As part of our Lent Lecture series we had Dr Cecelia Clegg of New College, University of Edinburgh talk on Religion, Violence and Reconciliation. It was a fascinating evening and I thought it would be good to share the lecture and Dr Clegg has kindly allowed us to post it on the website. The full version (including footnotes) is available to view as a PDF file here.
INTRODUCTION
A Muslim community elder described to me how young Muslim women walking down the road wearing the Hijab scarf are attacked, have the scarf torn off their heads and are spat on. The speaker wasn’t describing some far off place or even England, he was telling me about some of the things his community face in Glasgow. I am sure that if you asked your Muslim neighbours in this area you… click here to read more
As part of our Lent Lectures series Paul K. Chapman came to St Philips’ to speak about Faith and the Violence of Poverty. Here is his lecture which makes for a very interesting and engaging read…
Paul K. Chapman
Priority Areas, Church of Scotland
I am very pleased to be asked to start off this Lenten series on Faith and Violence – topics that have consumed my thinking for many years, perhaps since the days of the Civil Rights movement in the United States when non-violence was the defining quality of that historic change in national values. Interestingly, the same dynamic May be manifest in today’s struggle for social change in some of the countries in the Middle East.
I’ll begin with some definitions: I think it is useful to look at violence… click here to read more
After the reflection last week there was a request for the notes. I put some together quickly and here they are:
Reflection 1 Feb 2009
Readings: Ecclesiastes 1.1-11
John 11.1-16
Images:
Plato:
- Image of ideal forms
- Metaphor of the cave/shadows
Socrates:
- ‘Unexamined life is not worth living’
- Executed by drinking hemlock for teaching youth means of questioning thoroughly. Dangerous.
Descartes: “Cogito ergo sum”:
- I think, therefore I am
- Mind/body dualism
Hegel:
- Overarching/all encompassing system
- Thesis, antithesis, synthesis
- W/out Hegel, no Marx
Kierkegaard:
- NO to Hegel; the individual before God
- Leap of faith: Abraham
Derrida:
- Father of deconstruction(postmodernism?)
- All texts have within them an idea that undermines their (stated) meaning
- Deferral of meaning: we talk across a divide and communication is
… click here to read more