Theology

This essay begins by contrasting the contributions of two leading atheists. Richard Dawkins dismisses the Bible as a disordered and chaotic anthology. Alain Badiou, in contrast, engages it (specifically the writings of Paul) as material that creatively maintains fidelity to revolutionary events. Badiou’s insight is taken here as a prompt to explore the diverse biblical witnesses to creation, which, as in the case of the resurrection, resists conceptual control. The Jewish and Christian traditions of creation theology can thereby offer an opportunity to explore, in the company of atheists, the ambiguities of the biblical canons and the capillaries of their socially formative effects.

The New Testament may not seem to have a direct bearing on atheism, but nonetheless it can provide a serious, if implicit, challenge to its claims and conclusions. Both the new atheism and the New Testament offer meta-narratives: coherent accounts of the world in its origins, destiny and ultimate meaning. What the New Testament presents, through core symbols such as the kingdom of God in Mark and the Incarnation in John, are examples of God’s radical engagement with the world from beginning to end, an engagement that has Jesus Christ as its centre and source of its eschatological hope.

The method of interpretive phenomenology was used to investigate the responses of twelve young Australian Christian University students to selected writings by Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. In analysing the interview data, the following six themes emerged: the style is entertaining and humorous; the style is disrespectful and mocking; many of the arguments are perceived as lacking depth and philosophical sophistication; constructive engagement with ‘the other side’ was found to be lacking; the ‘religion poisons everything’ argument cannot be sustained (it’s a human rather than a specifically religious failing); and, finally, the arguments that cast doubt on the historicity and reliability of the biblical accounts are troubling. Though the capacity for critical analysis is variable in the cohort, all of the participants were able to point up serious flaws in the arguments. No one found her- or himself ‘falling under the spell’ of the authors.

The ‘new atheism’ has difficulty distinguishing scientific issues from metaphysical ones. Still many theologians and philosophers have the same difficulty. This paper argues for the necessity of something like what Bernard Lonergan calls ‘intellectual conversion’ to help make this distinction. Drawing on the work of physicist Lawrence Krauss and Augustine’s narrative of his own intellectual conversion, the paper illustrates the confusions that arise when such conversion is lacking, and how such conversion can assist in moving the discussion about science and religion forward.

This article is an extended review of six recent short non-theological works from the School of Life, a London-based practical philosophy initiative. The article distils from the works their dominant themes with a view to assessing what Christian theology might learn about necessary theological emphases today. Four themes are discerned – body, inner life, concern for others, action. It is suggested that through these emphases the works indicate the importance of working on contemporary formulations of doctrines of incarnation, Spirit, kingdom of God and salvation which connect with the themes identified.