Wayfarers
  • Home
  • Introduction to Free Christianity
  • Thoughts and essays
  • Worship material
  • From the Christian Compass
  • From the Christian Compass 2: On the Creeds
  • Signposts (Blog)
  • Links

Sydney Carter - Free Christian?

3/8/2010

0 Comments

 
'Faith is more basic than language or theology. Faith is the response to something which is calling us from the timeless part of our reality. Faith may be encouraged by what has happened in the past, or what is thought to have happened in the past, but the only proof of it is in the future. Scriptures and creeds may come to seem incredible, but faith will still go dancing on.  Even though (because it rejects a doctrine) it is now described as "doubt". This, I believe, is the kind of faith that Christ commended'.

‘I see Christ as the incarnation of the piper who is calling us. He dances that shape and pattern which is at the heart of our reality. By Christ I mean not only Jesus; in other times and places, other planets, there may be other Lords of the Dance. But Jesus is the one I know of first and best. I sing of the dancing pattern in the life and words of Jesus.

Whether Jesus ever leaped in Galilee to the rhythm of a pipe or drum I do not know. We are told that David danced (and as an act of worship too), so it is not impossible. The fact that many Christians have regarded dancing as a bit ungodly (in a church, at any rate) does not mean that Jesus did. The Shakers didn't’.

'Your holy hearsay is not evidence
Give me the good news in the present tense
So shut up the Bible and show me how
The Christ you talk about is living now'.

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    What's here

    A quick look at the 'blogosphere' shows that the nature of the medium means it is all too easy for a 'blog' to convey the impression that its compiler is, at best, self-indulgent and verbose, and at worst, a narcissistic bore.  Religious blogs are by no means immune from this.

    However, while I shall try to avoid sharing my each and every passing thought with you, there is a use for a space for shorter, more ephemeral pieces of writing, and on this website, that's here.   These pieces are likely to be frequently revised, sometimes rewritten and occasionally removed.

    ewayfarers@gmail.com

    Archives

    September 2018
    May 2018
    October 2016
    December 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    February 2012
    April 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010

    Categories

    All
    After Life
    Atheism
    Augustine Of Hippo
    Christianity
    Evangelicals
    Forgiveness
    Free Christian
    Fundamentalists
    God
    Heidegger
    Honest To God
    Humanism
    Jesus
    Leon Battista Alberti
    Liberal Christian
    Liberal Evangelicals
    Love
    Mennonites
    Modern Church
    Nature Of Religion
    Neo-liberalism
    Non Prose
    Non-prose
    Prayer
    Russell Lant Carpenter
    Schopenhauer
    Science
    Sources
    Spirituality
    Sydney Carter
    Teresa Of Avila
    Unitarian
    Worship

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.