I seek to follow the teaching attributed to Jesus by the authors of the synoptic gospels. In this regard I have been influenced heavily by the ideas of Jurgen Moltmann, Gustavo Gutierrez, Martin Luther King Jr., Leonardo Boff, Dietrich Bonhoffer and Walter Brueggemann, particularly on the subject of social justice. I pose this question. Is there something distinctive or special in the thread of concern in the bible for the poor and marginalised that distinguishes it from the concepts to be found in other religions or in secular sources? I don't think so.
My current thinking is a potpourri, melange, mozaic, mixture, call it what you will, of radical, liberal, progressive and deconstructivist ideas riddled with existentialist, nihilist, absurdist, humanist and postmodernist concepts. It wasn't aways thus! I have been on a long and lonely journey questioning what I consider my faith or belief to be. Believe me, it has been a hard road to travel and I find no comfort or peace of mind in the conclusions I have reached.
Many years ago I delivered a series of talks on Ecclesiastes to a strongly fundamentalist congregation. The conclusions I drew then differed markedly from what I would postulate now. Ecclesiastes is awash with existentialist and nihilist ideas on the human condition: it is one long diatribe. However, at the end there is this:
Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgement, with every secret thing, whether good or evil. (RSV)
A reasonable conclusion should one believe in an anthropomorphic God. I prefer the opinion of Martin Thielen:
Instead of conceptualizing God as a personal, humanlike, supernatural deity, I envision God as the mysterious, creative, connective, evolutionary, intelligent, life-force, energy-force, animating Spirit of the universe.
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