Steven Colborne's Blog, page 102

‘Christians, Muslims, and Jesus’ by Mona Siddiqui (book review)

I am convinced that there is one God.  This is not the God of one particular religion only, but the God of all religions and of all creation.  This is important because it means that different religions, with their various and differing dogmas and creeds, do in fact have the most important thing in common: belief in one true God.

Mona Siddiqui, in her book ‘Christians, Muslims, and Jesus’ draws upon scholarship in Christianity and Islam as she discusses Jesus Christ and His significance to these two religions.  She attempts to find common ground in the “christologies” of the two religions, but struggles to do so.

Using plenty of quotations, both from scripture and from learned academics, Siddiqui looks at subjects including ‘The End of Prophecy’, ‘God as One’, ‘Scholastic, Medieval and Poetic debates’, ‘Reflections on Mary’, and ‘Monotheism and the Dialectics of Law and Love’, as she tries to find common ground between Muslims and Christians in terms of the way Jesus is perceived.

It seems that there is some common ground, perhaps most notably in a shared reverence for Mary in the two religions, but in terms of Jesus and His crucifixion Christians and Muslims have quite different views.

Siddiqui demonstrates how the crucifixion is barely discussed in the Islamic literature, but is at the very heart of the Christian literature and indeed what it means to be a Christian.  Also, the resurrection of Jesus is symbolically vital for Christians, but is not considered to be a core belief in Islam.  Basically, Muslims see Jesus as a great teacher and a prophet, but not as the Son of God and the way to salvation.  In Islam, there is no salvation in the Christian sense of the word.

The book was an enjoyable read and the academic style was not so complex that I couldn’t follow the thrust of the author’s train of thought.  I would have preferred a simpler writing style, but then I am someone who really dislikes complex terminology and endless footnotes which in my opinion only serve to alienate readers – even those with academic training.  However, Siddiqui is brave to attempt to tackle such a difficult subject and I think she has done a good job – the book has plenty of substance.

The highlight of the book for me is in the conclusion where Siddiqui asks various Christian friends to reflect on what the image of the cross means to them.  The responses are touching and interesting.  In the very last paragraph of the book Siddiqui chooses to close with a comment which points to what is really the crucial thing (for me) in Islamic / Christian relations – that Islam and Christianity share belief in one God, and even more crucially, that it is the same God.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the figure of Jesus or in multifaith or interfaith dialogue.  The cover price of £20 is a bit steep (it is not a particularly long book) and I was told in Waterstones that the book is only available as a hardback.  Keeping this in mind, the book still represents reasonable value for money and is an excellent contribution to interfaith dialogue.

Living with the Question

Anyone who has read my blog in any depth will recognise that there are two important components to my beliefs about God and the world.  On the one hand, there is my panentheist attitude that sees God in everything as the ‘cosmic animator’ – responsible for everything that happens in the cosmos.  On the other hand, there is my Christian faith, which acknowledges Jesus as Lord and is the focal point of my prayer life and my faith.

There is a struggle that goes on in my life every day as I try to reconcile the differences that these two strands of thought and belief present.

It’s a simple predicament:  If God is responsible for everything that happens (which my intuition tells me is correct), then how am I to understand free will which is central to the Bible and to Christian thinking?  I do not feel that I can be a fully committed Christian with this dilemma filling my thoughts each day.  And yet I love to pray and feel I must, and I believe in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

I have probably been frustrating my Christian friends as I have agonised over this dilemma for several years.  I recently spoke with an Anglican priest about it and he wasn’t able to provide a satisfying solution.  Indeed, it seems that no one that I talk to (Christian or not) can reconcile this problem for me.  No books that I have read or lectures that I have listened to have helped me to settle the dilemma.

It seems to me that I am going to have to live with the dilemma.  That doesn’t make life easy – I am “not quite a Christian” which is not a generally acceptable position among my Christian friends who are mostly very evangelical.  I don’t feel I can preach the gospel with any gusto having the problems with Christianity that I do.  And the pull of what I believe is the truth about God is strong enough to keep me believing that the panentheistic vision of God that I espouse is the right one.

The best advice that I have received on this matter actually came from my own father.  We were sat in a park talking about Christianity and as I explained my predicament he suggested I might have to “live with the question”.  I think that for now, at least, that is good advice.

I can’t imagine my life without prayer as a major component and I expect I will always reach out to God to give thanks and praise and to offer supplications.  Jesus will remain a hugely important figure in my life, even if I can’t commit to His teaching in the same way as my Christian friends.  Living with the question at least gives me some peace of mind and I am open to the possibility that God, who is infinite, may reveal new truths to me in the future.

