(forwarded by Fr Bishoy)
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Showing posts with label god. Show all posts
Showing posts with label god. Show all posts
Monday, November 16, 2009
All the way from Egypt
Friday, September 04, 2009
The Prodigal Father
PASS IT ON #62
The Prodigal Father
by a Madonna House Staff Worker
Father, I have been our prodigal son, for I have taken the riches you have showered on me into a far country and have squandered them in riotous living. I have used your gifts of nature and even of grace in a kingdom apart from yours, using them not under your will and for your purposes but taking them into my own control, for my own purposes, for vanity, for arrogance, for domination, for admiration, for ambition, squandering and dissipating them in disorderly self-centeredness. And when I had wasted them I found my spirit starving; for there was neither nourishment, nor vitality, nor healing for the soul in those tusks for swine. And I came to my senses and turned back to you.
Father, you saw me coming from a long way off, and moved with compassion you came to meet me. You clothed me with the finest robe and made a feast for my return to life. Father, Jesus is my coming to my senses. Jesus is my Way back to your house. Jesus is your Compassion and he is your Coming to meet me while I was still a long way off. He is the Festal Garment you clothe me with, my garment of salvation, my Robe of glory, the Robe of sonship you yourself put on me. Jesus is the Feast you prepare to celebrate my return to life and to you. Let my soul remember that each time I receive his Body, that here is my perpetual way back to you, here is your compassion and coming to meet me, here is the glory of the sons of God which you constantly clothe me with, here is the everlasting feast of your joy at my return to life.
Father, you have admitted me to the mystery of your heart. You have let me see and taste your compassion. Do not let me ever become the elder brother. He served you, but only for his own purposes, for payment. He loved your rewards, but he did not love you. He worked for wages and not for love. He was always a hired man, never a son.
Let me always be your son, my Father. As one who has known mercy, let me always love your mercy, seek your mercy. Let me never want payment for serving you, recognition, affection, admiration, status. Cleanse from my heart the hireling who is discontented and too embarrassed to need mercy, who wants some day to be free of mercy, to be able to receive justice and reward from you. Let me love mercy. Let me rejoice that I will have always and only your mercy, that it is mercy which fills the universe and guides its process, not justice. Let me love and rejoice in mercy wherever it appears: your mercy to my brothers, their mercy to me, my mercy to them.
Let the eyes of my soul be always turned toward you like a son to his father. Let my heart be attuned to your heart. Let my will move with your will. Let me see that when you frustrate my self-will and my self-gratification you are not being harsh and rejecting but merciful, and are freeing me to be merciful. Let me trust without reservation that in emptying me of myself you are filling me with your mercy, yourself. Let my spirit cling firmly to this: that more real than all the pain and suffering, more full of vitality than all the shame and guilt, stronger than all the cruelty, sin and evil, is mercy; and that to all you are always Father.
— Adapted from Coming Home
Saturday, June 30, 2007
The Beautiful Interview
I had a dream I had an interview with God.
"Come in," God said to me. "So, you would like to interview me?"
"If you have time", I answered.
God smiled an said, "My time is called eternity and there is enough to do everything; what questions do you have in mind to ask me?".
"What's the one thing that surprises you most about mankind?"
God answered:
"That they get bored of being children, are in a rush to grow up, and then long to be children again. That they lose their health to make money and then lose their money to restore their health. that by thinking anxiously about the future, they forget the present, such that they live neither for the present nor for the future. That they live as if they will never die, and they die as if they have never lived."
God's hands took mine and we were silent. After a long period, I said, "May I ask another question? As a parent, what would you ask your children to do?"
God replied with a smile:
"To learn that they cannot make anyone love them. What they can do is to let themselves be loved. To learn that it takes years to build trust, and a few seconds to destroy it. To learn that what is most valuable is not what they have in their lives, but whom they have in their lives. To learn that it is not good to compare themselves to others. There will always be others better or worse than they are. To learn that a rich person is not one who has the most, but one who has the least. To learn that they should control their attitudes, otherwise their attitudes will control them. To learn that it only takes a few seconds to open profound wounds in persons we love, and that it takes as many years to heal them. To learn that there are persons that love them dearly, but simply do not know how to show their feelings. To learn that money can buy everything but happiness. To learn that while at times they may be entitled to be upset, that does not give them the right to upset those around them. To learn that they are masters of what they keep to themselves and slaves of what they say. To learn that they shall reap what they plant; if they plant gossip they will harvest intrigues, if they plant love they will harvest happiness. To learn that true happiness is not to achieve their goals but to learn to be satisfied with what they already achieved, or die from envy and jealousy of what they lack. To learn that two people can look at the same thing ans see something totally different. To learn that those who are honest with themselves without considering the consequences go far in life. To learn that by trying to hold on to loved ones, they very quickly push them away; and by letting go of those they love, they will be side by side for ever. To learn that even though the word 'love' has many different meanings, it loses value when it is overstated.
"Come in," God said to me. "So, you would like to interview me?"
"If you have time", I answered.
God smiled an said, "My time is called eternity and there is enough to do everything; what questions do you have in mind to ask me?".
"What's the one thing that surprises you most about mankind?"
God answered:
"That they get bored of being children, are in a rush to grow up, and then long to be children again. That they lose their health to make money and then lose their money to restore their health. that by thinking anxiously about the future, they forget the present, such that they live neither for the present nor for the future. That they live as if they will never die, and they die as if they have never lived."
God's hands took mine and we were silent. After a long period, I said, "May I ask another question? As a parent, what would you ask your children to do?"
God replied with a smile:
"To learn that they cannot make anyone love them. What they can do is to let themselves be loved. To learn that it takes years to build trust, and a few seconds to destroy it. To learn that what is most valuable is not what they have in their lives, but whom they have in their lives. To learn that it is not good to compare themselves to others. There will always be others better or worse than they are. To learn that a rich person is not one who has the most, but one who has the least. To learn that they should control their attitudes, otherwise their attitudes will control them. To learn that it only takes a few seconds to open profound wounds in persons we love, and that it takes as many years to heal them. To learn that there are persons that love them dearly, but simply do not know how to show their feelings. To learn that money can buy everything but happiness. To learn that while at times they may be entitled to be upset, that does not give them the right to upset those around them. To learn that they are masters of what they keep to themselves and slaves of what they say. To learn that they shall reap what they plant; if they plant gossip they will harvest intrigues, if they plant love they will harvest happiness. To learn that true happiness is not to achieve their goals but to learn to be satisfied with what they already achieved, or die from envy and jealousy of what they lack. To learn that two people can look at the same thing ans see something totally different. To learn that those who are honest with themselves without considering the consequences go far in life. To learn that by trying to hold on to loved ones, they very quickly push them away; and by letting go of those they love, they will be side by side for ever. To learn that even though the word 'love' has many different meanings, it loses value when it is overstated.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Premiere Review
Essence of the names of God
Ivan Hewett reviews Tavener premiere at Westminster Cathedral
What kind of composer would want to set a list to music? The very idea is a joke, as Rossini acknowledged when he declared he could set a laundry list to music. Even to try seems perverse, when there are so many interesting texts in the world.
