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Word of the week: w/c 29/02/16 - Sin

29/2/2016

immoral acts considered to be a breaking of God's laws.

Christians, Jews, and Muslims are all concerned by sin; falling short of the standards set by God in the laws that he gives to humans. But what is sin? Where does it come from and will it be solved? These are clearly very big questions with complex answers so this post will focus purely on a Christian view of sin:

Sin is firstly ‘original’, meaning that it is something we are born with. Christians believe that wrongdoing is more than mere ignorance of how we should behave, it is deliberate defiance, choosing to be selfish or worse, despite what we know to be good. This is born in us and needs to be overcome. The Genesis Garden of Eden myth makes this clear, as Adam and Eve wilfully eat the forbidden fruit and suffer the consequences.

Secondly, sin is a struggle. St Paul speaks of how all have sinned and fall short of God’s standards, that it is as if there is a law pushing us to go the wrong way even when we know the right thing to do. In Christian teaching it is the grace of God that helps us to overcome this tendency, along with self-control and the guidance of scripture and conscience. This is in stark contrast to the fact we are made in God’s image, but just shows the power of free will.

Thirdly, sin is structural. The rich are constantly told to ‘ease the yoke’ of the poor in scripture and not to oppress them; Jesus complained of the burdens the Pharisees placed on ordinary people, and we can see in the world today that global capitalism can have a corrupting effect on whole societies in the pursuit of greed over against the welfare of those in developing countries and the environment. Such sin traps the weak in systems that damage their lives through poverty and oppression, and can lead to violence and other desperate acts to bring about change.

Finally, sin is of this world but not of the next. St Paul makes it clear in his letters that Jesus has "paid the price for sin" and the book of revelation describes heaven as a place of no sin where people will no longer go wrong. So it is that Christians believe they must keep focused on the kingdom of God and try to be as they will be in that eventual state.

Word of the Week: w/c 22/02/16 - Humean

19/2/2016

Relating to the Philosophy of David Hume or those who follow in his tradition.

David Hume is certainly not as famous outside of Philosophy as he perhaps should be and according to many he was the greatest British Philosopher ever! But this is a great shame - not only was Hume's life fascinating, but also his influence upon the way that we think (and the fact we are allowed to think) was huge.

He was born in Edinburgh in 1711 the youngest of three children. His Father died when he was two and his mother was an extremely strong influence upon him; indeed, no other woman, despite a number of romantic interests, seems to have been able to win his affection (perhaps as a result). During his lifetime he wrote about a huge range of topics (including ethics, aesthetics, causation, determinism, history and the self) but he is now chiefly remembered for his work on Philosophy and Science.

He was the final thinker in a line of three great British empiricists (the others being John Locke and George Berkeley) and he left his most potent work to be published after his death in 1776. Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion was a bold and radical analysis of religion - he challenged most of the accepted ideas of his era such as that the natural world was designed by God, whether you could rely on the idea of God as the first cause of the universe and challenged religious believers by posing the problem of evil as an "inconsistent triad" that cannot be overcome:

Many Philosophers (including Dr James Orr who addressed the Ontos society just before half-term) believe that Hume's posing of this problem has now been solved through the work of philosophers who have developed Augustine and Irenaeus' theodicies such as Plantinga or Hick. Never-the-less it was phenomenally important that he posed this question.

Hume was sceptical of the received wisdoms of the era and prepared to challenge them. To a modern person looking at the contents of Dialogues and reading the text, it does not seem very controversial especially in the light of modern atheists such as Dawkins, Dennett, Harris and especially Hitchens - but at the time it was seismic and ruffled feathers. We should not underestimate the effect of this on academia and the fact that we now take challenge to intellectual authority for granted - but in Hume's day it would have been enough to ruin your career!

Hume's scepticism was a gift to society that we should not overlook: We are now free to challenge religious dogma and "normal thinking" as much as we like, but it is easy to forget that this ability was hard won and needed brave thinkers like Hume to take the first steps.

Word of the Week: w/c 08/02/16 - Ash

7/2/2016

Powdery, nitrogen rich, residue left behind after burning a substance

Wednesday this week sees the start of the season of Lent as Christians celebrate Ash Wednesday. This is normally marked with a Eucharist including the imposition of ashes - the cross is drawn on the forehead of each person using ash. But why do Christians do this? Why ash?

First of all the ash is made from the burning of last year’s palm crosses given out on Palm Sunday when Christians remember Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. This is symbolic of where the season of Lent is heading to - Ash Wednesday is the start of this penitential season and Christians are look forward to Holy Week which begins with Palm Sunday.

Another major symbol of ash is that it reminds them of their mortality - as the ash is placed on their foreheads the priest says: “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return. Turn away from sin and be faithful to Christ”. This is an echo of Genesis chapter 3:19 when Adam is cursed following his sin with the words “"Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field; By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return”. This is also picked up the book of Ecclesiastes when the writer says “All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return“. “Dust to Dust, Ashes to Ashes” is also part of the funeral liturgy. So it is that Christians are focused on the shortness of their lives and the need to be faithful to God during such a short time during Lent.

Ashes also have a long history of being used to express grief and repentance in the BIble - for example Job repents when he doubts God in chapter 42 of the eponymous book of the bible and says: "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes”. And Jesus himself talks of this practice when criticising the scribes and pharisees: “If the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago (sitting) in sackcloth and ashes." (Matthew 11.21). Early Christians such as Tertullian suggested that Christians should confess their sins accompanied by lying in ashes.

Finally Christians might like to reflect on the power of ash - out of such an apparently dead thing comes new life. Ash is a fantastic fertilizer and this seems to be a perfect metaphor for the message of Easter when Christians believe that Jesus used his death to secure new life for the world in the resurrection. Christians remember how in a few short weeks they will celebrate that in Jesus’ death and suffering their future salvation has been bought.