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).