I have almost finished writing my second book which discusses my thinking around these issues in a lot more depth.  I hope that the book will help others to gain insights into my struggle, which will in turn enrich their own spiritual journeys.

It is a good thing to seek the truth, and I hope and pray that God loves me for my struggle.

Do you wrestle with similar problems in your own life?

Are there questions to which you feel you must live with without an answer?

Can you relate to my struggle?

‘Simply Jesus’ by Tom Wright (book review)

My Christian faith is constantly challenged by the rational view I have of God.  Nevertheless, I find myself wanting to immerse myself in theological writing, as I find discussions about Jesus fascinating, and there is no doubt that Jesus is such an important figure in human history; I feel enticed into exploring His life, death, and resurrection, and the significance of all this according to different authors.

Tom Wright (known to some as N.T. Wright) is a New Testament scholar who has apparently authored over fifty books.  He also used to be the Bishop of Durham.  He is currently Research Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of Saint Andrews.  I find it hard to imagine how anyone can write fifty books but it seems that this author has spent a lifetime immersed in research into New Testament theology so he obviously has a lot to shout about.

The book is in three parts.  The first part discusses the myriad influences that were impacting on first-century Palestine when Jesus was embarking on His earthly ministry.  Wright discusses how the influence of the Roman Empire clashed with the hopes of the Jewish people creating the complex web of circumstances into which Jesus was born.

The second part of the book is concerned with, amongst other things, the Kingdom of God (a phrase Jesus used a lot) and what that really means.  In Wright’s view, it means a world where because of Jesus, God is now in charge in a way He wasn’t previously.  Part three (which is only a single chapter) discusses what it means for Jesus to be ruler of the world in the present day.

The book is easy to read, but in my humble opinion, isn’t gripping.  When reading one has the impression that Wright knows what he is talking about, but I would struggle to say that there is much that I have taken away from reading the book.  I was hoping to be enthralled and nourished, but the discussion is at times quite vague and there doesn’t seem to be a depth of thought and a passion behind the words.

One can’t help but wonder why on earth any author would want to write fifty books.  Is there really so much to say?  Could the thrust of what the author wants to communicate about Jesus, God, and the world, not be explained in a more concise way?  One wonders whether Simply Jesus really serves a purpose in its own right.  Perhaps, as an introduction to Jesus and the New Testament it might help some people.  But as someone who has studied theology and reflected a great deal on the New Testament, I found that this book had little to offer me.

In summary then, Simply Jesus is a book that is easy to read and is written by an author who is clearly very knowledgeable about the subject matter.  Having said that, for those people who are already immersed in the Christian faith, I don’t think this book offers more than a leisurely read that will take up some time; I don’t believe it’s a book that will change your life.

I will endeavour to pass on my copy to someone who knows little about Jesus but is keen to learn more, as I’d imagine the scripture quotations throughout the book, coupled with Wright’s honest reflections, will help some people to learn more about the mysteries of the New Testament scriptures and the ever-interesting story of Jesus Christ.

Living with the Question

Anyone who has read my blog in any depth will recognise that there are two important components to my beliefs about God and the world.  On the one hand, there is my panentheist attitude that sees God in everything as the ‘cosmic animator’ – responsible for everything that happens in the cosmos.  On the other hand, there is my Christian faith, which acknowledges Jesus as Lord and is the focal point of my prayer life and my faith.

There is a struggle that goes on in my life every day as I try to reconcile the differences that these two strands of thought and belief present.

It’s a simple predicament:  If God is responsible for everything that happens (which my intuition tells me is correct), then how am I to understand free will which is central to the Bible and to Christian thinking?  I do not feel that I can be a fully committed Christian with this dilemma filling my thoughts each day.  And yet I love to pray and feel I must, and I believe in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

I have probably been frustrating my Christian friends as I have agonised over this dilemma for several years.  I recently spoke with an Anglican priest about it and he wasn’t able to provide a satisfying solution.  Indeed, it seems that no one that I talk to (Christian or not) can reconcile this problem for me.  No books that I have read or lectures that I have listened to have helped me to settle the dilemma.

It seems to me that I am going to have to live with the dilemma.  That doesn’t make life easy – I am “not quite a Christian” which is not a generally acceptable position among my Christian friends who are mostly very evangelical.  I don’t feel I can preach the gospel with any gusto having the problems with Christianity that I do.  And the pull of what I believe is the truth about God is strong enough to keep me believing that the panentheistic vision of God that I espouse is the right one.

