Exile : take the power back?

1. Exile: take the power back? A Christian British Airways (BA) employee has lost her appeal against a ruling which allowed the airline to stop her wearing a cross at work. ...Nadia Eweida says she was placed at a disadvantage due to her beliefs.

2. Hype: the cemetery of dreams?

3. Despair: a coping strategy Despair, too, presupposes hope. ‘What we do not long for, can be the object neither of our hope nor of our despair’ (Augustine). The pain of despair surely lies in the fact that a hope is there, but no way opens up towards its fulfilment. Thus the kindled hope turns against the one who hopes and consumes him. ‘Living means burying hopes’, says Fontane in one of his novels, and it is these ‘dead hopes’ that he portrays in it. Our hopes are bereft of faith & confidence. Hence despair would seek to preserve the soul from disappointments. ‘Hope as a rule makes many a fool.’

4. Hope: the christian myth In pre-Christian Europe, History was a series of cycles, with no overall meaning. Against this pagan view, Christians understood history as a story of sin and redemption. Humanism is the transformation of this Christian doctrine of salvation into a project of universal human emancipation. The teaching of Jesus was that the old world was about to come to an end and a new kingdom established. There would be unlimited abundance in the fruits of the earth. Those who dwell in the new kingdom – including the righteous dead, who will be raised back to life – would be rid of physical and mental ills. Living in a new world that is without corruption, they will be immortal. Jesus was sent to announce this new kingdom and rule over it. There is much that is original and striking in Jesus’ ethical teaching. He not only defended the weak and powerless as other Jewish prophets had done, but he also opened his arms to the outcasts of the world. Yet the belief that a new kingdom was at hand was the heart of his message and was accepted as such by his disciples. The new kingdom did not arrive, and Jesus was arrested and executed by the Romans.

5. Security (blanket): a sneaking suspicion?

6. #suspicion? Faith: no reasons, just causes sociological power seeking justification psychological weakness seeking consolation moral weakness seeking revenge

7. Resurrection: take it or leave it? Take it away, and Karl Marx was probably right to accuse Christianity of ignoring the problems of the material world. Take it away, and Sigmund Freud was probably right to say that Christianity is a wish-fulfillment religion. Take it away, and Friedrich Nietzsche was probably right to say that Christianity is a religion for wimps. Put it back, and you have a faith that can take on the postmodern world

8. Joy: the Christian revolution Entering the suffering of the world most fully & testifying to the love of God

9. Faith: fools’ gold?or more precious than gold? We are showing today that we are willing to invest assets our country has to strengthen the banking system. But the most precious asset of all is something that if lost can only be restored not by words but by actions...the asset of trust and confidence. Confidence about the future is needed for confidence today Gordon Brown, 13 Oct 2008 If I say “I have faith in Gordon”, what am I saying? What restores faith? What is the proof of my faith?

10. Witness: do we fear what they fear? “We need to witness boldly and clearly but not with anger and fear; we need to show that we believe what we say about the Lordship of the Risen Christ and his faithfulness to the world he came to redeem”