Category Archives: Publications

A Book: Creationism or The Way of Jesus

This book, by Doug Burtenshaw, describes the beliefs of creationists and evolutionists, the contexts in which they developed, and the radical, accepting, simple Way of Jesus.  The scientific claims of creationists are examined and exposed.  You are invited to balance your apparent insignificance in the universe against the Biblical inspiration and conviction that each person matters.

A free online copy is available at: cotwoj.pdf (burtenshaws.com)

The Author- Doug Burtenshaw

For twenty five years Doug was a science teacher through to principal in the Education Department of Western Australia, and then foundation principal of K-12 Lake Joondalup Baptist College and Tranby College for the Uniting

Church. He and his wife Sue assist with crisis care and youth work in local Uniting Churches. Sue is a pediatric nurse committed to nursing excellence and nurse education. Doug is an accredited lay preacher, and enjoy playing classical organ, playing piano in a dance band, reading theology, gardening and being a husband, parent and grandparent. The first edition of Creationism or The Way of Jesus was published in print in 2014 This enlarged edition is now online and free so that people can have it instantly and easily. This book still remains the intellectual property of the author.

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WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE NIV, NRSV, AND OTHER BIBLE TRANSLATIONS?

 

A timely publication when many people have been asking us which Bible gives us the best translation. Issues of editorial bias, cultural conflict, contextual understandings, accuracy, contradiction, falsehoods, gender bias, poor scholarship, credible scholars, etc.

What’s the Difference Between the NIV, NRSV, and Other Bible Translations? | Sojourners

 

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Emerson Powery is professor of biblical studies and the assistant dean for the School of Arts, Culture and Society at Messiah University. He is the author or editor of several books, including The Good Samaritan: Luke 10 for the Life of the Church (Baker Academic, 2022) and served as an associate editor for Apocrypha and NT for the Common English Bible translation (2011).

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Report 2: Caloundra Explorers and ‘The Benevolent Cosmos’

Dear Explorers

John Humphreys’ Our benevolent cosmos is only a little book, but it is sure giving us a lot to think about. We are trying to follow John’s advice to ‘read slowly and mindfully’.

We talked about the Celtic Tree of Life and enjoyed John Philip Newell’s quote on p 11.

The universe is like a mighty river in flow. From that single stream, smaller streams emerge.These are to be celebrated and cherished, each one absolutely unique, never to be repeated again—that blade of grass, that autumn leaf, the countenance of that child, your life, my life. Then we dissolve, merging back into the flow, our constituent parts to emerge again in new formations further down the river. The universe wastes nothing in its endless unfolding.

We watched a short video of an interview between Oprah and Eckhart Tolle;

Eckhart Tolle’s definition of God (3.22 min)  www.youtube.com/watch?v=MW7ld4CCPoA

P 15  ‘Only a totally committed atheist could claim the absence of a mysterious intelligence underlying all that is seen and unseen (in the cosmos).’

P 17  A quote from Margaret Wertheim in Pythagoras’ Trousers: ‘Physics . . . is a science based on a conception of God as a divine mathematical creator.’

P 18. ‘The traditional Christian concept of God, external to the secular world and who sits in judgement on its sinful inhabitants, needs reassessment in the light of contemporary theological review and scientific findings.’

Another video Deepak Chopra on meditation & spirituality (1.51 min)  www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PfiARJuUZA

P 19–20 An Andre Auger litany:

God, You work…

In the accelerating expansion of the universe

In the spiralling of galaxies

In the explosion of supernovas

In the singularity of black holes

In the regularity of the Solar System

In the equilibrium of the Earth’s ecology

In the evolving of a society

In the functioning of our organs

In the chemical processes within our bodies

In the forces within the atom

In the ‘weird’ behaviour of quantum particles

P 20  Tolle states that ’the radical (and much needed) transformation of human consciousness is called enlightenment in Hindu; salvation in the teachings off Jesus; and the end of suffering in Buddism.’

P 24  A quote from Dr Kenneth Miles: ‘Mathematical simulations have shown that small changes in just a few, or sometimes only one of these (cosmic) constants would disturb the natural processes they determine to such a degree that life would not be possible. This finding is compatible with the existence of a Creator God.’

Because the book talks about force fields and energy fields I demonstrated how you can show the invisible force field around a bar magnet.

John’s summary of Chapter 1: ‘God was unmanifested energy before the Big Bang. Afterwards, God’s loving Divinity was manifested and progressively revealed through an expanding, benevolent, evolving and intelligent cosmos. All humans share their oneness in this earth with the natural, living world. We are form expressions of the Divine Power, and co-creators of the evolving cosmos.

Next Tuesday we will study the first half of Chapter 2 Unveiling your pure essence—or ‘God within us’ p 37–60.

Ken Williamson

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New book: Faith and the Concept of God

https://grandadreflects.blogspot.com/2022/04/faith-and-concept-of-god.html

This small book by Rev Bob Ridley is available at the following link including a foreword by Rev. Dr Lorraine Parkinson.

