So, when people wish me “Merry Christmas” this year before Christmas Eve, I am going to make a concerted effort to reply “Thoughtful Advent” – they’ll probably think me a pretentious idiot but hey ho…
Sunday marked the start of Advent and the beginning of a new year in the Church. The Season of Advent is a penitential season, a time for introspection and preparation for the coming of Jesus at Christmas. The word comes from the Latin term Adventus – which means “coming”. This is a translation of the Greek word Parousia – commonly referred to as the second coming of Christ. So it is that Advent is looking forward to celebrating Christ’s first coming, but also anticipates the second coming of Jesus and the subsequent judgement that will follow. This focus on the Eschaton (see the previous WotW) means that Advent is a time of the year when Christians focus on reforming themselves. Even the colours used in Church reflect this attitude as the vestments and altar cloths turn to purple and blue which are traditionally penitential and hopeful colours. Traditions that Christians in the West have tended to follow at this time of the year include lighting a candle on an Advent wreath each successive Sunday to represent a different aspect of Christian history that preceded Jesus: The Patriarchs, Prophets, St John the Baptist and The Angel Gabriel’s annunciation are remembered on successive Sundays. If the wreath, as in the image here, features a fifth candle this is known as the Christ Candle and is lit on Christmas Eve. I don’t want to get on a soap-box about this (but I'm going to!), but I think it is quite clear that in modern society we have lost sight of this season and have certainly lost the value of it. So many people say that by the time Boxing Day arrives they are fed up with Christmas, having had it rammed down their throat for the past month or probably more. This should not be the case and was not the case in the past; Christmas really begins on the 24th December and then lasts 40 days – how many of us in early February are still thinking about the Christmas message? Not many. We have, probably due to the commercialisation of Christmas and our instant gratification society, got it all the wrong way round (you only have to think about the scenes on Black Friday). We don't want to wait for it and we are too focused on the material side of Christmas. What's wrong with a bit of anticipation and delayed gratification?
So, when people wish me “Merry Christmas” this year before Christmas Eve, I am going to make a concerted effort to reply “Thoughtful Advent” – they’ll probably think me a pretentious idiot but hey ho… As it is half-term this is technically a “Word of the Fortnight” - but fitting that it should last a long time as it is in the nature of diaspora to extend beyond expectations. It is also fitting as during half-term our students disperse all over the globe - but luckily for us it will not take millennia for us to be reunited! A diaspora is any mass movement of people away from their homeland, the scattering of a population; there have been many over the course of history - but for the purpose of this post I want to focus on one particular peoples’ diaspora - that of the Jews. This diaspora is so important is is often called The Diaspora - capital T, capital D. It began in the 6th century BC when the elite Jewish population of Israel was exiled to Babylon, although they were eventually freed many decided to remain abroad and so the dispersal began. This pattern was repeated under the Persians and many Jews also fled to Egypt founding a new community there. The most famous scattering of the Jews happened under Hadrian in 135AD. The Romans had already destroyed the 2nd Temple in 70AD and after the revolt by Simon Bar Kokhba in 132AD the Romans effectively ran out of patience. They put down the revolt in a brutal fashion and then forbade the Jews from settling in Jerusalem or its environs. This led to Jews being dispersed all across the known world where they remain to this day. It was only in 1948, after the horrific events of the Holocaust, that the leaders of the western world felt that the Jews should be returned to their homeland and the modern state of Israel was founded. Today 48% of the world’s Jews live in Israel. I am not going to get into rights and wrongs of this decision and the very difficult debate that surrounds Israel-Palestine; I only hope that we see peace in the near future. What remains the case is that The Diaspora had a huge impact upon the Jewish faith, turning it from a Temple religion focused on sacrifice offered by a priest , to a religion of the Book focused on the Torah and the role of the Rabbi (teacher). It has also been a source of artistic and creative inspiration ranging from the Psalms in the Bible (“By the rivers of Babylon we sat down and wept when we remembered thee, oh Zion”) to modern day literature and music. As ever, out of something negative came something positive - such is the human spirit and the spirit of Diaspora Jews especially.
The first of these is a 6-part lecture series that runs from 22nd of September to 24th November. These are all at St Martins in the Fields in central London, near Trafalgar Square. The focus of the talks, in the centenary year of the outbreak of the Great War, is on conflict, what humanity has learnt and how those who believe in a God of Justice and Love can respond.
Speakers include Sam Wells, the vicar of St Martins and professor of Christian Ethics at King’s College London; Baroness Shirley Williams the life peer and co-founder of the Liberal Democrats; Andrew White the chaplain of St George’s Bagdad and Richard Harries, former Bishop of Oxford. The lectures are entitled:
These lectures of course link directly to the OCR AS Ethics course but would also be great for those who in study History or Politics. You can find more information at http://www.stmartin-in-the-fields.org/education/lecture-series/ or by downloading the flyer - Here: A colleague passed me this article from the i newspaper and it is worthwhile reading for any young person studying RS (or their worried parents!) and considering what course to read at university. A lot of students I teach have a rather limited view of where Theology can lead you; most think you can only be a priest or a teacher! I have to assure them this is not the case and that Theology (as well and Philosophy or Religious Studies) is a great launch pad into a huge number of careers.
The Result?
Kate Rowe writes; “This evolution of the subject can lead to careers in law, youth work, teaching, social work, lobbying, politics, the arts, business and senior management; and applies the meta-physical to the everyday”. So if you like RS, but worry what you would do in the long-run – don’t! You will be a great critical thinker, highly empathetic, skilled at rhetoric, and highly employable! |
Archives
January 2016
Categories
All
|