14 - 21 Dec 2008

The last Thought for the Week this term, and the last in the series about 'Change':

“Change is the essence of life. Be willing to surrender what you are for what you could become.”

Anonymous.

7 - 14 Dec 2008

We are nearly at the end of the series of quotations about change – and nearly at the end of term. This week, the quotation is from Siddhārtha Gautama (the Buddha) and there are echoes of the same outlook in other faiths and philosophies:

“If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change.”

Siddhārtha Gautama or The Buddha (about 563-483 BCE, founder of Buddhism and known as the Enlightened One).

What do you think the Buddha means by seeing the miracle of a flower? How would our life change?

30 Nov - 7 Dec 2008

Many people think that traditions (whether religious or cultural) are opposed to change. However, according to the management guru, Charles Handy:

“Tradition can be the midwife of change. Abandon everything of the past and we can become like flotsam on the tide of modernity”

BBC Radio 4 talk on 16/2/1998 called ‘Re-inventing God’ by Charles Handy (b1932, Irish author/philosopher specialising in organisational behaviour and management).

Does tradition bind us to the past so that we are unable to change? Or can we build on our traditions, learning from them so that we can change in more positive ways? Think about the traditions in our culture or in various religions.

23 - 30 Nov 2008

The following famous prayer about change may be 14th century but is commonly attributed to Reinhold Niebuhr. It has been associated with Alcoholics Anonymous and also modified for those who do not believe in God:

"God grant me
the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference."

Attributed to Reinhold Niebuhr (1982-1971, theologian, pastor)

16 - 24 Nov 2008

Many of us are naturally resistant to change: change in routine, or change in the way we work, or change in our ideas and what we believe. Yet as we learn more about the world and ourselves, we are challenged to change:

"The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn – and change"

Carl Rogers (1902–1987, psychologist)

9 - 16 Nov 2008

We continue with quotations on the theme of 'Change'. We are aware that society needs changing - Barack Obama's campaign slogan was 'Change we can believe in'. Sometimes, though, we are not able to change a situation:

"When we are no longer able to change a situation,
we are challenged to change ourselves."

Victor Frankl (1905-1997, Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor).

2 - 9 Nov 2008

The pace of change in society is increasing every decade – and the pace of change in higher education seems to be increasing even more than in society. The theme of the “Thought for the Week” over the next few weeks is ‘Change’ and how we cope with it. We begin this week with a positive quotation about change within ourselves.

“To live is to change; to be perfect is to have changed often.”

John Henry Newman (1801-1890, theologian, Anglican priest and leader of the Oxford Movement who later became a Roman Catholic Cardinal)

26 Oct - 2 Nov 2008

It seems that life all about competing with others: individually - for jobs, charitable organisations - for grants, universities - for students. Competition is part of the market economy which is under much scrutiny at the moment. Competition is assumed to be good but it can bring out the worst qualities in us:

"The greatest danger facing the human race is the world-view that sees human life in terms of a power struggle. We are convinced that in order to survive we must compete rather than co-operate. This is like a lethal virus infecting the human race."

The writer, Gerard Hughes, sees this virus affecting every organisation, even church organisations. The quotation continues:

"When the Church forgets the real meaning of holiness, that virus is just as likely to flourish within the Church as outside of it."

Gerard W Hughes God in All Things (Hodder & Stoughton, 2003).

19 - 26 Oct 2008

This coming week is "One World Week" (see www.oneworldweek.org) and also the Interfaith Week of Prayer for World Peace. Whatever your belief or world-view, your actions are important because through your actions you love others and care for the world. Becoming holy - or, if you don't like that religious word, becoming whole and at one with the world - has a direct connection:

"In our era, the road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action"

Dag Hammarskjöld (1905-1961; Secretary-General of the United Nations 1953-61 who died in a plane crash while trying to bring peace to the Congo. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1961).