But perversity has always been a trait of John Tavener, whose music ranges from Song for Athene, performed at the funeral of the late Princess of Wales, to the seven-hour Veil of the Temple.
His new piece, The Beautiful Names, is a setting of the 99 names of God, as defined in the Koran, and over 70 minutes it processes through them in strict order. There are no time-saving devices, such as layering names one above another in counterpoint. Instead, each of the names is uttered with maximum gravity.
The very opening set the tone. Tenor John Mark Ainsley flung out the name Allah in a tone of heroic radiance, which the BBC Symphony Chorus responded to in kind.
Their rhythm was echoed by the orchestra, as if even dumb things must praise, too. Then the whole gesture was repeated on another chord. And another.
It's the kind of massively simple idea most composers would be embarrassed by. Relying on these gestures is a high-risk strategy, because the gap between inspired simplicity and plodding banality is all too easy to cross.
Tavener did cross it, more than once. But, for me, the remarkable thing about this piece was how well it held its length, and how rarely I found myself counting the names to see how many more I had to sit through.
That Tavener pulled this off is a sign that his language these days seems more disciplined. We didn't get those endless, wailing, "Eastern" vocal lines punctuated by thuds on some exotic-sounding drum.
He showed a knack for capturing a name's expressive essence, such as the dancing brass rhythms for "Al-Muta'âli", "The Most Exalted One".
His real strength, though, is his grasp of form. The names are bunched into groups of 11, each preceded by a shout in praise of Allah, and as the work proceeds subtle symmetries emerge between the groups.
Then, just as you think things are becoming predictable, he breaks the pattern with an awe-inspiring gesture - most notably in the eighth group, when without warning the sound of the organ burst over our heads.
Unusually for Tavener, the music then subsides, ending on an almost diffident note. Could it be the great showman of spiritual music is discovering the value of understatement?
Ivan Hewett reviews Tavener premiere at Westminster Cathedral
What kind of composer would want to set a list to music? The very idea is a joke, as Rossini acknowledged when he declared he could set a laundry list to music. Even to try seems perverse, when there are so many interesting texts in the world.
But perversity has always been a trait of John Tavener, whose music ranges from Song for Athene, performed at the funeral of the late Princess of Wales, to the seven-hour Veil of the Temple.
His new piece, The Beautiful Names, is a setting of the 99 names of God, as defined in the Koran, and over 70 minutes it processes through them in strict order. There are no time-saving devices, such as layering names one above another in counterpoint. Instead, each of the names is uttered with maximum gravity.
The very opening set the tone. Tenor John Mark Ainsley flung out the name Allah in a tone of heroic radiance, which the BBC Symphony Chorus responded to in kind.
Their rhythm was echoed by the orchestra, as if even dumb things must praise, too. Then the whole gesture was repeated on another chord. And another.
It's the kind of massively simple idea most composers would be embarrassed by. Relying on these gestures is a high-risk strategy, because the gap between inspired simplicity and plodding banality is all too easy to cross.
Tavener did cross it, more than once. But, for me, the remarkable thing about this piece was how well it held its length, and how rarely I found myself counting the names to see how many more I had to sit through.
That Tavener pulled this off is a sign that his language these days seems more disciplined. We didn't get those endless, wailing, "Eastern" vocal lines punctuated by thuds on some exotic-sounding drum.
He showed a knack for capturing a name's expressive essence, such as the dancing brass rhythms for "Al-Muta'âli", "The Most Exalted One".
His real strength, though, is his grasp of form. The names are bunched into groups of 11, each preceded by a shout in praise of Allah, and as the work proceeds subtle symmetries emerge between the groups.
Then, just as you think things are becoming predictable, he breaks the pattern with an awe-inspiring gesture - most notably in the eighth group, when without warning the sound of the organ burst over our heads.
Unusually for Tavener, the music then subsides, ending on an almost diffident note. Could it be the great showman of spiritual music is discovering the value of understatement?
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
List of Names
The 99 Names of God according to the tradition of Islam are:
1
Ar-Rahman (الرحمن)
The All Beneficent
2
Ar-Rahim (الرحيم)
The Most Merciful
3
Al-Malik (الملك)
The King, The Sovereign
4
Al-Quddoos (القدوس)
The Most Holy
5
As-Salam (السلام)
The Peace and Blessing
6
Al-Mu'min (المؤمن)
The Guarantor
7
Al-Muhaymin (المهيمن)
The Guardian, The Preserver
8
Al-Azeez (العزيز)
The Almighty, The Self Sufficient
9
Al-Jabbar (الجبار)
The Powerful, The Irresistible
10
Al-Mutakabbir (المتكبر)
The Tremendous
11
Al-Khaliq (الخالق)
The Creator
12
Al-Bari' (البارئ)
The Rightfull
13
Al-Musawwir (المصور)
The Fashioner of Forms
14
Al-Ghaffar (الغفار)
The Ever Forgiving
15
Al-Qahhar (القهار)
The All Compelling Subduer
16
Al-Wahhab (الوهاب)
The Bestower
17
Ar-Razzaq (الرزاق)
The Ever Providing
18
Al-Fattah (الفتاح)
