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God and Science

Summer 2009£1.75Vol 106 No2

The Reader aims to assist the ten thousand Readers in the British Isles and Europe in the exercise of their ministry by stimulating them theologically and encouraging them to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ effectively in their dioceses. The Reader reflects the work of the Central Readers’ Council and the Church of England generally, while being aware of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

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Cover: DNA spiral

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‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth’ is the opening statement of the book of Genesis. The writer then tells us that God did this in an ordered way. The idea of linear time is given by dividing the process up into ‘days’; in the progress of time, God created. Darwin and his theory of evolution, amongst other things, changed the concept of the length of the time taken. The realisation that the process of creation happened over a greater length of time than we had previously imagined should have been an enhancement of our understanding of God‘s handiwork, rather than undermining it. The Victorian world was severely challenged by what Darwin began to understand, but perhaps it should be seen that he opened a door to a better understanding of that creative process to which the Genesis narrative points. For us living now too it may be that, through scientific research and discovery, God is actually allowing us to glimpse more of the wonder of his creation in a way previous generations could never have done. For me, as someone with a background in the Arts, the detail is hard, and sometimes impossible, to understand. But the drift of it, as I see it, is that ‘In the beginning, God....’, and more amazingly, the Lord Jesus is revealed as the one ‘through whom all things were made’ (John 1 : 3); the one who ‘was with God at the beginning’ (Jn 1 : 2). As Paul tells the Christians at Colossae: ‘He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.’ So there is a sense in which, through discovering more about the world and how it holds together, is all part of discovering who Jesus is. This One ‘in whom we live, and move and have our being!’ (Acts 17: 28)

This year is the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his work The Origin of Species. So this issue of The Reader looks at Darwinism and related scientific thought. So hopefully there is plenty of material in this issue to help us explore. For example, in his contribution on page 15, Andrew Biggs helps us to understand the link between worship and creation when he points out that ‘the God.. whom you know through your community and through your own experience, is exactly and precisely the one who is responsible for the whole physical existence of the universe and your place in it. This is why the believer can enjoy complete integrity between worship in church and research in the laboratory.’

This year also marks the 40th anniversary of the admission of women Readers, and so Catherine Martineau, who was amongst the first, has produced an article in celebration of this fact. Meanwhile our human challenges stare us in the face, and so we have opportunity to think about parenting; about helping the over 60’s face debt, and some insights into the work of the Arthur Rank centre as it supports and encourages people in rural areas.

Finally, the competition to find people who can write short stories for children is to be found on page 28. This competition is open to Readers and others too, so please encourage any friends you think may like to have a go! Have a good read!

CONTENTSSummer 2009 2 E=mc² and all thatVol 106 No2 Prof. John Wood

4 Darwin for The Reader Nick Spencer

6 Human Evolution and the image of God Dr. Denis Alexander

8 Evolution and creation – are they mutually exclusive? Dorrit Smith

10 Darwinism and Determinism – do our genes programme our behaviour? Prof. John Bryant

13 Genesis and the origin of the Origin of the species Sir Jonathan Sacks

14 And information became physical Prof. Andrew Briggs

16 Can there be theology after Darwin? Prof. Celia Deane-Drummond

18 Not so deluded believers Dr. David J Girling

20 Debt and the over 60s Sharon Thresher

22 A ‘Ruby’ celebration Catherine Martineau

24 Parents on the discipleship path Naomi Starkey

26 The Arthur Rank Centre Jeremy Martineau

28 Science, God and films – Film review Matt Page

28 It was Christmas Time

29 Reviews for The Reader

34 Obituary: John Field

35 Gazette

35 In Memoriam

36 Gleanings

37 Last Word

www.readers.cofe.anglican.org

Heather FentonEditor

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In the classic book ‘1066 and all that’ Sellars and Yeatman state at the start that they thought there were two dates that all British people could remember and they were 1066 AD and 55 BC. A straw poll in a pub demonstrated that the second of these dates was not universally known, so it was dropped (so they say at least). I think the same may be said of scientific equations. In 2005 the Institute of Physics conducted a poll on members’ favourite equations. If I were to conduct a similar survey among Readers I wonder what the response would be? I suspect there would be some Readers who might not be able to think of one! When I ask audiences if they can guess which equation the physicists voted for, inevitably there is a general mumbling in the background of E=mc2.

In fact this equation came sixth. If you do not already know the result of the poll, I wonder if you can guess. In fact there are two which came out equal top. As a clue, the BBC homepage asks the question of the first six in the list ‘what good is it to me?’ For the joint winners the answers are respectively ‘these equations are used throughout the electronics industry’ and ‘None’. This equation is purely a mathematical construct with no obvious practical relevance, although it is what some physicists might call ‘beautiful’. (Answers below). In his foreword to ‘It must be beautiful – Great Equations in Modern Science’1 Graham Farmelo states ‘The poetry of science is in some sense embodied in its great equations.’ For those of us who have been immersed in scientific research for most of our lives, it is this search for, and appreciation of the beauty as much as the practical side of our work, that drives us on. This applies as much to the engineer as to the pure scientist where the bridge or the circuit is designed

and executed with finesse and feeling. I am constantly amazed when people tell me that science is cold and impersonal. Leading scientists are passionate and driven, they want to dig deeper, spread wider and fly higher than anyone else. I still remember the day I walked into the Rutherford-Appleton restaurant and heard the cries of excitement all around. I asked one retired physicist what was up, thinking, as their boss, there might be some trouble. No, it was the sheer excitement of the first results from the Sunbury Neutrino Observatory in Canada which had just been announced. On another occasion I was presented with a slide of what looked like smudged ink to be told these results were revolutionary. It was a demonstration that electrons could be accelerated by laser light.

Beauty and passion are strange bedfellows with the more practical applications of modern science. Today we face grand challenges, whether of energy supply, global warming, or feeding the world. These have to be balanced against the search for new knowledge for its own sake. For just over six years I was head of the Research Council in the UK that funded and ran large scientific facilities and undertook large programmes, most of which involved extensive international collaboration. Funded, in the main by the UK tax payer, how did I make decisions regarding the balance of support for projects? Should I have put more funds into the study of the electron dipole moment using cold neutrons (guaranteed Nobel Prize for the investigators I was assured) or into SORS (Spectral Offset Raman Spectroscopy) a laser technique for investigating porosity in bone (among other things) non-invasively and therefore a potential breakthrough for studies in osteoporosis. Is the cost of CERN worth it? I actually have no dispassionate way of

answering these questions. However put one step into CERN and you will be swept away by the passion and drive of the scientists and engineers. Marvel at the sheer complexity of the large detectors like ATLAS and wonder at the imagination of the thousands of scientists and engineers around the world who first thought of the experiment and then made it happen. When parties of bored looking students came to the Rutherford-Appleton Laboratory I told them they would probably not understand much of what the scientists would tell them, but they would remember the passion. When they returned I could see that some of that passion had rubbed off on almost all the visitors. As a supervisor I used to tell my research students that belief was an important part of research. If you did not believe the experiment would work, it almost certainly would not. While ‘blind unbelief is sure to err’ being convinced until everything proves you wrong is a necessity if the edges of knowledge are to be broken through.

Professor Berry in a recent article in ‘Science and Christian Belief’2 has written about the Research Scientists’ Psalm (Psalm 111). At the entrance to the Old Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge on Free School Lane, the words of verse 2 are written in Latin in Gothic Script on the doors. ‘Great are the works of the Lord, they are pondered by all who delight in them.’ This text was chosen by Clerk Maxwell who like Michael Faraday was a deep man of faith. Professor Berry goes on to relate that Maxwell’s successor Lord Rayleigh had the same text on the covers of his published collected papers. Recently Professor Briggs (see article in this issue) told me that the same words are on the doors of the New Cavendish Laboratory in West Cambridge. He told me that a Ph.D. student made the request to the then head of department who agreed to put it to the vote of the departmental committee in the sure knowledge that it

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and Senior International Adviser, Chair of the European Research Area Board

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would be rejected. It was not. At that moment Andrew Briggs admitted he had been the student!

In my present position I am still involved in large scale international projects. The main one is the European X-Ray Free Electron Laser (E-XFEL). At its simplest it will be a sort of X-Ray movie camera capable of seeing atoms move around in real time. It will be a billion times brighter than any X-ray source in the world and will fry you in less than a second. It will be useful for many areas of physics, chemistry and biology including the possibility of seeing how specific biological molecules

will interact with drug molecules at an atomic level in real time. The amount of data that will be generated each second is truly staggering, ten times more than will come out of CERN. At a recent talk by the head of data management at CERN, he admitted they had no idea how to deal with this amount of diverse data that E-XFEL would generate. However my own job is to chair the International Steering Committee that brings together the 12 nations that are funding the project. It has taken five years of negotiation to bring the countries to the point where they will finally commit themselves to the full funding for the project and how it should be managed. As we have lurched from one crisis to another not only have I had to remain believing in the project; more importantly, I have needed to support and encourage the senior management despite several set backs.

As a result of this and other groups I have chaired in Europe and beyond, a year ago, the European Council decided they needed an advisory Board for the

Commission to look to the future of European research. I was honoured to be asked to join this high powered group, and flabbergasted when the members asked me to chair it from the start. We have set ourselves a vision for what research will look like in 2030 and beyond. How can Europe remain competitive (what does that mean?) as newer economies such as China and India are moving so fast and will potentially have overtaken the US and Europe by then? We are looking at several themes, starting with modernisation of European Universities. We cannot continue to treat all universities as if they were the same. China, India and the US single out

relatively few institutions for support at the international level. We have no choice but to focus the scarce resources. Other questions involve the way we respond collectively to grand challenges, how to make it easier for young researchers to move around without financial penalties, how to achieve ownership by all citizens in the excitement and necessity of research, and how to increase the aspirations of all parts of Europe and specifically the newer Member States. In essence we are trying to establish a vision for European science. Two years ago I was asked to speak to all the science ministers of Europe in closed session. I was introducing a Roadmap for investment in large scale international research infrastructures. I do not read from prepared speeches and towards the end I started talking about the legacy of Charlemagne through the Renaissance all fostered by a faith and I ended by quoting the reason I was putting this roadmap to them was ‘Without a vision, the people perish!’ For me it is a mark of a civilised society and for people of faith to seek out and try to understand the boundaries

of knowledge. If you delight in the world that God has created surely you want to know as much about it as our human minds can grasp. Yet I find most church leaders totally ignorant and unable to help their congregations and especially young people at school who are influenced by the current materialistic non-faith basis of science teaching. Recently I was the victim of a ‘Quiz a Christian’ event at some local schools. I was asked some very searching questions and I do not think they received the answers that they expected. I specifically said that we do not know all the answers to many issues and that holding opposite ideas in tension without trying to resolve them is indeed a mark of a creative mind. An example of this is Denis Alexander’s book ‘Creation or Evolution – do we have to choose?’ Christians so often want pat answers and have no desire to be ‘transformed by the renewing of their mind’ or as Os Guiness writes; ‘The failure to love God with our minds as well as our hearts is not only a sin - it is a crippling cultural handicap in an age when ideas have greater consequences than ever.’3

1 G.Farmelo ‘It Must be Beautiful – Great Equations of Modern Science’ Granta 2002

2 R.Berry ‘Science and Christian Belief’, (2008) 1473 O.Guiness ‘Fit Bodies, Fat Minds’ (Hodder

and Staughton,1995), back cover (Joint first were Maxwell’s equations and Euler’s theorem)

If you delight in the world that God has created surely you want to know as much about it as our human minds can grasp.

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Darwin was nothing if not an honest man. Six months before he married, he went to speak to his father about his religious doubts. They had been growing in the two years since his return from the Beagle, and he was worried that his devout prospective wife, Emma Wedgwood, would be too shocked to carry on with their courtship.

Robert Darwin, who shared his son’s religious scepticism, counselled silence. ‘Before I was engaged to be married, my father advised me to conceal carefully my doubts, for he said that he had known extreme misery thus caused with married persons,’ Darwin recalled in his autobiography.

Alas, Darwin could not follow the advice, and on a visit to Emma in July 1838 he told her everything. She was shocked but took it in her stride and although religion remained a sensitive topic for the rest of their lives, Darwin’s confession did nothing to weaken their long and happy marriage.

Helpfully for biographers, his confession also provoked from Emma a number of moving and perceptive letters to her new husband, in which she spoke about his waning religious faith. They provide the only contemporary account of Darwin’s growing doubt, and perhaps the best analysis of the way his mind worked during this seminal period in his life. Darwin came from sceptical and unorthodox stock, variously Unitarian, free thinking, and quietly atheistic. His upbringing was more conventional but the little evidence there exists of his early beliefs suggests a lukewarm Christian commitment.

‘Dear Charles, I hope you read the bible’, his sister Caroline wrote to him whilst he was studying medicine in Edinburgh in 1826, aged 17. ‘And not only because you think it wrong not to read it, but with the wish of learning there what is necessary to feel & do to go to heaven after you die.’ That, less than two years later, this

spiritually indifferent teenager should enter Cambridge to study for Holy Orders, says much about the Anglican church in the early decades of the nineteenth century.

Darwin himself had been arm-twisted into ordination by his father who, unimpressed by his son’s lack of medical interest, feared he was turning into ‘an idle, sporting man’. To his credit, Darwin asked for time to reflect and, in the autumn of 1827, he read a number of weighty, theological tomes, such as Bishop John Pearson’s Exposition of the Creed and Revd John Sumner’s Evidence of Christianity.

Duly persuaded, he entered Christ’s College in 1828, where he immersed himself in the writings of William Paley. Paley was the most influential British theologian of the age and his Natural Theology was particularly important. It argued that nature contains “every manifestation of design… [that] design must have had a designer… That designer must have been a person. [And] that person is God.” Darwin was impressed.

Crucially, Paley’s world was not simply designed. It was ‘happy’, teeming with ‘delighted existence’. ‘In a spring noon, or a summer evening,’ he remarked, ‘on whichever side I turn my eyes, myriads of happy beings crowd upon my view.’This was the Christianity that Darwin took with him when he avoided ordination and embarked on the Beagle in 1831. It was a faith founded squarely on the arguments of Pearson, Sumner and Paley: objective, rationalistic, demonstrable. It drew its energy and confidence from the world about it, preferring the supposedly incontestable evidence of natural theology to the contentious and controversial ones of scripture and theology. And it was a faith confident that the world, like the British empire that was then spreading across it, was fundamentally civilised, ordered, and comfortable. Darwin’s time on the Beagle did not destroy that faith but it helped erode its foundations. On his return, in 1836, he began examining his notes and specimens, and reading furiously. His autobiography, written forty years later, locates his loss of Christian faith in this period, offering three key reasons: doubts about the Bible (‘no more to be trusted than the sacred books of the Hindoos’), moral objections (the Old Testament writers ‘attribute to God the feelings of a revengeful tyrant’), and philosophical problems (‘the more we know of the fixed laws of nature the more incredible do miracles become.’)

Nick SpenceDirector of Studies

at Theos, the public theology

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for The Reader

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Although there is no doubting that Darwin stumbled over each of these issues, it is unlikely that they all occurred to him during this period (revisionist biblical criticism, for example, had yet to make a serious mark in Britain by 1839). Rather, it is likely that he fashioned his autobiography so as to bring together all his doubts into a single chapter and timeframe, which he then placed during a period of destabilising intellectual activity.

Or rather, not quite all his doubts, as his autobiographical account is notably silent on how his evolving theory affected his beliefs. We know it did, as the notebooks he kept at the time show him struggling to accommodate an intellectually defensible understanding of God with his new theory.In some respects this was easy. The law-governed evolution of separate species was so much more elegant and fitting to any God worthy of the name, than the idea that ‘since the time of the Silurian [God] has made a long succession of vile molluscous animals.’ ‘How beneath the dignity of him, who is supposed to have said let there be light & there was light’, he remarked.

Other aspects were less easy to accommodate, however. Evolution hurt human pride: ‘it is absurd to talk of one animal being higher than another’, Darwin noted. It cast questions on human uniqueness and morality. And it refocused the problem of suffering, opening his eyes to its ubiquity and apparent necessity.

In reality, none of these things were (or are) serious challenges to Christian faith. The Genesis creation narratives place considerable emphasis on humanity’s ‘createdness’. There is a discernible theme throughout scripture on creation groaning and suffering. And Darwin himself insisted that in any great cosmic balance, happiness outweighed suffering, and that in any case, the pain was not for nothing: ‘from… the concealed war of nature… the highest good, which we can conceive, the creation of the higher animals has directly come.’

The problem lay in the fact that Darwin’s Christianity had been shaped by Paley’s ‘happy world’ (and so had little space or resources to deal with suffering), and in the fact that there was no-one at the time remotely orthodox who was thinking such thoughts. Evolution (or transmutation as it was more commonly called) was widely recognised as a revolutionary and atheistic

idea. There was, it seemed, only one way Darwin could go. The combined weight of his scientific, scriptural and philosophical thinking crushed Darwin’s never-that-robust faith. It was into this situation that Emma’s letters were written. They say next to nothing about the content of Darwin’s waning Christianity but instead focus on the way he thought about religion. As such, they offer a perspective that is unique and uniquely valuable.

In essence, Emma believed that Darwin was not giving the evidence for Christianity a fair hearing. Firstly, he simply didn’t give it sufficient time.

Your mind & time are full of the most interesting subjects… which make it very difficult for you to avoid casting out as interruptions other sorts of thoughts… or to make it possible for [you] to be able to give your whole attention to both sides of the question.

Second, he was prejudiced as to what constituted legitimate evidence.

It seems to me also that the line of your pursuits may have led you to view chiefly the difficulties on one side, & that you have not had time to consider & study the chain of difficulties on the other…I should say…that there is a danger in giving up revelation.

Third, consciously or not, he was demanding proof for a subject that did not lend itself to proof.

May not the habit in scientific pursuits of believing nothing till it is proved, influence your mind too much in other things which cannot be proved in the same way, & which if true are likely to be above our comprehension.

To his credit, Darwin recognised some of these criticisms. He was prepared (theoretically) to admit that reliable truth might be communicated through instinct or intuition, telling his young disciple George Romanes many years later that ‘reason may not be the only instrument for ascertaining [theism’s] truth.’

Similarly, he recognised that he was demanding the same kind and level of proof from his religion as he did from the organisms he examined every day and, as such, was inevitably going to be

disappointed. Many years later he recalled in his autobiography how he was often inventing ‘day-dreams of old letters between distinguished Romans and manuscripts being discovered at Pompeii or elsewhere which confirmed in the most striking manner all that was written in the Gospels.’

