Altars of the Unknown God (Part 2)

I’m back home, and still trying to take in the past 2 days. It was 2 intense days filled to the brink. Full, but fantastic! Unfortunately, I don’t take notes fast enough to get everything Bishop Tom said, but hopefully it will come back in time.

On my post from a couple of days ago, Pam asked what answers we came up with in the class where the question came from. There were four main ‘altars’. 1) Environment 2) Lottery 3) Sex and this led to a fourth, what does it mean to be human.

Each of these areas have points of contact with the Christian story, but there are areas where the church must say no to. Pam in her comment gave an example when profits are stressed in a way that it breaks the back of people.

I will post more over the weekend!

What are the altars to the unknown god today?

I am on lunch break on my first day of class, The Bible in Tomorrow’s world. So far, the class has lived up to the billing! It’s great! I also didn’t expect (don’t know why) that I would get the chance to talk so much to other classmates. That has been a welcome side effect.

The first main session, Bishop Wright led us in a sort of Bible Study on Acts 17, where Paul preaches to the Athenians. He takes what may be a minority view in saying that Paul actually is not just seeking commonality with people, but is actually deconstructing them. He does offer some points of contact, but he also takes back. The main way Paul does this is the altar of the unknown god, where he sees a possibility of hope, a window of opportunity where the message of the gospel can reach. He ended the session by asking what are the altars of unknown gods today?

These altars are the way we navigate through our culture, saying ‘yes’ to some and ‘no’ to others (or ‘yes, but’ and ‘no, but’).

So I ask the same question to my readers: what are the altars of the unknown god in our culture?