The Opener, The Victory Giver
19
Al-`Aleem (العليم)
The All Knowing, The Omniscient
20
Al-Qabid (القابض)
The Restrainer, The Straightener
21
Al-Basit (الباسط)
The Expander, The Munificent
22
Al-Khafid (الخافض)
The Abaser
23
Ar-Rafi'e (الرافع)
The Exalter
24
Al-Mu'ezz (المعز)
The Giver of Honour
25
Al-Mudhell (المذل)
The Giver of Dishonour
26
As-Sami'e (السميع)
The All Hearing
27
Al-Baseer (البصير)
The All Seeing
28
Al-Hakam (الحكم)
The Judge, The Arbitrator
29
Al-`Adl (العدل)
The Utterly Just
30
Al-Lateef (اللطيف)
The Subtly Kind
31
Al-Khabeer (الخبير)
The All Aware
32
Al-Halim (الحليم)
The Forbearing, The Indulgent
33
Al-Azeem (العظيم)
The Magnificent, The Infinite
34
Al-Ghafoor (الغفور)
The All Forgiving
35
Ash-Shakur (الشكور)
The Grateful
36
Al-Aliyy (العلي)
The Sublimely Exalted
37
Al-Kabeer (الكبير)
The Great
38
Al-Hafeez (الحفيظ)
The Preserver
39
Al-Muqeet (المقيت)
The Nourisher
40
Al-Hasib (الحسيب)
The Reckoner
41
Al-Jaleel (الجليل)
The Majestic
42
Al-Kareem (الكريم)
The Bountiful, The Generous
43
Ar-Raqeeb (الرقيب)
The Watchful
44
Al-Mujeeb (المجيب)
The Responsive, The Answerer
45
Al-Wasse'e (الواسع)
The Vast, The All Encompassing
46
Al-Hakeem (الحكيم)
The Wise
47
Al-Wadood (الودود)
The Loving, The Kind One
48
Al-Majeed (المجيد)
The All Glorious
49
Al-Ba'ith (الباعث)
The Raiser of The Dead
50
Ash-Shaheed (الشهيد)
The Witness
51
Al-Haqq (الحق)
The Truth, The Real
52
Al-Wakeel (الوكيل)
The Trustee, The Dependable
53
Al-Qawaie (القوى)
The Strong
54
Al-Mateen (المتين)
The Firm, The Steadfast
55
Al-Walaie (الولى)
The Protecting Friend, Patron and Helper
56
Al-Hameed (الحميد)
The All Praiseworthy
57
Al-Muhsi (المحصى)
The Accounter, The Numberer of All
58
Al-Mubdi' (المبدئ)
The Producer, Originator, and Initiator of All
59
Al-Mu'eed (المعيد)
The Reinstater Who Brings Back All
60
Al-Muhyee (المحيى)
The Giver of Life
61
Al-Mumeet (المميت)
The Bringer of Death, The Destroyer
62
Al-Hei (الحي)
The Ever Living
63
Al-Qeiyoom (القيوم)
The Self Subsisting Sustainer of All
64
Al-Wajid (الواجد)
The Perceiver, The Finder, The Unfailing
65
Al-Majid (الماجد)
The Illustrious, The Magnificent
66
Al-Wahid (الواحد)
The One, The Unique, Manifestation of Unity
67
Al-Ahad (الاحد)
The One, the All Inclusive, The Indivisible
68
As-Samad (الصمد)
The Self Sufficient, The Impregnable, The Eternally Besought of All, The Everlasting
69
Al-Qadir (القادر)
The All Able
70
Al-Muqtadir (المقتدر)
The All Determiner, The Dominant
71
Al-Muqaddim (المقدم)
The Expediter, He Who Brings Forward
72
Al-Mu'akhir (المؤخر)
The Delayer, He Who Puts Far Away
73
Al-Awwal (الأول)
The First
74
Al-Akhir (الأخر)
The Last
75
Az-Zahir (الظاهر)
The Manifest, The All Victorious
76
Al-Batin (الباطن)
The Hidden, The All Encompassing
77
Al-Wali (الوالي)
The Patron
78
Al-Muta'ali (المتعالي)
The Self Exalted
79
Al-Barr (البر)
The Most Kind and Righteous
80
At-Tawwab (التواب)
The Ever Returning, Ever Relenting
81
Al-Muntaqim (المنتقم)
The Avenger
82
Al-'Afuww (العفو)
The Pardoner, The Effacer of Sins
83
Ar-Ra'oof (الرؤوف)
The Compassionate, The All Pitying
84
Malik-al-Mulk (مالك الملك)
The Owner of All Sovereignty
85
Dhu-al-Jalal wa-al-Ikram (ذو الجلال و الإكرام)
The Lord of Majesty and Generosity
86
Al-Muqsit (المقسط)
The Equitable, The Requiter
87
Al-Jami'e (الجامع)
The Gatherer, The Unifier
88
Al-Ghanaie (الغنى)
The All Rich, The Independent
89
Al-Mughni (المغنى)
The Enricher, The Emancipator
90
Al-Mani'e (المانع)
The Withholder, The Shielder, the Defender
91
Ad-Darr (الضار)
The Distressor, The Harmer (This attribute can only be found in hadith)
92
An-Nafi'e (النافع)
The Propitious, The Benefactor
93
An-Noor (النور)
The Light
94
Al-Hadi (الهادي)
The Guide
95
Al-Badi (البديع)
The Incomparable, The Originator
96
Al-Baqi (الباقي)
The Ever Enduring and Immutable
97
Al-Warith (الوارث)
The Heir, The Inheritor of All
98
Ar-Rasheed (الرشيد)
The Guide, Infallible Teacher and Knower
99
As-Saboor (الصبور)
The Patient, The Timeless
Another epithet found in the Qur'an is Dhul Fadl al Azim (ذو الفضل العظيم) "The Lord of Infinite Grace" but it is not part of the traditional list of the 99 names of God.
100th Name of God
Muslims teach that there are 99 names for God and that the 100th name is hidden. The idea has become a kind of mystery with little reference to what it means.
Once again, the Hadith about the names of God says:
"Verily, there are ninety-nine names of God, one hundred minus one. He who enumerates them would get into Paradise."
Sufism
In Sufism, the idea of the 100th name is most prominent. It has become the elusive object of mystic devotion, the symbol of God's transcendent being
Sufis often describe their discipline as the quest to know the one-hundredth name of God and thus to merge their consciousness with the divine reality.
Mahdi
Other such Hadiths, which vary according to different Shi'a sects of Islam, suggest that the 100th Name will be revealed by the Mahdi.
Bahá'í
The Bahá'í Faith has claimed to fulfill the prophecy of the Mahdi, and the 100th name was revealed as "Bahá’" (an Arabic word بهاء meaning "glory, splendor" etc.), and is the root word for Bahá'u'lláh and Bahá'í. The Báb wrote a noted pentagram tablet with 360 derivatives of the word "Bahá'" used in it. While the Bahá'í Faith has roots in Islam, it is an independent religion, and its followers are not considered Muslims.
Arab Christianity
In Arab Christianity, the idea of the 100th name is based on the trinitarian idea. Thus the 100th name of God for some Arab Christians is الثالوث المقدس ath-Thalouth al-Muqaddas, meaning 'Holy Trinity'.
