-
The Future of Democracy
In its 2019 annual Audit of Political Engagement, the Hansard Society asked if Britain ‘needs a strong ruler willing to break the rules.’ Whilst 54% of respondents said yes; only 23% said no.[1] Even given the long drawn-out stalemate over Brexit in that year – in which the “will of the people” seemed to be thwarted by parliament itself – this is a disturbing outcome. The nation promptly went ahead and elected a ruler willing to break a number of rules, before and during the pandemic. Democracy is not only under pressure in Britain. In 2020, the Cambridge Centre for the Future of Democracy warned that democracy worldwide is in ‘a…
-
The Place of Colonial Terminology within Religious Studies – Sikhi, “Sikhism,” Sikhism, or Sikhi(sm)
[…] what I’ve often discovered, you know, plenty of the studies or books or courses and what-not will pay lip-service [emphasis mine] to the [project of decolonising] . . . they’ll say “Religion is a constructed category, bound up in colonial history and referring to Protestant Christianity.” And then, “Let’s just get on with using it, just like we would normally do.” That’s something that we should try and avoid! Malory Nye and Christopher R. Cotter, “Decolonizing the Study of Religion,” The Religious Studies Project (29/06/2020). This essay will focus on debates into whether the term “Sikhism” is sufficient and whether it is necessary, appropriate, and realistic to change the…
-
Minifigures and Ministers: Formation in the Church of England
There was a time when a Lego figure was as simple as the plastic person you put in the house you’d built or sat in the car you’d made out of oblong and sloping bricks. There was a time when the great Archbishop Michael Ramsey’s description of a minister in the Church of England as a distinctively full time Christian, ‘the beacon of the church’s pastoral, prophetic and priestly concern’[1] was a fully adequate description. Today however, like Lego minifigures, ministers have evolved to be more diverse than Ramsey’s image. If Ramsey were to comment on ministers today, he would see much that he would recognise; some ministers are that…
-
Mitzvah – Making the Place More Holy: The Ultimate in Practical Theology
The word “Mitzvah” is probably best known as part of a word that constitutes one of the main Jewish lifecycle events occurring when a child reaches the age of 13, the Bar Mitzvah (son) or Bat Mitzvah (daughter). But what is a mitzvah? Basically, the definitions are: a precept or commandment or a good deed done from religious duty. However in Judaism it is so much more about relationship than command. The beneficiary of the mitzvah is not the person receiving the good deed, but the person doing it. That is because doing mitzvah is to make this place, Earth, more holy, adding sparks to the universe. By following the precepts it is…
-
Quid pro quo: The Experiences of a Missionary in Japan
Quid pro quo (“A favor for a favor”) is a phrase that immediately brings to mind one of cinema’s most famous psychopaths, Hannibal Lecter, but for me it’s also a warning to the Christian missionary community. Quid pro quo has been used by missionaries in Japan for a long time, certainly since before I arrived fifteen years ago. We provide a service, usually cheap English lessons, and Japanese people provide an opportunity for us to share our faith with them. Perhaps they even make a verbal declaration for Christianity. They may do so not so much for salvation or due to faith, but to avoid the awkwardness of declining a…
-
Constructing a Hindu Black Theology
In the context of Christianity, black theologians have offered understandings of scripture that promote black upliftment. One may then ask the question: can a Hindu to do the same? I argue that the answer to this question is “yes.” In this article, I examine the Bhagavad Gītā and the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, two central Hindu sacred texts, in order to construct a Hindu black theology. I first turn my attention to the notion of the spiritual equality of all living beings. Hindu thought recognizes that individuals have a physical and a spiritual aspect of their being. The spiritual aspect is the ātman, or the immaterial spiritual self, who remains distinct from…