The best advice that I have received on this matter actually came from my own father.  We were sat in a park talking about Christianity and as I explained my predicament he suggested I might have to “live with the question”.  I think that for now, at least, that is good advice.

I can’t imagine my life without prayer as a major component and I expect I will always reach out to God to give thanks and praise and to offer supplications.  Jesus will remain a hugely important figure in my life, even if I can’t commit to His teaching in the same way as my Christian friends.  Living with the question at least gives me some peace of mind and I am open to the possibility that God, who is infinite, may reveal new truths to me in the future.

I have almost finished writing my second book which discusses my thinking around these issues in a lot more depth.  I hope that the book will help others to gain insights into my struggle, which will in turn enrich their own spiritual journeys.

It is a good thing to seek the truth, and I hope and pray that God loves me for my struggle.

Do you wrestle with similar problems in your own life?

Are there questions to which you feel you must live with without an answer?

Can you relate to my struggle?

Holding onto Hope

There is no doubt that when my life is focused on Jesus, and I am engrossed in the Bible and in fellowship with my Christian friends, my life takes on a new dimension; a graceful, glorious dimension.  I am absolutely convinced that there is great power in the name of Jesus, and I have witnessed that power again and again in my life.

Despite these truths, at the moment I am suffering from a kind of spiritual insecurity.  I want to believe, so very much, but there is an intellectual part of my being that is causing me to doubt some of the fundamental tenets of the Christian faith.  I have written about my problems with the faith elsewhere on this blog (see, for instance, A Leap Too Far), and there is no need to repeat them here.

At times like these I just fall on my knees and beg God to reveal His truth to me.  It is the most important and rewarding thing in the world to have a relationship with God, and my fervent desire is that I would not do anything to compromise that relationship and risk God’s anger.

There may be aspects of the Christian faith that never make sense to me (from an intellectual standpoint) and I suppose the battle I am facing is faith versus intellect.  When I think about the power of the cross and the love that I have experienced from the Lord it makes me quite sure that faith must win this battle.

But how can I stop the intellectual doubts from resurfacing and interfering with my Christian walk?  It terrifies me that whenever I build spiritual momentum in my life my doubts and questions may resurface and rob me of my peace.

My prayer today is this:

Heavenly Father, most glorious ruler of all, thank you for the peace and blessing that I enjoy in my life.

Help me, most merciful Lord, to live a life based on faith in you, and reveal to me your truths so that they might surround me and stabilise me, and so that I might live in them all my days.

Help me to know what I must know in order to be held in your favour, and help me to rebuke and dismiss any spirit that seeks to rob me of your peace – the peace that surpasses all understanding.

Oh mighty, sovereign, and eternal Lord, give my faith a solid foundation and an unshakable certainty, so that I need not wrestle with doubts and troublesome questions in the future.

Lord Jesus, I offer my life to you, and I say strengthen me, renew my mind, save me from sin, help me to understand, conquer my struggles, and keep me in your peace.

I beg of you Heavenly Father, please accept this prayer.  In the mighty name of Lord Jesus I pray.  Amen.

What can we learn from Lazarus?

Being out of psychiatric hospital and living back in the community is a real blessing.   I am lucky to have a roof over my head in a nice house with friendly housemates and a clean bright room, praise God!

As I settle into my new home I am endeavouring to make plans that will make my life fruitful, Godly, and fulfilling.  With this in mind I ordered a One Year Bible from Amazon recently and it arrived today.  If you don’t know what this is, it is basically the whole Bible divided up into 365 daily readings, each day containing a reading from Psalms or Proverbs, an Old Testament reading, and a New Testament reading.  It’s a great way to focus the mind on regular Bible study without causing one to feel daunted.

Today’s New Testament reading was ‘The Rich Man and Lazarus’ from the book of Luke.  The story essentially goes like this.  There was a rich man who lived in luxury every day, and a beggar called Lazarus who lived as a homeless person at the gate of the rich man’s house.  Lazarus lived in poverty, eating only the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table.  The earthly existence of these two men is in stark contrast.

We are told that both men eventually passed away, and the poor man went to heaven and the rich man went to hell.  The rich man was in agony in hell and started to think of his family who were still alive on earth.  He spoke to Abraham, who was in heaven with Lazarus, and asked that Lazarus be sent to his family to warn them of the torments that he was suffering after living his luxurious life.  He hoped that they might be saved from similar torment.

The passage made me think about how I live my own life.  In my own philosophical writings I have discussed the possibility that perhaps Almighty God, in His mercy, is a fair God.  By fair, I mean that maybe God allots a similar amount of suffering to everyone, if we take into consideration life before birth and after death.  So maybe those suffering a lot in this life find mercy in the next, and vice versa.