1
Ar-Rahman (الرحمن)
The All Beneficent
2
Ar-Rahim (الرحيم)
The Most Merciful
3
Al-Malik (الملك)
The King, The Sovereign
4
Al-Quddoos (القدوس)
The Most Holy
5
As-Salam (السلام)
The Peace and Blessing
6
Al-Mu'min (المؤمن)
The Guarantor
7
Al-Muhaymin (المهيمن)
The Guardian, The Preserver
8
Al-Azeez (العزيز)
The Almighty, The Self Sufficient
9
Al-Jabbar (الجبار)
The Powerful, The Irresistible
10
Al-Mutakabbir (المتكبر)
The Tremendous
11
Al-Khaliq (الخالق)
The Creator
12
Al-Bari' (البارئ)
The Rightfull
13
Al-Musawwir (المصور)
The Fashioner of Forms
14
Al-Ghaffar (الغفار)
The Ever Forgiving
15
Al-Qahhar (القهار)
The All Compelling Subduer
16
Al-Wahhab (الوهاب)
The Bestower
17
Ar-Razzaq (الرزاق)
The Ever Providing
18
Al-Fattah (الفتاح)
The Opener, The Victory Giver
19
Al-`Aleem (العليم)
The All Knowing, The Omniscient
20
Al-Qabid (القابض)
The Restrainer, The Straightener
21
Al-Basit (الباسط)
The Expander, The Munificent
22
Al-Khafid (الخافض)
The Abaser
23
Ar-Rafi'e (الرافع)
The Exalter
24
Al-Mu'ezz (المعز)
The Giver of Honour
25
Al-Mudhell (المذل)
The Giver of Dishonour
26
As-Sami'e (السميع)
The All Hearing
27
Al-Baseer (البصير)
The All Seeing
28
Al-Hakam (الحكم)
The Judge, The Arbitrator
29
Al-`Adl (العدل)
The Utterly Just
30
Al-Lateef (اللطيف)
The Subtly Kind
31
Al-Khabeer (الخبير)
The All Aware
32
Al-Halim (الحليم)
The Forbearing, The Indulgent
33
Al-Azeem (العظيم)
The Magnificent, The Infinite
34
Al-Ghafoor (الغفور)
The All Forgiving
35
Ash-Shakur (الشكور)
The Grateful
36
Al-Aliyy (العلي)
The Sublimely Exalted
37
Al-Kabeer (الكبير)
The Great
38
Al-Hafeez (الحفيظ)
The Preserver
39
Al-Muqeet (المقيت)
The Nourisher
40
Al-Hasib (الحسيب)
The Reckoner
41
Al-Jaleel (الجليل)
The Majestic
42
Al-Kareem (الكريم)
The Bountiful, The Generous
43
Ar-Raqeeb (الرقيب)
The Watchful
44
Al-Mujeeb (المجيب)
The Responsive, The Answerer
45
Al-Wasse'e (الواسع)
The Vast, The All Encompassing
46
Al-Hakeem (الحكيم)
The Wise
47
Al-Wadood (الودود)
The Loving, The Kind One
48
Al-Majeed (المجيد)
The All Glorious
49
Al-Ba'ith (الباعث)
The Raiser of The Dead
50
Ash-Shaheed (الشهيد)
The Witness
51
Al-Haqq (الحق)
The Truth, The Real
52
Al-Wakeel (الوكيل)
The Trustee, The Dependable
53
Al-Qawaie (القوى)
The Strong
54
Al-Mateen (المتين)
The Firm, The Steadfast
55
Al-Walaie (الولى)
The Protecting Friend, Patron and Helper
56
Al-Hameed (الحميد)
The All Praiseworthy
57
Al-Muhsi (المحصى)
The Accounter, The Numberer of All
58
Al-Mubdi' (المبدئ)
The Producer, Originator, and Initiator of All
59
Al-Mu'eed (المعيد)
The Reinstater Who Brings Back All
60
Al-Muhyee (المحيى)
The Giver of Life
61
Al-Mumeet (المميت)
The Bringer of Death, The Destroyer
62
Al-Hei (الحي)
The Ever Living
63
Al-Qeiyoom (القيوم)
The Self Subsisting Sustainer of All
64
Al-Wajid (الواجد)
The Perceiver, The Finder, The Unfailing
65
Al-Majid (الماجد)
The Illustrious, The Magnificent
66
Al-Wahid (الواحد)
The One, The Unique, Manifestation of Unity
67
Al-Ahad (الاحد)
The One, the All Inclusive, The Indivisible
68
As-Samad (الصمد)
The Self Sufficient, The Impregnable, The Eternally Besought of All, The Everlasting
69
Al-Qadir (القادر)
The All Able
70
Al-Muqtadir (المقتدر)
The All Determiner, The Dominant
71
Al-Muqaddim (المقدم)
The Expediter, He Who Brings Forward
72
Al-Mu'akhir (المؤخر)
The Delayer, He Who Puts Far Away
73
Al-Awwal (الأول)
The First
74
Al-Akhir (الأخر)
The Last
75
Az-Zahir (الظاهر)
The Manifest, The All Victorious
76
Al-Batin (الباطن)
The Hidden, The All Encompassing
77
Al-Wali (الوالي)
The Patron
78
Al-Muta'ali (المتعالي)
The Self Exalted
79
Al-Barr (البر)
The Most Kind and Righteous
80
At-Tawwab (التواب)
The Ever Returning, Ever Relenting
81
Al-Muntaqim (المنتقم)
The Avenger
82
Al-'Afuww (العفو)
The Pardoner, The Effacer of Sins
83
Ar-Ra'oof (الرؤوف)
The Compassionate, The All Pitying
84
Malik-al-Mulk (مالك الملك)
The Owner of All Sovereignty
85
Dhu-al-Jalal wa-al-Ikram (ذو الجلال و الإكرام)
The Lord of Majesty and Generosity
86
Al-Muqsit (المقسط)
The Equitable, The Requiter
87
Al-Jami'e (الجامع)
The Gatherer, The Unifier
88
Al-Ghanaie (الغنى)
The All Rich, The Independent
89
Al-Mughni (المغنى)
The Enricher, The Emancipator
90
Al-Mani'e (المانع)
The Withholder, The Shielder, the Defender
91
Ad-Darr (الضار)
The Distressor, The Harmer (This attribute can only be found in hadith)
92
An-Nafi'e (النافع)
The Propitious, The Benefactor
93
An-Noor (النور)
The Light
94
Al-Hadi (الهادي)
The Guide
95
Al-Badi (البديع)
The Incomparable, The Originator
96
Al-Baqi (الباقي)
The Ever Enduring and Immutable
97
Al-Warith (الوارث)
The Heir, The Inheritor of All
98
Ar-Rasheed (الرشيد)
The Guide, Infallible Teacher and Knower
99
As-Saboor (الصبور)
The Patient, The Timeless
Another epithet found in the Qur'an is Dhul Fadl al Azim (ذو الفضل العظيم) "The Lord of Infinite Grace" but it is not part of the traditional list of the 99 names of God.
100th Name of God
Muslims teach that there are 99 names for God and that the 100th name is hidden. The idea has become a kind of mystery with little reference to what it means.
Once again, the Hadith about the names of God says:
"Verily, there are ninety-nine names of God, one hundred minus one. He who enumerates them would get into Paradise."
Sufism
In Sufism, the idea of the 100th name is most prominent. It has become the elusive object of mystic devotion, the symbol of God's transcendent being
Sufis often describe their discipline as the quest to know the one-hundredth name of God and thus to merge their consciousness with the divine reality.
Mahdi
Other such Hadiths, which vary according to different Shi'a sects of Islam, suggest that the 100th Name will be revealed by the Mahdi.
