Christian World View

 

The great Christian hymn 'Dear Lord and Father of Mankind' includes the line 'the silence of eternity interpreted by love'. In a very small nutshell, this is my worldview. Feel free to stop reading now; everything else is a footnote to that short sentence.

As a Christian I believe – I reach out in faith and hope in other words – that Love lies at the heart of this ordered yet chaotic universe. This ultimately means that there is more 'out there' than the unstable love we humans possess. When the Big Bang banged it did so, in other words, in love and creativity, not by sheer randomness and chance. But whisper it, this is faith not knowledge. Belief in God is not at all like the 'I see an orange on the table' kind of belief. This, in short, is basically the 'God hypothesis'. It's a hypothesis that I fall in and out of love with all the time. But something in it will not let me go.

Whist God may be the most uncertain of realities – experiencing God is a bit like someone leaving a room just as you've entered it – Jesus offers the seeker after truth something a bit more solid to build on. And so I see God reflected in that strange fellow who lives through the pages of four books (the Gospels in the Bible), and in the hearts and imaginations of believers everywhere. Some Christians think that Jesus is with them in a literal, supernatural way; I don't. But I do believe in Jesus because he talks in stories and parables and riddles that I love to ponder and apply to my own life. The personal application bit is seldom easy or straightforward. If I really took Jesus at his word I'd be living without a roof over my head, travelling around the country with no possessions, and asking people to repent and turn towards the Kingdom of God. Not very appealing, is it?

Critics of the Christian way say that it's all about 'pie in the sky when you die' (e.g., the carrot of the afterlife and the big stick of hell), or believing six impossible things before breakfast (virgin births, miracles, Jesus coming back to earth on a cloud etc, etc). Those Christians who think such things are vitally important offer up their (to my mind) not very convincing arguments and defences. For them the admission of doubt and scepticism is as good as bringing down the whole house of belief down around one's ears. But I think they're wrong; faith can survive the harshest of conditions.

Jesus is reported to have said that

'every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will know them by their fruits.' (The Gospel of Matthew, chapter 7, verses 17-20)

Right action rather than pious speculation is the true test of anyone who claims to mould their life after the example of Christ; it is the standard I try and apply to my own life. To quote an atheist (Karl Marx) the point of a Christian's life is not about interpreting the world but changing it. Jesus called changing the world bringing in the Kingdom of God. We Christians have some way to go on this one.

So, for me, Christianity has very little to do with proving the impossible or worrying about whether or not there is life after death (though I hope there is). As the Christian Aid slogan says, I believe in life before death. Seen this way, my Christianity is a risky project aimed at elevating and transforming the human mind, body, and soul in this life. It's concerned no less than with the raising up of each individual to divine levels. 'God became man so that we might become God' said the theologian Athanasius over fifteen hundred years ago. What an inspiring thought even after all these years! The poet William Blake called this vision 'Divine Humanity'. For isn’t the point of life, after all is said and done, about doing good, about learning and growing and transforming ourselves and the people around us? And so I test not only my own beliefs but all belief systems against this principle: does what we think and practice lead to human growth or not? Christianity, to its shame, has often gone down the wrong road (in my opinion). It's managed to acquire itself a terrible reputation through calling the bad good and the good bad. This causes me a great deal of sadness and anger. My Christianity is, I hope, free of this vice. Though I can never be sure.

This is where what we Christians call sin enters the picture. Yes, I believe in sin, that old-fashioned word. No system, religion, or belief structure is or ever will be perfect. I don't believe I fell from the sky the finished article – nor will I ever be. There is always that irritating gap between the ideal and the reality, between what I would I like to do and what I actually do. This is why I go to church and seek forgiveness and reconciliation for when I've missed the mark. Here's a prayer about sin and forgiveness from the Church of England’s Book of Common Prayer. Believe it or not, I can't imagine my life without it.

Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid; Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy Name.

As you might have guessed by now trying to summarise my deepest beliefs and principles has been exceptionally difficult! For one thing my Christianity is not all of me, nor is it the only place I go to find truth and meaning. Christianity, like everything other worldview, has talked a lot of nonsense over the years. And it's always a great delight for me to find truth in the most unexpected places. For example, I find a great deal of it in other religions - especially Buddhism – as well as in humanistic belief systems like psychotherapy. Something deep within me resists dividing the world up into ‘good’ and ‘bad’, ‘secular’ and ‘sacred’. God for me, after all, is the maker of all things in heaven and on earth. More importantly, I believe whatever else God is God is He/She/It is a God of freedom, not of control. S/he actively desires that we roam widely and freely, making, breaking and discovering as we go. Jesus once said that the truth shall set you free (The Gospel of John, chapter 8, verse 32). That’s a pretty good test to lay at the feet of any worldview.