‘But,’ he continued, ‘I found it more and more difficult, with free scope given to my imagination, to invent evidence which would suffice to convince me.’ No evidence was enough for a mind that he latterly described as “a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts.”

Darwin remained a theist, with distinct Christian inclinations, for many years but when, in 1851, he witnessed at excruciating first hand, the death of his favourite child, Annie, aged 10, whatever remained of his Christian faith was torn down. It was suffering – in a visceral, personal form, rather than the theoretical one of a decade earlier – that closed the door on his Christianity.

In the final years of his life Darwin slipped into agnosticism, not only not knowing about the existence of God but believing that, the human mind being evolved, it was not possible to know. ‘Can the mind of man, which has, as I fully believe, been developed from a mind as low as that possessed by the lowest animal, be trusted when it draws such grand conclusions?’ he wrote in his autobiography.

His final thoughts on the issue were, he openly admitted, confused. ‘My theology is a simple muddle,’ he told Joseph Hooker in 1870. ‘I cannot look at the Universe as the result of blind chance, yet I can see no evidence of beneficent Design.’

Thus, the icon of modern atheism was in fact muddled agnostic in his final years, torn in different directions, and all the while doubting his own mind’s ability to navigate such waters.

In spite (or perhaps because) of this, however, he remained as courteous and respectful to religious believers as he was to fellow sceptics. ‘I hardly see how religion & science can be kept… distinct,’ he once commented to Brodie Innes, vicar of Downe and another close friend. ‘But… there is no reason why the disciples of either school should attack each other with bitterness.’

‘Darwin and God’ is published by SPCK

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Human Evolution

Many Christians have no problem with all the biological diversity in the world arising by Darwinian evolution involving natural selection – until we reach humankind; us! Then questions surface. If speciation is usually a very gradual process (which it usually is, for animals at least), then at what point can we say that humankind was ‘made in the image of God’, or is that something without any particular beginning? Presumably at some stage humans or human precursors did not have the possibility of being in fellowship with God, but now that is possible. Does that have anything to do with evolution, or is that something quite different from evolution? And how do we understand the Fall in the light of an evolutionary history for humankind?

One brief article is insufficient to address such questions adequately, so this must be viewed as an Abstract1. First we will look at the scientific story, then at the theological account, and finally consider some possible models that may facilitate a dialogue between the two.

THE SCIENTIFIC ACCOUNT OF HUMAN EVOLUTIONFirst it should be emphasised that our shared inheritance with the apes is one of the most certain conclusions of contemporary biology. The reason for being so sure is because the record of our evolutionary past is indelibly inscribed within the DNA of every nucleated cell of our bodies. We are all walking genetic fossil museums!

By using the term ‘shared inheritance with the apes’, we do not mean that we have directly descended from the apes, just that we once shared a common ancestor with the apes. In fact our last common ancestor is estimated to have lived about 6 million years ago, followed by extensive diversification of our lineages through multiple stages. Our own complete DNA sequence (our ‘genome’), compared to that of the chimpanzee and rhesus macaque, plus partial sequence information from many other primates, enable us to track our related evolutionary histories.

What are these genetic fossils that reveal our ancestry in such a striking way? They are of three types:

Pseudogenes are genes that were functional in our distant ancestors, and that retain their function in living representatives of those lineages, but which have been switched off in our own genomes, lying there like derelict machinery as a vivid reminder of our evolutionary history. Pseudogenes attain their non-functionality by accumulating one or more mutations. Since they consist of specific sequences of hundreds or thousands of ‘letters’ in the genetic alphabet, there is generally no ambiguity in identifying which working gene the ‘fossil’ pseudogene represents.

The human genome contains at least 19,000 pseudogenes, nearly as many as our 20-25,000 protein-encoding genes, an astonishing and very recent finding. Each pseudogene arises from a unique mutational event, hence the use of pseudogenes in historical investigation.

Transposons are copy-and-paste stretches of ‘parasitic DNA’ that make up about 45% of our genomes. They have no function, but their presence over millions of years of evolution provide further valuable genetic fossils. If one of these sequences is found at a particular specific location in the genomes of different species, then this demonstrates unequivocally that these species must all have descended from the same common ancestor. We share nearly all (99%) of these fossilized inserts into our genomes in common with chimpanzees, most with macaques, and many with distantly related mammals. In this way ‘family trees’ can be built up showing the evolutionary relationships between us and other primates.

Retroviral insertions provide more opportunities for genetic sleuthing. Some retroviruses very occasionally insert some of their DNA sequences into the genomes of germ-line cells and so are conveyed to succeeding generations. About 8% of our genomes comprise such functionless retroviral insertions. So once again our cells are like little history books, faithfully

reproducing evolutionary histories that go back millions of years, providing overwhelming evidence for our common ancestry with the apes.

WHEN AND WHERE DID MODERN HUMANS EVOLVE?Homo sapiens, anatomically modern humans, most likely evolved in Africa from an archaic H. sapiens species such as H. heidelbergensis. The oldest known well-characterised fossils of anatomically modern humans come from Ethiopia, dating from 195,000 years ago. Significant emigration out of Africa took place from 70,000 years ago onwards, with modern humans reaching right across Asia and on to Australia by 50,000 years ago, then back-tracking into Europe by 40,000 years ago, where they are known as the Cro-Magnon people. By 15,000 years ago they were trickling down into N. America across the Bering Strait. By the time we reach the Near East culture portrayed in the early chapters of Genesis, most parts of the world were populated by humans, albeit sparsely. By ancestry we are all Africans.

All we know about speciation suggests that the emergence of anatomically modern humans was a relatively gradual process which took tens of thousands of years, most likely occurring in an isolated and relatively small population. Unlike plants which can speciate overnight by the simple expedient of chromosomal doubling, we vertebrates take a little longer.

This genetic evolutionary story can help to explain a huge amount: the rapid evolution of brain size allowing the emergence of consciousness, self-aware minds, moral choices and, eventually, language. Increasingly sophisticated tool-use and the social demands of hunting were likewise key factors in shaping our human identity. The robust theism characteristic of Christian theism sees God’s creative will being instantiated in all these long processes of evolutionary history. Scientists can but describe what God has done in evolutionary history to the best of our ability. Yet the scientific account alone cannot provide a complete explanation of our humanity, made in the image of God.

Dr Denis AlexanderDirector of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion at St. Edmund’s College, Cambridge.

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HUMANKIND IN THE IMAGE OF GODBible commentators have emphasised two major themes in the ‘image of God’ concept. The ‘essentialist’ perspective draws attention to God-given qualities, such as moral and spiritual capacities, consciousness, free-will, reason and language, intrinsic to each and every individual, that distinguish humans from animals. However, this perspective alone, critical as it is, does not do full justice to the Biblical context in which ‘image of God’ teaching is placed. Equally important is the ‘relational’ perspective that is implicit in the relevant Biblical passages.

The relational aspect plays out in two ways. First there is humankind in relation to God, being given their mandate to care for and subdue the earth (Gen. 1:26-27). Second there is humankind in relation with each other, male and female, as they fulfill that mandate. God didn’t speak to any of the animals in Genesis 1, but in Genesis 1:28 and 2:16-17 we are encountering a new type of being that had never existed on earth before, people who knew God’s will for their lives. As the implications of what it means to be made in God’s image are worked out in Genesis 2, through work, marriage and caring for the earth, so the relational language continues. The Lord God personally places man in the Garden of Eden (2:15), gives him commands (2:16), provides man with a married partner (2:22), and then after the Fall calls to the man ‘Where are you?’ (3:9). The personal God seeks relationship with those made in his image.

THEOLOGY IN DIALOGUE WITH BIOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY How do we relate the anthropological account of human origins with the Genesis text? Three main types of model have been suggested to help in this task. Like models in science, their role is to suggest possible scenarios, ways in which the two types of narrative might relate to each other.

Model AModel A is an ahistorical view suggesting that there is no connection at all between the theological and biological narratives. The purpose of the early chapters of Genesis, from this perspective, is to provide a theological account of the role and importance of humankind in God’s purposes, cast in the mould of a narrative of Adam and Eve which is a myth in the technical sense of being a story or parable

having the main purpose of teaching eternal truths without the constraints of historical particularity. The Fall in this view is the eternal story of Everyman. It is a theological narrative that describes the common human experience of alienation from God through disobedience to God’s commands. Every person repeats the story in their own experience as they fall short of what God expects of them.

Model BModel B is a gradualist protohistorical view which suggests that as anatomically modern humans emerged in Africa from 200,000 years ago, or during some period of linguistic and cultural evolution since then, there was a gradual growing awareness of God’s presence and calling upon their lives to which they responded in obedience and worship. It was natural at the beginning for humans to turn to their Creator, in the same way that children today seem readily to believe in God almost as soon as they can speak. In model B the Fall then becomes the conscious rejection of this awareness in favour of choosing their own way rather than God’s way, and the early chapters of Genesis a re-telling of this protohistory in a form that could be understood within the Middle Eastern culture of the Jewish people of that time.

Model CModel C is also a protohistorical view in the sense that it lies beyond history as normally understood, but like model B looks for events located in history that might correspond to the theological account provided by the Genesis narrative. Unlike model B, this model locates these events within the culture and geography that the Genesis text provides. According to model C, God in his grace chose a couple of Neolithic farmers in the Near East to whom he chose to reveal himself in a special way, calling them into fellowship with himself – so that they might know him as a personal God, being made aware for the very first time of their status as humans made in God’s image. This first couple, or community, have been dubbed Homo divinus, the divine humans, those who know the one true God, the Adam and Eve of the Genesis account. Being an anatomically modern human was necessary but not sufficient for being spiritually alive, as remains the case today. Model C draws attention to the representative nature of ‘the Adam’, ‘the man’, as suggested by the liberal use of the definite article in the Hebrew Genesis text.

Just as I can go out on the streets of Cambridge today and have no idea just by

looking at people, all of them members of the species Homo sapiens, which ones are spiritually alive, so in model C there was no physical way of distinguishing between Adam and Eve and their contemporaries. It is a model about spiritual life and revealed commands and responsibilities, not about genetics. The Fall in model C becomes the disobedience of Adam and Eve to the expressed revealed will of God, bringing spiritual death in its wake, a broken relationship between humankind and God.

All three models affirm the facts of our evolutionary history; the fact that humankind is made in the image of God, but an image marred by sin; and our consequent need of redemption. No one model will answer all our questions, but it is important that we hold firmly to both the theological and scientific narratives and continue to keep them in fruitful dialogue.

Dr Denis Alexander is Director of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion (www.faraday-institute.org) at St. Edmund’s College, Cambridge, where he is a Fellow. Dr Alexander is the author of Creation or Evolution – Do We Have to Choose? (Oxford: Monarch, 2008, 3rd printing March 2009). His report Rescuing Darwin, co-authored with Nick Spencer, was published by Theos in 2009.

1 Those who would like a fuller treatment are referred to: Denis Alexander, Creation or Evolution –

Do We Have to Choose? Oxford: Monarch, 2008 (3rd printing 2009).

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I am proud to have been a teacher of Biology in the state system for some 30 years. I made no secret of my liberal Anglican Faith and I believe that this helped students to frame questions which may have seemed a bit ‘off track’ in a scientific context. Having the privilege of crossing minds with bright young folk who were seeking answers to those questions which have exercised thinking people down the centuries, meant a regular, welcome, transfusion from the real world into what many see as a potentially closed, syllabus – ridden cage.

Last year, the Reverend Professor Michael Reiss, Director of Education of the Royal Society, said that he thought the inclusion of a discussion of creationist thinking in Science lessons, where appropriate, was a good thing. I heard what he said live on the radio. I know how misrepresented his words were. I, like many others, feel that his enforced resignation over this matter was uncalled for and that his opinions were entirely consistent with the kind of broad education we believe in.

Discussions about Darwin’s ideas and whether they conflict with the Bible have been something raised by young people, both at GCSE and A level, for as long as I have taught. Debate is something to be

encouraged. If minds are seeking a place to expose their unknowing and form their opinions, then a safe, open classroom is a good place to do it. Indeed I remember an occasion, thirty years ago, when some of my A level students brought some of their arty friends to find me in a lunch hour to hear how, as a Christian, I could justify the teaching of evolution. These arts students were involved in a local Bible group, which had, even then, been influenced by an American fundamentalist Christian

publication. They were very unwilling to be challenged by scientific facts. The situation has worsened over the years and I believe that it is this type of fundamentalism and its damaging effects upon young minds which has triggered an equal and opposite reaction from the scientific fundamentalists like Richard Dawkins. He consistently refuses to debate with those of a far seeing liberal faith, targeting only the extreme fundamentalists. It helps to make his point, yes, but only exacerbates the problem, causing minds to polarise rather than to seek accommodation.

There have been huge advances in science and medical research. The increasing knowledge of how systems work encourages the type of thought which points the way to a holistic vision of life, a vision more consistent with a 21st century theology of creation. In a science properly understood there should be no either / or about it, no tension between faith and fact. I do not understand the motives of those Christians who would try to perpetuate the tension. I only know that their efforts to do so have gathered momentum and seem to hold a fascination for young people whose lives require an anchor. I felt it my job to try to find a way to show the elegant simplicity of the mechanism of evolution to those who had a scant knowledge of it and to

try to show them that evolution is not something you believe in. It is something that is…. To do this I often used the very simple story that follows. ‘You live in a valley near a great estuary. One night a litter of foxes is born Three of the cubs have what appears to be a terrible deformity. Their paws are too big and the toes are thickly webbed. The other two cubs appear normal. While they are

suckling these deformed cubs can thrive… but will they survive to adulthood to breed this mutation into the population? Will they be able to be efficient hunters over the rough terrain of the valley? Will they easily be able to run for their lives in the chase? … No … They and their mutated DNA (the stuff of their genes) will not survive to breed.

But… global warming is upon us (yes we knew about it 30 years ago!) and gradually the waters rise and the estuary floods. Which of these foxes is the more equipped to survive now? Which is more likely to be able to find food, escape a predator, move easily through the shallow water? Which now is more likely to survive to breed? The answer is obvious. What was once normal dies out and what was once a deformity is bred in. The deformity is suddenly a precious aid to survival and the possible start of a newly created species’

Pause a moment to reflect upon this and upon how clever it is.

This sort of selection, which produces different strains and different species through mutation (changes in the sequence of DNA components) happens all the time and indeed is happening now. You only have to look at bacterial mutation to see that. It would happen more frequently in the human genome if our medicine was not so good. We shall see it at work if the heralded human form of avian flu arrives. This killer strain of flu will be a combination of the existing ‘bird flu’ and an existing strain of human flu. The naturally immune will survive and pass on their good fortune. Perhaps the naturally immune will also have webs on their fingers or even bells on their toes… but what counts will be the immunity to the human strain of avian flu. Those without it will die. That is evolution in action.

One of the main problems with accepting the theory of natural selection, even for Richard Dawkins, is that it all seems so randomly cruel. Death by being unfit

Dorrit Smith Reader in the

Diocese of Truro

If there was an act of creation it was surely the creation of DNA. Its plasticity, its ability, in other words, to mutate, holds the very

secret of survival. Its structure, if seen as an organisation of chance, would be regarded as a mathematical impossibility.

are they mutually exclusive?

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Evolution and creation to survive; death by succumbing to a bacterium we are unable to destroy is horrid, yes … but we must surely accept that, if there is a creator God, then the process involved creating not just the fluffy mammals and the singing birds, the busy bee and the diaphanous butterfly. If we are to believe in a creator God then the process also involved the creation of those necessary agents of decay, the bacterium and the fungus. Decay in itself is a wonderful and vital recycling process without which we could not survive. The extreme parasites like a virus or the tapeworm, for whose existence we have as yet no human explanation are also part of a created and ever changing whole. These all surely have as much right to life as we. It is time to leave our anthropocentric vision of creation behind and concentrate on this interconnected whole. Anglicans must continue to challenge those whose faith seems separated from reason and which does not acknowledge the reality of current discovery. We must assert the need for a faith which is generous and inclusive, a faith which seeks to discover an understanding of what God has given us rather than to reiterate a litany based upon a Babylonian myth and promulgate it as truth. If there was an act of creation it was surely the creation of DNA. Its plasticity, its ability, in other words, to mutate, holds the very secret of survival. Its structure, if seen as an organisation of chance, would be regarded as a mathematical impossibility. Its mechanism can be likened to a juggler throwing out balls saying, “here you are, try this one…. or this one…. or this one.” In the face of a global catastrophe some reorganisations of the genes will work to ensure survival, some will not. ‘Deformity’ begins to be seen for what it is, a human value judgement, not a divine one. We have a mechanism here which is always able to turn out a new life pattern even in the worst of times and faithfully copy it in the best of times

It helps to remember that in the web of life all things connect, and that most

improbable amalgamation of molecules we call DNA reigns as the supreme invention of the creative mind. In its elegance and simplicity there lies the potential to make anything. That surely is the mark of a creator.

I feel the implication that there are two belief systems is very misleading. There is only one – that of a belief in God. The other, that of the mechanism of evolution, is not something you believe in. It is simply the way in which living things are able to change in response to the changes around them. It is not a belief system. The word ‘belief’ is being misused in order to make people think they must make a choice. There is no need to choose. The one does not exclude the other. Michael Reiss was right. Discussing this sort of thing in science lessons is entirely appropriate. The development of scientific ideas follows a process comprising observation and initial hypothesis, followed by peer review, independent test, independent confirmation and publication. Children need to be exposed to this process. They should not be taught that some things are inappropriate topics for discussion in either science or religious education lessons. Neither ‘side’ should be frightened of the outcome. Nothing but discovery lies ahead – nothing but a greater understanding of the incredible gift that is life. Contextual understanding of any discovery, any knowledge is only achieved by unfettered dialogue and by lively minds finding a space within their own horizons for the vision of others.

Dorrit Smith is a Reader in the diocese of Truro serving in the Parish of St. Mylor. She is a graduate of Durham University and taught Biology at all levels in Comprehensive Schools. She was also a Deputy Head for 16 years.

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Darwinism and determinism

INTRODUCTION – DARWIN AND AFTER DARWINThis year, 2009, has been nominated as the ‘Year of Darwin’. Charles Darwin was born on February 12, 1809 (coincidentally, the same day as Abraham Lincoln); his most famous book, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection was first published on November 24, 1859. The idea set out in the book was beautiful in its simplicity: in a particular environment, members of a species that are better fitted to that environment (and the advantage may be quite small)

will have greater reproductive success. A likely end result of a particular variant having greater reproductive success is that it will come to dominate the population. Moreover, if there is little or no chance of interbreeding with other variants, then speciation will occur.

