Thinking Faith blogs

In 1998 in Devon, England, Fido, a pet rat was minding his own business in his cage, when an electric fire set alight Lisa Gumbley's carpet and furniture. Fido managed to escape from his unlocked cage but instead of darting to safety he scuttled up the stairs to awaken single mother Lisa and her daughters, Megan, nine, and Shannon, three.

Fido frantically scratched at the bedroom door to alert 29-year-old Lisa to the impending disaster. She takes up the story:

The noise of the scratching woke me up and I got up to go to the toilet and I found Fido.

Here is an eyewitness account from our great friend Henry Vyner-Brooks as to how the RealityBites talks/seminars went down in Cumbria. He was a superb host along with his wonderful wife Ruth and he helped at every event!

The Marquis de Sade (1740-1814) was a thinker and pornographic writer who would have appealed to Jimmy Saville. We could argue that both men lived in a similar story/narrative. Perhaps we could say that Thomas Hobbes and his many disciples had 'seduced' both men! Mugged by the materialist creed?

I do not know if Saville read the Marquis but their faith in 'nature' is strikingly similar. There is only one difference that I can detect. Saville claimed to be a Roman Catholic but De Sade openly despised Roman Catholicism.

Tomorrow I am flying to New Zealand to lead six workshops on biblical ways of knowing.

I will be launching a blistering attack on Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Descartes, Hobbes, Hume, Jimmy Tarbuck et al and will also be exploring a Christian view of knowledge which honours midwives, blacksmiths, artists, cobblers and nomads as well as academics and boffins.

I will also focus on pedagogy and imagination in teaching/facilitating learning that honours the complex ways that God has made us.