Fresh Takes on the Big Questions

Fresh Takes on The Big Questions

James Ferguson

Fresh Takes on the Big Questions

Copyright ©

2024

James Ferguson. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers,

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paperback isbn: 979-8-3852-2477-7

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version number

09/17/15

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©

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by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.comThe NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, copyright ©

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National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations used in this book

Introductory

Chapter 1: Big Questions

Chapter 2: Signposts to The Great Story

1. Is there a great story?

2. What signposts point to the great story?

3. So, what is the great story?

Further Discussion

Chapter 3: Modern Science and Christian Faith

1. How do science and religion complement each other?

2. What would contribute to a Christian view of our universe?

3. Is all of this just speculation?

4. Can we make sense of the evolutionary process?

5. Why has evolution involved waste, destruction and suffering?

6. What are some key dates in the evolutionary process?

7. Is natural selection the only process at work in evolution?

8. What about the Genesis narrative?

9. What do we mean by the fall of humankind?

10. What is faith?

A conclusion: science and faith

Further Discussion

Chapter 4: Suffering, Evil, and a God of Love

1. What is the problem of suffering?

2. Have suffering and death always been part of the evolutionary process?

3. Can we believe in a God who loves us when the world is full of suffering?

4. Can we find any solutions to the problem of suffering?

5. What about the suffering of non-human animals?

6. Can we explain the existence of evil?

7. Why does God allow disasters?

8. Do miracles happen, and if so, why not more often?

9. Where can we find unshakable hope for the world?

Further Discussion

Chapter 5: The Trinity & the Cross of Christ

1. What does it mean to call God a Trinity?

2. What is the meaning of the cross of Christ?

Further Discussion

Chapter 6: The Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus

1. Introduction: resurrection, history, and the meaning of evidence

2. What’s the historical evidence for the resurrection of Jesus?

3. What process might our resurrection take?

4. If Jesus is Emmanuel (God with us), why did he not come earlier?

5. How might our present material world connect with God’s new earth?

Further Discussion

Chapter 7: The New Creation

1. What is the promise of a new creation?

2. What’s the good news?

3. Is judgment part of God’s restorative purpose?

4. What does the New Testament say about universal restoration?

5. How has universal restoration been understood in the past?

6. Doesn’t the Bible teach about eternal punishment and separation from God?

7. What’s the meaning of election?

8. Does universal restoration remove motivation for evangelism?

9. What do we mean by heaven?

10. What do we mean by hell?

11. Is the ultimate truth about the universe glorious or tragic?304

Further Discussion

Chapter 8: God and the Meaning of Sovereignty

1. What does God is in control mean?

2. What kind of freedom has God given to the creation?

3. Are there limits on freedom?

4. Does God experience changing emotions and journey through time with us?

5. Is the future known to God in his relationship with the creation?

6. But isn’t God infinite in wisdom?

7. So is God in control?

8. Does prayer change things?

Further Discussion

Chapter 9: Focus on Christian Mission

1. What is the goal of Christian mission?

2. How does Christian mission relate to a postmodern world?

3. How do we keep mission as our first priority?

4. What can we learn about mission from Matthew’s gospel?

5. What does Christian mission have to say about climate change?

Further Discussion

Chapter 10: Some Contemporary Issues

1. How should our churches show welcome, respect and love for the lesbian, gay, and transgender community?

Further Discussion

2. Do the teaching and example of Jesus mean we should be pacifists?

Further Discussion

3. What should our attitude be to other religions?

Further Discussion

4. Could AI mean the end of humanity as we know it?

Further Discussion

5. What should characterize a Christian approach to immigration?

Further Discussion:

Bibliography

This is a thought-provoking exploration of profound inquiries where Christian faith and human experience intersect, and a must-read for anyone grappling with faith in contemporary life. We’re encouraged to wrestle with head-scratching topics, from suffering and evil to the universe’s origin, from immigration to AI, all the time engaging in honest, critical reflection. Illuminated with insights from thinkers, scientists, poets and theologians, it’s a timely guide for all seeking greater understanding in an increasingly complex world.

—Noel Purdy, director of research and scholarship, Stranmillis University College

In recent years my son’s death has challenged my faith, so reading this book has been timely. It’s a book to open your mind, not dictating answers, but gently challenging and leading to an understanding that we have a God of love, whose ultimate purpose is to make all things new. I love the format with short chapters, easy to dip into. Questions included are ideal for small group discussion.

