave as you would imagine Jesus would have (as a Jew), but rather whether or not you believe in the mythology and superstitions surrounding his persona. In that sense, I would presume Mr. Holloway would not consider himself a Christian. However, I believe that it is entirely possible to follow the teachings and philosophy attributed to the Biblical character of Jesus (whether or not, even, he was an actual person), and call that Christianity without believing in all of the accompanying superstitions. Probably, a better description would be a Christian Perspective. I would carry this idea even further, and suggest that it it possible to be a Christian and not believe in G-d at all. NORM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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