Acknowledgements and explanation

This paper probably began with a pastoral visit to John Bodycomb and Lorraine Parkinson where, as usual, I gained more than I gave. We spoke of the meaning of God and the effect on prayer.

Not long after John took leave of this world, but Lorraine continued to encourage me in my thoughts and, when Covid gave the gift of time, to continue some initial notes. She continued to read the developing pages and to make extensive suggestions and correct many of the typos and poor phraseology. Despite her own considerable knowledge, she always encouraged me to record my own thoughts and never tried to direct or change them other than in improving the expression.  Lorraine also kindly wrote a foreword when the work was complete. I am grateful to them both for their generous time and sharing of their amazing scholarship and now it is time to record where my thinking is at present.

Some friends and family have taken the time to pore over a number of drafts and make comments and suggestions and raise their own questions. My thanks to all of them.

This is not a scholarly paper but a record of my own journey and current conclusions. I chose not to include references to keep the flow and avoid distracting the reader, but it will be evident that many great scholars have seeped into my consciousness and contributed to my development. My gratitude extends to them and their constant quest for truth.

My aim is not to produce a final solution in any sense but to encourage honest and respectful debate. Any contribution to this debate will be welcomed.

Bob Ridley, January 2022.

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The self-delusion of white supremacy

by Carl Krieg 29th January 2021 for ProgressiveChristianity.org

In 1841 the German philosopher of religion, Ludwig Feuerbach, wrote that “if birds had a god, it would be the perfect winged creature”. Human beings, like birds, create god after their own image, and the god they create assumes the characteristics of those doing the creating. The modern white Christian church has presented to the world a Savior who is tall, blue-eyed with long brown hair, clean, sporting a long off-white robe, and gazing into the distance. That was certainly the Jesus I grew up with in my childhood church, with the added touch that he was carrying the lost sheep in his arms.

The facts are quite different. Granted that we are speaking in terms of probability, and that Jesus could have been a handsome six-footer with blue eyes, a neat beard and long brown hair, more likely he looked like a typical Jew of his time. This put him at about 110 pounds, 5’1” in height, with a life span of about 40 years. His hair, cut short and reasonably messy, matched a beard of similar description. Forensic experts in 2002, working in conjunction with Popular Mechanics, created what seemed to them to be a likely image of Jesus. He was swarthy, dark-skinned, with hints of Neanderthal lineage and not at all the lithe, fair-skinned, and curly-locked Jesus so prominent in church sanctuaries. Of course, the re-created image was not accepted by all, and continues to create controversy.

Since it is impossible to say with 100% accuracy what the man from Nazareth looked like, we all need to seriously question our own perception. Who is the Jesus we accept, or reject? Are we open to thinking new thoughts, or are we captivated by the past? With the resurgence of white supremacy in the west, it is mandatory that we tear down the false images that command loyalty and instead search for truth. We may not know exactly what Jesus looked like, but we can be reasonably certain what he did not look like.

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More gift ideas or to give to yourself!

A selection from some of our very talented subscribers:

Available in paperback and Kindle from 

amazon.com.

Currently the cheapest way to get a copy is directly from Wally Stratford. However Kindle copy can be purchased from Amazon.com

This book can be purchased at the best price directly from the author at: Noel Kentish

To order:

pelew3@gmail.com

Avaliable from Amazon Kindle Australia.

To order:

email to Firelight Publishers

To order:

Penguin Books

This book is available in print (Morning Star Publishing)  and e-copy (Amazon Australia Kindle)

Where to purchase: 

Spectrum Publications

To order:

Pan Macmillan

To order:

Good Reads

To order:

Good Reads

To order:

Amazon

Available from the author

Available from

Coventry Press

Can be purchased as an e Book through Amazon Australia

Available from

Morning Star Publishing

Available from

Morning Star Publishing

Available from

Amazon Australia

To order:

Amazon Australia

To buy – go to Progressive Christianity.com

Available from Routledge

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Personal Peace and Power

A Guidebook to Life – Maxwell Dodd

First published 2013 – renewed 2020

A thought to start with…
You have wings. You can fly. You can be utterly peaceful,
happy and strong. Your existence can be Life Written Large.
The principles of successful living are very simple. Read on
and be blessed – enormously.

The journey of living for many of us is a time of grief and pain
and dislocation. Extraordinary difficulties seem to be our
natural state and we are pushed and pulled and pummelled
from all directions. What follows is a small work of daily
meditations to be used to find in that healing practice the
solution to our burdens and the resuscitation and comfort
which we may be seeking.