Summer 2008

The Thought for the Week will continue next term. In the meantime, have a look at some of the previous Thoughts for the Week. If you are reading this on a feed, the Archive can be found at http://boltonuniversitychaplain.blogspot.com/

1 - 8 Jun 2008

A couple of quotations from the American poet, Walt Whitman, who had a long connection with Bolton:

“To me, every hour of the day and night is an unspeakably perfect miracle”.

“I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars”.

Walt Whitman (1819-1892; poet, essayist).

25 May - 1 Jun 2008

A thought about football from Manchester University's literary critic Terry Eagleton:

"If you were to ask what provides some meaning in life nowadays for a great many people, especially men, you could do worse than reply 'Football'… Sport, and in Britain football in particular, stands in for all those noble causes – religious faith, national sovereignty, personal honour, ethnic identity – for which over the centuries, people have been prepared to go to their deaths. Sport involves tribal loyalties and rivalries, symbolic rituals, fabulous legends, iconic heroes, epic battles, aesthetic beauty, physical fulfilment, intellectual satisfaction, sublime spectaculars, and a profound sense of belonging… It is sport, not religion, which is now the opium of the people."

Terry Eagleton (John Edward Taylor Professor of Cultural Theory at the University of Manchester; from 'The Meaning of Life: A Very Short Introduction', OUP, 2007)

18 - 25 May 2008

Last week was Christian Aid Week which helps the poorest of the poor. Some facts from their web site:

• Rigged trade rules cost the developing world $700 billion a year, according to the UN.
• The three richest people in the world control more wealth than all 600 million people living in the world's poorest countries.
• International trade is worth $10 million a minute. But poor countries only account for 0.4% of this trade. Indeed, their share is actually half what it was in 1980.
• Nearly half the world's population (2.8 billion people) live on less than $2 per day. And more than 800 million go hungry every day.
• Income per person in the poorest countries in Africa has fallen by a quarter in the past 20 years.

11-18 May 2008

A thought about expectations:

"I am thankful for small mercies. I compared notes with one of my friends who expects everything of the universe, and is disappointed when anything is less than best, and I found that I begin at the other extreme, expecting nothing, and am always full of thanks for moderate goods."

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882, essayist, philosopher, poet and leader of the American Transcendentalist movement; from ‘Experience’).

4 - 11 May 2008

There are many thoughts about friendship. Here is one:

"Friendship is the only cement that will ever hold the world together."

Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924, twenty-eighth President of the United States).

Additional Thoughts

"Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Just walk beside me and be my friend."

Albert Camus (1913-1960, novelist, essayist and playwright, Nobel Prize for Literature, 1957 ).

"Be a friend to thy self, and others will be so too."

Thomas Fuller (1654 - 1734, physician; from Gnomologia: Adagies and Proverbs, Stearne Brock, 1733).

27 Apr - 4 May 2008

Last Tuesday I led an open debate about Richard Dawkins' 'The God Delusion' with a colleague (we did one at the University of Bolton last year). Dawkins' argument rests on the idea that science is able to explain everything in the universe and proves that the concept of God is highly unlikely.

The theoretical physicist, Albert Einstein once said

“It would be possible to describe everything scientifically, but it would make no sense; it would be without meaning, as if you described a Beethoven symphony [insert your own favourite music] as a variation of wave pressure.”

Albert Einstein (1879-1955, theoretical physicist; awarded the Nobel Prize for physics in 1921).

There is no Additional Thought this week. Instead, look at the summary of Richard Dawkins’ book ‘The God Delusion’ together and the critical responses. You can find these at http://www.bolton.ac.uk/chaplaincy and click on the Related Link on the right The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins. You will also find other information related to Dawkins and the science-religion debate. Comment on Dawkins' book or the responses to Dawkins.

13 - 27 Apr 2008

A number of Thoughts for two weeks on the same theme.

Most of us want some things in our life to be different and we can change some with a bit of perseverance. However, there are some situations which we cannot change and which drain us of energy. For our own health we need to look at these situations in a different way.

As the Greek Stoic philosopher Epictetus wrote:

"People are not disturbed by things but by the view which they take of them".