—Rosey Bell, retired pathologist

This book provides the scaffolding to support conversations that can be transformative for our lives. It unpacks human experience to the full and invites us to explore the conundrums, paradoxes, and dilemmas that emerge. It’s a book that will connect people to the wild, unconditional love that sits as the beating heart of the cosmos. With a Leonard Cohen image in mind, may it plunge its readers further into the rays of divine love.

—Ian Mitchell, Quaker researcher

This is writing of great depth, of immense benefit, a panorama of faith, challengingly described, and providing us with questions to think things through. The author invites us to look further, giving us a framework to do so without imposing answers. Is wrath redemptive? How should we be relating to the LGBTQ+ community? The book invites us not to weaponize God’s Word, but to delve the Scriptures and revise the paradigms by which we live.

—Ian Taylor, retired medical doctor

This book’s fresh thinking on important matters of Christian faith and practice is informed and enriched by wide reading, particularly in literature and the arts. While the book doesn’t solve some of my own difficulties with aspects of the God concept, it certainly challenges them. There is much here that deserves a very wide readership, not least the thoughtful consideration of Christian attitudes to LGBTQ issues and to other faiths.

—Norman Richardson, honorary fellow in education, Stranmillis University College

For Pamela, Suzanne, Paul, Jay, Rhys, Ruby & Corah

with Faith, Hope, and Love,

and the greatest of these is Love

Acknowledgments

If you’re writing a book about life’s big questions, how would you begin to acknowledge a lifetime of receiving the wisdom, love and challenge offered by a multitude of people through that time? It would be like writing your autobiography. There’s hardly anyone whom you meet and get to know in your lifetime who doesn’t, in their own special way, influence your thinking and your approach to the big questions in life. There are so many names that come to my mind as I write this, far too many to list, and if you’re reading this, you may be one of those to whom I’m eternally thankful for the words and actions that have influenced my personal responses to the big questions.

My wife Pamela, with her love, care, and wisdom, has been the greatest gift of my life, and I wouldn’t think of putting anything in writing without testing it first to get her feedback, and we almost always end up with a shared point of view. Her work and writing as a poet have been inspirational to me and to so many others. I thank too our daughter Suzanne and son Paul, together with the grandchildren, Jay, Rhys, Ruby and Corah, who have done all they can to keep me grounded in our modern, changing world.

I must also mention two couples whose impact on my life and faith has been lifelong. Roy Millar and his wife Rosemary, with their kindness and wisdom, have contributed more than they could ever imagine to the lives and the thinking of Pamela and me. Roy’s gifts as a teacher in applying his remarkable Bible understanding have been used widely throughout his life, and you’ll find reference to his fascinating commentary on John’s gospel, Come and See: An Invitation to Journey with Jesus and His Beloved Disciple John, in my bibliography here.

Stephen Critchlow and his wife Rosalind have also had an immense influence on Pamela and me, and their work in various countries and cultures has been characterized by self-sacrificial love for people and for the gospel. Steve’s work as a Christian psychiatrist has led to his very helpful insights on mental health in his recent Instant Apostle book, Mindful of the Light: Practical Help and Spiritual Hope for Mental Health.

I owe so much to all the wonderful staff and students in Indonesia who shared their insights into the whole range of big questions about life during our time teaching and learning there. I’m thankful too for our short time teaching in Japan, and a much longer time here in Ireland, where so many have made a huge contribution to our lives. A special thanks also to those who have come to live here from many overseas countries, often from hugely challenging situations, who have shared their stories with us, and enriched our thinking about life in a global world.

Abbreviations used in this book

NIV: Holy Bible: New International Version

NRSVue: Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

ACDM: Adiabatic Cold Dark Matter

AI: Artificial Intelligence

DNA: Deoxyribonucleic Acid

LGBTQ: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning

NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NHS: National Health Service United Kingdom

UCL: University College London

WHO: World Health Organization

Introductory

I’ve called this book Fresh Takes, because it’s a book looking at a whole range of big questions in life, with the goal of encouraging exploration and discussion. In summing up its purpose, I like the thoughts of John Ciardi, the 20th century American-Italian poet, who wrote that our responses to big questions aren’t bolts to be tightened into place, but seeds to be planted that can lead to the growth that comes from creative thinking, all the time leaving more questions, more seeds to help with greening the landscape.¹

A recent American survey, as I mention in Chapter One, found the greatest reason for young people turning away from Christian faith was our failure to engage with the hard, challenging, and controversial questions of our modern age. Sometimes being Christian seems to mean living in two different worlds: a world of faith and then the other world with the discoveries of modern science, the arbitrary unfairness of war, poverty, and suffering, and real issues of gender, sexuality and identity. Our goal is to integrate our faith with all of our thoughts and feelings.