The different finch species on the different islands within the Galapagos group seemed to Darwin to be excellent examples of this type of natural selection and speciation. Further, recent studies of the genetics of these finches have provided results that are completely consistent with Darwin’s views on their speciation.

But Darwin actually had a scientific problem with the theory: he called it the ‘riddle of heredity’. Although he knew that variation within species occurred right across the range of living organisms (including humans), he had no idea of how it arose or of how particular characteristics could be passed on unchanged from one generation to the next. An understanding of this had to wait until the rediscovery, in 1900, of the work of the Czechoslovakian

Four of Darwin’s Finch species

Prof John BryantProfessor Emeritus of Cell and Molecular

Biology at the University of Exeter.

– do our genes programme our behaviour?1

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monk, Gregor Mendel. Essentially, Mendel discovered genes (although he did not use the term): inherited characteristics are determined by physical entities that passed from generation to generation. Genes provide a physical basis for natural selection: a particular gene can exist in more than one form (based on variations in the order of the building blocks in DNA) and the different forms are heritable. Natural selection acts on the range of genetic variation within species.

A GENE FOR THIS AND A GENE FOR THATIf genes determine to a large extent the physical characteristics of an organism, how far does that apply to features like human nature and personality? Are we automata, programmed by our genes with little or no choice? There is certainly a school of thought, evident in some of the writing of Richard Dawkins, Steven Pinker and others, that goes a long way along the road of genetic determinism. The idea is very apparent in the disciplines of socio-biology and evolutionary psychology2 and, in the latter, is often combined with the idea that the workings of our brains are still stuck in the stone age, ie that evolution of brain function and thus (in their view) of our behaviour has not kept up with changes in human culture and with the ways that human society is now organised3.

In the popular media, genetic determinism often finds expression in ‘A gene for… ’ headlines. Thus, over the years, it has been claimed that scientists have discovered genes that cause anything from a sunny disposition to violent behaviour. The ‘gay gene’, the ‘fat gene’ and even the ‘infidelity gene’ are further examples of such

reporting. To be fair, even the most ardent genetic determinist has doubts about such headlines but they demonstrate both the extent to which the media loves a straightforward story and the way in which determinist ideas have seeped into those media. Are they right or wrong?

BRAINS AND GENESConsciousness, mind and personality – and the behaviour that arises from these phenomena – are rooted in and arise from the structure and function of the brain. This includes the vast number of nerve cells in the brain and their interactions. Further, as we study brain function we are learning more about the biochemical aspects of nerve conduction, of mood, of the state of wakefulness and so on. We also understand that there are specific recognition mechanisms within the brain for different biochemical molecules.

There are drugs that disrupt or alter the recognition and subsequent ‘use’ of particular biochemicals in the brain. Some of these drugs (which may be prescribed medically eg for depression or for anxiety) may alter states of mind and/or lead to behavioural changes. Indeed, we only need to think about the results of ingestion of the ‘over-the-counter’ drug, alcohol, to understand that biochemical modification of brain function can have dramatic effects on behaviour and mood.

The functioning of the brain leads us to think about genes. Specific genetic activities are needed to enable the cells to manufacture not just the brain biochemicals but also the molecules involved in their recognition and use. Thus genes are involved in brain function and in behaviour. Further, as we have already noted, many genes are subject to variation between individuals and for several of the genes involved in controlling brain biochemistry, we have knowledge of these variations. We have also measured the correlations between possession of particular variants of, let us say, ‘gene A’ with differences in personality or behaviour. The picture that emerges is complex but does not provide evidence for eg the ‘gambling gene’ (as reported in

some papers). In this example, one variant of a particular gene is actually associated with a tendency to exhibit risk-taking behaviour.

We also note that certain types of brain injury lead to dramatic behaviour and personality changes, emphasising that aspects of mind and behaviour are related to the physical structure and organisation of the brain. Again, it would be entirely reasonable to conclude that the genes involved in the ‘construction’ of the brain have some role in behaviour.

In general then, scientists agree that human behaviour is influenced by genes. However, it is wrong to assume that our behaviour is genetically determined. There are two reasons for saying this. The first a general philosophical one: it is a mistake to make the assumption that a physical description of a phenomenon is the last word, that there is no need for any further explanation, that the door is closed to accounts of phenomena on other levels. Sadly, this fallacy finds its way into many people’s thinking, not least because of the public pronouncements of scientists like Richard Dawkins whose claims go far beyond what science actually tells us.

The second reason for challenging genetic behavioural determinism is that the scientific data do not support it. The expanding science of behavioural genetics essentially supports the idea that human behaviour is influenced by genes and we have noted examples in which specific versions of particular genes have influences on aspects of behaviour. We cannot avoid the conclusion that genes affect behaviour and personality. However, behaviour is also influenced by environment, including social environment, and by experience; the possible interactions between these factors and genetic activity are very complex. What this means is that we cannot make a one-to-one correspondence between a behavioural or personality trait and the activity of a gene.

NOT JUST GENESWe now turn to some examples showing the limitations of the genetic

Cartoon of DNA (Human Genome Project: http://genomics.energy.gov/gallery)

determinist approach. The first concerns the making of connections between the nerve cells (neurones) in the brain during development and throughout life. Although genes certainly specify the structural and biochemical components of the neurones, they cannot specify which connections are made; the number of possible connections is simply too great. Further, connections are being made and un-made throughout life, based on learning and other experiences: the brain is very dynamic. Occlusion of an eye early in life for example, will lead to a lessening of connections between the optic nerve and the brain.

On the other hand, new learning experiences lead to new connections being made. For example, in people who become addicted, eg to Internet pornography, there is evidence that the addictive behaviour becomes ‘wired’ into the connections of the brain. A pair of identical twins with identical genetic makeup (which might include a tendency to addictive behaviour), one an addict and one not, would have different ‘wiring’ patterns in the relevant region of the brain. Finally, taking one example from social psychology (and there are many others), there is extensive evidence that behaviours involved in poor parenting or in abusive relationships are learned from the experience of the person concerned. Breaking into the cycle of abuse or social deprivation often leads to a dramatic change in behaviour patterns.

We are also discovering some fascinating connections between emotional environment and brain development. For example, in children who were left unattended in Romanian orphanages, brains did not develop properly, as clearly seen in brain scans: brains were smaller, with enlarged cavities and atrophy of the cortex. Equally convincing but less dramatic effects have been observed in UK children deprived of touch and of a caring emotional environment.

BUT THAT’S NOT THE WHOLE STORYIf we stop here we are in danger ourselves of being seduced by purely naturalistic descriptions: humans are just products of their genes and of the interactions of their genes with the physical and social environment. Interestingly, even the most extreme proponents of the ‘nothing but our genes’ view find it impossible to live with their theories. Thus Dawkins suggests that it is the privilege of humankind to be able to over-ride our genes, while Dennett now writes about the ‘evolution of human free will.’ And of course, it is free will, including the ability to make moral judgements, which Christians recognise as one part of being made in God’s image. We acknowledge that the image is marred in us and that our behaviour does not match up to God’s standards. However we also rejoice that through Jesus Christ

and by the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit, inner change is possible. We have seen it through the generations, we have seen it in other individuals, we have, praise God, seen it in ourselves. We need not be trapped in particular behaviour patterns because of our genes, our environment, our culture or our background: it is for freedom that Christ has set us free.

John Bryant is Professor Emeritus of Cell and Molecular Biology at the University of Exeter. He was visiting Professor of Molecular Biology at West Virginia State University (1999-2007), Chair of Christians in Science (2001-2006) and President of the Society for Experimental Biology (2003-2005). Since 2002 he has been co-Chair of the Higher Education Academy’s Special Interest Group on Teaching Ethics to Bioscience Students. He is a member of the leadership team and a regular preacher at Exeter Network Church, part of the Anglican Fresh Expressions initiative (http://www.enc.uk.net).

1 Parts of this article are based on Bryant, J: Don’t my genes determine my behaviour? IDEA Magazine, Sept/Oct 2005

2 It needs to be said that some biologists and psychologists challenge the idea that these are ‘proper’ scientific disciplines’ but further discussion of that argument lies outside the scope of this article.

3 I mention this slightly strange idea because it crops up from time to time in the media. However, the work of scientists such as Kevin Laland at St Andrews University shows, very interestingly, that culture can affect evolution, including evolution of brain function. According to this view, we certainly do not have ‘stone-age brains.’

Suggestions for further reading:A Monk’s Flourishing Garden: the Basis of Molecular Biology Explained David Secko (2003), re-published in The Science Creative Quarterly Issue 3, Sept 2007-April 2008: http:// www.scq.ubc.caGenetics and Human Behaviour: the Ethical Context Nuffield Council on Bioethics (2002): http://www.nuffieldbioethics.org/go/ourwork/behaviouralgenetics/introductionLife in Our Hands John Bryant and John Searle, IVP (2004)Reason, Science and Faith Roger Forster and Paul Marston, Monarch (1999)Rescuing Darwin: God and Evolution in Britain Today Nick Spencer and Denis Alexander, Theos (2009)

These images illustrate the negative impact of neglect on the developing brain. The CT scan on the left is from healthy three-year-old children with an average head size (50th percentile). The image on the right is from a series of three, three-year-old children following severe sensory-deprivation neglect in early childhood. Each child’s brain is significantly smaller than average and each has abnormal development of cortex (cortical atrophy) and other abnormalities suggesting abnormal development of the brain.

From studies conducted by researchers from the Child Trauma Academy (www.childtrauma.org) led by Dr Bruce Perry, MD. PhD: Perry BD (2002) Childhood experience and the expression of genetic potential: what childhood neglect tells us about nature and nurture. Brain and Mind 3: 79-100

Brain scans (at the same scale) of a normal child and a child who had suffered extreme neglect. Picture from www.feralchildren.com © Dr Bruce D. Perry

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There are some even in this sceptical age who still believe that God is an old man with a long beard. His name is Charles Darwin, patron saint of scientific atheists.

Next year will be a double anniversary for followers of Darwin: the 200th anniversary of his birth and the 150th anniversary of On the Origin of Species. We will no doubt hear it asserted that Darwin dealt a death blow to religious belief.

That, it should be said, is quite untrue. What it dealt a death blow to was one very poor argument for the existence of God, namely the argument from design. This argument figures nowhere in the Hebrew Bible. It does not even belong to its world of thought. It belongs instead to the tradition of Ancient Greece and to the idea that the most important truths are those that can be proved.

In fact none of the most important truths can be proved: that right is sovereign over might, that it is better to be loved than feared, that every human being however poor or powerless is worthy of respect, that peace is nobler than war, forgiveness greater than revenge, and hope a higher virtue than resignation to blind fate. Lives have been lived and civilisations built in defiance of these truths, yet they remain true.

What might a religious believer say to Darwin’s heirs? The following thoughts are purely hypothetical, but he or she might say, first, that Darwin helped us to understand the ‘how’ of God’s ‘Let there be’. The Creator created not just life but life that is in itself creative.

That may be the meaning of the otherwise untranslatable phrase in Genesis 2:3, that on the seventh day God rested ‘from all His work that God had created la’asot’, which means literally ‘to do, act, make’. Jewish

commentators understood this to mean that God implanted creativity into nature. God creates something from nothing. Nature creates something from something. Darwin brought new depth to this idea.

The believer might continue that Darwin helped us to understand one of the key ideas of the Bible: the kinship between humans and animals. The first humans were forbidden to kill animals for food. The covenant with Noah after the flood was made also, as Genesis 9 states five times, ‘with every living creature’. The Bible forbids cruelty to animals. This is the polar opposite of the view of Descartes, that animals lack souls and therefore can be used as we will.

The believer might go on to say, as does Matt Ridley in his book Genome, that we now know, having deciphered the genetic code, that all life in its seemingly endless variety has a single source. In his words: ‘There was only one creation, one single event when life was born.’ The miracle of monotheism is that unity up there creates diversity down here.

The believer might wonder, as does Lord Rees, president of the Royal Society, in his Just Six Numbers, at the extraordinary precision of the six mathematical constants that determine the shape of the Universe, such that if even one were fractionally different neither we nor the Universe would exist.

The believer might mention other mysteries, such as how did life evolve from non-life? How did sentience emerge? How was the uniquely human capacity for self-consciousness born? How did

life evolve at such speed that even Francis Crick, co-discoverer of DNA, was forced to suggest that it came from Mars? And the ultimate ontological question: why is there something rather than nothing?

We might refer to the arguments that persuaded the philosopher Antony Flew, late in life, to abandon his atheism. She might cite the curious paradox, noted by Richard Dawkins, that selfish genes get together and produce selfless people. We might wonder at the fact that Homo sapiens is the only known life form in the Universe capable of asking ‘Why?’ And we might add, in the spirit of Godel’s Theorem, that there are truths within the system that cannot be proved within the system.

We would then say: None of these is a proof. Each, rather, is a source of wonder. The Psalm does not say, ‘The heavens prove the existence of God’. It says, ‘The heavens declare the glory of God’. Darwin helped us to understand how the many emerged from one. The more we know about the intricacy and improbability of life, the more reason we have to wonder and give thanks.

This article first appeared in The Times on 30 August 2008, and is used with permission.

Genesis The argument that God exists based on design figures nowhere in the Hebrew Bible

Sir Jonathan SacksChief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth

and the origin of the Origin of the species

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As you make materials smaller and smaller, you can ask the question, ‘How is small different from big?’ The answer may take many forms. It may be that the surface begins to dominate in importance over the bulk, which is why fine dust may stick to your clothing rather than falling to the floor. At a smaller scale, a higher proportion of the atoms are at the surface, with consequences for chemical reactivity and catalysis. As you make things very small, the so-called quantum states of the atom become discrete, and these can be studied and manipulated. This has led to the emerging discipline of quantum nanotechnology.

In 1997 I spent a sabbatical year at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories in California investigating the growth and properties of quantum dots. If you grow the element germanium on a silicon wafer of the kind used for making microchips, the germanium atoms can spontaneously form tiny dots which exhibit quantum properties. While there I learned about quantum computing. At the time I could not think of any experiments that I could do that would contribute to building a quantum computer, but I found the subject deeply fascinating and I determined to learn more.

The discipline of quantum information processing owes much to the insight that information can be described physically. In the 1930s Claude Shannon had perceived how information could be described mathematically. At about the same time Alan Turing was developing ideas about a universal machine for computing1. Half a century later, David Deutsch at Oxford published a paper which in many ways has served as a manifesto for quantum computation2. He refined Turing’s ideas, and concluded that if information is to be subject to computation in a physical system, then it had better be regarded as quantum, and therefore whatever you can do with a quantum object you can do with

information. The discipline of quantum information processing rests on this fundamental understanding. It was further articulated by Rolf Landauer of IBM in a paper entitled The physical nature of information3. The opening paragraph has the subheading ‘Information is physical’,Information is not a disembodied abstract entity; it is always tied to a physical representation. It is represented by engraving on a stone tablet, a spin, a charge, a hole in a punched card, a mark on paper, or some other equivalent. This ties the handling of information to all the possibilities and restrictions of our real physical world, its laws of physics and its storehouses of available parts.

During the year following my return from California, I began to think about how you might use quantum states in materials to build a quantum computer. At the time I was Professor invité at the Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, and we were engaged in some experiments to measure the mechanical properties of carbon nanotubes4. These consist of sheets of carbon atoms rolled up to make tubes that are so tiny that if you put 50,000 of them side by side, that would be about the width of a human hair. I thought about how you might put molecules inside nantotubes to make a radically different type of computer from those we have today. A remarkable molecule for this purpose is a cage of sixty carbon atoms, arranged like the vertices on a soccer ball, inside which we can place a single nitrogen atom. This atom behaves as though it were almost perfectly isolated, so that we can manipulate the quantum states of its electrons and its nucleus with exquisite precision. The accuracy with which we can do this, and the time over which the quantum information can be retained, are sufficient for this to be used as a component for a solid state quantum computer.

Quantum computing is not the only field of science where what might previously

have been described by an abstract noun is now seen to have a physical embodiment. There is a growing amount of experimental data showing how behavioural attributes, such as personality and character, correspond to physical states and processes in the brain5. Such advances in neuroscience prompt afresh questions of human freedom and responsibility in the light of the mechanisms of the brain. Can the new understanding of the physical nature of information similarly stimulate fresh insights about the nature of God’s involvement in the world?

I find that it is essential to appreciate the continuity between God’s activity in creation and his subsequent activity in history. The connection is so close that although these two can be distinguished they cannot usefully be separated. At least four different belief paradigms can be identified, using definitions taken from the Oxford English Dictionary6:

Atheism. Disbelief in, or denial of, the existence of a God. ‘A little superficial knowledge of philosophy may incline the mind of man to atheism.’ Francis Bacon (1561-1626). Deism. Belief in the existence of a God, with rejection of revelation: ‘natural religion’. ‘Deism being the very same with old Philosophical Paganism’ Richard Bentley (1662-1742). Agnostic. One who holds that the existence of anything beyond material phenomena cannot be known. Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-95). Theism. Belief in a deity or deities, as opposed to atheism. Belief in one God as creator and supreme ruler of the universe, without denial of revelation; in this use distinct from deism.

Since atheism denies the existence of God, an atheist believes neither that God created the world nor that he subsequently sustains it. There is little more to be said. Deism asserts that God created the world, but that he subsequently left it to itself

Prof Andrew BriggsProfessor of Nanomaterials, University of Oxford

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and has no further interaction with it. A consequence is that there is no revelation from God to man. Knowledge of God comes instead through so-called natural theology, whereby man tries to deduce through the exercise of his reason what God is like. The sciences play a special role in this, since they provide the empirical evidence to which reason is applied. Robert Boyle may have unintentionally contributed to the rise of Deism, through likening the universe to a famous clock at Strasbourg whose mechanism can be studied; the clock does not need the subsequent intervention of the clockmaker for each tick (if regular winding and occasional repairs are disregarded). Deism did not survive. Ian Barbour explained why.The waning of Deism can be attributed primarily to its own inherent weaknesses. The Cosmic Designer, who started the world-machine and left it to run on its own, seemed impersonal and remote – not a God who cares for individuals and is actively related to man, or a Being to whom prayer would be appropriate. It is not surprising that such a do-nothing God, irrelevant to daily life, became a hypothesis for the origin of the world or a verbal formula which before long could be dispensed with completely7.

