Faith > Courses > 'Living the Questions 1'

The 2007 Autumn study course was entitled 'Living the Questions'. It used material from an American course designed 'to resource progressive Christians'. There were five sessions.

1 Invitation to journey
The Christian life is a journey. It's a journey towards the truth, rather than a journey that defends the truth. The journey's pathway is wide and, on the journey, certainty is of questionable value. Do the invitations extended by the church today convey this sense of journey? Is there anything we can be certain about while we travel?

2 Taking the bible seriously
The bible is an indispensable tool, but only if it is read critically. It isn't without error or contradiction, and it often speaks metaphorically rather than literally. To what extent is the bible a human product and to what extent is it a divine product?

3 Thinking theologically
Our language is unable to capture the mystery of God. The language to which we resort is often unhelpfully anthropomorphic. We need myth and metaphor to speak about the divine. We need to move on from 'pre-critical naivety'. Does our picture of God reflect such 'moving on'?

4 Stories of creation
There are many stories of creation in the bible. They may not be scientifically and historically accurate, but they do contain theological truth. These stories can be introduced by 'I don't really know if it happened this way or not, but I do know these stories are true.' Is this how the church handles the creation stories today?

5 Lives of Jesus
We need the NT gospels to learn about Jesus. In the gospels we hear about the Kingdom of God, which was at the heart of Jesus' message. To rediscover the historical Jesus, we need to strip away some of the layers that have been added over the centuries. What do we need to say, today, about Jesus? Would Jesus, himself, recognise what we now say about him?