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Word of the Week: W/C 30/03/15 - Atonement

29/3/2015

An action that makes Amends for a wrong.

christian Theology: the reconciliation of God and man through Jesus christ.

This week Christians across the world will join together to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ with the events of Holy week and Easter Sunday. A large focus of the language and theological themes in these services will be around the idea of Atonement. So what does this important idea mean?

The word itself literally means “at-one-ment” and is about being at harmony or equal with someone. Christianity and Judaism are based on the idea that the relationship between God and Man is broken - this is seen in the Genesis 2-3 narrative when Adam and Eve sin against God by eating from the tree and so Fall from God’s presence. The Old Testament is the story of God’s chosen people continuously failing to live up to God’s commandments and needing to be rescued only to fall away again. These stories are seen by many Christians as symbolic of our own relationship with God - we often fail live up to our own expectations or the expectations of others.

So what was to be done? Christians teach that the only way that this relationship could be properly fixed was by God himself - he was the only one with the power to truly reconcile God and Man. There are a number of theories about how this happened; Alister McGrath summed these up in his book Christian Theology: An Introduction in this way:

The cross as sacrifice
The cross as a victory
The cross and forgiveness
The cross as a moral example

The Cross as Sacrifice:

The image of God as sacrifice has, over history, been a very popular idea. The New Testament uses the Old Testament image of the suffering servant (Isaiah 53:5) and applies it to Christ. This image is picked up by the writer of the letter to the Hebrews; “we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” - Hebrews 10.10. - the Sacrifice of Christ was the perfect sacrifice.

In the Old Testament, the tradition was that regular sacrifice was needed to mend and maintain the relationship between God and Man - this was the focus of Temple worship and the Jewish day of Atonement (Yom Kippur). Jesus is seen as the ultimate sacrifice who fixes the relationship perfectly. John the Baptist says of Jesus: Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world" (John 1.29)

As Augustine says in City of God:

By his death, which is indeed the one and most true sacrifice offered for us, he purged, abolished and extinguished whatever guilt there was by which the principalities and powers lawfully detained us to pay the penalty...He offered sacrifice for our sins. And where did he find that offering, the pure victim that he would offer? He offered himself, in that he could find no other.

Cross as Victory:

The New Testament frequently describes Jesus’ death as a victory over sin and Evil as represented by the Devil. In the Gospel of Mark Jesus describes himself as the “ransom for many” - somehow paying off evil, so restoring the relationship between God and Man.

Cross and forgiveness:

Some thinkers, such as Anselm, argued that Jesus’ death on the cross paid the penatly for our sin in order to right the relationship between God and Man. Jesus’ death is a “Satisfaction for sin” - a “satisfaction” was an idea used in the early church to describe the public actions - such as pilgrimage, giving to charity etc. - that people can undertake to show that they are grateful to God. Only Jesus could make total satisfaction as only he is without sin.

The Cross as moral example:

This final type, and probably the most popular idea in Christian thinking today, is the notion that Jesus’ death expresses God’s love for his people - Jesus by accepting a difficult and undeserved death shows the world the best way to act and so reunites us with God. This idea was around in the early Church but was brought to the fore by Peter Abelard in the twelfth century:

“The Son of God took our nature, and in it took upon himself to teach us by both word and example even to the point of death, thus binding us to himself through love.”

Jesus influenced us through his actions and teaching when he was alive - but most strongly through his martyrdom and resurrection. A death for others “which not only frees us from slavery to sin, but also secures for us the true liberty of the children of God, in order that we might do all things out of love rather than out of fear - love for him that has shown us such grace that no greater can be found.” (Abelard)

So this week, as you listen to the language of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter day, I hope you will think about these ideas of Atonement and question which one is the best model.

Which model for atonement do you think is the most coherent? Can you believe more than one or all of them at once? Or do you think that they all fail in some way?

Word of the Week: w/c 23/03/15 - Nirvana

21/3/2015

A state of bliss or peace and the goal of the Buddhist path - literally meaning “blown out” or “extinguished”.

A common feature of theistic religions (those that believe in a deity) is that there is an ultimate goal to life and that this is to be united (or reunited) with the divine.

For Judaism, Christianity, and Islam this is resurrection and Olam Ha Ba (the world to come), Heaven or Jannah respectively. For Hindus it is Moksha and for Sikhs it Mukti. But what if you don’t have a deity?

Well for Buddhism, the atheistic philosophy that developed out of Hinduism, beliefs about life after are based upon the idea that life is a cycle (known as Samsara) that does not end at death, instead you are reborn in a new life. Although this might sound nice to us in the modern era, who live fulfilling lives that we do not want to end, for those who lived 2500 years ago life this was very worrying. Life was harsh, brutish and often short - they did not want to come back! The Buddha declared in the four noble truths that “all life is suffering” and that by trying to avoid the three poisons of ignorance, attachment and aversion, one could liberate one’s life and so achieve Nirvana.