Bahá'í
The Bahá'í Faith has claimed to fulfill the prophecy of the Mahdi, and the 100th name was revealed as "Bahá’" (an Arabic word بهاء meaning "glory, splendor" etc.), and is the root word for Bahá'u'lláh and Bahá'í. The Báb wrote a noted pentagram tablet with 360 derivatives of the word "Bahá'" used in it. While the Bahá'í Faith has roots in Islam, it is an independent religion, and its followers are not considered Muslims.
Arab Christianity
In Arab Christianity, the idea of the 100th name is based on the trinitarian idea. Thus the 100th name of God for some Arab Christians is الثالوث المقدس ath-Thalouth al-Muqaddas, meaning 'Holy Trinity'.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
John Tavener's inspiration
'I had a dream vision'
John Tavener tells Charlotte Higgins how his life-changing encounter with an Apache medicine man led him to write a piece praising Allah for the Prince of Wales
Monday June 11, 2007
The Guardian
John Tavener does not fit into his surroundings. This tall, etiolated, sunbaked 63-year-old with lanky shoulder-length blond hair, dressed in white linen trousers and shirt, looks as if he would be more appropriately placed in a setting of either John Pawson-style minimalism or byzantine, gilded splendour. Not in a Dorset farmhouse with chickens in the garden, wellies on the bootstand, squashy sofas in the sitting room and a flatscreen telly. This is, after all, the composer of the night-long meditational piece The Veil of the Temple; and Song for Athene, which was performed at Diana's funeral and confirmed him as a household name. He is the composer, in other words, of deeply spiritual, otherworldly, heartfelt, heartstopping music. Or bland, populist, new-age pap - depending on your point of view.
The next big moment for Tavener is the premiere of a large-scale piece for chorus and orchestra. It has been commissioned by the Prince of Wales, with whom he became friends more than a decade ago "because we share views on the importance of all religious traditions". Again, what you will make of this one depends on your point of view. It's called The Beautiful Names, and it's a setting of the 99 names for Allah from the Qur'an. It's going to be performed in the Roman Catholic Westminster Cathedral next week, then a few days later in Istanbul. Tavener is Greek Orthodox, to which he converted years ago after a Presbyterian upbringing.
You could see The Beautiful Names as a moving congruence of disparate religions in difficult times. Or then again, you could you assign it to roughly the same category as talking to your plants or having a manservant charge your toothbrush. I should be upfront here: my inclination is to go with the latter view.
Tavener, though, is fantastically disarming. When he starts talking about his music being written through divine agency and having visions brought on by chatting to Apache medicine men and what a bad idea the Enlightenment was, part of you wants to snort with derision. The other part realises that, however batty it all sounds, he means it, and it's real for him. If a sense of conviction is a defence these days (and according to Tony Blair, it is), then at least you can say of Tavener: it's not phoney.
In recent years he has begun to broaden his spiritual horizons, he tells me over tea in the garden. "The path I follow is still an Orthodox path," he says. "You have to follow a path, otherwise it becomes a little bit new-age, a bit of this, a bit of that ... But I suppose I had a dream vision after a visit from an Apache Indian medicine man. Many people when they've met American Indians have very strong dreams afterwards. I had a kind of vision from the Sufi Frithjof Schuon, who was a believer in the inner transcendent unity of all religions. And he seemed to be giving me permission, in a way, to work musically within other traditions. It wasn't that the Christian thing was failing me in any way, but rather that it enriched it by going into other things, particularly Hinduism and Sufism."
He is planning a choral piece called The Flood of Beauty, a setting of a 9th-century Sanskrit poem that "shows God in the feminine aspect, as beauty". There's also the premiere in Zurich this year of a Mass for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. In his note on the piece, he writes: "I have used Latin, Sanskrit, Arabic, Aramaic, Greek, American Indian, German and Italian to express something of the divine effulgence of the feminine that the Mother of God has revealed to my soul."
One of the dedicatees of the work is Pope Benedict. Tavener is an admirer, then? "Sort of, because he's a traditionalist, and I think that's very important. Part of the senility of religion, I seriously believe, is Vatican Two [an Ecumenical Council of the Vatican which held sessions between 1962-65]. It was the third betrayal of Christ. Where they started throwing out Latin and all the best music ... I think it was a downward path for the Catholic church. It was trying to modernise religion. They are eternal truths and if you try to modernise it, it just becomes ridiculous."
The Enlightenment, and the art associated with it, is just as bad: "In his late quartets, Beethoven introduces an element that shouldn't be there, that should be left for meditation, though I love them. I can see that through them came Wagner and Mahler and Schoenberg and Berg. And then came Tracey Emin. And I can see it all as one downward path."
According to Hindu metaphysics, says Tavener, we are reaching the end of a long cosmic cycle. This accounts for the amount of religious fundamentalism now, which he likens to the senility of old age. In art, does Emin represent the bottom of the cycle, I wonder. "No, it will go much further than that!" he exclaims delightedly. "She's a funny little thing, isn't she?"
The idea of the eternal feminine is important to Tavener. He tells me about a visionary to whom the Virgin Mary would appear, always naked. I am not sure Pope Benedict would approve. He says Mary "feels closer to me than Christ. I can't explain that - she's much more mysterious because there's so little known about her, yet she seems very active in the world in an extraordinary way." He doesn't say how. "I think our society at the moment - because I am a great critic of modernism - is very masculine-oriented, and the art I see and hear around me has gone beyond masculinity, it doesn't even possess the dignity of being masculine any longer. It is very aggressive and violent. And the feminine dimension is what everyone could do with having a good dose of." The feminine represents mercy and love, he says.
It's not just the essence of the feminine, it's women, "though a lot of rubbish has been written about me and women," he says. His first marriage, to a Greek dancer, was annulled. He never moved in with her, preferring to remain in the maternal home in Wembley Park in London ("I think my brother thinks she spoiled me terribly"). He was in his early 30s. "Even the prophet Mohammed said that the things that were most pleasing to him in this world were women and perfumes. I think women actually have that effect on me. Every woman I have known has actually deepened my spiritual awareness. Even if I have been a selfish man and treated them badly ... There were two women, I won't name them, who had a powerful religious effect on me. The ancient idea of a muse is there. It wasn't so much an erotic thing, though you can't leave the erotic out of it."
Tavener is now married again, to Maryanna, "who has bullied me into having children and continues to bully me, which is good. If I had any ego left, she is very good at demolishing it." They have three children: girls of 14 and 13 and a baby boy. I find it hard to imagine Tavener the family man, even faced with its reality. Maryanna tells me later that he accompanies the girls at the piano on their musical instruments, but he always leads, and also that he does all the cooking, mostly south Indian curries. He never thought he'd have children "in a million years" but "I can't be grateful enough that Maryanna pushed me into it, and even into a third". When he works here, as opposed to in Evia, in Greece, where there's a house to which he retreats several times a year, he occupies a room "exactly in the centre of the house. I quite like being in the centre, among all the noises that the children make."
