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 PrintableVersion Devout scepticsConversations on faith and doubt with Bel MooneyAll the lonely peopleDEVOUT SCEPTICS Radio 4's series Devout Sceptics presented by Bel Mooney had distinguished guests discussing the spiritual territory in their lives. This book brings some of those radio conversations to the printed page. The conversations took place between 1993 and 2002. Twenty famous people are included, ten male and ten female. They tend to be authors, politicians and broadcasters. It does not make an encouraging read for the evangelical Christian. If there is one theme that persists throughout it is the contemporary suspicion of organised religion. Although the New Age approach is frequently derided in these pages, nevertheless every guest pursues their own form of 'pick and mix' spirituality. Nevertheless, there is much to fascinate. Here we find that Kate Adie witnessed some kind of healing miracle to which she has 'never found the answer', while covering a story in Sweden. We learn that as a boy, Melvin Bragg over a number of years had out-of-body experiences which terrified him. We discover that the theoretical physicist, Professor Paul Davies, accuses atheists of an irrational 'back flip' when asked about how the fundamental laws of nature arose. We read of the Today programme's John Humphrys, who is rather envious of those 'who seem able to live in a kind of spiritual treasure house', and wistful that life should be more than 'quiet desperation'. We find that author Philip Pullman lost his father when he was seven years old, once again fitting the theory about significant atheists described by Professor Paul Vitz in his book Faith of the Fatherless. I suppose I was particularly sad to learn of so many who came from varying types of 'Christian' background but for whom Christian faith is just seen as downright unbelievable. Mary Warnock, for example, seems absolutely committed to the Church of England, but for her spirituality has collapsed into an almost purely aesthetic experience and 'of course, I don't believe that everything one is taught to say in church is literally true'. The story of Jeanette Winterson, who burst on to the literary scene with the pro-lesbian novel Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit in 1985, was most depressing. Adopted and brought up by Pentecostal evangelists, one felt if only her intellectual inquisitiveness and teenage crushes had been handled more wisely, her life might have taken a completely different road. Instead, though she still claims a relationship with God, she declares 'I obviously can't go back to the evangelical sects, partly because they don't really respect or appreciate the intellect, and I need that'. The book brings proper challenges to us. For most participants the reasons for the rejection of the church come back to the 'what people do to each other in the name of formal religion' and the (to be expected) abhorrence of 'exclusivity' and the possibility of a God who might judge us. But though these are live questions, I think what disappointed me most was the fact that these famous people rarely discussed the person of Jesus himself, nor did they seem at all well thought out on the big objective questions of existence and humanity. They seemed to be a group trapped within the lonely straight-jacket of their own personal experience. The whole work seemed dominated by subjectivism. JEBJohn Benton© Evangelicals Now - November 2003 |
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