This is to be done through practicing “the middle way” between asceticism (giving things up) and excess and following the Dharma (teachings) of the Buddha such as the five moral precepts and eight-fold path.

But what happens when NIrvana is achieved? Well this depends on what type of Buddhism you follow! For Theravada Buddhists (the oldest form of Buddhism) the individual life is simply extinguished and the suffering of life coming to an end. For Mahayana Buddhists (the most common form of Buddhism) and Tibetan Buddhists the belief is that when someone achieves enlightenment they effectively have a choice - either to pass into Nirvana and be extinguished or to return to help teach and so enlighten others as a Bodhisattva; an enlightened being. The most famous example of which is the Dalai Lama.

Life is "extinguished" and suffering ends...

... or one chooses to return and enlighten others.

What is Nirvana like? Well that is of course more difficult to say - no one could return from there (it is not a place from which you could return), there can be no ghosts or seances to hear from those who have died and there can be no Near Death Experiences from which people return. The being that Buddhists go to for the final word is of course, The Buddha. He had this to say:

“the far shore, the subtle, the very difficult to see, the unaging, the stable, the undisintegrating, the unmanifest, the unproliferated, the peaceful, the deathless, the sublime, the auspicious, the secure, the destruction of craving, the wonderful, the amazing, the unailing, the unailing state, the unafflicted, dispassion, purity, freedom, the unadhesive, the island, the shelter, the asylum, the refuge...” (Samyutta Nikaya 43:14)

Are you satisfied by this description? Do you think that there must be more to life after death than being extinguished? or does this idea appeal to you?

Addendum:

On 02/04/15 - as part of the BBC's A History of Ideas (which I have blogged about previously) - the philosopher Naomi Appleton explored the Four-Noble truths as part of a series of programmes on "how to live the good life". She speaks to a Buddhist nun who used to be a model, and investigates mindfulness and the path towards Nirvana.

Find the Programme Here

Word of the Week: w/c 16/03/15 - Shoah

15/3/2015

Another word for the Holocaust - from the Hebrew: השואה, HaShoah. It literally means; "the catastrophe"

Some of our Y11 students were privileged enough to attend a Holocaust Memorial Day event a few weeks ago at Northwood Synagogue. The day consisted of two sections; a workshop held by some members of the local Jewish community and a talk by Susan Pollack – a Holocaust survivor. The report below was written by two of our Y11 students:

“On arrival we were greeted in the main sanctuary and given an induction talk about the Holocaust featuring the 2015 video from the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust. The video summarised the stories of individuals who have survived the traumatic persecution and segregation that took place. The sobering video reminded everyone that persecution still exists in our world today and is a problem that could affect anyone.

NB! This is not the video watched by students on the day

Susan Pollack

Following this we were split up into groups of about fifteen students and took part in an interactive workshop led by members of various local synagogues. Sometimes people forget the real meaning behind the word ‘Holocaust’, so when we began with the definition: “Total Burning” it was extremely poignant. We were encouraged to share our initial ideas as to when, where and who was involved in the Holocaust. It was evident from our answers that whilst our general knowledge was strong, we had a lot more to learn. After some discussion, we came to the conclusion that during the years of 1933-1945 Nazi-occupied countries such as Germany, Hungary, Italy and Poland, were taking part in discriminatory acts against various minorities like the Jewish community, homosexuals, disabled people, Roma and black people. This was a fitting introduction to the fascinating talk that we were later to receive from Susan Pollack – a Hungarian Holocaust survivor.

Susan was born on 9th September 1930 in Felsögöd, Hungary. She had one brother, Laci, and lived with her mother and father. Susan experienced anti-Semitism in her hometown from a young age. She delivered her story passionately to us, recalling how even when she was in primary school she was segregated from all of the other non-Jewish children. Then she went on to explain how her father was brutally beaten in front of her eyes, after attending a meeting about the ‘proposed resettlement programme’, enforced by the Hungarian government. This was the last time she saw him. The candid manner in which she spoke of how she, her mother and brother were shipped off to a ghetto before being taken to Auschwitz concentration camp, was thought-provoking. On arrival at Auschwitz she described how they were separated into the fit and the weak, the weak members being murdered in the gas chambers and the fit being made slaves. At this point she recalled how a stranger whispered to her that anyone below the age of 15 was put to death, so she lied about her age to the guards in order to survive. Susan was experimented on as part of a large group of women the infamous by Dr Mengele and was deprived of food before being taken on a death march to Bergen-Belsen, where thankfully the allies liberated them. Susan and her brother were the only ones of her family to survive.

