<-- back to alt.worship on the edge
Elizabeth delivered the first of her Burns lectures. It was
superb, I thought. She started with recounting the story of Nazi Germany, and
its twin movements to expand into surrounding territory and to exterminate all
dissent internally. Noting this was a Christian country, she then raised the
question of whether this drive for totalising power was not something that has
constantly accompanied Christianity. The main point of her lecture was that God
must become more marginal - not in the sense of being less important, but in
being permanently displaced to the margins of life. She spoke of 'unauthorised
places of divinity' - God turning up in the broken places, not as an exception,
but as a norm. I liked it a lot - a pretty damning critique of the church, but
recognising something buried in the Christ-tradition which still provides hope.
She was wonderfully synthetic, bringing together a lot of diverse theological
and historical strands.
my own utopian dream
is for everyone to think of themselves as their own minority, all working to protect the next most marginalised...
--> move on to the car in the field
--> or a cynical thing i said one dark day