We’re back! And after a long break there is a lot of catching up to do. In this rather rambling episode, Joe and I catch up with what’s been happening in the month or so since we last recorded. After reading Rolf Dobelli’s book Stop Reading the News I’m on a bit of a newscast. I haven’t watched the TV news much, have stopped my daily doomscrolling of the websites and feel a lot better as a result.
I have been baking bread. And it has been coming out both very tasty and, amazingly, looking like actual bread. Not, as so often happened when I tried sourdough, resembling fossilised dinosaur dung. The recipe I have alighted on came out of reading an article on a teenage baker called Kitty Tait whose mental health was transformed when she discovered baking. I read her story in Positive News, which is a journal, as the name implies, about good and positive happenings and events.
This week, Joe and I talk a lot about Sabbath. Well, I talk a lot about Sabbath, to be honest, because it’s been something I’ve been thinking a lot about recently. Two things have inspired me. First, I heard a great sermon on the subject a couple of weeks ago. And following up on that I read Abraham Heschel’s book, The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man. I am ashamed to say I’d never come across Heschel before.
I came across this terrific post about a talk Rowan Williams gave on ‘Mental health, mysticism and spirituality’. So many profound things to ponder. But I was particularly struck by his insistence that mysticism and spirituality should not be viewed as an escape route from reality or community. A couple of quotes: A lot of talk about mysticism and spirituality can be heard as giving you an escape route. Life is difficult but let’s take our glasses off so things look a bit more vague.
In this week’s episode, Joe and I talk more about the nature of church. In particular we talk about the physical location of churches - does a church need to be visible? Does it need an identifiable location, times to meet, etc.? Personally I think churches need a place and not only for practical reasons. Over the last few years my ideas about sacred places have changed entirely. I used to think that the church – as in the building – didn’t matter much.
I’m speaking at the St Andrews Literature festival on 22 June on my book A Nearly Infallible History of Christianity. Before that I need to read and revise, because I’ve forgotten most of it. More info here.
In this episode Joe and I delve into his new theme of ‘nature churching’. In particular, we talk about what exactly constitutes a church. I admit to being a little doctrinaire on this one. I think, historically and theologically there are some characteristic activities which define a church, as opposed, say, to a Bible study group, or even just a group of people meeting together. Looking at the model of church in Acts, and accounts from the early years of the Christian church, it seems to me that the characteristic activities of a church are:
In this week’s episode, Joe and I talk about Pentecost. It’s one of the oldest festivals of the Christian church, having been celebrated at least since the third century. According to the ever-fascinating Philip H. Pfatteicher, the English term Whit-Sunday may be from ‘white’ reflecting robes worn by new converts, or it may come from the Old English word wit, meaning wisdom, since the Spirit leads us into all truth.
In this week’s episode we discuss the article I wrote for Christianity magazine: How to be wise: Confessions of a recovering idiot. In the article I proposed seven tips for gaining wisdom; things like finding a mentor, making a wisdom collection and most importantly, shutting up and listening. Obviously seven is a reductive, if nicely symbolic, number. There is much more I could say (and plan to say if I ever get to write a book on it).
In the upcoming episode of the Mid-faith Crisis podcast, Joe and I discuss the recent article wot I wrote on wisdomness. Here’s the opening as a bit of a taster: Writing an article about wisdom may be one of the most stupid things I’ve ever done. I mean, most days I have imposter syndrome, but this time it is overwhelming. Because I don’t feel wise at all. I make snap judgements, I talk too much, I confidently issue opinions on subjects I know little about, I say ‘yes’ to things I shouldn’t (such as writing an article called ‘How to be wise’).