About the Author: Philip Sudworth
. So much attention is paid in churches and in Christian organizations to catechisms and creeds that faith is often equated with a set of religious beliefs. Many Christian organizations define themselves by what they believe and only accept those who sign up to their set of beliefs. In the creeds there’s no mention of love, of feelings of hope or of joy, or of actually doing anything, and very little attention given to any of these in most lists of beliefs.
A look at how Christians today still want the kind of physical power Messiah that the Jews hoped for and who will change the world for us, when the actual need is for a spiritual change within ourselves and for us to respond to a vision and a challenge.
This article raises the question of whether Progressive Christianity is primarily for those who have been brought up or spent some time in a traditional Christian setting and now moved beyond that, or is it equally for those without a church background. It goes on to consider how we can we connect with the unchurched and how we encourage them and empower them to take the first step for them in their faith journey.
A parable of how a vision can be distorted, so that a process of liberation, healing and inclusiveness becomes an an institution preoccupied with conformity.
How our attempts to define God and present him within terms of our own understanding are bottling up the power of God.
What is paradise like and how do we find it? Is it actually a place or a condition or is it the way we approach life?
Philip Sudworth considers the different dimensions of faith and the implications for how we respond to the faith of others.