Thomas Huxley coined the word Agnostic in 1869 at a party held prior to the formation of the short-lived Metaphysical Society. He took it from Paul’s mention of the altar to ‘the Unknown God8.’ Uniquely of the four belief paradigms, the term for this one was created by its advocate; the others were each initially derogatory. Huxley quickly lost control of the word. There is a story that Benjamin Jowett, the Master of

Balliol, replied to an undergraduate who proclaimed himself an agnostic, ‘Young man, in this university we speak Latin not Greek, so when speaking of yourself in that way, use the word ignoramus.’ It was quickly recognised that agnosticism could be a veneer, ‘In nine cases out of ten Agnosticism is but old atheism “writ large.’”9

For me the only tenable position is the one designated theist. God’s activity in creation and his activity in history are of a single piece. While there are successive stages in the narrative in Genesis, there is no satisfactory point which would function as a divide between creation and subsequent history. On the contrary, the opening chapter seems to be put there to say, in effect, the God whom you are going to read about in the following pages, and whom you know through your community and through your own experience, is exactly and precisely the one who is responsible for the whole physical existence of the universe and your place in it. This is why the believer can enjoy complete integrity between worship in church and research in the laboratory.

The fusion of the world of information and the physical world should not come as a surprise to the Christian believer. This was foreseen in the Old Testament, where the word of God often has the properties of something that is effective in the world. In the opening chapter of his Gospel, John describes how the word became physical. The term conveys a double entendre, no doubt intended. In Jewish thought it could describe God’s revelation in which his thought was communicated through his speech. In Greek thought it was the rational principle of the universe of Stoic and Platonic philosophy. John takes both of these meanings and explicitly identifies them with God himself, and then states that in Jesus the was physically embodied. The early Christians were quick to see the implication of this for every aspect of their

lives. What is probably one of their earliest hymns bases the attitude which they should have to each other on what they find in Jesus.He was in the form of God; yet he laid no claim to equality with God, but made himself nothing, assuming the form of a slave. Bearing the human likeness, sharing the human lot, he humbled himself, and was obedient, even to the point of death, death on a cross!10

The resurrection is the best documented miracle of the Christian faith, but the incarnation is at least as significant. ‘The central miracle asserted by Christians is the Incarnation. They say that God became Man. Every other miracle prepares for this, or exhibits this, or results from this.’11 We have yet to see what the eventual impact of quantum information processing will be. The significance of the Word becoming flesh is already well established.

Andrew Briggs is Professor of Nanomaterials, University of Oxford Director, Quantum Information Processing Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration

1 A M Turing, ‘On computable numbers, with an application to the Entschelungsproblem’. Proc. Lond.. Math. Soc. Ser. 2, 442, 230 (1936)

2 D Deutsch, ‘Quantum theory, the Church-Turing Principle and the universal quantum computer’. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A 400, 97-117 (1985)

3 R Landauer, ‘The physical nature of information’, Phys. Lett. A 217, 188-193 (1996).

4 J P Salvetat et al, ‘Elastic and shear moduli of single-walled carbon nanotube ropes’.

Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 944-947 (1999).5 M A Jeeves, ‘How free is free? Reflections on the

neuropsychology of thought and action’, Science & Christian Belief 16, 101-122 (2004).

6 www.oed.com7 Ian G Barbour, Issues in Science and Religion

pp. 61-62, SCM (1966)8 R H Hutton in a letter dated 13 March 1881.9 Sat. Rev. 819/2, 26 June 1880.

10 Philippians 2:6-8, Revised English Bible, OUP and CUP (1989).

11 C S Lewis, Miracles p. 131, Bless (1947).

This article is an abridged version of a chapter by Andrew Biggs in Real Scientists, Real Faith Monarch Books ISBN: 978-1-85424-884-£8.99

The fusion of the world of information and the physical world

should not come as a surprise to the Christian believer.

And information became

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Can there be theology after Darwin?

This centre was launched in 2002 at the University of Chester, concerned specifically about how contemporary theological thought might engage creatively with scientific thought, especially that of the biologicaly sciences.

The late Rev Canon Dr Arthur Peacocke gave the inaugural lecture for this centre in February 2002, and it was combined with Founder’s Day celebrations in order to attract as wide an audience as possible. His topic for the day, namely, ‘Can Darwin be a friend to religious faith’, is particularly relevant this year, as 2009 celebrations commemorating the birth of Charles Darwin 200 years ago, and the publication of his Origin of Species 150 years ago are in full swing. The public lecture series given by the centre has grown from strength to strength over the years, from small audiences of around 25 participants, to well over 100 coming to the lectures on occasion since 2008. Much of the reason for this success was related to gaining appropriate funding for this centre, initially through the Christendom Trust (now named the MB Reckitt Trust) that provided important seed money in the early stages of development, and the local society initiative, that gave a grant in order to foster a local society for those concerned with debates around science and religion. Both these sources of funding helped to establish the centre and allowed the University to take this area of interest more seriously than it might otherwise have done, if it had been merely reliant on its own more limited resources.

This academic year’s lectures given the overall title of ‘Theology after Darwin’, began with a lecture on 26 November 2008 given by Dr Tom Greggs entitled ‘Can there be theology after Darwin? The Dawkins Delusion’, in which he addressed the hugely popular writings of Richard Dawkins. In a novel approach, Dr Greggs asserted that far from a foe

to be combated, Dawkins’ thought was of significant benefit to theology in order to help theology recognise its true and proper object – the study of God. Comparing the use of Dawkins to the benefits theology found from engaging with Feuerbach, the lecture pointed to the need for Christian theology to carefully differentiate between differing forms of knowledge, and for theology to understand its genuine role. Dr Greggs then went on to consider how theology must not (like Dawkins) confuse God with religion, and how Dawkins’ work mirrors much of 20th and 21st century theology in wishing to get rid of the deus ex machina or the ‘god of the gaps’. Where Greggs discovered a problem with Dawkins’ account, however, was with regards to its anti-pluralist intolerance, and the potential (a)theopolitical dimensions to his thinking.

The second lecture in the series given on 4 February 2009 entitled ‘Reading Genesis after Darwin’, given by Dr David Clough was equally provocative. Clough argues that, for the most part, Christians still read the Genesis creation narratives with a pre-Darwinian world-view. Whereas Darwin showed the fundamental affinity and relatedness between all creatures in The Descent of Man in 1871, we persist 130 years later in the belief that human beings are separate from the rest of creation. Such a ‘human-separatist’ position is not a necessary consequence of taking scripture or the Christian theological tradition seriously: in fact, it has its roots in ancient non-Christian philosophical traditions and in the Enlightenment position of locating value uniquely in the human. We clearly see the absurdity of reading Genesis with a pre-Copernican mindset, despite the textual references to the earth at the centre of the universe; we need to come to recognise the absurdity of our pre-Darwinian readings. As we do so, we see that affirming the basic commonality between all God’s creatures

in creation, reconciliation and redemption has deep roots in the Christian tradition, and important consequences for how Christians treat other animals. Clough invited his audience to undertake a revolution in thought, so that now humans were no longer perceived in an anthropocentric way as lords of creation, but as fellow creatures, one with other animals in solidarity with them as fellow created and evolved forms.

The final lecture in this series has yet to be given on 25 March by Emeritus Professor of the University of Oxford, Professor John Hedley Brooke. His title is, appropriately, ‘Beyond the Huxley/Wilberforce debate: theologising after Darwin’. In this lecture, that is a joint event with the Chester Theological Association, he will argue that accounts of the Darwinian challenge to Christian theology often refer to the exchange between Bishop Samuel Wilberforce and Thomas Huxley. The deflation of ‘soapy Sam’ has entered the mythology of professional science, and his resistance to Darwin’s theory is often seen as typifying clerical opposition. He will examine the mythology that has grown up around this event and suggest that the many Christians receptive to the theory, such as Charles Kingsley and Henry Drummond, believed that Darwin had been a friend to the faith, not a foe. John Hedley Brooke, recently the Andreas Idreos Professor of Science and Religion at the University of Oxford, became, in 2007, a Foundation Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Study at Durham University.

Yet the Centre for Religion and the Biosciences does not just exist in order to attract large audiences for public dissemination and debate, important though that role is, given the contemporary need for such discussions. It also seeks to encourage the research culture in this area, and attract masters students to the new masters programme in science and religion, validated in 2004,

The Centre for Religion and the Biosciences addresses this and other relevant issues.

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Can there be theology after Darwin?

and attract doctoral students. The masters programme is the only one in the country that offers students the opportunity to take religious studies, theology and biological sciences modules from either a background in theology or the humanities disciplines, or scientific disciplines. The vision behind this programme is that not all students will have the time to devote three years to a doctoral degree, and those wishing to engage in cross disciplinary research may be lacking in knowledge of the discipline with which they seek to engage. The science and religion masters is most likely to be attractive to those wishing to develop specific areas such as environmental ethics or medical ethics, but within a context that takes the scientific element of such studies seriously, and allows students the opportunity at least to engage with practitioners other than that from their own educational background. Beyond this, the centre has also enabled four doctoral students to complete their studies and gain doctoral degrees, in various areas from environmental philosophy through to medical ethics and sociobiology.

A third strand of the mission of the centre is to conduct original and cutting edge research, organising research and collaborative colloquia in order to achieve this aim. So far the centre has been instrumental in producing three edited collections that focus around the areas of bioethics, such as Brave New World: Theology, Ethics and the Human Genome, edited by Celia Deane-Drummond (2003) or Future Perfect: Theology, Medicine and Human Identity (2006) edited by Celia Deane-Drummond and Peter Scott. The latter volume dealt with difficult questions around a shift towards perfectionism in medical practices, alongside a critical engagement with a cultural trend towards what has been termed ‘transhuman’ philosophies. Such philosophies are particularly relevant where the demography of a culture is one of an ageing population, where the tendency

to avoid death or even see ageing as a ‘disease’ has serious theological and ethical implications. The final volume so far called Creaturely Theology: On God, Humans and Other Animals, edited by Celia Deane-Drummond and David Clough, is one that is equally cutting edge in its intent – that is, it seeks to define and refine our attitudes to animals, by revisiting those theological traditions that might seem to say something contrary. This book, just published this week in 2009 with SCM Press, is now available, and will be of wide interest, not just to those in academia, but also those who want to think more seriously about the place of non-human animals. The director of the centre has also made her own contribution to the debates around Darwin by the publication of Christ and Evolution: Wonder and Wisdom, published recently by with Fortress Press (USA) and SCM Press (UK) that considers more specifically the Christological implications of the Darwinian revolution. In this book she argues that Christology has tended to ignore perhaps the most important cultural context of our century, namely, that of modern science. Discussion

of evolution and religion focuses on God, whereas Christian theology, if it is to be Christian, needs to address the issue of who Christ is and his significance. Niels Henrik Gregersen, of Copenhagen University, makes the following comment about this book: ‘Evolution is not just an epic of gradually unfolding potentials but a drama filled with tensions and tragedy, contingency and form. Celia Deane-Drummond brings together updated views on evolutionary theory with classic themes of Christology – from Wisdom Christology to cross and resurrection. While fully respecting the integrity of biology, Deane-Drummond presents the drama of evolution as a theo-drama from beginning to end. I admire both the courage and the cogency of this work’.

Professor Celia Deane-Drummond has a doctorate in Plant Physiology and a PhD in Theology. She was awarded a Chair in Theology and the Biological Sciences in 2000 at the University of Chester. In 2002 she helped to establish the Centre for Religion and the Biosciences.

Prof Celia Deane-Drummond A Doctor in Plant Physiology and a PhD in Theology.

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Developing a constructive dialogue with disciples of Richard Dawkins

This book, and indeed previous books by Richard Dawkins that champion atheism, have attracted much comment and criticism, not only from believers (dyed-in-the-wool faith-heads as Dawkins calls us) but also from fellow atheists; the latter mainly because of his failure to see any good at all in religious faith or the life of faith communities and the rigidity of his deterministic reductionism (see, for example, Steven Rose’s Lifelines2). There would therefore be little point in my adding to this corpus. Nevertheless, there is a need to develop a constructive dialogue with those who think as Richard Dawkins does, because much of his ire is directed against the fundamentalism of young-earth creationism, the anti-Darwinian intelligent design hypothesis, and the supposed infallibility and historical inerrancy of the Bible. Thus, much of what he says fails to engage with Christians who reject these views. The purpose of this article is to encourage such dialogue.

One of the criticisms levelled against Dawkins is that he lumps all religions together, thereby implying the absurdity of them all. But, as he himself points out, his chief target is Christianity, the religion with which he is most

familiar. Correspondingly, I write from a predominantly Christian standpoint.

THE NATURE OF FAITHAccording to Dawkins, faith is an evil precisely because it requires no justification and brooks no argument; it is a persistent false belief held in the face of strong contradictory evidence. He and his disciples need to be assured that there are many Christians who wholly dissociate themselves from any such attitude. Faith is, by definition, something other than absolute certainty. It is not mindless assertion. On the contrary, for many of us, our Christian faith seeks to benefit from, learn from and incorporate scientific knowledge and understanding. It a faith that is hopeful, searching, expectant and, although by no means without supportive evidence, always ready to acknowledge that it could sometimes be wrong. Faith is based not on dogma but on trust. In Jesus we believe that we catch a glimpse of something of the goodness, mercy, compassion and creative grace of God, and our faith is based upon confidence in that, our partial vision. I quote the Christian poet Vernon Watkins, who expresses well this partial vision and searching faith: ‘Why should pure spirit in ribs of bone be trussed, / Why should clear vision pine in jails of

eyes, / Why mortal ears divine immortal skies / And heaven interpret to the listening dust?’3. If you want to talk, we want to listen and to engage in open and honest dialogue, with mutual respect for each other’s views.

THE EXISTENCE OF GODLike Bertrand Russell in his Why I am Not a Christian4, Dawkins devotes much space to exposing what he considers to be the vacuity of St Anselm’s ontological argument for the existence of God and Thomas Aquinas’ traditional so-called proofs based on our perceptions of beauty, design, ultimate causation and so forth. In the debate in 1948 on the existence of God between FC Copleston SJ and Bertrand Russell (reproduced in Russell’s Why I am Not a Christian), Copleston seemed to find these arguments compelling, and yet Aquinas himself never regarded them as proofs. Rather, he assumed belief in God and was simply concerned to show that such belief is rational and makes sense of what we observe in the world around us. Personally, I have never yet met a Christian whose faith depended upon these misnamed ‘proofs’. To quote the McGraths in their The Dawkins Delusion5, ‘most of us are aware that we hold many beliefs that we cannot prove to be true,

Not so deluded

believersRichard Dawkins’ The God Delusion1 is a definitive distillation of his long-standing diatribe against religion and belief in God, written with the stated purpose of converting readers to atheism.

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Dr David J Girling

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but are nonetheless perfectly reasonable to entertain… our beliefs may be shown to be justifiable, without thereby demonstrating that they are proven’. Surely this is so. In open engagement with Dawkins’ disciples, we need to commend the reasonableness of belief in a creator, just as we would commend the reasonableness of many scientific ideas, without implying that they are necessarily logically unavoidable.

Dawkins is on much shakier ground in his insistence on the intrinsically profound improbability of God’s existence. In the biological realm, he argues, complex organisms evolve from simple organisms through natural selection from among chance genetic mutations; Darwinism should therefore alert us to the likelihood of a similar sequence outside its original biological territory. If there is a God, then that God must be exceedingly complex and so profoundly improbable.

But this argument is based on the glaring fallacy of assuming that God (if real) must be subject to the same properties and limitations as is the creation. Surely we should expect otherwise: that the creator of this awe-inspiring universe in which we find ourselves, and of which we are part, is above it, outside it, and far beyond our understanding – literally super-natural. It is entirely reasonable to suppose that the universe has a creator. After all, what is the alternative – that it created itself? How reasonable is that? Even Russell agrees that by ‘God’ we mean a ‘supreme being -distinct from the world (my emphasis) and creator of the world’4.

In carrying this debate forward in constructive directions, we therefore need to emphasise God’s transcendence; this need in no way belittle our belief in incarnation. We need to commend the reasonableness of belief in God, while acknowledging that the only scientifically honest response to the existence of God question is agnosticism, a position that is persuasively argued by Alister McGrath in his Dawkins’ God6. God’s existence can never be conclusively either proved or disproved.

INTELLIGENT DESIGNA little more needs to be said about arguments for the existence of God based on design. This is because of the current popularity, in some circles, of the

intelligent design hypothesis (IDH). This asserts that some biological entities are irreducibly complex and cannot have evolved in a Darwinian way; they require us to accept an intelligent designer operating outside any evolutionary mechanisms to account for them. This is the ‘God-of-the-gaps’ argument in new clothes, and is widely rejected by Christian scientists, including Christianbiologists. Indeed, by far the best systematic demolition of creationism and IDH that I have come across is a book by the Christian cell biologist and Professor of Biology at Brown University: Kenneth Miller’s Finding Darwin’s God7. Sadly, Dawkins bases much of his polemic against IDH on publications by the Jehovah’s Witnesses, although he does graciously commend Kenneth Miller’s book.

In carrying this debate forward, we need to make clear that we are Christians who consider that the evolution versus creationism debate has been resolved overwhelmingly in favour of evolution. Indeed, it is the very intelligibility of the whole universe and the sheer tightness of evolution that demand explanation.

THE NATURE OF THE BIBLEThere are, of course, some Christians who believe that the Bible is free of any sort of error, and that the Bible, rather than Christ, is the Word of God. In 1881, for example, conservative American protestants Archibald Hodge and Benjamin Warfield wrote, ‘The scriptures not only contain but are the Word of God, and hence all their elements and all their affirmations are absolutely errorless and binding on the faith and obedience of men’8. Dawkins takes the view that the English Bible should be part of our education because it is a major source book for literary culture. We can learn from it and appreciate it without believing what it says. Nevertheless, he finds it confused, inconsistent, weird and, in many

ways, thoroughly obnoxious, although not systematically evil. On our part, we welcome informed and scholarly biblical criticism. We see the Bible as a collection of diverse books, developed over the course of many centuries, that can only be understood and interpreted in the light of the circumstances in which the component elements were memorised, written, assembled, altered and edited. It is in that context that we should explore what the Bible may or may not have to teach us today. It is not a scientific document and those who want to learn about astronomy, cosmology or biology should look elsewhere. The achievements of the historical-critical method have been magnificent, providing us with unprecedented knowledge about the Bible. These achievements can also help to inspire our devotions in developing an authentically biblical spirituality.

IN CONCLUSIONWe need to take much of what Richard Dawkins says to heart in a critical examination of our own faith and thinking. In so doing, we can, I hope, preach and teach a faith that is honest, open, and ready to listen to and explore the views of those who disagree with us in a constructive and non-confrontational way.

