Tag: religious studies

Schools Failing in Religious Studies: My Response to the BBC

An article published today on the BBC news website has definitely caught my attention; so much so it prompted me to write a response. You can read it here, below. Original article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-24399813 "Having just completed a BA in Theology & Religious Studies, this news disappoints me even more than it would have prior to my degree study. Regardless of the depth studied at degree level, Theology & Religious Studies as a subject (as pointed out by the report) can Continue reading [...]

My theological mission.

As I continue to scrimp and save in order to pay for my doctorate next year, I began today to jot down some ideas as to what it is I'll be spending 4-6 years researching. I ended up drafting the foreword to my research which, I'd like to share with you now. Ever since I was a child, I have been fascinated by the unknown. I have always asked questions that either no one can answer, or to which the answers are difficult to obtain; what lies at the bottom of the deepest parts of the ocean? How big Continue reading [...]

Where is God? Searching for a new way to justify God’s existence in the face of evil.

1.0  Introduction The fact of evil constitutes the most serious objection to the Christian belief in a God of love. (Hick 1988: ix) The above quote from John Hick explains that the biggest problem faced by belief in the traditional Christian God of love, is the fact that evil and suffering exist in the world, and that these notions are incompatible with each other (Bowker 2004: 968). One may often hear the question asked: “why if God is so loving and all-powerful, does He allow bad things to Continue reading [...]

12 Theses of Theology from a Liberal.

As the end of my formal theological education approaches, I thought I'd share my theses for theology that should be considered when taking this age-old discipline into the future¹. Of course these theses demonstrate a fairly radically liberal approach to theology, but hopefully when read as a whole, they will make sense and convince you that if theology and belief in religion is to continue into the future, there is no other way to approach Christianity but from a liberal perspective. I shan't Continue reading [...]

A step backwards for the Church?

Evening everybody. As some of you may be aware, the General Synod of the Church of England, for the past few days, has been deliberating on the issue of female bishops and whether or not to move forward and change Church legislation, allowing women to hold the role.  In what some might consider a shock move, the Synod voted against the movement, loosing by a small minority in the House of Laity. I ask the question, is this failure of the Anglican Church to allow the ordination of female bishops, Continue reading [...]