I've been busy ... among other things working on a new appointment - a new dean for our cathedral.
Please read about the appointment of the Reverend Canon Ben Truman (Vicar of Opawa-St. Martins and Chaplain of St. Mark's School) to be our next dean here. With an article in this morning's Press here.
There is also, thinking of busy days, preparation for our Diocesan Synod on my and a number of other people's plates (7-9 September).
In other news, the All Blacks got thrashed yesterday by South Africa. Perhaps my concerns in the post below about Rugby World Cup clashes re Sunday services [NZ times] through the finals weekends won't be realised! Whomever we play in the quarter-finals (Ireland or South Africa) could be too tough for us, and so, out we go!
Finally, it is not often one can read that "Sydney Anglicans" back down on anything, but I read a small item in this morning's paper Press, likely derived from SMH (but that is behind a paywall) but here is another link. Reality meets ideology! (The issue: "However, the diocese will no longer insist principals attest they believe marriage should be between a man and a woman. Instead, principals will be required to show they are of Christian faith and character, and actively involved in a Bible-based church. They will also need to sign a commitment to ‘organisational faithfulness’. The diocese faced a backlash from parents at several schools over the clause.")
9 comments:
"Reality meets ideology!"
I would agree if by 'reality' you mean 'Christian theology' and 'ideology' the belief systems of modern atheism.
But I suspect you have different referents.
'Ideology', as the historical origins of the word show, really denotes the social concepts and values of groups, hence the significance of the word in revolutionary Jacobin and then Marxist circles, and now the cultural Marxism that arose from Horkheimer et al and was pursued by Marcuse.
'Reality' means what is actually true, real, substantial - and nothing is more real than the Eternal God. Hence theology, the study of the eternally Real.
But modern post-Christian culture in the west has this entirely backwards.
It is the Realists who understand what marriage is, as defined by our Lord Jesus Christ. It is the Ideologues who invent the world according to their ephemeral conceptions of 'goodness' and 'freedom', totally forgetful of our true nature and our true telos - which the study of Natural Law reveals and the Bible confirms.
For a flagrant example of how modern ideology works to crush reality, look at the mental gymnastics now being used in Ontario to take away the license of Jordan Peterson, the most famous psychologist in the world. Peterson has not yet arrived in Christianity (how long, O Lord?) but he is now very openly denouncing transgender surgery as castration and butchery, and the powers that be have decided he must be silenced and re-educated. The new youtube interview of Peterson by the political editor of the Toronto Sun shows the weirdness of political pressure masquerading as law today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QGpVhAQ9YA
Pax et bonum
William Greenhalgh
I think on a different plane to you William - happily conceding it is a lower level - and grateful for your insights about the Real!
Above I simply mean "reality": the people who make up the school communities in Sydney Dio; and "ideology": determining that one particular view of marriage will be part of the definition of belief as a criteria for being principal of said schools.
My suspicion is that the change in the requirements for school principals will make little difference. Depending of course how Bible-based church is interpreted: it has been used to mean Sydney Anglican-style churches, certainly conservative ones, on the past.
“Reality' means what is actually true, real, substantial - and nothing is more real than the Eternal God. Hence theology, the study of the eternally Real”
Many beg to differ and I quote the late great R.G Ingersoll ..
Whenever a man believes that he has the exact truth from God, there is in that man no spirit of compromise. He has not the modesty born of the imperfections of human nature; he has the arrogance of theological certainty and the tyranny born of ignorant assurance. Believing himself to be the slave of God, he imitates his master, and of all tyrants the worst is a slave in power.
Aaron, I'm not sure what point you are making quoting a 19th century atheist orator now almost entirely forgotten. Are you saying Anglicans should follow him into oblivion? Some are doing that.
You can discover the true and eternal God and Creator and worship Him as the dust and ashes that you and I are, casting ourselves on the mercies of His Son.
Or you can do as your namesake and create a golden calf to worship (which didn't work out too well). Ingersoll died too soon to see atheism work itself out in the blood-soaked 20th century. But even those who held power in the name of fascism and communism (and still do) had to invent golden calves to claim the loyalty of the masses. (Did you ever note how communist propaganda imitated Orthodox iconography?) The instinct to worship is intrinsic to human beings (I would call it a 'signal of transcendence' or Natural Law.) All it needs is its proper object, the eternally Real.
Pax et bonum,
William Greenhalgh
"little difference"
Transit from a world-facing meme for an angry moment to a perennial and positive principle for the Body. Assuming no change at all on say same sex church weddings, the principle is still the higher ground.
BW
A Heuristic Analogy
Classical Quakers : pacifism :: Irenic Sydneys : difference of the sexes.
All analogies must at some point fail, of course. But they do help us past prejudices.
Not all Quakers were classics of the type; some Sydneys seemed cynical and evidently were fissiparous.
But a few of the latter appear to have, or expect someday to find, a positive and sacred theology for the vexed relations between men and women, just as analogous Quakers believed that they were called to participate in Christ's "removal of all occasions for war." Case-wise application of either principle can be mistaken without making an alternative to it more plausible.
BW
Indeed, Bowman. Or as the Quaker said to his wife, "The whole world is heuristic and fissiparous save thee and me, and sometimes I have doubts about thee."
At which point they shook hands and the Meeting concluded.
Pax et bonum
William Greenhalgh
Hi William,
I find your writing thoughtful and intriguing!
The point I was making was that, believing strongly without evidence, is considered a mark of craziness in other aspects of our lives. Faith in Deities still holds immense prestige in our society and religion is the one area of our dialogue where it is considered honourable to pretend to be certain about things no human could possibly be certain about. It is telling that this extends only to those faiths that still have many adherents (Although I see the Anglican Church is in decline and those of Ingersolls ilk are on the rise).
Anyone caught worshipping the God Thor, on a mountain, in thunder, would be thought quite mad.
In regards to the golden calf fable (yes some metaphorical truths) it certainly makes clear that religion is the one endeavor in which us–them thinking achieves a transcendent significance. If you really believe that calling God by the right name or worshipping an image can spell the difference between eternal happiness and eternal suffering, then it becomes quite reasonable to treat heretics and unbelievers badly and history confirms this. The stakes of our different religions and beliefs are immeasurably higher than those born of mere tribalism, racism, or politics.
Pax et Amor
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