1 Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, Bantam Press, 2006

2 Steven Rose, Lifelines: Biology, Freedom, Determinism, Allen Lane

The Penguin Press, 19973 Vernon Watkins, Dust in the Balance, in Cypress

and Acacia, Faber & Faber, 19594 Bertrand Russell, Why I am Not a Christian,

Unwin Books, 19575 Alister and Joanna Collicutt McGrath, The Dawkins

Delusion: Atheist Fundamentalism and the Denial of the Divine, SPCK, 2007

6 Alister McGrath, Dawkins’ God: Genes, Memes, and the Meaning of Life,

Blackwell Publishing, 20057 Kenneth R Miller, Finding Darwin’s God:

A Scientist’s Search for Common Ground Between God and Evolution, Cliff Street Books, 1999

8 Quoted from Karen Armstrong, The Bible: The Biography, Atlantic Books, 2007

Dr David J Girling is a retired Medical Research Council Senior Medical Scientist and is Reader at Great St Mary’s Cambridge – The University Church

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WHAT IMPACT IS THE RECESSION HAVING?As the financial crisis continues to deepen and the recession takes hold, more and more people are finding themselves getting closer to the breadline – particularly the over 60s. Interest rates have now reached a record low of 1%, meaning that income from investments and savings has been drastically reduced for some older people. Birmingham Midshires estimates that the average saver aged between 60 and 70 has savings of less than £35,900. In real terms, interest rates of 6 % would generate a monthly income of nearly £180. However, at 1 % the monthly income would be nearer £30 – a dramatic drop. For people who are used to living off the income generated from savings, many may reduce their spending drastically to try to cope with this change rather than spending capital.

The reality is, though, that the suffering that many older people are going through will be a result of trying to survive on low incomes, basic state pensions and pension credits. Too often, the people affected the most by economic change are those who have the least leeway in their finances to start with. The majority of CAP clients have no savings and one third are dependent on benefits. Although inflation is falling, the cost of things like food and household fuel has dramatically increased and show no signs of significantly reducing

in the near future. According to the Office of National Statistics, householders aged 65-74 spend 30 % of their income on food, domestic energy bills, housing and council tax, with the percentage rising to 40 % for householders over 74.

THE PROBLEM OF DEBT FOR OLDER PEOPLECulturally, there has long been a sense of blame attached to debt and overspending. Because of this, many older people will wait until they are deep in financial crisis before contacting us, due to the shame they feel about being in debt. The problem, in many cases, is not even about overspending or bad money management, as many older people have grown up with the notion of saving for things and not taking out credit, and for them it’s the only way they know. For these people, their debt will often be caused by something out of their control, such as losing a husband or wife, or a boiler breaking down. If they’re already struggling on a tight budget, it really can take just one thing to start a spiral of debt, which they will then struggle with for months before seeking help.

Acknowledging you have a debt problem, facing up to it and resolving to seek help is a big part of finding a solution. As soon as a debt problem is brought into the light, practical steps can be taken to stop the situation getting worse. It can often seem to people in debt that there is no way out

Sharon Thresher Press Officer for Christians Against Poverty

Debt levels in the UK continue to increase despite the credit crunch and economic slowdown. As the nation’s debt has, for the first time, risen higher than total GDP, personal debt has never been such a talking point in offices and homes across the UK. The suffering caused by debt often goes on behind closed doors, but as fear, anxiety, depression, relationship breakdowns and suicides begin to hit the headlines, it is obvious that this country has a big problem. In fact, CAP estimates that one in every nine households may be struggling with unmanageable debt – many of them hidden even to their closest friends and neighbours. CAP aims to show God’s love in action by providing sustainable poverty relief through debt counselling, advice and practical help. Our unique approach empowers people from all walks of life to help themselves out of poverty and be released from the fear, oppression and worry generated by overwhelming debts.

and the over 60s

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– indeed, one third of our clients have considered or attempted suicide before seeking help from us, illustrating the utter hopelessness and misery that debt induces. However, problem debt is never as bad as it seems – there is no situation that is beyond repair. As Maureen’s story indicates, once that call is made and the problem has been shared, so much of the stress and pressure is lifted simply by having told someone else, and mental and physical health can improve drastically.

HOW CAN CAP HELP?Our debt advisors visit people in their homes in order to make our service accessible to all. The CAP team draw up a sustainable budget, negotiate with creditors to arrange affordable repayments, and ensure that essential living costs such as food and heating are provided for. A shocking 25 % of our clients say they regularly missed meals before seeking our help due to the severity of their debts. Through teams of voluntary support workers, we offer personal and emotional support for people who may have become socially withdrawn and depressed. CAP’s holistic way of providing help and advice is tailored specifically to the most socially marginalised and financially excluded in society.

Thankfully, because CAP’s centre managers offer face-to-face, non-judgemental advice, we can reach those who might otherwise struggle alone through recommendations and word of mouth referrals. There’s no doubt, though, that there is still a significant group of older people who suffer in silence because of the perceived stigma of debt. We see it most acutely when referring people for bankruptcy – some elderly people have actually stopped working with us when we suggested this route for them, even though our recommending it usually means it’s the best route for them practically. It’s quite understandable for them to feel this way, but, in reality, society has changed and things like bankruptcy no longer hold the same stigma as before. It’s our job to communicate that clearly so that people for whom this is the only viable option will see it as a possibility. Sadly, people who have accepted God’s grace in forgiving their sins can still find it very hard to accept grace and mercy when it comes to having a fresh start with their finances.

WHAT CAN YOU DO TO RAISE AWARENESS?You can help raise awareness of this problem by encouraging your church to talk about money, finances and debt. Too often, our society is so hesitant to talk about money that we make it extremely difficult for anyone struggling in debt to own up to their problems. Simply acknowledging that debt is a common issue and being open to discussing it can make a huge difference and release people in debt from a great burden of guilt and shame. One great way to raise awareness of the destructive nature of debt is to run a CAP Sunday in your church. This is an awareness day about CAP and the problem of debt in the UK, and can take anything from a ten minute slot to an entire church service.

If you want to help people in your church or your community to manage their finances to avoid getting into debt, you can run a CAP Money course. CAP Money can be used within the church or as a community outreach tool. Through taking the course, people are encouraged to think more about budgeting and living within their means, while also being shown a cash-based system that allows them to take control of their finances.

Lastly, if your church wants to reach out to people in your community struggling under the burden of debt, why not contact CAP to find out more about opening a CAP debt-counselling centre? We believe that the local church should be at the heart of God’s work. In practice this means that while CAP gives a professional debt-counselling tool, the church will have the amazing opportunity to express God’s love, meeting people’s practical needs by helping them with their debts, but also providing the support, care and welcome that is needed to lead those interested into a full, God-centred life.

If you are worried about your own debts, please checks CAP’s website (www.capuk.org) to see if there is a centre in your area. You can also call us on 0800 328 0006. Otherwise, there are other agencies out there that can help – your local Citizens’ Advice Bureau, National Debtline, or the CCCS can all offer free, impartial advice.

UKCHRISTIANSAGAINST POVERTY

‘I got into trouble with the bank because of loans I took out to clear the debts that were left when my husband died and to help my daughter, as she has to manage with six children. So, I had to pay about £200 a month, but one payment got stolen and then I missed another month too, so they were going to take me to court. I knew I was in debt but I couldn’t do anything about it; I couldn’t think clearly. I started to get unwell as a result. I’m 70 years old and I couldn’t move due to ulcers on my legs that developed after my husband died.

In the end, my daughter went down to the Newport Advice Centre to see if they could help me and they put me in touch with Christians Against Poverty. Geoff and Yvonne came to my house and took all the particulars down. They have lifted such a heavy weight of worry off my shoulders. They also introduced me to the church and I’ve made great friends. The girls from church clean my cupboards and do the hoovering for me. Other friends from church bring me flowers when they come every other Tuesday, and Angela brings me dinner on a Sunday. Without them I would be lonely, they’ve been absolutely wonderful. I feel enlightened; I’ve found God and all these lovely people. I’ve always said my prayers, but it’s different now, there is something inside. I’ve found God and he has found me. So, I’m enjoying myself at the moment. My health is improving. I’m getting about more and even cooking my own dinners. In two or three years I’ll be out of debt. I pray to God that he will help CAP. I thank God for CAP and for all the work they do.’

Maureen has since passed away, but through her story, her daughter also became a Christian.

For contact information see ‘Need to know more?’

Maureen’s Story

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A ‘Ruby’ celebration

In May 1969, when the then Church Assembly (the predecessor of General Synod) passed a motion in favour, it was quite a controversial matter. For some decades, women had been trained as Parish and Moral Welfare Workers, Deaconesses and Church Army Sisters for parish visiting, teaching and leading informal worship (with ‘addresses’ given from the chancel steps!) therefore, for women to be authorised to don ecclesiastical robes and ‘preach from the pulpit’ was horrifying to some people, while others rejoiced !

I was Admitted and Licensed in March 1970, within the first year of this milestone in women’s ministry, and so have been asked to contribute this article to mark the occasion. Readership is the only Lay Ministry in the Church of England, which is Voluntary, Nationally Accredited, Episcopally Licensed and Governed by Canon.1

In 1969 there was no immediate rush of women candidates, because selection and examinations had to be undertaken, but there were a few who already had theological qualifications and by the end of the year there had been seven admissions. In January to May 1970 there were another 27 candidates. For some years I have tried to discover how many of the women who became Readers in the first year are still exercising their ministry. It is not easy, because some have become priests, others are retired and some have died.

Some were strong characters and many were well qualified professional women, including Miss H M Chant BD, of Winchester Diocese, who was the first to be Admitted, along with Miss M Oakley

of St Edmundsbury & Ipswich and of St Felix School, Southwold.

The third was Miss Rosamund Essex of St Albans, who was a renowned

editor of the Church Times for ten years. Mrs Nora Sanders of Birmingham, who kindly wrote to me, is now a priest, but she really was the first Woman Reader in England, having been Licensed in 1964!!! The Readers’ Board was ‘surprised’ and her Bishop, the late John Leonard Wilson had to ask Nora to resign her Licence, because he had ‘acted Ultra Vires’ (outside his powers)!! Presumably he had been used to Asian Christian women being in ministry and had failed to communicate clearly with his new Readers’ Board! Nora was eventually Admitted in 1969 and later was the first woman to be enrolled on the West Midlands Ordination Course in 1974, to help with her work as a stipendiary Parish Worker. She became a Deaconess in 1978, Deacon in 1987 and priest in 1994. She is now retired, but helps out in various parishes and leads worship for the apartments where she lives.

Mrs Jean Denton, also of Birmingham, was selected for training in the first group, but her Admission had to be postponed due to a family bereavement. She tells a daunting tale of her selection interview, at a Parish Hall, with ‘a gathering of austere clerical gentlemen seated in a semicircle around the prospective Reader candidate!’ She was interrogated about whether she wanted to be a Reader and only after they were satisfied did the conversation change to a warmer, friendlier atmosphere! There was also Miss D M Daldy of Bath & Wells and a reputedly formidable Miss Esther Hamilton of Newcastle. A former colleague of hers has written about her feeling called to the priesthood as a young woman, and of her seeking an audience with her cousin, Archbishop Cosmo Lang, who condescendingly informed her that becoming a priest ‘would not take place in my lifetime, my dear!’ Even though she read politics, philosophy and economics

at Oxford, and served as house manager for a new town near Darlington, she was not above scrubbing floors for The National Trust when need arose. Having preached on her 90th birthday to mark 30 years of Reader ministry she died on Easter morning 2003, aged 94!

Of the 27 Readers Admitted in the first half of 1970, I have included those listed up to August, because the announcements in the Gazettes are published 2 or 3 months after the events they record, so I hope no one is omitted. This group includes Mrs Jean Coggan, the wife of the former Archbishop Donald Coggan and Mrs Molly Dow, the wife of our retiring Chairman of CRC Bishop Graham Dow. I think Jean has died, but Molly is very much alive and active and I had the pleasure of meeting her at the National CRC weekend at the University of Bangor last July.

My recollection is of being readily accepted as a ‘sister in ministry’ by my ‘brother’ Readers; gender never seemed to be a problem, provided that one was doing one’s work to the best of one’s ability.

It is interesting that a plea for women to be allowed to contribute to the work of the Church by being Readers, had been voiced and noted as far back as 1935 and, with interruptions during the war years of WW2, had dragged on for a generation before it became legal. If you have, or can borrow, a copy of Rhoda Hiscox’s book, Celebrating Reader Ministry re-read chapters 10 and 11 , which are about the struggles faced by the women of the time, plus a wide range of reactions to those who campaigned and the support or prejudice experienced by the first women to be Admitted. It is a significant section of recent Church history, which was encouraging, sad and comic by turns!

Some of the concern was about dress – and several dioceses went to the trouble of

No - it is not a Wedding!… The month of May 2009 marks the 40th Anniversary of women being allowed to be Lay Readers in the Church of England!

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A ‘Ruby’ celebrationdesigning their own robes, which were considered to be ‘more appropriate to the female figure’ than cassock, surplice and blue scarf! Upon arrival in the Diocese of Derby, I was not allowed to wear my smart traditional robes, because a local design was in production. I obstinately waited for common sense to prevail on the Readers’ Board, so, in the meantime, I borrowed a church choir robe which was red. As a result I was mistaken on more than one occasion for a Parish Worker who had mislaid her Canterbury Cap! If there is any lady Reader in the Derby diocese who still wears the specially designed robe, please forgive me if I describe it. It was a knee length, edge to edge, sleeveless coat, made of mauve-grey tweed, with a purple taffeta lining, unsuitable for the addition of the blue scarf. It had a big box pleat down the back, so the weight of the tweed pulled it down behind, needing the wearer to be frequently hitching it back into place! It was soon nicknamed ‘The Derby Hopsack’!

Later it was redesigned to an ankle length garment, in more suitable material that hung better, but by then, with the encouragement of my parish, I was back in my cassock, surplice and scarf – and no-one in high places made any comment! Silent protest had won the day!

When significant things appear to happen by chance, do we call it coincidence or divine guidance? I believe the latter, especially when seen in retrospect. Being ready for Readership was one of them, because I was changing from teaching PE to RE and in order to obtain some extra biblical background to add to my Christian faith, I had been sitting-in on the back of the Readers’ training classes in Worcester, of course with no thought of Readership, because it was not allowed for women at that stage. When I had almost completed the two year course our tutor invited me to consider Admission, with the comment, ’I have another lady who feels God’s call to Readership. She has a BD so does not need to do this course – would you like to join her?’ After consultation with my vicar, family, Christian friends – and God – I accepted. That lady was Rhoda Hiscox. Later she assisted with the modernisation of Reader training and served on the working

Catherine MartineauReader in the Diocese of Exeter

I hope you appreciate the sketch of ‘His & Hers’; it appeared in the Church Times in 1971 with this rhyme by a clerical poet, The Rev S J Forrest. The drawing is by E W Forrest -The stair carpet scarf that we wear round the neck Is hardly an object of joy;But surely it ought to be pink for a girl,And blue in the case of a boy?

When I was about to be Admitted, the late husband of a good friend of mine said, “Well Catherine, what are you going to wear on your head? Ostrich feathers? – in liturgical colours?!” This so took my fancy, that I tried sketching some ideas, but, although saucy, they looked too much like Hippies, Wagner’s ‘Brunhilda’, Red Indian Squaws, Prince of Wales Feathers or 1920s Flappers. So a Reader friend, (Sheila Newton, near Exeter) kindly came to my rescue with these ideas – she loves drawing! She suggests a blue hat with a white feather; I would suggest a set of four feathers in red, green, gold and purple, which are interchangeable by a small clip device – what fun!

party which led to the appointment of the first National Moderator of Reader Training. Also her skills were widely recognised on a worldwide, ecumenical basis by her service on the National Committee for the annual Women’s World Day of Prayer. She served two five-year terms on the Executive Committee of The Central Readers’ Board/Council and published several books –she was never afraid of ‘putting her head above the parapet’ about such issues as women’s ministry and the use of inclusive language in liturgies, at a time when it took courage so to do.

As one of this tribe of pioneer women in lay ministry, I have not sought publicity, but it tends to keep following me around!!! If I count my teaching practice year, I did teach for 40 years and retired in December 1990. Like so many folk, I have yet to discover what retirement is, due to having served in church life at parish and deanery level in four dioceses and at diocesan level in two of them, with Reader training playing a significant part. I followed Rhoda with a spell on the National Executive Committee of the Central Readers Council, which was informative and challenging.

I taught PE for 12 years and RE up to A level for the rest. At my final appointment at a boarding school in North Wales, I was Lay Chaplain as well as Head of RE; that was an honour and a challenge too, especially as I had been a pupil there myself, during the 1940s. My close friend became a missionary nurse and spent her whole career serving with WEC in West Africa (Guinea Bissau) – little did we know in our school days what lay ahead, especially as our confirmation at school had been merely a formality! Alleluia! –‘God moves in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform’.

Catherine Martineau with Dr. Margaret Ives at Selwyn 2000.

1 Celebrating Reader Ministry –125 years of Lay Ministry in the Church Of England Rhoda Hiscox – Mowbray (1991)

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‘How does God talk to us?’ my seven-year-old son asked me the other day. ‘I listen but I can’t hear a voice talking.’ It’s a question that puzzles more than a few adults – how can we meaningfully speak of ‘hearing God’? How can he convey guidance, reassurance or compassion when he has no bodily presence to facilitate communication?

As I tried to explain to my son, God certainly does speak to us, but he uses a variety of means: the words of other people, the words of Scripture, through worship. The challenge is whether we are alert for that still small voice!

It is easy to forget to listen out for the voice of God when we are immersed in everyday circumstances. At church – yes, we try and quieten ourselves and hear God there. But what about Monday to Saturday? And what about those times of life when we feel as if every available scrap of our day is already overloaded so that there simply isn’t time or space to listen for God?

There is one era of life when things can feel so busy that time for God can sink to the bottom of the agenda - and that’s the hands-on parenting years. From the moment when our baby makes their first, dramatic appearance onto the stage of family life, to the day when we wave them off to university/work (and of course parenting doesn’t finish then, either) we can end up so absorbed with the whole business of child/young adult rearing that our own spiritual growth doesn’t get a look in.

I recently wrote a book that tried to deal in part with that problem. Good Enough Mother is not a ‘how to parent’ book of practical hints and tips nor a counselling manual for those struggling with post-natal depression. It examines some of the joys and challenges of mothering but also reflects on how God can reach out to us through such experiences, his Spirit growing his fruit in our lives, even as we are going through the up-to-the-eyeballs years.