Epictetus (c55-135, Greek Stoic philosopher; from 'Enchiridion' or 'Handbook' 5, 135 CE).

More recently, Albert Schweitzer wrote:

"The greatest discovery of any generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind."

Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965, theologian, philosopher, organist & mission doctor).

Additional Thoughts

On a similar theme, we read in the Jewish Talmud:

"We do not see things as they are, but as we are."

The psychiatrist Victor Frankl put it this way:

"When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves".

Victor Frankl (1905-1997 Austrian psychiatrist, Holocaust survivor).

If you are affected by the Thought for the Week, you can contact me - see my profile in About Me.

6 - 13 Apr 2008

A quotation by the Lebanese-American writer, Kahlil Gibran:

"Then a woman said, Speak to us of Joy and Sorrow.
And he answered:
Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter’s oven?
And is not the lute that soothes your spirit the very wood that was hollowed with knives?
When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.
When you are sorrowful, look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which as been your delight."

Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931; from 'The Prophet', 1926).

If you are affected by the Thought for the Week, you can contact me - see my profile in About Me.

Further Thought

On a similar theme, Kahlil Gibran wrote:

"Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls;
the most massive characters are seared with scars".

30 Mar - 6 Apr 2008

At the start of a new term at the University, a quotation about learning:

"There are two things you should never delegate;
your own learning and saying thank you."

Dr Peter Honey (Chartered psychologist and founder of Peter Honey Publications Ltd. He helped to develop the Learning Styles model widely used in education and training).

Additional Quotations from Peter Honey

"Learning has a beginning, middle and no end."

"It isn't what you know, it's what you do that counts."

16 - 30 Mar 2008

This "Thought" is for two weeks over the Easter vacation. After this busy term, perhaps we need space simply to 'be' so that we can return refreshed. Our temptation is to fill our lives with business so that we do not have space to think, to be creative and to attend to friendships and relationships.

"In much of your talking, thinking is half murdered.
For thought is a bird of space,
that in a cage of words may indeed unfold its wings
but cannot fly."

Khalil Gibran (1883-1931; Lebanese-American writer; from "The Prophet", 1926).

9 - 16 Mar 2008

In his lecture on "Biotechnologies, Bioethics, Biofuels, Politics and Poverty", Professor Joseph Hulse, stated that in our world...

"The 10% richest folk own 85% of global wealth. If affluent consumption patterns persist, between now and 2040 natural resource consumption will exceed all that was consumed during the past 10,000 years. It was Mahatma Gandhi who so wisely observed: 'Our Planet's resources are sufficient to satisfy everyone's need but not everyone's greed.' "

Joseph Hulse (specialist in biotechnologies and international development; from a lecture given at The University of Bolton on 4 March 2008).

Further Quotations from Prof Hulse's lecture:

"Actions to alleviate poverty depend upon political will. For many years affluent nations have been urged to allocate at least 0.7% of the Gross National Income to alleviate poverty. Yet only Scandinavian nations and the Netherlands meet this standard. Even if every OECD nation raised its foreign aid budget to 0.7% of GNI, the total sum given to foreign aid woud be less than 0.1% of annual global expenditures on armaments."

"If the human race is to survive to the end of the century, the world has urgent need of wise, prudent and informed rulers, rulers who will legislate that the Planet's scarce resources be managed and utilised more conservatively; politicialns and administrators of exceptional systematic and versatile vision. For as the Book of Proverbs so wisely reminds us: Without imaginative vision, the human race will most surely perish."

2 - 9 Mar 2008

"Immature love says: 'I love you because I need you'. Mature love says 'I need you because I love you'."

Erich Fromm (1900-1980, psychologist; from 'The Art of Loving', originally published 1957).

Further Thoughts
Eric Fromm's book 'The Art of Loving' is about all our relationships between people, not just sexual relationships. He also states:

"Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence".

and the following quotation points to an aspect of teaching which goes beyond techniques and also defies being measured:

"Whilst we teach knowledge, we are losing that teaching which is the most important one for human development: the teaching which can only be given by the simple presence of a mature, loving person."

