Post by angli_fan on Nov 5, 2006 22:21:23 GMT -5
The British-based "Evangelical Alliance" recently released a report called "Faith and Nation"; regarding their goals for the relationship between the State and the Church.
Ekklesia reported on the release of this document here:
www.ekklesia.co.uk/content/news_syndication/article_061024faith_and_nation.shtml
and you can read the report itself here(requires Acrobat Reader):
www.eauk.org/faithandnation/upload/faith%20and%20nation%20finalrevised.pdf
The report has provoked at least two interesting articles/editorials, linked below:
The political race between the Evangelical God and the 'ordinary one'
[from the Times Online (UK)]
Credo by Stephen Plant
GRACE DAVIE, the sociologist of religion, reports a conversation that took place during a survey in Islington in 1968. The interviewer asked a resident: “Do you believe in God?” “Yes”, the individual replied. “Do you believe in a God who can change the course of events on Earth?” continued the interviewer, “No” replied the interviewee, “just the ordinary one.” The exchange could still happen today. Most Britons still believe in God, but the God they believe in is “the ordinary one” who makes little practical difference either to their own lives, or to those of the society to which they belong.
It is therefore a striking feature of Christianity in contemporary Britain that the most confident Christian perspective is the one most at odds with that of the man in the (Islington) street. Against the flow of opinion both outside the churches and to an extent on the more liberal end of the Christian spectrum, Evangelical Christianity maintains that God can change the course of events on earth and looks for the realisation of this hope in British social and political life.
www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3933-2424994,00.html (Copy & Paste)
Why do Evangelicals like purity?
[from the Church Times]
by Giles Frazier
The Evangelical Alliance has just published an impressive report, taking stock of where Evangelicals find themselves now (News, 27 October). For those who find them a frustrating puzzle, as I do, it’s a very helpful summary.
What I had never appreciated is the extent to which Evangelicalism seems to resemble a purity cult, not unlike that of the Pharisees or the Essenes. To those of us who don’t get it, the purpose of Evangelical Christianity can be mistaken for a re-assertion of an understanding of holiness that looks surprisingly like the religion of Jesus’s enemies.
www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=1909
Ekklesia reported on the release of this document here:
www.ekklesia.co.uk/content/news_syndication/article_061024faith_and_nation.shtml
and you can read the report itself here(requires Acrobat Reader):
www.eauk.org/faithandnation/upload/faith%20and%20nation%20finalrevised.pdf
The report has provoked at least two interesting articles/editorials, linked below:
The political race between the Evangelical God and the 'ordinary one'
[from the Times Online (UK)]
Credo by Stephen Plant
GRACE DAVIE, the sociologist of religion, reports a conversation that took place during a survey in Islington in 1968. The interviewer asked a resident: “Do you believe in God?” “Yes”, the individual replied. “Do you believe in a God who can change the course of events on Earth?” continued the interviewer, “No” replied the interviewee, “just the ordinary one.” The exchange could still happen today. Most Britons still believe in God, but the God they believe in is “the ordinary one” who makes little practical difference either to their own lives, or to those of the society to which they belong.
It is therefore a striking feature of Christianity in contemporary Britain that the most confident Christian perspective is the one most at odds with that of the man in the (Islington) street. Against the flow of opinion both outside the churches and to an extent on the more liberal end of the Christian spectrum, Evangelical Christianity maintains that God can change the course of events on earth and looks for the realisation of this hope in British social and political life.
www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3933-2424994,00.html (Copy & Paste)
Why do Evangelicals like purity?
[from the Church Times]
by Giles Frazier
The Evangelical Alliance has just published an impressive report, taking stock of where Evangelicals find themselves now (News, 27 October). For those who find them a frustrating puzzle, as I do, it’s a very helpful summary.
What I had never appreciated is the extent to which Evangelicalism seems to resemble a purity cult, not unlike that of the Pharisees or the Essenes. To those of us who don’t get it, the purpose of Evangelical Christianity can be mistaken for a re-assertion of an understanding of holiness that looks surprisingly like the religion of Jesus’s enemies.
www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=1909