The inspiration behind the work, behind the music, comes straight from God, Tavener believes; and it is the beauty of nature, and the world, that engenders his belief in the divine. "When something extraordinary happens to me - or it doesn't have to be extraordinary, I mean if you see a wonderful sunset or plunge into the sea and swim - my immediate reaction has always been, and is even more so now, thank God for this. The music is something outside myself, that's also inside myself ... Music and a sense of another presence always went hand in hand. Even when I was three, I would improvise music, and my maternal grandfather would act as an audience and used to applaud. I would imitate things like thunder and rain."
Tavener owns an old Bentley, the same as Prince Charles'. When the photographer comes, he is driving a 1968 Bristol, and Tavener gets excited. After taking some portraits, the photographer lets him sit in the driver's seat. As I get into Maryanna's car and she eases out down the drive to take me to the station, I can still see him. He's smiling in pure wonderment; not moving.
John Tavener tells Charlotte Higgins how his life-changing encounter with an Apache medicine man led him to write a piece praising Allah for the Prince of Wales
Monday June 11, 2007
The Guardian
John Tavener does not fit into his surroundings. This tall, etiolated, sunbaked 63-year-old with lanky shoulder-length blond hair, dressed in white linen trousers and shirt, looks as if he would be more appropriately placed in a setting of either John Pawson-style minimalism or byzantine, gilded splendour. Not in a Dorset farmhouse with chickens in the garden, wellies on the bootstand, squashy sofas in the sitting room and a flatscreen telly. This is, after all, the composer of the night-long meditational piece The Veil of the Temple; and Song for Athene, which was performed at Diana's funeral and confirmed him as a household name. He is the composer, in other words, of deeply spiritual, otherworldly, heartfelt, heartstopping music. Or bland, populist, new-age pap - depending on your point of view.
The next big moment for Tavener is the premiere of a large-scale piece for chorus and orchestra. It has been commissioned by the Prince of Wales, with whom he became friends more than a decade ago "because we share views on the importance of all religious traditions". Again, what you will make of this one depends on your point of view. It's called The Beautiful Names, and it's a setting of the 99 names for Allah from the Qur'an. It's going to be performed in the Roman Catholic Westminster Cathedral next week, then a few days later in Istanbul. Tavener is Greek Orthodox, to which he converted years ago after a Presbyterian upbringing.
You could see The Beautiful Names as a moving congruence of disparate religions in difficult times. Or then again, you could you assign it to roughly the same category as talking to your plants or having a manservant charge your toothbrush. I should be upfront here: my inclination is to go with the latter view.
Tavener, though, is fantastically disarming. When he starts talking about his music being written through divine agency and having visions brought on by chatting to Apache medicine men and what a bad idea the Enlightenment was, part of you wants to snort with derision. The other part realises that, however batty it all sounds, he means it, and it's real for him. If a sense of conviction is a defence these days (and according to Tony Blair, it is), then at least you can say of Tavener: it's not phoney.
In recent years he has begun to broaden his spiritual horizons, he tells me over tea in the garden. "The path I follow is still an Orthodox path," he says. "You have to follow a path, otherwise it becomes a little bit new-age, a bit of this, a bit of that ... But I suppose I had a dream vision after a visit from an Apache Indian medicine man. Many people when they've met American Indians have very strong dreams afterwards. I had a kind of vision from the Sufi Frithjof Schuon, who was a believer in the inner transcendent unity of all religions. And he seemed to be giving me permission, in a way, to work musically within other traditions. It wasn't that the Christian thing was failing me in any way, but rather that it enriched it by going into other things, particularly Hinduism and Sufism."
He is planning a choral piece called The Flood of Beauty, a setting of a 9th-century Sanskrit poem that "shows God in the feminine aspect, as beauty". There's also the premiere in Zurich this year of a Mass for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. In his note on the piece, he writes: "I have used Latin, Sanskrit, Arabic, Aramaic, Greek, American Indian, German and Italian to express something of the divine effulgence of the feminine that the Mother of God has revealed to my soul."
One of the dedicatees of the work is Pope Benedict. Tavener is an admirer, then? "Sort of, because he's a traditionalist, and I think that's very important. Part of the senility of religion, I seriously believe, is Vatican Two [an Ecumenical Council of the Vatican which held sessions between 1962-65]. It was the third betrayal of Christ. Where they started throwing out Latin and all the best music ... I think it was a downward path for the Catholic church. It was trying to modernise religion. They are eternal truths and if you try to modernise it, it just becomes ridiculous."
The Enlightenment, and the art associated with it, is just as bad: "In his late quartets, Beethoven introduces an element that shouldn't be there, that should be left for meditation, though I love them. I can see that through them came Wagner and Mahler and Schoenberg and Berg. And then came Tracey Emin. And I can see it all as one downward path."
According to Hindu metaphysics, says Tavener, we are reaching the end of a long cosmic cycle. This accounts for the amount of religious fundamentalism now, which he likens to the senility of old age. In art, does Emin represent the bottom of the cycle, I wonder. "No, it will go much further than that!" he exclaims delightedly. "She's a funny little thing, isn't she?"
The idea of the eternal feminine is important to Tavener. He tells me about a visionary to whom the Virgin Mary would appear, always naked. I am not sure Pope Benedict would approve. He says Mary "feels closer to me than Christ. I can't explain that - she's much more mysterious because there's so little known about her, yet she seems very active in the world in an extraordinary way." He doesn't say how. "I think our society at the moment - because I am a great critic of modernism - is very masculine-oriented, and the art I see and hear around me has gone beyond masculinity, it doesn't even possess the dignity of being masculine any longer. It is very aggressive and violent. And the feminine dimension is what everyone could do with having a good dose of." The feminine represents mercy and love, he says.
It's not just the essence of the feminine, it's women, "though a lot of rubbish has been written about me and women," he says. His first marriage, to a Greek dancer, was annulled. He never moved in with her, preferring to remain in the maternal home in Wembley Park in London ("I think my brother thinks she spoiled me terribly"). He was in his early 30s. "Even the prophet Mohammed said that the things that were most pleasing to him in this world were women and perfumes. I think women actually have that effect on me. Every woman I have known has actually deepened my spiritual awareness. Even if I have been a selfish man and treated them badly ... There were two women, I won't name them, who had a powerful religious effect on me. The ancient idea of a muse is there. It wasn't so much an erotic thing, though you can't leave the erotic out of it."