A good many books have been written over the years about how God can teach us many valuable lessons through times of suffering, but for most people, the more immediate challenge is how to keep going as disciples in the routine busyness, especially that particular and pressing busyness involved in being a parent. We need guidance on how and where to seek God when we are too tired to pray, when we never manage to sit through a sermon because our toddler hates the church crèche, when we can’t get a babysitter on home group evening, when we are trying to combine a full-time job with nursing our teenager through the grinding exam years…

Reflecting on how life changes for ever once children are on the scene, it struck me how parenting opens us up to a new spectrum of connections, at both local and global levels. It also involves learning new truths, some harder to absorb than others. And, if we are ready to heed his voice, these changes and challenges will teach us a lot about God and at the same time shape us as his disciples.

The first and most important connection is, of course, with our child (or children). What many people find so overwhelming about first-time parenthood is the 24-7, intensely physical demands of caring for a tiny, helpless human being. That sense of being overwhelmed can hold true even for those who expect to feel more prepared, either because they have looked after younger siblings or because they are already professional child-carers. I spoke to one nanny, who assured me how completely different and even hesitant she felt when dealing with her own child!

This primary connection links directly to a second one: reconnecting with ourselves – or a transformed sense of ourselves that may actually be far from welcome. If we have until now spent most of our time with more-or-less amenable adults, who are more-or-less similar to us, we may have harboured illusions about how patient, tolerant, kind and gracious we are. We may be horrified to realise how quickly our good

temper sours under pressure, how snappy we become when tired, how our hopes and dreams of being a ‘perfect parent’ are wrecked on the rocks of hard experience.

At the same time, we may be surprised to discover qualities in ourselves that we never dreamed we had – the ability to enjoy ‘just being’ with a small person, for whom we are the focal point of the entire world. We may find that our newly acquired getting-on-with-children skills are transferable so that helping in Sunday School or the church toddler group is far less daunting than previously. We may notice that we have acquired a quite different – and possibly less materialistic – set of perspectives about what really matters in life.

Spreading out from this connection with ourselves is a whole branching network of connections, a web of relationships that can extend right round the world – or as far as our imaginative empathy can reach, anyway! Being a parent opens us to a deep connection with others in similar circumstances, whether they are living down the street or on another continent.

We may find ourselves struck for the first time by how mothers must feel in countries where they routinely do not have enough food for their children. While previously we may have felt that their predicament was ‘very sad’, having children of our own can intensify our emotional response. If we are parents of teenagers, news of wars and calamities where both young men and young women suffer violence and abuse cease to be troubling stories and strike us to the heart. What would we do in such a situation?

Closer to home, the discovery that our own child is noisy in church (or naughty in the supermarket), for example, can be a humbling one. Moving from the theoretical (‘I would never allow such behaviour’) to the reality (‘Stop hitting your sister with the hymn book now’, ‘Don’t you dare run away again’) is a salutary journey.

Naomi StarkeyCommissioning editor at BRF and editor of New Daylight Bible reading notes.

on the discipleship pathParents

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So how can God be at work in these connections, these life experiences, to continue the growing of the fruit of his Spirit within us (see Galatians 5: 22-23)? In my book I took each aspect of the Spirit’s fruit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control – and reflected on how each of these could emerge in the very circumstances where we may feel ourselves struggling most as parents (tiredness, anger, worry, and so on).

I believe there are certain lessons that we can learn from our parenting not only for our own lives but for the life of our local church. Such lessons will, I hope, nurture our personal spiritual growth and also shape the work and witness of our churches to meet the needs of parents (of all ages) at a deeper level than a token parent-and-toddler group…

LESSONS FOR OUR OWN LIVES Being parents can give us new insights

into God as our Parent. Reading some of the Old Testament prophets may produce some surprising revelations – we may find ourselves saying, ‘So that’s how God could love his people so much, yet be so angered by what they do!’ ‘That’s how God somehow keeps on forgiving and forgiving, in spite of his people’s ingratitude!’ While our human emotions and experiences are no more than faint shadows of what the Bible tells us about the heart of God, we may well find a fresh sense of gratitude welling up within, a desire to draw closer to such love and to ask for the Spirit’s help in growing something of that measure of love in our own hearts.

Coupled with that, we may be struck anew by our need for our Heavenly Father’s mercy and forgiveness. We try and we fail, we fall short – yet if we ask him, he is there to pick us up, dust us down and set us on the right path again.

On a very practical note, the hands-on parenting years could provide a spur to wider exploration within different Christian spiritual traditions. We may be used to a diet of meaty sermons, but rarely get

the chance to listen uninterrupted for 30 minutes these days. When that was my own experience, I found my appreciation of the Eucharist deepening. Even if I could not enjoy much more than a few snatched moments of worship or teaching, I could be there at the end (toddler under one arm) to receive a reminder of Christ’s eternal, sacrificial love in bread and wine. And if we are lamenting the (temporary) loss of our habit of contemplative prayer, we could try mentally chewing over a Bible verse over the course of a day, letting God’s word draw us back to mindfulness of his continuing presence.

LESSONS FOR OUR LOCAL CHURCH Too many churches say they want to be

‘child-friendly’, yet may be very reluctant to take on board the accompanying noise, mess and potential disruption of dignified services. Of course it is important to consider everybody’s needs, but surely at least equal weighting should be given to welcoming those who are the up and coming generation of worshippers? If we are newly aware of such issues, perhaps we are called to be advocates for the needs of the younger members of a congregation (and I don’t just mean the under-50s). ‘All-Age Worship’ can be so much more than a perfunctory children’s talk and a song with silly actions!

At the same time, we can focus on small children – and possibly teenagers – and forget the pastoral care of their parents. It would be wonderful if the atmosphere of our local church was such that people felt no shame about asking for help when life got tough, instead of maintaining a brave face while slowly sinking. More than that,

we need to remember to care for mothers as life moves on again, bringing empty nests and different and perhaps equally uncomfortable truths to learn. I point out in my book that mothers never stop being mothers, however old their children become…

A practical and wonderful work that some churches may already be doing is offering mentoring for mothers. Awareness has grown in recent years of the enormous value of receiving advice and encouragement from others in this way, and in some neighbourhoods (perhaps even yours?) examples of good parenting practice can be scarce. This is a chance for a local congregation to be ‘salt and light’ in the community, practically demonstrating the love and concern of God for all. And it could be a way of drawing on the parenting expertise of older members, helping them to distil their knowledge for those who would benefit from wise counsel.

Naomi Starkey is a commissioning editor at BRF and also editor of New Daylight Bible reading notes. Her book Good Enough Mother (BRF, £5.99) appeared earlier this year.

The theme for the Winter 09 issue of The Reader will be ’Children and Young People’.

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The focus on the work of the Holy Spirit lives on in the service the Arthur Rank Centre (ARC) and its staff have rendered to the rural church ever since. It is recognised as the main resource for rural churches of all denominations. The National Rural Officers of the Church of England, Methodist Church and United Reformed Church are based at the ARC. The Director, supported by the endowment fund left by Lord Rank, is Rev Dr Gordon Gatward OBE, a Methodist minister. One of the previous directors, Anthony Russell, was assistant to Peter Buckler, the first director, and is now the Bishop of Ely.

The ARC is a dynamic, creative group of people who serve the rural church and its mission. Some projects started years ago continue, while others have ceased or been spun off as independent initiatives. To keep up to speed, get the magazine Country Way, see below.

One of the first projects was the establishment of a housing charity, now the Rural Housing Trust (RHT). This is managed by Moira Constable who came from Shelter to lead the successful campaign to protect the right to housing of retiring agricultural workers. The RHT has completed over 3,000 affordable homes.

In the mid 1970s a number of dioceses were showing interest in serving the agricultural community as an expression

of industrial mission, and the ARC came quickly to be the focus for their support and development. There are now some 80 chaplains to agriculture, lay and ordained, of all denominations. The Carlisle diocesan chaplain arranged a three-day training course for rural clergy at ARC at Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire. The need for such training continues to be widely recognised as clergy discover that rural ministry and mission are markedly different from the dominant urban way of working. Courses are delivered at the ARC for those new to rural ministry. The rural officers at diocesan and district level sometimes arrange more local training programmes. Arthur Rank had a great concern for young people. In this spirit the ARC established Arthur Rank Training, a special training opportunity for vocational training and personal development for those who are socially or educationally disadvantaged.

In 1989 a full-time secondee from English Nature established the potential of churchyards as unspoilt land meriting careful management. Over 5,000 churchyards came to be registered as having a management plan which safeguards flora and fauna. This work was taken over by the well known God’s Acre project based in Shropshire. The commitment to environmental care lives on in an eco-congregation project, formerly a government programme, now housed at the ARC.

The Archbishops’ Commission on Rural Areas (ACORA) came to be by the insight and determination of the then ARC Director, Anthony Russell. The impetus of the Commission’s report, Faith in the Countryside 1990, led to almost every diocese appointing a rural officer to link with the new National Rural Officer to be based at the ARC. A surge of initiatives followed, addressing some of the key issues confronting rural society and the rural church.

The magazine Country Way was launched at the ARC as a high quality regular publication to bring ideas, information and inspiration through subscribers to every rural church. It is a vital tool which every church and minister should receive and use. Now in its 17th year it continues to be the best investment any church can make at low cost. It is available to subscribers only. http://www.arthurrankcentre.org.uk/publications_and_resources/publications/country_way/index.html

Hosting the gathering of local church tourism officers led to the establishment of the National Churches Tourism Group, now the Churches Tourism Association, to help those churches that are not in the top 100 engage more effectively with their visitors and to increase visitor numbers. This has led to a spin-off project, ‘Hidden Britain’, to work with whole communities that want to bring more visitors to less well known places.

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Arthur Rank Centre Jeremy Martineau

Lord Rank, founder of the Rank empire of film and hospitality companies, was a committed Christian. While doing the rounds of the stands at the Royal Show, of which he was president in 1970, he stopped at the church tent, staffed by volunteers from local churches. Enquiring of these lay volunteers about their understanding of the Holy Spirit he was apparently satisfied enough to suggest the church tent should have its own permanent building at the heart of the Royal Show. Accompanying him was Peter Buckler, marketing

manager for an agricultural company and a non-stipendiary minister. The two of them discussed this proposal and drew sketches on an envelope. Before anything was signed and sealed, Lord Rank died unexpectedly later that year. His family, also a Christian family, honoured his wish and the first Arthur Rank Centre, a timber building, was erected in time for the 1972 Royal Show.

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There are now over 40 locations which are benefiting from using the process which leads to inclusion on the website through which more visitors come to appreciate the delights and secrets including the churches of these places. See www.hidden-britain.co.uk.

The approach of the Millennium led one diocesan tourism officer to suggest a project to provide toilets in churches. This grew into the Rural Churches in Community Service project using £2.5m Millennium Commission money as

Over 400 clergy have benefited from these workshops.

During the Foot and Mouth epidemic of 2001 the ARC quickly adapted an emergency relief fund that had been set up in response to the swine fever outbreak in East Anglia. The ARC Addington Fund, receiving over £10m from public donations in a few hectic weeks, gained a reputation for rapid response and effective support to beleaguered farmers. This was mirrored by the much appreciated pastoral

The contribution of the local church to helping a community to be a good place to live may be well understood within the Christian community. Research, initiated by the ARC, funded by DEFRA and led by Coventry University demonstrated the depth and extent of this contribution, which is found in the extent to which church people are involved in the wider community activities.

Volunteers can make a significant contribution to the work of the Centre. During the Foot and Mouth crisis three teams were involved – one receiving donations and two handling the requests for help. One person now gives a day a week to run the scheme by which former government computers and laptops are made available to people and organisations in rural areas. Tel 02476 853060

A three-year project to reveal the known needs of those engaged in rural ministry confirmed the value of much that is already being delivered but also showed that in the days of the Internet how important is the ARC website. The training and resources officer continues to develop the website where details of all the above projects and more can be found and followed up. The personal service offered to enquirers puts this valuable resource high on the list of ‘must look’ locations for he knows the books and can supply them through the ARC bookshop.The Key Rural References database is free to access online. It provides unrivalled information about the range of publications and organisations active in or of interest to rural people and communities which has grown beyond recognition. Visit www.artrhurrankcentre.org.uk See the Resources section of this issue for more.RuSource gives an easy to digest regular briefing on all matters rural, saving much reading of reports and attending conferences. It is freely available from alan.spedding@btopenworld.com

The pattern of vision, foresight, enthusiasm and good management of Lord Rank lives on in the wonderful work of the Centre named in his memory. If you wish to support this work please get in touch with the Centre, just as one person did – to give £200,000 because she wanted to support the work of the Church in rural areas.

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Arthur Rank Centre grants to 99 churches to make better provision in the church building for wider community activity. It was one of the few millennium projects that delivered on budget and to time.

Research came to be a powerful tool to influence church policies. Using every opportunity to gather data on a wide range of aspects of church life led to a series of publications under the publishing label of ACORA. This research approach led to a partnership with the University of Wales, Bangor and now with the University of York St John and St Deiniol’s Residential library to provide steps to postgraduate qualifications. A variety of data collection tools with theological reflection are applied to topics of importance to the students within the Centre for Studies in Rural Ministry. Over 20 students are currently working at Masters and Doctorate level. This disciplined work is ideal for those wanting to make best use of their sabbatical for which we can provide supervision. Contact jfmartineau@onetel.net or 01348 8874886

The prevalence of linking several churches together for oversight by one priest inspired both a special workshop approach for those clergy but also a programme of research into effective models and structures into what works best for ministry and mission. This is ongoing work with workshops twice a year to which Readers are also invited.

support that was provided at more local level. The Church was reported to be the only body that came out of Foot and Mouth with any credibility. The Fund continues with a flexible approach, focusing mainly on providing housing for those retiring from tenancies, but still able to respond to crises such as the floods of 2007.

The ARC had earlier been joint parent of Farm Crisis Network (FCN), a Christian charity relying on over 250 local volunteers willing and able to ‘walk with’ farm families facing difficulties. www.fcn.org.uk. FCN also lobbies and informs government and its agencies on the difficulties which are often hidden from those who shape and enforce policy.

The Care Farming Initiative grew out of a conversation with two social workers who wanted to acquire land on which their damaged young charges could learn new skills. Now, an increasing number of farmers, woodland managers and market gardeners are seeing the opportunity to form partnerships with health and social care services to develop projects to provide work and training for a range of vulnerable people, such as addicts, prisoners, young offenders, or the mentally ill. www.ncfi.org.uk

The ARC has recently set up the Rural Stress Helpline which is expanding its telephone work throughout the UK. Anyone can call 0845 0948286 during office hours.

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I was recently amused to get an email from a Christian book company somewhat ambitiously offering ‘Science and God: Buy one, get one free’... I must admit, it seemed like a pretty good offer! I couldn’t help but reflect, however, that there are far too many in our world that would rather choose one or the other, preferring to leave their metaphysical free gift in the shop than take something home they didn’t feel they needed.

It’s an approach that was recently chronicled in a complementary pair of documentary films released in the US. Flock of Dodos (2006) challenged the intelligent design theory and encourages scientists to improve the way they communicate their ideas. By contrast, last year’s Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed attempted to validate the filmmakers’ belief that science proves God’s existence and that ID should be taught in the classroom.

Expelled did remarkably well in the US box office, fighting its way to the twelfth highest grossing documentary of all time. It was also all set to snag the no.1 spot for 2008 until Bill Maher’s anarchically critical documentary - Religulous - made over $13 million at the end of last year. It opened last month to enthusiastic, if limited British audiences, although it’s hard to tell whether its success reflects anti-religionism, anti-americanism or a bit of both. I can’t help but wonder what percentage of the audience went the whole hog and made their trip home on a ‘there probably is no God’ emblazoned bus.

Yet for all the debates that rage on both sides of the Atlantic about the subject of science and God, precious few films have been made exploring the subject. There have, of course, been a few films that touched on the subject of evolution, from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey to Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park via One Million BC, Waterworld, Planet of the Apes and, of course, the film Evolution itself.

However, the dramatic film that has, perhaps, best explored these themes is neither a science fiction fantasy, nor a trip back to the dawn of time, but the historical naval epic Master and Commander. Whilst the action is all about Russell Crowe’s swashbuckling sea captain, it was Paul Bettany’s role as the ship’s doctor that gets all the best lines. The film is actually set 50 years before Darwin, in an oft-forgotten period when biblical chronology was being questioned, and evolution had already been discovered (but not natural selection). Bettany plays Dr Stephen Maturin, whose enthusiasm for God and for his creation go hand in hand as he pursues fresh discoveries on the odd occasion the ship can stop at the remote islands it encounters. ‘Does God make them change? Yes, certainly. But do they also change themselves?’

So, given the paucity of films exploring theism and evolution, it’s nice to see the 150th anniversary of The Origin of the Species will be marked by not one, but two films touching on the subject to various degrees.

September will see Paul Bettany return to the subject as he and his real-life wife Jennifer Connelly play Mr and Mrs Charles Darwin in Creation - an adaptation of Darwin’s great grandson’s novel ‘Annie’s Box: Darwin, his daughter, and human Evolution’. The biopic examines the relationship between Charles Darwin and his wife as they struggle to reconcile his groundbreaking theory with her devout faith and the death of their daughter. Still later in the year Mrs Darwin, starring Joseph Fiennes and Rosamund Pike (Die Another Day) will tackle similar material. Film has a way of taking theological, philosophical and even scientific concepts and grounding them in our everyday reality. Hopefully at least one of these films will assume its viewers have evolved sufficiently to be able to handle questions of theology, science, creation, evolution, nature and God and rather than forcing answers upon us, allow us to explore such questions for ourselves.

It was Christmas time

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Matt Page

Science, Godand films…

when this story started ...Can you write a story for children at Nursery level, or Key Stages 1 or 2 (up to age 11)?It needs to be a story that begins with the phrase above and should be no more than 900 words. The aim is to move the attention of the child from the Christmas card images of fat robins, Father Christmas, snowmen, exciting presents, pantomimes etc, onto something of the essence of the real story of Christmas. But it has to start with the snowman and take the child on…

Writers do not have to be Readers. The winner, or winners, will have their work published in the Winter 09 issue of The Reader. (The theme of that issue will be ‘Children and young people’). So go on, have a go, and remember, a maximum of 900 words and start with the phrase ‘It was Christmas time when this story started… ’

When sending in your material please specify the age of the children you have in mind. Entries will be needed by the end of August, please.

