Part 255. Theologians and commentators

On my Facebook page: John Hopkinson Theology Page I  have posted a cartoon that has the simple message that Christian faith is about loving God and loving neighbours. Simple that is until the churches and theologians came along to complicate matters.  

Of course the cartoonist has a point, but it would be wrong to be overly critical of  theologians who proffer their insights into the meaning and application of the two Great Commandments set out by Jesus in the synoptic gospels. 

My thinking and hence my faith has been influenced by a number of commentators in the fields of philosophy, politics, law, economics and theology. It is a long held view of mine that we cannot understand faith in a vacuum,  we must consider faith, particularly its application, in the context of the society in which we live. The same may be said of the study of most disciplines: law, economics, politics, sociology etc.

So, who have been major influences in my faith journey? Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Walter Brueggemann, Kenneth Galbraith, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Bernice King, Jacques Derrida, Richard Rohr, Jim Palmer, Leonardo Boff, Oscar Romero, Gustavo Gutierrez, Desmond Tutu, Martin Luther King Jnr, Don Cupitt, David Hayward, John Pavlovitz, John Robinson, Marcus Borg, Richard Holloway and Rowan Williams. 

So from all this my faith comes down to: follow the two Great Commandents,  campaign for social justice for the poor, marginalised and discriminated against, reject the notion of a metaphysical God.