Bože! independent catholic ideas, identity & theology
This Is Who We Are
I Got Numbers!
How many Indie folk are there? This is a question that has been in the back of my mind for over a year now. I keep seeing hints – but nothing concrete. I’ve assumed that nobody is counting us. And even with what I found yesterday on the ARDA site – I’m not sure that [...]
The Incarnation & Active Christianity
“Don’t you think that Jesus is the solution to the problems in the Middle East – that it is only through him that peace will come to the region?” This is a question posed to me by a door-to-door evangelist a few years ago. It is a question that irritated me at the time, and [...]
Revisiting Manifestos
Back in August, having just handed in the official final draft of the thesis, I wrote asking what you would include in an “Indie Manifesto”. I found myself asking the question in relation to a number of sites I visited in the morning trawl that had manifestos of their own. I observed that these manifestos [...]
A Refreshingly Different Take On Gnosticism
I’ve long argued that “Gnosticism” or as I generally refer to it “neo-gnosticism” has no place in the Indie community. It is, has been, and will always be, antithetical to Christian teaching and praxis. Tom Write, the Anglican bishop of Durham, offers in this video a wonderfully refreshing take on Gnosticism. Tweet
Science, Religion and “The End of God”
I’ve always been fascinated by the tension between science and religion. I don’t know what it is about this subject that peaks my curiosity so. Perhaps because I don’t see any tension between them and so I feel that I need to understand why others do. Perhaps because I can glimpse some aspects of the [...]
Peer Review & Emerging Indie Scholarship
Over the past two years I’ve enjoyed a number of books researched by, written by, and published by Indie folk. Even those texts that I don’t necessarily agree with bring a smile and a nice dose of pride. One aspect of this (I hope growing) scholarly production of indie history and theological voice – that [...]
How Traditional Are You?
Now here’s an interesting question, and it struck me while doing the morning trawl, one thing led to another led to another and before I knew it I found myself in the website of a convent scanning their FAQ page. What struck me about it was their answer: “This is one of the hardest of [...]
“Spiritual But Not Religious”?
Last week my friend and fellow Indie-Easterner Huw posed this question on Twitter: “Define ‘Spiritual but not religious’.” My initial response encompassed two ideas that I’ve encountered over the years from a significant number of people who describe themselves as being “spiritual but not religious”. First is the idea that the “institution” of religion impedes [...]
Bad Theology
Here in the UK the Guardian has a regular column called “Bad Science” which exposes . . . well, “bad” science, pseudo science, and “popular science” ideas – like homeopathy. Maggi Dawn has suggested on her blog the brilliant idea of a “Bad Theology” column. So what bad theologies, or pseudo theological ideas would you [...]
Micro-ekklesia
Thanks to Lyngine for forwarding this rather interesting article from Newsweek to me. Lisa Miller (the article’s author) writes that a recent Pew Forum study shows that 7 percent of Americans worship in small groups in house churches rather than attending larger gatherings/congregational settings. The article goes on to explore some of the reasons – [...]
Indie Folk In the News
Thanks to Siobhan, we’ve got this rather neat article on indie folk in CO. Tweet
No Pain No Gain
“Liberal” churches may be sabotaging themselves by reducing the commitment of their members – so suggests a recent report in New Scientist. The persecution of early Christians may have had a dramatic effect on the spread of Christianity because the sacrifices of martyrs and confessors instilled in others the idea of sincerity: “few would willingly [...]
What Do You Want?
While making my rounds yesterday I fell into this essay “What Do Converts Want?” – written from a conservative Eastern Orthodox position. Reading the essay got me thinking – and asking the question (again) what is it that attracts folks to our OC/IC tradition – that is to say: what do OUR converts want? Today [...]
Baggage Check
Since dabbling more and more in social media networks like Twitter and Facebook I’ve noticed something emerging in the vocabulary of other Christians online. More and more believers refer to their being a “follower of Jesus” or some variation thereof, avoiding or consciously rejecting the more typical “Christian”. I (perhaps mistakenly) thought that this was [...]
Make Disciples of All Men
There has been a small flood of articles on “conversion” in today’s religious news round-up. The two that caught my eye are a BBC report (here) on the Church of England’s consideration of a motion re-emphasising its explicit aim of converting people to Christianity; and Andrew Brown’s post (here on Guardian CIFBelief) reflecting on “evangelisation” [...]
Flux & Stability
Stability within our communities is and has always been a challenge, created in part by small group dynamics. The vast majority of OC/IC projects have 20 people or less. This means that unless a higher proportion of the assembly is “committed” to the project – any minor fluctuation in say membership or even attendance can [...]
This Is How We Practice – But How Do We Talk About It?
Making my morning rounds recently I’ve been struck by the number of essays, news items, and “other” that in one way or another touch on the idea of why religion matters to us, to the world around us. This morning, for example I read a discussion guide of Krista Tippet’s book Speaking of Faith: Why [...]
Know Who You Are: Confident Identity As A Resource
Lyngine posted an interesting comment today which not only deserves to be highlighted but which has inspired in me at least 4 additional post topics (way to go Lyngine!). In her comment Lyngine points to a very important issue in our communities – using a clear sense of identity as a valued resource. We have [...]
Why are you here? What are you about?
You may have noticed that the “About” page in the menu bar is, well, blank. In part this is due to my being occupied with other things of late, but it is also blank because I’m finding that it is a more challenging question to answer than I had expected. What can be said about [...]