From the film Creation

PEmploying Youth and Children’s Workers Paul Godfrey and Nic SheppardCHP £8.99 pbk978 0 7151 4058 1

More and more churches are looking to employ paid youth and children’s workers and this book provides excellent advice on how to do it well. Written by diocesan advisers with much experience of both the difficulties and the possibilities, the book covers all the necessary information. It is easy to read. It covers the discussion of whether to employ a worker, how to appoint one, and how to manage the person selected. The authors emphasise that employing a paid worker should not detract from the valuable work of volunteers. Clear diagrams help to illustrate the information provided. This book should be on the bookshelf of every church employing, or thinking about employing, such workers – and regularly consulted!RONA ORME

B How did Christianity begin?Michael F Bird & James G CrossleySPCK £10.99 pbk978 0 281 05850 1

This book reveals surprising agreement between the authors on the facts but sharply contrasting views on their significance – naturally as they are believer and non-believer respectively. Both authors are lecturers in New Testament Studies and as the index of quotations from the biblical texts shows, almost every verse of the New Testament and much of the Old are invoked, as are the views of over 150 modern authors. The pre-selected areas for the book are Jesus, resurrection, Paul, Gospels and Christianity in the Roman Empire. As Michael Bird says in the introduction ‘Christianity began with a bang’. That bang took

place at Pentecost (not however considered in the book). Peter and his companions were transformed and as the remarkable list of places in Acts 2:9-11 shows the Good News was spread far and wide, not only in the Roman Empire. These are early churches founded before Paul began his mission but this is not considered in an otherwise comprehensive study.JOHN E TAYLOR

H S T The Lion Companion to Church ArchitectureDavid Stancliffe Lion £20 hbk978059 5190 4

David Stancliffe is Bishop of Salisbury and before that was Provost of Portsmouth Cathedral, responsible for raising the £4 million necessary and for inspiring and designing the completion of the cathedral. It is not therefore surprising that both Salisbury and Portsmouth cathedrals figure prominently in this book. Despite the title, the book is much more than another survey of the architectural styles of cathedrals and churches, though these are included in broadly chronological order. Why were churches built and how did they express people’s understanding of their relationship with God at different times and places in Christian history? David Stancliffe is not only knowledgeable about styles of architecture, he also understands what churches are for and what they may be to the people who worship in them and both dimensions are represented here. This is a magnificent book, superbly presented with a huge number of colour photographs beautifully reproduced as well as plans of churches and cathedrals. The emphasis is on Britain and Europe but not exclusively. There are examples and illustrations of churches in India and the United States for example. The book is rounded off with a glossary of terms and lists of books for further reading.PETER WATKINS

B The Old Testament: Volume 3 The Wisdom Literature Nicholas King Kevin Mayhew £19.99 hbk978 1 84867 069 3

The Preface claims the book is for ordinary readers but I would not recommend that all Readers buy it. However it is important that Readers are fully aware that scholarship of this quality is being undertaken and that its fruits are acknowledged in articles written for this magazine and general commentaries produced to keep us abreast of biblical research. The blurb describes Nicholas King as a Jesuit priest who teaches New Testament at Oxford University and commends the ‘raw power’ of his ‘exceptionally stimulating’ translation. His copious footnotes witness to his command of Hebrew and Greek; he acknowledges the challenges Septuagint (LXX) translators faced rendering Hebrew into Greek. As so much Wisdom Literature is presented in the form of poetry, the 21st Century translator into English is also challenged to capture the nuanced meanings of the original. Nicholas King succeeds magnificently by readily admitting when the original Hebrew or Greek is unintelligible and offering commentary on possible Greek philosophical influences on the LXX translators. He also makes insightful links to New Testament references to the ‘Hebrew Scriptures’, noting that the LXX was frequently used for quotation by both the evangelists and St Paul. DAVID SELLICK

P TBreaking the Mould of Christendom£19.99 pbk9780 7162 0591 3The Diaconal Church£22.99 pbkDavid Clark Epworth 9780 7162 0635 4

Breaking the Mould sets out the author’s vision of a ‘Diaconal Church’. The lengthy and over-detailed study elaborates a view of the local church where the primary role of the clergy is seen as that of empowering the whole laity to act as ‘deacons’ (in a non-Anglican sense), both in the internal and external life of the church. He identifies old style clergy dominance as a main source of powerlessness in the contemporary scene and calls on them to return to the servant model of the New Testament. However, for Anglicans (the author is a Methodist) he fails to address the serious issues of the function and nature of priestly ordination. Indeed the book is long (and heavy) on social analysis and very short (and light) on biblical doctrine. His many admirable examples of an interdependent and caring church, following what others have called an ‘every member ministry’, have little to say on basic preaching of a gospel of salvation to unbelievers. His vision is that of a church with a fine structure but no real purpose other than to be another branch of the social services. He has much to say about the vital role of education and training for all church members, but it is all focused on social and pastoral themes, while the study of Christian doctrinal truth is scarcely mentioned. There may have been a time when such understanding could be taken as

Reviews for THE READERMay 2009

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read, but as all Readers will know, this has not been true for quite some time.

The follow-up volume The Diaconal Church is an edited collection of responses to Volume 1, many of which take up the criticisms I have voiced. Many contributors speak from personal pastoral experience. The volume concludes with David Clark’s assessment of the responses received. In many ways this means that Volume 2 can be read alone. Nevertheless, these volumes, stimulating though they may be, are likely to be of interest only to a very limited number of Readers.RICHARD CARTER

PValuing AgeJames WoodwardSPCK £12.99 pbk078 0 281 05779 5

A great deal of thought, effort and care has gone into this book by a man who is clearly dedicated to understanding the mechanics of ageing, and who is also dedicated to improving ministry to the older members of our communities and congregations. It also seems clear that James Woodward has considerable experience in this field. It is also true to say that with an ageing population, the age group concerned which already forms a large percentage of many congregations, will become an even larger group in almost every church. It is possible that this group is somewhat overlooked. However, I was unable to decide at whom this book is directed. The author states that it is not a text book. Yet that is how it reads, especially as each chapter ends with exercise and most chapters begin with supposed comments from members of the age group concerned. As I am nearing the age group and my in-laws reached 96 and 101 respectively, I found the comments more erudite, educated and informed than I have either experienced or would have expected. This is a book that you should consider adding to your library, if you are studying or are involved in this particular ministry.DEREK REDMAN

T Who or What is God? John Hick SCM £19.99 pbk 978-0-334-04184-9

At 87, John Hick is the GOM of English philosophy of religion, much loved, admired and respected. Forty years living in Birmingham as a professor at the University and URC minister opened his eyes to other faiths and persuaded him to advocate an anti-doctrinal version of liberal Christianity: ‘Many of us have friends of other faiths whom we greatly admire. We simply don’t believe that they are religiously disadvantaged, even though our official theologians imply that they must be’ (p. 74). That is worth discussing, and when Dr Hick is being positive, echoing Küng on a global ethic, or admiring Ghandi, or encouraging inter-religious dialogue and arguing for social justice, he is admirable. When he is being negative about mainline Christianity he can be remarkably blinkered, as the 1978 discussion of his Myth of God Incarnate showed. The above quotation continues: ‘And in the end reality will inevitably prevail over traditional dogma, at least for those who are not encased in the impenetrable armour of a rigid fundamentalism’. Coming from one who has written sensitively on eschatology and on the problem of evil, the negativities in this collection leave us with a very thin version of Christianity. If it can nourish such palpable goodness as that of John Hick, however, it deserves to be heard among the many voices of good and bad theology today.ROBERT MORGAN

T Re-enchanting ChristianityDave TomlinsonCanterbury £9.99 pbk978 1-85311-857-9

Some regard orthodoxy, tradition, historic belief as unchanging reference points in a confusing and contradictory world. To see them as anything other than static is, for them, a fatal and frightening betrayal. Others believe orthodoxy

can be progressive – renewed, reinvented and, yes, re-enchanted through the story of an unfolding world. Some require answers, others prefer questions. Some find bodies a bit scary, others quite like them. Some demand certainty, others settle for faith. Dave Tomlinson, the post-evangelical threw a thread of hope to those of us who came to find the evangelical package unconvincing. Here he returns to the issues with a series of ruminations on the question how, if at all, faith can reassert itself in those whose minds have led them away from traditional certainties. Atonement, resurrection, prayer, hell, alternative spiritualities: all the difficult stuff is here. Read it, please, whatever your position. This is a rave review and never has writing one brought me greater pleasure, or preparing one greater personal development.ALAN KERSHAW

T Theology in the Context of ScienceJohn PolkinghorneSPCK £9.99 pbk978 0 281 05916 4

Professor Polkinghorne, eminent Cambridge physicist and Anglican priest, having postulated that all theology is ‘done in a context’, then seeks to investigate what doing theology might look like in the language and methodology of science. The scientific world has a distinctive style of thought and argument which can provide a context as rich and fruitful as for example, feminist or liberation thinking. Whilst there is ‘no simplistic link between the disciplines of science and theology’, both are ‘partners in the human quest for truth and understanding’. The author develops his theme through consideration of, for example, time and space and the nature of personhood. Based on lectures given at the University of Victoria in British Columbia last autumn and with a target audience of those studying theology at university, this short book is not light reading but the author’s arguments are clear and logically explained. As a one-time physics teacher, I found it fascinating and it would be very stimulating to use it as the basis for a discussion

group of people open to how the insights of modern science might throw fresh light on our theological understanding.JOHN KNOWLES

T Why there almost certainly is a God Keith WardLion £7.99 pbk978-0-7459-5330-4

This book is a response to Richard Dawkins’ widely read book, The God Delusion. Keith Ward seeks to show that belief in God is rational. Where Richard Dawkins bases his case on materialism, Keith Ward argues for the priority of mind. For him, the central issue is whether intelligent mind is ‘the ultimate nature of reality’ or a ‘product of basically materialistic processes of evolution.’ He does not discuss the topic of revealed religion and his object is not a defence of the Christian faith itself. He does address the reasons for believing in the existence of God, starting with the arguments of Thomas Aquinas. In particular, he devotes a chapter to the argument from personal experience, which Richard Dawkins dismisses very briefly but which is a key tenet for Christians. To appreciate this book one needs to have read The God Delusion. This book is a clear response to that volume and many will find it helpful.GORDON GEDDES

J T Christian Tradition and the Practice of JusticeNicholas SagovskySPCK £19.99 pbk978 0 281 06016 0

While the often commented on secularisation of Western European culture may be greatly exaggerated, the need for religious thinkers to be active in clear expositions of the values of faith is increasingly important. Nicholas Sagovsky argues that the true nature of the operation of justice in Western democracies can only be fully understood in the light of the development of thought about it since Aristotle and, centrally, of the influence of the Old and New Testaments, Augustine and

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Aquinas. Described in this way this might seem a remote and academic study, on the page it is serious, absorbing and richly rewarding. The second part of the book presents four key objectives which justice must achieve to be effective: freedom, the rule of law, the meeting of need and responsible action and tests them against the work of significant contemporary writers, especially John Rawls, Martha Nussbaum and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Nicholas Sagovsky suggests that the ideals of justice found in Christ expressed in the ideals of freedom through servitude provide a key element in meeting the questions they raise. Throughout the book the sequence of thought is clear with many parallels drawn to events of our time: Thucydides and St Thomas on justifications for war, Aristotle on the role of money and implications for the operation of the market and a continuing exploration of situations where a profound understanding of the nature of justice carries us beyond its own normal rules. This is examined several times with reference to the status of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its significance today. A brief last chapter on Justice and the Eucharist takes the book to a plane of spiritual insight that will enlighten every worshipping reader.NORMAN CHATFIELD

S P Spiritual Direction Sue Pickering Canterbury £17.99 pbk 978-1-85311-885-2

The author is an Anglican priest with many years experience in spiritual direction which she uses to illustrate the principles which she advocates. Her basic premise is that a spiritual director points people to God through the Holy Spirit. She suggests a foundation model which is easily adaptable to individual needs. There is an important chapter on the need for self-knowledge by the director. The more theoretical sections are interspersed with questions for reflection and self-evaluation. A long chapter of case studies allows for personal review and group discussion. There is an extensive bibliography and a list of resources

available on the Internet.This book is highly recommended for anyone who has the task of spiritual direction whether singly or in groups. It will provide rich material for personal growth.DAVID FARRANT

S T The Republic of Heaven Jonathan ClarkSPCK £10.99 pbk978 0 281 05948 5

Here is a book that held me from start to finish as the author charts his personal spiritual story over the widely ranging paths of student life, and his experiences as a priest embracing relevant and engaging Anglican Catholicism. He raises the questions that need to be faced about power, worship, how to think theologically, and (as the book’s final paragraph puts it) how we find out what the life we love is like, and then how we have the resources to live it. The book’s sub-title of “A Catholic Anglican Future” does not blend with the labels I would wear, but I read the book with mounting excitement and involvement at how we can dare to ask questions, and probe into our (and the church’s) assumptions and claims. A gripping ‘must-read’ for all who are willing to challenge their own mindset and glimpse beyond today’s horizons.PETER JACKSON

T Medical EthicsMichael WilcocksonHodder £8.99 pbk978 0340 95777 6

Are you a Reader who has been asked to prepare a sermon on doctors and patients, personhood and the value of life, or lead a discussion at a study group on abortion, euthanasia, assisted reproduction, embryo research, or are you a Reader student who has been asked to present a topic on gene therapy, organ translants or human cloning? Probably this is a book that you would find very valuable in your research. It is aimed at GCE A Level students. Michael Wilcockson has written this in a

concise, easy to read format. There is good cross-referencing, glossary and index. Each subject follows a similar pattern and the diagrams on revision lists are helpful. The theological challenges interweave the chapters. Highly recommended. HUGH MORLEY

S T P Skills for Collaborative MinistrySally Nash, Jo Pimlott and Paul NashSPCK £12.99 pbk9780281059942

Accept, as most of us must, whether clerical or lay, that we nearly all exercise our ministry in some form of a team, however formal or informal that may be. This timely and well-researched book then argues that, whatever the structure or formality of collaborative ministry, we all need to develop our own skills and help others to develop theirs. Identifying such skills, and working together on them is of the essence of collaborative ministry, which has, in the divine economy, the highest possible precedent and example. So, working together is, these days, not merely inevitable but is ‘doing the right thing’; the trick, say the authors, is to ‘do the thing right’. How does a group work? How do we help it to work better? Or take stock? Or dream of even better working practices? And work together for them? And manage the tasks we set ourselves? And cope when things go wrong? And avoid everybody trying to do everything? And measure whether we’ve made any difference? The skills needed, plus practical examples born of a combined 80 years’ experience (as it happens mainly in youth ministry) are all here. Highly readable – highly commended.DAVID BONE

J P Space for GraceGiles GoddardCanterbury £10.99 pbk978-1-85311-916-3

Giles Goddard is Rector of St. Peter’s Church, Walworth

in South London which has been transformed in just over a generation from a dwindling white, middle class, male led church to one which reflects the changed local community in all its racial, economic and sexual variety. This is not a textbook for change but simply the experience of one parish in following an agenda based on welcome and inclusivity. Although an urban parish, there are lessons here for every church and both clergy and readers will find much to stimulate them as they search for ways to broaden their appeal and refresh their mission of encouragement to all. How to embrace the evangelical, orthodox and conservative labels and to treat everyone as equal before God; how to draw people from the margins to the centre and to share leadership and responsibility. There is no single formula in undertaking these challenges but the author’s personal experience as well as the case histories which enliven this readable book suggest practical ways forward.ROBERT BEVAN

P S Called by God?Stuart BuchananSPCK £14.99 pbk978 0 281 06052 8

This comprehensive, thought-provoking volume deserves a place in any Christian’s library because we have all heard Jesus say, ‘Come and follow me.’ Most do this through church activities, but some will seek ordination, and this book provides a full toolkit for discerning vocation. We all have talents. If we use them, they grow; if we don’t, we lose them. We have a responsibility to foster vocations by encouraging, nurturing and praying for them. Personality is explored here by the Myers-Briggs test, alongside generational and denominational issues. When interviewing candidates intuition is vital: we must consider who else might be affected (eg family), and sense that God is leading. Later there may be needs to determine: for example, study and pastoral and spiritual support. Stuart Buchanan explores vocation

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historically, covering changes of worship down the centuries and exciting prospects for the emerging church. Readers, he suggests, are ideally placed to bridge the gap between laity and ordinand. I heartily recommend his considered guidance.JOAN H SMITH

T Doing GodMark D ChapmanDLT £9.99 pbk978 0 232 52744 5

The purpose of this book is aptly conveyed by the sub-title – Religion and Public Policy in Brown’s Britain. Alistair Campbell famously said ‘We don’t do God’ when Tony Blair was questioned about his faith in God. The book looks at the presence – or, more commonly, the absence – of religion in public life in the last few years. Chapter 1 is introductory and is followed by chapters on community, national identity, community cohesion, multiculturalism, and the relationship of Christianity and Islam in modern Britain. The book is somewhat journalistic. While I am interested in both theology and politics, I did not find it entirely satisfying, but that says probably as much about me as it does about the book. It is not a book out of which sermons readily fly, but for anyone who is thinking about politics and theology in the modern world it is probably worth reading.JON REYNOLDS

S Desire, Love and the Rule of St BenedictAndrew ClitherowSPCK £9.99 pbk978 0 281 05998 0

This is a gentle but not easy book. Andrew Clitherow’s purpose is to aid us as ‘we search for a spirituality by which we can recognize and encourage the helpful desires and passions with which we are born. At the same time we aim to overcome the unhelpful ones.’ Each of the twelve chapters concludes

with an extract from the Rule of St Benedict, a reflection, something to do, a Bible passage to consider and a prayer. It is an encouragement to learn more of St Benedict and his Rule but emphasises self-discipline – making an effort – as being more profitable than knowledge. More accessible than Esther de Waal perhaps, (though she features in the ‘Further Reading’ list) this is an ideal book for Lenten use or to take on retreat.SUSANNE MITCHELL

P The Laity in Christian History and Today Kenneth Hylson-SmithSPCK £16.99 pbk978 0 281 06074 0

This book seeks to cover a very big topic in relatively few pages. The result is inevitably often very general in its coverage. Nevertheless, it does tell the story of the Church with the focus on the laity rather than on the key bishops and other clergy figures, as is usually the case. It is written from very much a Western viewpoint, though there is an interesting and helpful chapter on the Orthodox churches towards the end, pointing up many differences from the Western picture. The final chapter is a survey of the contemporary situation across the world, contrasting, as the author sees it, the liveliness and growth of churches that have a high level of lay leadership, (the Pentecostal churches are particularly highlighted), with those having a higher level of clergy leadership, in particular the ‘traditional’ churches in the UK and mainland Europe. This could be a helpful introductory survey for Readers wishing to sudy this topic and there is a very comprehensive bibliography.JOHN F C NICHOLLS

T Creation or Evolution: Do we have to choose?Denis AlexanderMonarch £10.99 pbk978 1 85424 746 9

The Christian Church is presently undergoing an attack from secularists led by Professor Richard Dawkins. They often use the Creation or Evolution debate as their starting point and the Church needs to respond robustly. We live in a scientific age in which Professor Dawkins claims that you can only be a scientist if you are an atheist. One of the best ways of countering his arguments is from a scientific standpoint. Professor Alexander the Director of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion has spent several years working at the Imperial Cancer Research Laboratories. He has produced books which counter the claims made by Professor Dawkins. This book demonstrates how the secular lobby used Darwin’s thinking as early as the late nineteenth century and how they have continuously misrepresented the facts ever since. The section describing what is meant by the term evolution is particularly helpful. The book demonstrates that many scientists see Richard Dawkins’ assertions as untenable. Some of the chapters, particularly those on DNA, genes, genomes and chromosomes are highly technical for a Lay Reader. Nonetheless this is a book which Readers as well as clergy would find helpful.DEREK REDMAN

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And Finally…The retiring Bishop of Portsmouth, Kenneth Stevenson, has written Take, Eat a small hardback book sub-titled Reflections on the Eucharist (Canterbury £9.99 hbk 978 1 85311 925 5) which would be an excellent gift for a confirmation candidate. The Canterbury Press also publishes Steven Shakespeare’s Prayers for an Inclusive Church (£16.99 hbk 978 1 85311 915 6) together with a compact disc.

