Spiritual Reading

I have been invited to join a theological reading group, and since they have just started looking at a new book I went to my first meeting on Friday. We are looking at Exploring & proclaiming the Apostles' Creed. Books on the Apostles' Creed are not unusual, I have a few on my shelf, including Balthasar's excellent little book Credo. This one however is arranged so that it looks at different phrases of the Creed by providing a theological reflection and then a sermon. The idea is that preachers need to be encouraged to preach doctrinal sermons more than we tend to. This is not an encouragement to replace sermons with lectures, far from it, but to make sure that our preaching and our theology are actually joined up. I heard on a report on the Sunday program that less than half of those who identify themselves as practising Christians believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ. It certainly seems to be true that most Christians are very ill informed about the beliefs of the Christian Faith, let alone as they are held by the particular denomination of which they are a member. Perhaps more worrying is the source of their information. If for instance your knowledge of the Lord's Passion is mainly informed by bits and pieces you catch on the TV you are going to end with a very disjointed view of the faith, and one which is actually trying to express multiple different beliefs and world views at the same time. More about the BBC's The Passion in a later post! We really do need to take the time to inform ourselves better about the faith. I don't expect members of the congregation to suddenly all sign up to do a theology degree, but it would be good if more of us were willing to take the time to resource ourselves a little more. The Following Jesus course which forms the first part of the Bishop's Certificate course run by the Diocese is very good.... And no I'm not just saying that because I'm running one at the moment......