Product Description

Most people say they believe in God, but few go to Church. Has the Church lost the plot? Or is there simply no God?

Why do we still `believe'? Exploring meaning , creating it, this is what we `do'. Beliefs may change with knowledge and fashion, but `faith' that there's something ultimately worthwhile to believe in - this is as key to life as `love'. The Christian Church represents one of about 70,000 paths of faith that different societies have followed through history. It has been one of the most successful. Now in its heartland it is in decline. Maybe the Church has God wrong. Maybe it got Jesus wrong too. After all, there's a three-century gap between the life of Jesus and the time when the foundations of the Christian religion as it is understood today were established - the Creeds, the Church, the Papacy, the Bible.

It's time to think again. Maybe we can develop a new Christian vision that draws on the insights of other religions and is more in tune with modern knowledge. Maybe this will bring us closer to what Jesus was about. Is our idea of God too small to accommodate different beliefs about Him? If so, the next century may turn out to be one of warring fundamentalism.

The story of our changing beliefs in God and what we can have faith in today is the biggest story there is.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1028689 in Books
• Published on: 2001-11-01
• Binding: Paperback
• 364 pages

Synopsis
According to the author, a publisher of some experience, John Hunt, the people are right and the Church is wrong. Doubt is the key to good religious practice, not certainty. In this book, John Hunt provides a personal perspective on how Christianity reached its present point of evolution. Is it "good"? Does it "work"? Why the compulsion to believe in the first place? He investigates the 300 year gap between the life of Jesus and the time of the tenets of Christian religion as it is generally understood were firmly established - the Creeds; the Papacy; the Church; and the Bible itself. Hunt argues that the Church needs to embrace a broader vision of God, more in tune with the words of Jesus, in order to recover the interset of the majority of people. The book draws on detailed analysis from subjects such as history, science and philosophy, to present an argument for Christianity to move forward into the 21st century.

From the Author
A monument to vanity publishing! It's a personal perspective (ie; mine) on the many ways we believe in God today, with a preface written after September 11. This book was in its way to the printers when news of the shocking terrorist attacks on the US was braodcast. I didn't make any changes to the book itself, but to let it through without comment in the light of what has happened seemed inadequate.

My reference to "warring fundamentalism" on the back cover seemed a bit 'over the top' before these tragic events. So did the suggestion, in the penultimate chapter, that the next century might be one of warfare between the Muslim and Christian worlds. Today it doesn't seem so improbable.

About the Author
John Hunt has been a publisher of Christian books for over 20 years.