SPCK has published a revised edition of Churchwardens:

A Survival Guide (Martin Dudley & Virginia Rounding (£10.99 pbk 978 0 281 06092 4), The God who leads us on subtitled Story Meditations on Salvation (Ronni Lamont £8.99 pbk 978 0 281 06076 4) Reconciling one and all (Brian Castle £9.99 pbk 978 0 281 05970 6) and A Celtic Liturgy by Pat Robson (£9.99 hbk 9780 281 06096 2.

Grove Books likely to be of interest to Readers include B50 The Earth is the Lord’s by Hilary Marlow (978 1 85174 705 4) Ev.84 Multiplying Churches by Gary Jenkins (978 1 85174 703 0) S105 Vocation by Margaret Magdalen (978 1 85174 688 0), S106 Still Praying? subtitled Simeon and Anna: Exploring Spirituality in Ageing by Graham Keyes (978 1 85174 696 5)Y12 Schools’ Ministry as Mission by Nick Shepherd (978 1 85174 699 6) and Y13 Self-esteem and Young People by Liz Etherton (978 1 85174 707 8). All are available from Grove Books, Ridley Hall Road, Cambridge CB3 9HU at £3.50 each including postage and packing.

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Mrs Kathy BaldwinThe Mission to Seafarers, St Michael Paternoster Royal, College Hill, London EC4R 2RLTel: 020 7248 5202 Fax: 020 7248 4761 Email: pr@missiontoseafarers.org

Registered Charity No. 212432Scottish charity No. SC039211

REA

DER

200

903

If you are preaching on Sea Sunday, will

you help us by talking about the Church’s

ministry to seafarers through The Mission

to Seafarers? A pack of material is available

to help you including sermon notes, a fact

sheet and teaching materials for children.

If you would like a Sea Sunday pack, please

complete the coupon below and send to:

www.missiontoseafarers.org

SEASUNDAY12 July 2009

Please remember seafarers

To Kathy Baldwin

The Mission to Seafarers, St Michael Paternoster Royal, College Hill, London EC4R 2RLTel: 020 7248 5202 Fax: 020 7248 4761 Email: pr@missiontoseafarers.org

Please send me a Sea Sunday information pack

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John Field served for five years as National Moderator for Reader Training and was one of the first honorary Lay Canons of Rochester Cathedral. He was a Reader in the Church of England for almost 50 years. John first became a Reader in the Salisbury Diocese in 1960. He and his wife Heather had moved to Wiltshire when he joined the staff of a boarding school on the edge of Salisbury Plain. He began to go to the service in the school chapel each Sunday morning and soon realised that there was a need for someone to assist the chaplain in administering Holy Communion. In those days, apart from priests and deacons, only Readers with the Bishop’s special permission were allowed to do this. That led to the school chaplain nominating John for training as a Reader and to the Bishop of Salisbury issuing his first Reader licence in February 1960. Looking back in the 1990s, John recalled: ‘The prospect of speaking from the pulpit was daunting. My first sermon was delivered in March 1960 to 300 teenagers who had walked a mile to church (as they had to every Sunday morning) and I needed to challenge those who chose to sit behind the huge pillars to avoid getting involved!’ He tried to speak as if without notes, but the headmaster told him, ‘I knew you were reading that…’ Years later, John said: ‘I still find it daunting to preach, and the need to try to reach all the congregation and to encourage people to think about the faith is as great a challenge as it ever was with a captive congregation of youngsters. So why do some of us do it? Because we feel compelled to do so. It is part of our sense of calling.’ John’s work as a Reader continued in the Diocese of Canterbury when, in 1964, he and his family moved to Kent so that he could head the science department at Dover Grammar School for Boys. Five years later he became head teacher of a secondary school in north-west Kent and was issued with a licence as a Reader in the Diocese of Rochester. As well as being a head teacher, John was also involved with training adult leaders in the Scout movement and with training senior managers in the education service. This experience somehow naturally paved the way in 1988 for him to accept the role of Director of Reader Training in Rochester, planning and organising the training of those preparing to be Readers in the diocese. In 1994 John went to Lambeth Palace for the launch of a book, To Live and Work to God’s Praise and Glory, which he had co-authored for the Mothers’ Union with Sarah James, then Warden

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of Readers in Rochester. A series of six studies for parish groups, the book includes a preface by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Also in 1994, the Church of England needed a National Moderator for Reader Training, willing to work with people in 43 dioceses to enhance the training provided by these dioceses and to oversee the cross-moderation of the various schemes, all of which have to comply with national criteria. By now retired from paid employment, John took on that job and, until 1999, went once a week to Church House in Westminster. As National Moderator he also travelled the length and breadth of the country (including regular visits to York, Preston, Sheffield, Retford, Stourbridge, Cambridge, Barnstaple, and Wimbledon), meeting the diocesan bishops, making new contacts, spreading other people’s good ideas and running local training events and conferences. This gave John opportunities to visit most of the cathedrals and many tourist attractions. A Reader conference in Newcastle in 1996 made possible what he described as a ‘memorable and very inspiring visit’ to Holy Island (Lindisfarne). In 1996, part way through his ‘tour of duty’ as National Moderator for Reader Training, Sarah James moved to Gloucestershire and the Bishop of Rochester asked John to take over from her as Warden of Readers, so he combined the two jobs for just over three years. John’s role as Warden of Readers included listening to people’s accounts of their faith journeys when interviewing them to see if they were suitable for Reader training. He also brought a lay perspective to diocesan committees and was committed to working for a climate of collaborative ministry. When he relinquished the diocesan Warden of Readers post in 2002, John was honoured with farewell speeches and generous gifts at the annual conference of the Diocesan Readers’ Association in Rochester. He preached a sermon in Rochester Cathedral and his brother Christopher directed a specially convened choir that sang items he had written for the occasion.

In 2001 Rochester Cathedral made John one of its first honorary Lay Canons, but he was required to vacate the stall in the choir when he passed his 70th birthday less than a year later and he was appointed Lay Canon Emeritus. When he became ill with pancreatic cancer in the summer of 2007, John reacted in characteristic fashion by continuing with his duties as a Reader – preaching, conducting funerals and other services – and with his many other contributions to the organisation of church activities in the parish of Fawkham and Hartley in Kent. Indeed he conducted his last funeral on the day before he died. John Field died on 17 January, aged 76. A thanksgiving service was held for him in Rochester Cathedral in March.

Obituary: John Field

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We give thanks for their work and witness and remember those who grieve.

LICHFIELDAdmitted and Licensed 20 September 2008Monica Arnold ................................................................................ BurntwoodAlan Baldwin ................................................................Leek and MeerbrookDavid Brook ...................................................................Little Aston, St PeterGordon C Burgess-Parker ....UB of Kingsley, St Werburgh, & Foxt,

St Mark w Whiston,St Mildred & the Parish of Cotton, St John w Oakamoor, Holy Trinity

Gordon Chapman ..........................Cheswardine, Childs Ercall, Hales, Hinstock, Sambrook & Stoke on Tern

Richard Cresswell ..................................................................Tettenhall RegisGloria C Eaton .................................................................... Meir, Holy TrinityAnita Edwards ...........................................................................Walsall, St PaulDelphine Howarth ......... Acton & Bednallin the Peckeridge Team,

Coppenhall & DunstonTrevor M James .....................................................................................Lichfield,

St Michael & St Mary & Wall, St JohnValerie A Pearce Jones ................................................................ Shrewsbury,

St Chad w St Mary & St AlkmundBeverley J Mann ........................................................... Aldridge, St ThomasWendy L Pitt .....................................Littleworth, St John the Baptist &

Tixall St John the Baptist w Ingestre, St Mary the Virgin

Frances Powis .......................... Gentleshaw, Farewell & HammerwichRebecca Richards ............................Cheswardine, Childs Ercall, Hales,

Hinstock, Sambrook & Stoke on TernCarol Shelley ............................ Gentleshaw, Farewell & HammerwichPenelope M Wheble .......................Walsall Team Ministry, St Martin

Transferred from other DiocesesVivienne E Bamber .................................................................Kinver, St PeterRuth D Bull ....................................................................................................Doxey

Diana E M Hill .........................................................................Burton, St ChadMargaret J Horton ........................................... Meole Brace, Holy TrinityAnthony G Jamieson ...........................Shrewsbury, Holy Cross Parish,

The Abbey

LONDON Admitted and Licensed 14 April 2008Anita Ottaviani .........................................................H M Prison, Holloway

Admitted and Licensed 19 November 2008Jacqueline Anderson ......................................Southgate, Christ ChurchRobert Andrewes ..................................................East Finchley, All SaintsJohn Blake ................................................................... Spring Grove, St MaryJenny Carter ....................................................Edgware Team, St MargaretCarmeta Duberry .........................................Hoxton, St John the BaptistHillary Elliott ...........................................Isle of Dogs, Christ Church and

St John w St LukeJonathan Gebbie .............................................Stoke Newington, St MaryIan Gray .....................................................Holborn, St George the MartyrRoderick Jones ..................................................................Holloway, St DavidPamela Lighthill..............................................................Highgate, All SaintsAnna McPherson ..............................Twickenham, St Mary the VirginCarol Maynard ....................................... Hackney Marsh Team MinistryDorothy Nnene ...................................................... Edmonton, St AldhelmMartine Oborne .................................................Highbury, Christ ChurchSusan Peatfield ............................................ Ealing, Mount Park, St PeterDerick Potter ...........................................................Southall Green, St JohnTerence Sparks .............................Mildmay Grove, St Jude and St PaulMichael Stanway ........................................................Finchley, Holy TrinitySimon Surtees ............................................ Grove Park, Chiswick, St Paul

Admitted and given PTOGwen James.............................................................. Edmonton, St Aldhelm

Gazette of newly admitted and licensed Readers

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In MemoriamBirmingham J Eric TurbervilleBlackburn Mr G Phythian Carlisle Dr J Todd Derby Derek Turner John Watson Peter West Durham Dorothy M Brumwell Ely Mr R L Lilley Gloucester Paul Cull Leicester Mrs P Anderson Lincoln Neville Emslie M Evardson V Fazakerley Brian Turner

Liverpool Howard J Sainsbury London Mr K K Smith Manchester A G E Mitchell Norwich Dr D V T Baldwin Mrs E J Campbell Oxford Geoff Brown Peterborough Frank Vickerman MBERochester John Field Salisbury Derek McFaull Geoffrey AdamsSheffield Maureen Hall Southwark Christine Childs E Hofmann

Southwell & Nottingham John Mann Wakefield Mr R R Wilson Worcester Mr M A Murphy York Malcolm Langton

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The deaths of the following Readers have been notified to us.

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Gleanings

Top up your previous training to diploma or degree level with

St John’s Extension Studies

Distance Learning CertHE in Theology and Vocation DipHE in Theology and Vocation

Can eventually lead to a BA (Hons), or MA (for graduates in a different subject),

through independent study and short visits to college.

Apply now for autumn 2009 Readers may be able to claim exemptions

Summer 2009

S t Johnʼs Extension Studies Bramcote, Nottingham NG9 3RL 0115 925 1117 ext.studies@stjohns-nottm.ac.uk (quote The Reader)

Now there’s an idea

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The article in the last issue on ‘Blessings’ by Bishop Graham Dow was particularly appreciated. One Reader wrote how she had recently moved parishes and was asked to lead the intercessions at her new church. She says that ‘The prayer of blessing on the local community (with a few slight changes) was ideal’. Another person noticed the idea I put in the back of a recent issue about having an ‘All morning service’ to which people could come at any time. They wrote to tell me that the parish of Haddenham in Buckinghamshire had done something similar, and has been cited as an ‘example of excellence’. Well done Haddenham! I am personally pleased about this too, as I guess that means my little rural parish of Bryneglwys here in North Wales could attract the same comment. So if you are willing to experiment, and perhaps particularly if you are in a rural parish, or group of parishes, why not give it a try!? It could be a joint event for a group of parishes.

2 ideas from 1Children (and some grown-ups) love growing sunflowers! They are easy to grow – they can thrive almost anywhere where there is sufficient sun and reasonable soil. So first of all:

PART 1 THE COMPETITION Give out some sunflower seeds, so that you can be sure they are all the same variety! Sellotape a few to pieces of paper or put in small bags, together with planting instructions. When fully matured the sunflowers will either be brought to church, or measured in situ. The tallest one wins, getting the honour of having grown it and a small prize suitable for the winner as a grown-up or child. Part 2 in the next issue – using them at harvest!

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Need to know more?

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Last wordNot infrequently in the past few months, letters, e-mails and so on have arrived in the London office asking why this magazine has not answered the question ‘What is happening now about the Reader report?’. The clamour has been so insistent that I will attempt to provide some kind of answer now, but I must first of all point out that the Reader magazine is not a newspaper, and I am writing on 17 March something which you will be reading in mid-May or thereabouts. Things might have changed!

The report was passed by Synod with a rider to the effect that dioceses would be required to tell the Ministry

Council by July 2010 what they had done to implement the recommendations. And that is what should be going on now – dioceses should be deciding what they propose to do, and how. If you know nothing of your own diocese’s discussions and want to become involved, you should tell your Warden of Readers now, so that your views can be taken into account. But there will not be a great deal of news as such until the replies start to come in during the spring next year.

However, any Readers who hope the report will in some way compel one particular course of action or another will be disappointed. The report’s general recommendations (training should be

improved and so on) are not controversial, though the Ministry Council will still want to know what is being done. But in controversial areas, recommendations will never be more than recommendations. Some bishops believe firmly that Readers should receive funeral fees. Others are equally strongly opposed. Some bishops believe that Communion by Extension, taken by a Reader, is a sensible way of making the Church’s sacramental ministry more widely available. Others take the view that it is utterly wrong to hold such a service without a priest. And, uncomfortable though it may sometimes be, we as Readers have promised solemnly to obey our bishop

– even if we don’t actually like the position he takes.

If that sounds like a counsel of despair – take heart! Bishops can be persuaded sometimes; and that makes the consultations going on now within each diocese even more important. Every Reader is entitled to an opinion and is entitled to have that opinion heard.

Alan WakelySecretary, Central Readers’ Council

CCLI for licenses to show films www.ccli.co.uk

Resources from the Arthur Rank centre Most resources from the ARC are related to the needs of rural churches and their congregations. As far as possible these are available through the ARC website (www.arthurrankcentre.org.uk).

The most popular resources relate to worship in rural contexts, with several hundred items – including orders of service, prayers, hymns, sermon outlines – available on a seasonal basis; eg harvest material is available from about eight weeks prior to the time most churches celebrate harvest. There are over 60 categories related to season, liturgical calendar or community events – including Community Life, Lammas and Rogation. These downloadable materials can be copied and pasted into the user’s own document (eg order of service). All can be searched for from www.arthurrankcentre.org.uk/publications_and_resources/rural_worship_resources/index.html

There are key resources related to rural ministry and mission. Some are available to buy from the ARC bookstall; others are

freely downloadable. The bookstall ‘catalogue’ extends beyond strictly rural concerns, as it operates as a unique ‘one-stop shop’ for most books found to be helpful in rural contexts. Again, several hundred items are available across a wide range of topics (including Ecology and Environment, Rural Evangelism and Tourism and Church). Both books and downloads can be searched for from www.arthurrankcentre.org.uk/publications_and_resources/rural_ministry_bookstall_and_resources/index.html

The Key Rural References page of the ARC website provides an ever-growing database of publicly available resources across the whole spectrum of rural church and community life, with full details of source and availability. If anything is to be found online, the link is there. Currently nearly 2,500 entries are included in roughly 40 categories (including Church Buildings, Multi-Church Ministry and Rural Mission and Ministry) and these can be searched for from www.arthurrankcentre.org.uk/publications_and_resources/key_rural_references_database/index.html

Also available, amongst much else, on the ARC website are: past articles and pictures from the ARC’s magazine Country Way; training materials for rural ministry; and links to other key rural organisations.

Selwyn Summer CourSe

APPLY TO:

Tony Hawkins, 30 Flintway, Wath-Upon-Dearne, ROTHERHAM, South Yorkshire S63 7TR

Tel: 01709 873720 Cheques payable to Central Readers Council

Course Fees: Registration: £40.00 (Non-refundable)

Accommodation: CRIPPS COURT and OLD COURT Half Board only, ie Bed, Breakfast & Evening Meal Cost: £324.00

Lunch may be taken using the College Cafeteria

Non-residents are welcome to attend for a cost of £80.00, plus cost of any meals taken

n Any Reader or Reader in Training wishing to attend

on a daily basis or for part of the course will be most

welcome

n Bursaries are available for Licensed Readers

attending for the FIRST time

Sunday 2 August to Friday 7 August 2009

CAMBRIDGE

SPeAKeRSn Dr Justin Meggitt ‘Miracles and the origins of Christianity’

n Dr Nick Adams‘The children of Abraham – scriptural reasoning’

n Rev Dr Maggi Dawn‘Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs – Exploring the use of music in worship’