Tavener is now married again, to Maryanna, "who has bullied me into having children and continues to bully me, which is good. If I had any ego left, she is very good at demolishing it." They have three children: girls of 14 and 13 and a baby boy. I find it hard to imagine Tavener the family man, even faced with its reality. Maryanna tells me later that he accompanies the girls at the piano on their musical instruments, but he always leads, and also that he does all the cooking, mostly south Indian curries. He never thought he'd have children "in a million years" but "I can't be grateful enough that Maryanna pushed me into it, and even into a third". When he works here, as opposed to in Evia, in Greece, where there's a house to which he retreats several times a year, he occupies a room "exactly in the centre of the house. I quite like being in the centre, among all the noises that the children make."
The inspiration behind the work, behind the music, comes straight from God, Tavener believes; and it is the beauty of nature, and the world, that engenders his belief in the divine. "When something extraordinary happens to me - or it doesn't have to be extraordinary, I mean if you see a wonderful sunset or plunge into the sea and swim - my immediate reaction has always been, and is even more so now, thank God for this. The music is something outside myself, that's also inside myself ... Music and a sense of another presence always went hand in hand. Even when I was three, I would improvise music, and my maternal grandfather would act as an audience and used to applaud. I would imitate things like thunder and rain."
Tavener owns an old Bentley, the same as Prince Charles'. When the photographer comes, he is driving a 1968 Bristol, and Tavener gets excited. After taking some portraits, the photographer lets him sit in the driver's seat. As I get into Maryanna's car and she eases out down the drive to take me to the station, I can still see him. He's smiling in pure wonderment; not moving.
Monday, June 18, 2007
The Beautiful Names
The Beautiful Names of God
By Christopher Howse
Sacred mysteries
God will be invoked in Arabic in Westminster Cathedral on June 19, with the first performance of Sir John Tavener's The Beautiful Names. Sir John's work, commissioned by the Prince of Wales, lasts for 70 minutes and will be performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the choir of the cathedral.
Some will think it odd to call God by the name Allah in a Christian church. But Allah is simply the Arabic for God, just as God is Deus in Latin, Bog in Russian.
The word Allah refers to the same God that Jews and Christians worship. There is no doubt of that. He is the God of Abraham and Isaac; the one living God. He is the God that Jesus worshipped and whom he invoked, in Aramaic, as he died on the cross, calling on him by the name Eloi.
In a way, the word used to refer to God is arbitrary. It functions as a common noun, in the same way as tree or mountain. The difference is that there may be many trees or mountains, but, by his nature, there can only be one God.
At the same time, God is not just another item in the universe. He existed before he made the universe and he is not identified with any created thing or by the totality of created things. Indeed, it is impossible for us creatures to conceive of his nature. But we attribute perfections to him in an attempt to say something about him. Believers use these attributes to praise him in adoration.
Christians call God the Almighty. So do Muslims; they call him al-Jabbar. This has connotations of being irresistible. Christians call God the Holy One. So do Muslims: al-Quddus (which perhaps has connotations of purity and separateness; but then so does holy in the Bible). They call him al-Khaliq, the Creator, as Christians do.
All the 99 traditional names, or attributes, of God used by Muslims are concepts familiar to Christians when they contemplate God. The Islamic names of God are to be found in the Koran and, for that reason, their connotations are different from those from the Bible and Christian tradition.
In commenting on how different names seem to signify contrary aspects in God, the 13th-century Sufi writer Jalal al-Din Rumi explained: "Just as a person is, in relation to you, a father and, in relation to someone else, either a son or a brother, so the names of God have their relations.
He is, from the viewpoint of the infidel, the Conqueror; from our viewpoint, the Merciful."
It is a pious practice in Islam to recite the names of God. A hadith, or saying handed down from the time of Mohammed, says: "He who enumerates them would get into Paradise."
The names are recited in turn, or, in another practice, one name is recited 33 times or 99 times, as a way of concentrating on this attribute. People use strings of beads to keep count of the names they recite. Foolish Westerners often think they are "worry beads".
For a Christian, the alien aspect of the devotion to the Beautiful Names is the natural lack of any reference to Jesus, through whom Christian prayer is normally made. Yet Christians do contemplate the perfections of God in their prayer, when they want to.
I do not expect John Tavener's work to please many Muslims. Muslims drop in to Westminster Cathedral, but rarely for services. It would be surprising if they did.
The other thing is that Sir John Tavener has, in recent years, taken up the ideas of René Guéon and Frithjof Schuon. Both thinkers argued that there is a perennial philosophy behind the major religions in the esoteric understanding of their teachings. Guéon, as far as I understand it, made esoteric traditions more compatible with the truthfulness of Christian doctrine.
But such esoteric universalism can be deeply suspect to many Muslims, not to mention quite a few Christians.
A Christian Response
Respectfully, the God of Islam and the God of the Christian Bible are not the same person. Islam teaches a strict monotheism. The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem placards the sign 'God has no son.' Christians however believe in a Trinitarian God - that the One God is revealed in Three Persons of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That the eternal God has an eternal Son is central to the Christian Faith. Two thousand years or so ago, the eternal Son became Man in Jesus Christ ' for us and for our salvation', and in doing so divided time into BC and AD, and procured the eternal salvation of all who put their faith in Him and His death in the place of sinners at Calvary's cross.
Prince of Wales
I see we have skated past the role of the self-proclaimed "Defender of Faiths" in all this. Prince Charles may like to do things which are multi-Faith in intent but I was under the impression that we had identified that multi-culturalisem in Britain has turned out to be a failed concept - not leats because it actually turns out that it perpetuates plural mono-cultures with no cross-over. It is Christianity that is in decline in Britain. The Queen holds very firmly on to the (albeit Catholic) title of "Defender of The Faith" - her heir would do a lot better if he found ways to revive interest in Christian worship as a regular thing in more households. As our Churches close and are deconsecrated for other uses or redeveloped - there has never been a bigger rash of Mosque building - all of which will be packed. Islam needs no help - Christianity most certainly does. I think a Faith where we are turning away from a God with one (or three if you look at the Holy Trinity) identity is in worse shape than another where it is common practice to use the 99 names they have for Allah as a prayer mantra. Our decline and decadence as seen in non-Western eyes has direct correlation with the decline of active celebration of our nominal mainstream Faith - Christianity - in Britain (and other western countries for that matter). Islam is watching and can claim with some conviction to be more devout and respected. Has it occurred to anyone that, though actually a small minority in Britain, the number of actively worshipping Muslims each week may already exceed the numbers entering Christian churches?
By Christopher Howse
Sacred mysteries
God will be invoked in Arabic in Westminster Cathedral on June 19, with the first performance of Sir John Tavener's The Beautiful Names. Sir John's work, commissioned by the Prince of Wales, lasts for 70 minutes and will be performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the choir of the cathedral.
Some will think it odd to call God by the name Allah in a Christian church. But Allah is simply the Arabic for God, just as God is Deus in Latin, Bog in Russian.
The word Allah refers to the same God that Jews and Christians worship. There is no doubt of that. He is the God of Abraham and Isaac; the one living God. He is the God that Jesus worshipped and whom he invoked, in Aramaic, as he died on the cross, calling on him by the name Eloi.