24 Feb - 2 Mar 2008

Fair Trade Fortnight begins on 25 February 2008. The campaign for fair trade in the world has been remarkably successful even 'miraculous', though it has a long way to go. This started me to think about what some people today call a 'miracle', by which they mean a natural event which is either significant or remarkable.

"Miracles start to happen when you give as much energy to your dreams as you do to your fears."

Richard Wilkins (writer, further information not found).

Further Thoughts
The American psychologist Abraham Maslow thinks that it is the way we look at life which makes a miracle or not:

"Any sunset or oak tree or baby or pretty girl is a fantastic and unbelievable, unassimilable miracle if seen for the first time, or if seen as if for the first time (or as if for the last time), as a good artist sees or as any good experiencer sees. This fresh and defamiliarized experiencing becomes easy for any person as soon as he has sense enough to realize that it is more fun to live in a world of miracles than in a world of filing cabinets and that a familiar miracle is still a miracle."

Abraham Maslow (1908-1970, psychologist).

We may think that the 'proper' definition of miracle is "a violation of the laws of nature" but this was put forward by the 18th century atheist philosopher David Hume. This definition has caused huge problems for religious people because it cast doubt on the Biblical stories of signs and wonders. It also took away an essential part of human life: of seeing a miracle - what is special and extraordinary - in life.

17 - 24 Feb 2008

A common reaction to Rowan Williams' lecture on civil and religious law was to make a critical judgement before trying to understanding what was being said – a very worrying trend in our 'enlightened' country. The process of understanding a situation which is unfamiliar – or understanding a person – can be complex and difficult. Does our education system promote judgement before understanding?

"Understanding a person does not mean condoning; it only means that one does not accuse him as if one were God or a judge placed above him."

Eric Fromm (1900-1980, social psychologist, psychoanalyst and philosopher; from 'Man for Himself' Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1975, p237).

Further Thoughts

"The real thing is to understand, and love that you may understand"

J B Yeats (1839-1922, Irish artist; from 'Letters to his son, W B Yeats and others', Faber & Faber Ltd, 1944, p136).

"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view...until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."

(Nelle) Harper Lee (1926- , novelist; from 'To Kill a Mockingbird', Pan Books Ltd, 1981, p35).

10 - 17 Feb 2008

February 12 is the anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin whose ideas about the process of evolution now forms the basis of modern evolutionary theory. There are many celebrations during this week: for example at Shrewsbury, his birth place, there is a Darwin Festival. Although Darwin's ideas were a challenge to some religious people, others such as Aubrey Moore, welcomed them. He wrote in 1889:

"The one absolutely impossible conception of God, in the present day, is that which represents him as an occasional visitor… At the moment when it seemed as if he would be thrust out all together Darwinism appeared, and, under the disguise of a foe, did the work of a friend. … Either God is everywhere present in nature, or He is nowhere."

Aubrey Moore (1848-1890, theologian & philosopher; from 'The Christian Doctrine of God' in 'Lux Mundi', 12th edition, ed C Gore, Paris: Murray, 1891, p73).

Further Thoughts

Charles Kingsley (1819-1875, novelist and Anglican Evangelical) also praised Darwin's ideas about evolution and wrote in "The Water Babies" that:

"God makes things make themselves"

John Habgood, Archbishop of York from 1983-95, wrote:

"The mechanism of evolution, in particular the element of chance, has always caused difficulties for those who believe that the universe is the work of a loving creator. It is important, therefore to distinguish between a random process and a process which contains a random element. ... A process containing a random element ... in which random possiblities are selected and developed in the light of previous developments and under the pressure of particular circumstances, may be highly purposive. In fact there is good reason to suppose that much creative activity takes place in precisely this way. Creativity entails the exploration of hitherto undreamt of possibilites, and randomization is one of the ways of generating these. In evolutionary terms, chance may this be an expression of God's super-abundance."

