Wednesday 25 August 2010

musings in lymington

Radio Times re jazz musician Jamie Callum - he's dating Sophie Dahl, he's friends with Clint Eastwood, and he's about to do his own prom. does life get any better? I’m struck by the daftness of these kind of magazine headlines. It’s like, well actually I can think of a whole host of other ways life could be pretty good. But you might have to step outside your celebrity-idolising bubble to appreciate them. Not bitter or anything!

Was chatting to an old family friend yesterday about the Normans, history etc… William the conqueror wasn’t averse to mutilating enemies, and violent punishments, burnings etc were meted out as national law till a mere few centuries ago, sanctioned by religion. But down history the gospel has also had a transformative dynamic, eg as an engine in the abolition of slavery through the understanding that Christ came to set all free. Comprehensible if the gospel’s considered not as a set of rigid rules, but as a seed or seeds with latent transformative potential that works itself ou over time…

Spent five hours on Monday in London. I love the scale, the beauty and the multitudes. The heave of humanity. In a world with such diversity of view, goals, lives, how do you understand the application of a message with supposedly universal import like Christianity?

3 comments:

Billy said...

Sorry Bruce, but you've got that wrong. The gospel was used to justify slavery and the popes were the biggest slave owners in europe.
BTW, Abe Lincoln was not a christian - he was a deist, so the gospel had nothing to do with the abolition.

Do you deny that the bible actually allows slavey?
No doubt you will ignore this inconvenience as usual

Bruce said...

just cos i don't always directly respond to your comments billy doesn't mean i don't read them - and indeed hopefully give them a spot of thought :)

Billy said...

I'm more refering to the fact that we have actually had this discussion in person. These are FACTS, but you still say the gospel ended slavery