I suppose the passage about Lazarus is a warning.  If we feel richly blessed in this life, we must be very careful.  For a start, we must not take our riches for granted, and we must always be seeking to help others by giving what we have away.  We must have compassion on those who are homeless and needy, and not store up riches on earth.  After all, an eternity in hell after death is no doubt far worse than living an earthly life of poverty.

The book of Matthew says “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.” (Matthew 6:19-20)  And in Matthew 19:24 we read the following: “Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

It is true that as Christians we can claim a life of abundant blessing because of the cross and what Jesus did for us.  But I believe that our abundance should be spiritual rather than material.  We must always use our resources to help other people, and we should embrace poverty and respect those who are disadvantaged in society.

My prayer today is that the Lord would direct me in matters of richness and poverty.  I pray that I might use all of my resources to be a blessing to others, and never cling to my worldly possessions.  As a start, I am going to consider selling a lot more things on Ebay, giving away clothes, and using my savings wisely.  I am already donating to five charities each month, and I give money to the church regularly as well.  I recently spoke to a pastor at my church and suggested that all the pastors should buy their clothes from charity shops in order to set a good example.

I am sure there is much more I can do, and I will pray to the Lord for guidance.

Do you consider yourself to be rich?  Are you taking steps to avoid suffering a similar fate to the rich man in the story?

God is Merciful

Dear friends,

I’m happy to say I am now out of psychiatric hospital and living in the community again.  The Lord has been very generous to me, blessing me with a lovely room in a great location.  I can’t quite believe my luck!  This is surely an answer to prayer.

I apologise once again for the lack of updates recently, and also that the blog was made private for a couple of weeks.  I was in two minds about whether to carry on with the blog at one stage and making it private seemed wise while I was deciding what to do.

Now I’m out of hospital (which is very refreshing indeed; I was first admitted before Christmas and it is now April) I have a chance to think about the future again.  I am feeling more positive about keeping an online presence, and I hope to continue updating this blog and working on several books that I have already started.

When I become unwell, it’s hard to know what is fantasy (schizophrenia gives you some funny ideas about reality!), and what is real.  I sometimes have lofty ambitions and in the coming weeks I will have to re-assess where I’m at and what I can realistically achieve in this new season of my life.

One thing is clear at the moment.  I need Jesus Christ in my life!  And I need to keep attending church to stay focused on spiritual matters rather than earthly concerns.  Above all I want to be a good, Godly, generous person and I want to leave a positive impression in the world as I go about my business.  I am praying that I can achieve this and I have faith that the Lord will help me.

Peace and blessings to you!  Thanks for reading.

Life Goes On…

My dear friends,

I must first offer you an apology because it has been several weeks since I last posted.  I am still in psychiatric hospital and circumstances have dictated that I have had very limited internet access and some personal troubles that have prevented me from sharing with you for a while.

You may notice that I have uploaded some Christian prayers that I have been writing while in hospital.  I have had a resurgence of my Christian faith and am once again recognising the importance of Christ in my life as my lord and saviour.

This is not to disregard my criticisms of Christianity, as expressed on this blog, which still hold some validity in my mind.  I am a Christian but I still believe in the panentheist perspective that says all is ‘in God’, and indeed, all is God, which my regular readers will be familiar with.

This blog was made private for a couple of weeks recently while I gathered my thoughts, but the gates are open once again and I would be delighted for you to have a read of my recent posts and leave your comments on any of my articles, past or present.

Thanks so much for reading,

Steven

Prayer to banish evil forces

Heavenly father, thank you for the great victory over evil that your cross represents.

Most merciful Lord, thank you that the cross is the ultimate weapon against my enemies, and that no evil force, treachery, deceit, or malice that would attack this holy temple will ever succeed.

Cover my life with the blood of Jesus, oh Lord, and protect me from any evil plot that would seek to rob my of the peace of Christ.

May my saviour’s suffering be a crushing blow against the enemy in every single area of my life, and I thank you and praise you, heavenly father, for IT IS FINISHED!

In Jesus’ mighty name I pray,

Amen.

A Prayer: ‘Let It Be True’

Lord, please, let it be true.

That the death of your Son is my salvation,

Lord, let it be true.

That the agony of the cross was not in vain,

Lord, let it be true.

That by His wounds we are healed,

Lord, let it be true.

That evil has been overcome,

Lord, let it be true.

That I might have a life of abundance,

Lord, let it be true.

That no one need suffer again like you did, Lord,

Please, let it be true.