The book is arranged under topics, but also with the possibility of dipping in and out of specific questions, as the Table of Contents makes clear. I hope there’s enough that takes on the controversial, as well as the most important questions, to challenge and raise discussion opportunities about many areas of contemporary life. I’m also keen to raise discussion of the exciting conclusion summed up so well by Thomas Talbott, that the ultimate truth about the universe is glorious, not tragic.² We sometimes seem to give the impression that the good news of the Christian gospel is tragic rather than glorious for so many people in our world.

Probing questions were a continual feature of Jesus’s life on the streets, and he told wonderful parables about the natural world, because that was the real world in which people lived. Reading the Bible shows us a God who expects us to think, to explore, to struggle with doubts, and to search together for answers, for we’re never people who have everything figured out. Faith comes with openness of mind, eagerness to learn, and above all, a love for God’s world and all the people with whom we share it.

If you find this book a mix of things that you agree and don’t agree with, that’s as it should be. I often come back to C. S. Lewis’s Reflections on the Psalms, where, in Chapter xi, Scripture, he celebrates the fact that God doesn’t provide us with a series of answers to our questions. In Lewis’s words, that would be like trying to bottle a sunbeam. Instead, we have a Bible packed with stories and poems, for no net . . . less fine than Love will hold the sacred Fish.³

1

. Ciardi, Manner of Speaking

2

. Parry, Universal Salvation?

265

3

. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms,

92

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100

Chapter 1

Big Questions

Life’s big questions resist easy explanations, and are usually questions about the purpose and meaning of life and the world we live in. That’s why they’re always open to fresh perspectives. My aim with this book is to take a wide range of questions that people ask, and provide ideas, suggestions and approaches that have excited me over a lifetime of reading, studying, teaching, and discussing with students in a variety of global cultures in Ireland, the UK, Indonesia and Japan.

The late Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sachs, has written about how in Judaism, truths about life are most often told in the form of stories, because stories have the advantage of being multi-layered and open-ended.¹ A large part of the Bible is narrative history that focuses on stories of personal, communal and national experiences; stories that provide the depth and challenge we need to give meaning to the complexity of human experience.

C. S. Lewis made a similar point in his chapter on Scripture in his Reflections on the Psalms. The Bible uses the whole range of literary genres and literary techniques so that our responses open us to transformation, more than could ever result from a cut-and-dried, fool-proof, systematic presentation of what we need to learn. We’re provided with a multiplicity of examples of human, lived experience that, as Lewis suggests, enables the human vehicle to become God’s life-changing voice.²

Around 75 percent of our Christian Bible is made up of narrative and poetry,³ and that suggests a God who wants us to think, explore, discuss, and work towards conclusions, rather than just be handed propositional answers to our questions. It’s not surprising that Jesus found parables of the natural world such a rich means of capturing our imaginations and giving us fresh challenge every time we come back to them.⁴

In a recent survey, Fuller Youth Initiative, an undertaking of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, found that not having . . . space to ask hard questions is a leading indicator of young people leaving the Christian faith they grew up in.⁵ Rachel Held Evans, a well-known American Christian columnist and writer, who died tragically at the age of 37 in 2019 from an allergic reaction to a medication for an infection, wrote about how we make Christian faith difficult, or even beyond consideration, for our present generation, if we avoid facing the hard questions. In her book, Faith Unraveled: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask Questions, she claimed that doubt and despair begin not when we start asking God questions, but when, out of fear, we stop.⁶ I’ve called this book Fresh Takes, because I want to face the hard questions, and suggest some approaches that go in unexpected directions.

Jonathan Sachs and C. S. Lewis were great examples of celebrating the hard questions, and they certainly didn’t have the arrogance of suggesting that they were providing all the answers. They wanted to open up questions for thinking and discussing, and encourage us to reach conclusions. In our present global age, perhaps a new Age of Anxiety, we need that encouragement to journey to faith in a God of love and grace and hope, who shared our human experience in the person of Jesus, and who will walk every step of our path with us.

There are, of course, foundational Christian confessions of faith like the Apostles’ and the Nicene Creeds, that sum up in statement form the faith of