In a way, the word used to refer to God is arbitrary. It functions as a common noun, in the same way as tree or mountain. The difference is that there may be many trees or mountains, but, by his nature, there can only be one God.
At the same time, God is not just another item in the universe. He existed before he made the universe and he is not identified with any created thing or by the totality of created things. Indeed, it is impossible for us creatures to conceive of his nature. But we attribute perfections to him in an attempt to say something about him. Believers use these attributes to praise him in adoration.
Christians call God the Almighty. So do Muslims; they call him al-Jabbar. This has connotations of being irresistible. Christians call God the Holy One. So do Muslims: al-Quddus (which perhaps has connotations of purity and separateness; but then so does holy in the Bible). They call him al-Khaliq, the Creator, as Christians do.
All the 99 traditional names, or attributes, of God used by Muslims are concepts familiar to Christians when they contemplate God. The Islamic names of God are to be found in the Koran and, for that reason, their connotations are different from those from the Bible and Christian tradition.
In commenting on how different names seem to signify contrary aspects in God, the 13th-century Sufi writer Jalal al-Din Rumi explained: "Just as a person is, in relation to you, a father and, in relation to someone else, either a son or a brother, so the names of God have their relations.
He is, from the viewpoint of the infidel, the Conqueror; from our viewpoint, the Merciful."
It is a pious practice in Islam to recite the names of God. A hadith, or saying handed down from the time of Mohammed, says: "He who enumerates them would get into Paradise."
The names are recited in turn, or, in another practice, one name is recited 33 times or 99 times, as a way of concentrating on this attribute. People use strings of beads to keep count of the names they recite. Foolish Westerners often think they are "worry beads".
For a Christian, the alien aspect of the devotion to the Beautiful Names is the natural lack of any reference to Jesus, through whom Christian prayer is normally made. Yet Christians do contemplate the perfections of God in their prayer, when they want to.
I do not expect John Tavener's work to please many Muslims. Muslims drop in to Westminster Cathedral, but rarely for services. It would be surprising if they did.
The other thing is that Sir John Tavener has, in recent years, taken up the ideas of René Guéon and Frithjof Schuon. Both thinkers argued that there is a perennial philosophy behind the major religions in the esoteric understanding of their teachings. Guéon, as far as I understand it, made esoteric traditions more compatible with the truthfulness of Christian doctrine.
But such esoteric universalism can be deeply suspect to many Muslims, not to mention quite a few Christians.
A Christian Response
Respectfully, the God of Islam and the God of the Christian Bible are not the same person. Islam teaches a strict monotheism. The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem placards the sign 'God has no son.' Christians however believe in a Trinitarian God - that the One God is revealed in Three Persons of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That the eternal God has an eternal Son is central to the Christian Faith. Two thousand years or so ago, the eternal Son became Man in Jesus Christ ' for us and for our salvation', and in doing so divided time into BC and AD, and procured the eternal salvation of all who put their faith in Him and His death in the place of sinners at Calvary's cross.
Prince of Wales
I see we have skated past the role of the self-proclaimed "Defender of Faiths" in all this. Prince Charles may like to do things which are multi-Faith in intent but I was under the impression that we had identified that multi-culturalisem in Britain has turned out to be a failed concept - not leats because it actually turns out that it perpetuates plural mono-cultures with no cross-over. It is Christianity that is in decline in Britain. The Queen holds very firmly on to the (albeit Catholic) title of "Defender of The Faith" - her heir would do a lot better if he found ways to revive interest in Christian worship as a regular thing in more households. As our Churches close and are deconsecrated for other uses or redeveloped - there has never been a bigger rash of Mosque building - all of which will be packed. Islam needs no help - Christianity most certainly does. I think a Faith where we are turning away from a God with one (or three if you look at the Holy Trinity) identity is in worse shape than another where it is common practice to use the 99 names they have for Allah as a prayer mantra. Our decline and decadence as seen in non-Western eyes has direct correlation with the decline of active celebration of our nominal mainstream Faith - Christianity - in Britain (and other western countries for that matter). Islam is watching and can claim with some conviction to be more devout and respected. Has it occurred to anyone that, though actually a small minority in Britain, the number of actively worshipping Muslims each week may already exceed the numbers entering Christian churches?
Monday, March 05, 2007
The Return of God
My title comes from an article in Saturday's Telegraph by John Humphrys who recently chaired a debate in Westminster Central Hall ,before a capacity crowd, on the existence of God and not long ago, in a radio series, invited distinguished faith leaders to help him in his personal search for God. These experiences have led him to suspect that currently there is some kind of religious renaissance in progress.
This past week a Hollywood director, James Cameron, claims to have found the bones of Jesus but this doesn't seem to be creating any upsurge of unbelief in those who previously believed in God and in the Incarnation.
On the other hand Dr Eric Kaufmann of Birbeck College has recently written a piece entitled "God returns to Europe" claiming there is a religious revival in progress "that may be as profound as that which changed the course of the Roman Empire in the 4th century".
More than 8 million people have now experienced the Alpha Course, begun at Holy Trinity, Brompton.
The pro God debater at Westminster, William Craig, said "The average Christian does not realise there is an intellectual war going on in the universities and in the professional journals and scholarly societies. Christianity is being attacked from all sides as irrational or outmoded and millions of students, our future generation of leaders, have absorbed this viewpoint. This is a war which we cannot afford to lose."
In this battle we are not looking for the conviction of proof but rather the confidence of faith. "Without God life is absurd, without ultimate significance, value or purpose" says Prof Craig.
All this surely keys in to the Lent course "4O DAYS" and the encouragement of prayer for revival which I wrote about in an earlier blog. "More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of".
This past week a Hollywood director, James Cameron, claims to have found the bones of Jesus but this doesn't seem to be creating any upsurge of unbelief in those who previously believed in God and in the Incarnation.
On the other hand Dr Eric Kaufmann of Birbeck College has recently written a piece entitled "God returns to Europe" claiming there is a religious revival in progress "that may be as profound as that which changed the course of the Roman Empire in the 4th century".
More than 8 million people have now experienced the Alpha Course, begun at Holy Trinity, Brompton.
The pro God debater at Westminster, William Craig, said "The average Christian does not realise there is an intellectual war going on in the universities and in the professional journals and scholarly societies. Christianity is being attacked from all sides as irrational or outmoded and millions of students, our future generation of leaders, have absorbed this viewpoint. This is a war which we cannot afford to lose."
In this battle we are not looking for the conviction of proof but rather the confidence of faith. "Without God life is absurd, without ultimate significance, value or purpose" says Prof Craig.
All this surely keys in to the Lent course "4O DAYS" and the encouragement of prayer for revival which I wrote about in an earlier blog. "More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of".
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