Study Methods:

1. Read each section and complete the discussion box tasks either individually or in the group before moving to the following section.
2. It will be useful to have several different translations of the Bible available.
3. Reflect on the weekly session as a whole before commencing the following session.
4. Additional suggested reading can be found at the end of each week.

Session requirements:

1. A copy of these notes for each participant.
2. Each participant should have a jotter for notes.

Week One: The Nature of Spirituality

The more some people continue upon their journey of faith the less relevance they see in what institutional churches do week by week in the traditional preaching and worship within the context of substitutionary atonement and original sin mentalities. Yet many of them continue to be delighted and encouraged by the depth of fellowship and commitment amongst members of local churches. Many of them continue to be excited by much of the humanitarian and social work along with political ‘gingering up’ of officialdom that the churches do locally and nationally in the causes of equality, justice and peace.

A growing number of progressive Christians, for a decade or more, have seen themselves less and less of being a theist, that is as one who believes in a ‘God out there’ who intervenes with and over rules the laws of nature. Yet many of these are still very happy to use the words Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This Trinitarian descriptor expresses the way in which Christians may encounter or interpret our ‘God’, but ‘God’ is much more. For many progressive Christians, the Trinity is an expression of different people and communities living in perfect harmony. Now that really is heaven on earth!

The longer that I journey down this road of following the Way of Jesus as I understand it, the more I consider myself to be a Christian Humanist, concerned less with claims of divinity visited upon Jesus of Nazareth by the Church down the millennia. On the other hand, I am increasingly enthralled with the humanity of Jesus, his way of compassionate forgiveness and his social teachings and humanist principles. Here was a man who found something in life that was worth dying for.

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