“Having a chance to listen to such a courageous and positive woman was an amazing experience. Susan helped us to remember that discrimination and persecution still occur today and that it something we all need to work to prevent. The focus on evil and suffering in the world deepened our knowledge about these issues and strengthened our understanding of how important standing up for Human Rights is today. We believe it was a once in a lifetime opportunity and we are extremely grateful to have been a part of it.”

Dig Deeper: bBC beyond belief - End Time beliefs in Islam

10/3/2015

The BBC's beyond belief program is always a regular source of interesting debate and discussion on a huge range of topics - if you have 30 minutes on your journey to school then this is a perfect show to download and dig deeper into a topic.

A huge range of subjects have been covered over the years and there are 151 programs avaliable to download from the BBC Website. These include (click on the link to go there):

And These are only on the first 4 of 16 pages...

Click here to go to the full list of Beyond Belief Episodes

The particular episode I want to highlight today for my Y9 students studying Islam is yesterday's (09/03/15) episode on The end times in Islam. This episode as a whole is beyond the scope of what we might generally hope to study in lessons - but is a great opportunity to dig deeper!

Click here to listen to the Epidose: The End Time Beliefs in Islam

The presenter, Ernie Rea, discusses Islamic beliefs about the end times with eminent scholars such as Ibrahim Mogra, Dr Shurug Nagruib and Dr Rebeca Masterson. They discuss ideas about the end of the world in Islam, the role of Jesus in Islamic Theology, the differences between Shia and Sunni Islam and if the so-called "Islamic State" believe their actions are speeding up the onset of the end times.

If you don't have 30 minutes, the first discussion up until the interview (at 14.09) and then the final sum-up (which starts at 26.19) are well worth a listen to on their own.

Islamic Last Judgment, Iranian, Late 19th c. http://www.mahdiwatch.org/

Word Of The Week: W/C 09/03/15 - Apophatic

8/3/2015

Apophatic theology - Aka the Via Negativa - is a theology that attempts to describe God by negation; to speak of God only in absolutely certain terms and to avoid what may not be said

How can you describe something you have never seen? How can you talk about someone you have never met?

This is the fundamental idea behind the Via Negativa, otherwise know at the Apophatic Way. This is the concpet that because God is so beyond our experience and understanding we cannot hope to talk about him in any meaningful way - and so we should not try. We can only say what God is not: God is not a body, God is not finite, God is immortal etc.

The idea has very deep roots in Philosophy going back to Plato, Philo of Alexandria, Plotinus, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, Maximus the Confessor and Thomas Aquinas (who, in his Summa Theologica, quotes Pseudo-Dionysius 1,760 times!)

One way of trying to get your head around how different God is to us is laid out by the contemporary philosopher Peter Vardy. He uses the thought experiment of a philosophical fish - this fish is considering what created the fish pond in which he lives. The fish cannot logically conclude that the pond was made by a “super-fish” who is like him in any way - the creator of the pond must be utterly different to the pond. How else would he be able to dig it and fill it with the contents needed? So it is, Vardy argues with the cosmos - all we can say for certain is that God is NOT like us - or indeed like anything within the cosmos.

The Apohatic way is to accept this total difference between us and God, embrace it and wonder at the nature of God as a result. As Aquinas put it in his work Mystical Theology:

The higher we soar in contemplation, the more limited become our expressions of that which is purely intelligible; even as now, when plunging into the Darkness which is above the intellect, we pass not merely into brevity of speech, but even into absolute silence, of thought as well as of words … and, according to the degree of transcendence, so our speech is restrained until, the entire ascent is accomplished, we become wholly voiceless, inasmuch as we are absorbed in Him who is totally ineffable.

I think this is a really wonderful quote, not least because this is a quote that looks back in philosophical history as well as forward. It is no coincidence that Aquinas uses the term ascent; this is a reference to the Allegory of the cave by Plato (Republic 514a–520a). It also uses the term ineffable which was to be used later by William James when discussing the qualities of religious experiences in his famous work The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature published in 1902. So it is that Aquinas is at the crux of a very important notion in Philosophy - that God is beyond our knowledge and not knowable. This is the Apophatic Way.

Aquinas felt this sense of ineffability keenly - so keenly in fact that a few months before his death in 1274 he stopped writing, refused to continue and declared that all his previous attempts at writing about God were “but straw”. This does not necessarily mean "rubbish" but rather, according the philosopher Mark Vernon, rough and basic rather than refined and accurate. So it was that he had entered into the Via Negativa.

Of course we are still left with a huge amount of his Cataphatic Theology to consider. But to find out what this means you are going to have to wait for a future word of the week!

Do you know what the word Cataphatic means? Do you think the Via Negativa is a good way of considering the divine? Or are there serious weakness that mean that this is a fruitless exercise?

Word of the Week: W/C 30/03/15 - Atonement

An action that makes Amends for a wrong. christian Theology: the reconciliation of God and man through Jesus christ.