John Habgood (1927-; from 'A New Dictionary of Christian Theology', ed Richardson & Bowden, London: SCM, 1983, p196).

3 - 10 Feb 2008

How do we know what is true? For example: how do we know our lover really loves us? How do we know whether our view of the world is correct (whether it includes a God or not)? Can we be sure of anything? The idea that truth could be discovered by reason alone probably came from the Enlightenment period in the 17th Century. Yet one mathematician wrote:

"We know the truth not only by reasoning, but also by means of the heart, and it is in the latter way that we know first principles … the heart has its reasons of which reason does not know."

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662, mathematician and philosopher; from 'Pensée', Paris: Garnier-Flammarion, 1973, p90, 92).

Further Thoughts
Another more recent mathematician and philosopher, C S Pierce, argued that, scientific truths can rarely be discovered simply by logic and reasoning:

"When a man desires ardently to know the truth, his first effort will be to imagine what that truth can be [but]...imagination unbridled is sure to carry him off the track. Yet nevertheless, it remains true that there is, after all, nothing but imagination that can ever supply him an inkling of the truth. He can stare stupidly at phenomena; but in the absence of imagination they will not connect themselves together in any rational way."

C S Peirce (1839-1914, mathematician, philosopher and chemist; from "The Scientific Imagination", The Collected Papers Vol. I: Principles of Philosophy).

Unless our beliefs in what we hold to be true, whether scientific, social, religious or personal, are open to criticism and contradiction, we may continue to delude ourselves. Another philosopher, Karl Popper, famously showed that we can never prove anything to be true; all we know is when a theory or idea fails. He also wrote:

"Whenever a theory appears to you as the only possible one, take this as a sign that you have neither understood the theory nor the problem which it was intended to solve."

Karl Popper (1902-1994, philosopher; from 'Objective Knowledge: An Evolutionary Approach').

C S Peirce and Karl Popper were writing about scientific knowledge. How much can we apply what they say to other areas of knowedge, such as beliefs in a world-veiw or religion?

20 - 27 Jan 2008

John O'Donohue, Iris poet and philosopher and priest, died suddenly on 3 January 2008 in his sleep at the age of 53. In a recent interview by BBC broadcaster William Crawley, he said:

"Our time in this world is so short,
it's so brief and it's running through our fingers like the finest sand; ...
now is the time to live."

John O'Donohue (1954-2008).

More Writings from John O'Donohue
From 'Benedictus – A Book of Blessings' (2007, Bantam):

"May the nourishment of the earth be yours;
may the clarity of light be yours;
may the fluency of the ocean be yours;
may the protection of the ancestors be yours;
and so may a slow wind work these words of love around you;
an invisible cloak to mind your life."

A Blessing For Equilibrium

"Like the joy of the sea coming home to shore,
May the music of laughter break through your soul.

As the wind wants to make everything dance,
May your gravity be lightened by grace.

Like the freedom of the monastery bell,
May clarity of mind make your eyes smile.

As water takes whatever shape it is in,
So free may you be about who you become.

As silence smiles on the other side of what's said,
May a sense of irony give you perspective.

As time remains free of all that it frames,
May fear or worry never put you in chains.

May your prayer of listening deepen enough
To hear in the distance the laughter of God."

13 - 20 Jan 2008

In preparing to lead a workshop on the spiritual needs of those of no religious belief, a Guardian article pointed me to a book which saw spirituality simply as the 'inner life' and key to happiness:

"There is an art to living happily and like every art it depends on learning, practising and if possible mastering certain skills … skills of what I will call the inner life, the inner world of thought, emotion, belief, feeling, desire, perception, and so on. The inner life … is just your own conscious experience."

"If your inner life is lived happily , you will live happily, it is as simple as that."

Tony Wilkinson (from "The Lost Art of Being Happy: Spirituality for Sceptics", Findhorn Press, 2007).

I would love to know if you think we can have a non-religious spirituality which is more than just having a good feeling when listening to a favourite piece of music or looking at some beautiful countryside. And how valuable is such a spirituality today?