The Omega Course: Religionless Readings of Christianity

After the success of Atheism for Lent, I’ve started working on an online version of The Omega Course. I’m hoping to get it ready by May. Here is the description I’ve come up with,

 

 

In 1977, Charles Marnham created a teaching series called The Alpha Course that was designed to introduce some basic elements of the Christian faith to people in his church. From its humble beginnings in Brompton, the course has now reached over 27 million people across 169 countries.

The course itself seeks to focus on aspects of the Christian faith that all denominations hold in common. Although there has been some controversy concerning this claim – particularly regarding its Charismatic leanings – The Alpha Course successfully offers participants a grounding in the standard religious understanding of Christianity.

While the message of The Alpha Course faithfully reflects the broad position of the Contemporary Church, there is a dissident expression of Christianity that runs against this orthodox position. It is an expression found in what have been called “Religionless” incarnations of faith. Incarnations that shake the very foundations upon which the religious edifice of Contemporary Christianity is built.

These “religionless” expressions of Christianity are hard to find as they exist largely under the radar of the institution. Yet they can be found thriving among socially engaged para-institutional parishes, enacted in grass-roots clusters of disobedient priests, promoted in the writings of insurrectionary thinkers and kept alive in the work of militant activists who, from the perspective of the Contemporary Church, look like enemies of the faith.

The Omega Course is designed to introduce people in the church to some religionless readings of Christianity. Readings that carve out an escape route from the type of faith expressed in The Alpha Course.

This course is designed to shock, enlighten and inspire in equal measure. Revealing a subversive spirit of Christianity that overturns distinctions between sacred and secular, transcends the conflict between theism and atheism, and moves, quite literally, towards a church beyond belief.

At its core, The Omega Course aims at unearthing the incendiary, counter-cultural scandal of the gospel by clearing away the rumble of religion.

If you sign up for this four week course you’ll receive a bundle of reflections and access to weekly talks that you can engage with live, or download later in video or audio only format.