Holy Saturday roundup

Introduction

Obreption has been very busy on several fronts and is still under close guard.  Tweets are still limited and Obreption has allowed an apostolic succession to the chosen 12 Obreptiles.  These Obreptiles are chameleon like and often act obreptitiously.  Current themes are the Royal Wedding, Urbi et Orbi, asbestos and insurance, histories, inspirational music and coping with the digital age. 

The team have been able to find an unpaid internship for a former prime minister at a nearby ski resort, checking out the monetisation theory of ski lifts.  Obreption found this a very difficult job and having heard from Mr Cameron about the need to get people off incapacity benefits, especially if they are power crazy, the team has been tasked with finding a job for Mr Clegg now that the scrap heap on the M1 near the former Scratchwood services has vaporised.  We are not implying any valorisation at this point. 

Power Point Presentation delivered by Professor Dr Regius (insert name) of University of (insert name)

Ladies and Gentlemen, can I draw your attention to the following pages on the hard copy of The Times of London of Saturday 23 April 2011, which has gone very holier-than-thou on some aspects of Christianity.  It is almost as if the proprietor of The Times was craving forgiveness for past transgressions (allegedly), and is giving valuable space and honorariums to wee specialists who know what is Best for readers of The Times.  Those featured include:

Michael Burleigh, Professor of History at the University of Buckingham

Alister McGrath, Professor of Theology at King’s College, London

Peter Hitchens, Columnist for The Mail on Sunday

Steve Clifford, General Director of the Evangelical Alliance

John Haldane, Professor of Philosophy at The University of St Andrews

David Ford, Regius Professor of Divinity and Director of the Cambridge University Inter-Faith Programme.

+ an article by Nick Wyke about Rev Martin Junge, general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation

+ an editorial on faith schools and a rebuke for the Bishop of Oxford (p2)

Burleigh’s article is very probable.  He states that Christianity is on the rise and outside western Europe this is probably true, though the type of Christianity would be unrecognisable to readers of The Times and The Telegraph, but probably not to readers of the New York Times, The Guardian and – wait for it – The Mail Online, which has a huge outreach programme and a massive footprint internationally.  Burleigh has also written for Standpoint, and a reading group thought quite highly of the article, if a little bilious in tone towards Muslim immigrants.

McGrath had a bit of a rant against atheists who rant, a touch of a fog horn calling another fog horn loud.  Reading McGrath one feels that Augustine of Hippo was the rock of the church and not Jesus.  Still, predestination is always with us and it’s such a pity that Martin Palmer (who’s always on the airwaves) wasn’t there to stick the knife into St Augustine.  (see Pelagius controversy on http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b010dstl#synopsis )

Peter Hitchens – no comment

Steve Clifford with his evangelical background cites his own story with the evangelical subtext “you must be born again”, even though he had church connections. 

John Haldane, being surrounded by the relics and iconoclastic violence of the Scottish Reformation of 450 years ago - with the ghosts of Cardinal Prince David Beaton and John Knox and George Wishart within grasp - has an interesting take on philosophy.  Of course, being a good obedient Roman Catholic he has plugged his bosses book in the usual way and his input was certainly lacking the gravitas he normally puts out in the Catholic press.  Maybe the honorarium from the Times was Rupert’s pennies rather than the Ratzinger rouble. 

Nick Wyke wrote an interesting piece about Rev Martin Junge who exemplifies a trend well documented by Jose Casanova* on the social and practical ministry of much of the evangelical Protestant church which is attracting huge audiences and converts in the southern hemisphere.  Chile is a very good example and church (Evangelical and Roman Catholic) and state issues are well covered in the Santiago Times.
* (http://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/people/703)

David Ford gives an account of inter-faith activities which we have covered beyond belief in this blog, though we think that some inter-faith dialogues are often just a version of my enemy’s enemy is my friend.  Some faith’s are so exclusive, ‘have all the truths’ and are always so right that they really is no point in dialogue.  The higher one ascends the approach to god, the less room there is at the top, which makes a nonsense of some inter-faith dialogues when there is no common ground. 

These articles can be viewed on the following link - though there is a paywall!
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/newspapers/the_times/saturday/?days=Saturday

At this point, Easter is being celebrated around the globe and we wish everyone the blessings of the season and if you have given up anything for Lent, you can now enjoy all the forbidden fruits, chocolate bunnies, Easter eggs, and other material culture which can only help the global economy.  Obreption is going to have to listen to the Archers for the first time in 6 weeks on Sunday at 7 pm.  Please pray for Obreption and do not tweet any plot line. 

Given this day in Laax (GR), Switzerland.   

ps:
Covereage concerning Easter Sunday, sermons, 'Clegg takes his gloves off', Bishop of Oxford and Glasgow football are being held over.  Expect inputs from Magnus Linklater, Steve Bruce and Cardinal Keith O'Brien on topics such as sectarianism, secularisation and football!