I am satisfied that our lives can be overwhelmingly happy and
complete and that they can reflect order on scales that we may
not dare imagine. I am convinced, however, that the price of
such blessing is one that may be too high for some of us. We
have been overwhelmed by the pressures of the world around
us to “conform” and we may have become afraid of the
pejorative descriptions of difference. Our due obedience to the
temporal gods of rationalism and its allies of materialism and
consumerism damages us greatly. The servants of Mammon
find it hard to appreciate that the solutions to all confusions lie
in seeking richer visions of our potential and experience.
Now that I am what is called so patronisingly a “senior citizen”
– I see only an admittedly rather late state of youth! – I find
myself compelled to offer the wisdom of the years to those less
blessed with grey (or little or no) hair or damaged skin. Those
insights will provide us with the comfort we seek. What I have
found as I enter my eighth decade is that in a very relaxed
Buddhist vision of total living can be found a simple guidance
to healing and re-construction second to none. That insight is
one which seeks our restoration within ourselves by regular
and disciplined meditation which will guide us to a gentle loss
of egotism and an ever-growing trusting acceptance of the
nearest other, whoever he or she may be. Those criteria will be
found to offer the transformation we seek – drug-free, and
sweetly fulfilling and yet of an easy timeliness.

What I am offering is the remedy offered so it seems by all who
have found deeply satisfying solutions to the riddles of our
existence. It is an easy and gentle understanding of man that is
mystical and which sees the individual as a universe of
potential awaiting its release and satisfaction. It is not a
religious answer. It rejects, indeed, belief systems as otiose and
likely to damage by stultifying and enslaving. Deep within
ourselves and accessible to the timeless journey of meditation
in solitude, silence, stillness and the emptying of the mind, is a
very sweet and simple quality of serenity and enablement and
invigoration that the Greater seems to offer as its own
definition of itself in action. That others will not understand
and may indeed perhaps criticise those making the spiritual
journey will sadden but it must not be permitted to diminish
the courage and conviction of the spiritual explorer. I am here
however to say that a life-long experience of meditation will
provide us with rewards of inestimable value. We shall be the
ones described by St. Paul as “more than conquerors.” The
world will see us for what we have done and some will even
seek our advice and support – which we must give as
unconditionally as endlessly.

I see such difficulties in so many lives. There are those for
whom the day-to-day of life is a seemingly constant challenge
of grief and dislocation. Pain and sadness, it has to be said, do
enter our lives and so often from quarters from which we least
expected such things. This small work presents solutions of
great effectiveness and yet of surprising naivety.

We are, as individuals, of the vastness and immensity of the
Greater or the Universe – and of its spaciousness of soul and
heart. We find that we are as individuals important and that
our destiny lies in all that is creative and constructive. Our
potential is infinite and our duty is to lead lives that reflect not
merely our capacity to be enhanced but the Infinite that
conferred such qualities upon us. The tragedy of men and
women of the early 21st century is that, in denying the religious
traditions that are embedded within our Western culture, we
are cutting ourselves off from our origins. We are in need of a
spiritual re-birth. Our challenge is harder with our rationalism
and our materialism and our failure to seek any inward life.
We have lost our roots in our cleverness and our failure to take
a larger view of ourselves and our suffering is substantial.
Alcohol and drugs and riotous living only make our pain
greater. Our simplest and most reliable remedies are too easily
discarded.

It is necessary for us again to discover that the way home is
within us and that the essence of the Greater and Infinite and
its enormousness are to be found only by gentle and
time-consuming enquiring. We are to find in the language of
the Christian theologian that God, the Transcendent, is, also
and equally, immanent. We are to discover not something new
and different but what has lain inside us from the time of our
conception – our very origins.

We are of that Transcendent and Immanent and its very
completeness lies at our “core” or “centre.” Psychologists
would use the terms “fully functioning” or “self-actualising” to
denote the attainment of a rarely met wholeness. Quite a
challenge but utterly worthwhile.

None of this is for the faint of heart. It is the spiritual
equivalent of the experience of the athlete who has trained for
years for a possible gold medal or an international
championship or of the musical prodigy whose hours were
filled with seemingly endless and at times unproductive
practice or of the student whose doctorate came after years of
“hard slog.” The virtuoso of the soul will find few who
understand but his inner compass will be clear and
unambiguous. That solitary patient explorer will find however
such joys and satisfactions as will reward as little else can and
an experience of very rich living will follow. He (or she) will
have found the source of what is at the heart of good living.
The Western mind for which this work was conceived will
almost certainly be concerned with procedure – “How do I go
‘within’?” The answer is simple – “meditation.” It is however
a process, for all the traditional pictures of those sitting in the
so-called asana position, that is as personal and as varied as the
individuals who will seek its blessings. A better point of
practice will be solitude, silence, stillness and the emptying of
the mind. Physical relaxation and a comfortable sitting
position (probably in a chair with feet squarely placed in front
of the sitter about 15 to 18 inches – 40 to 50 cm. – apart) with a
straight back and open shoulders are imperative as will be the
slowing of the breath to reduced inhalations and exhalations
but these are only points of guidance. The fact that any
individual is making the effort to slow down will be itself a
start to the gentle, incremental process of healing and
re-construction and the practice should be followed without
any regard to time or reward. It is equally important to allow
the wild fluctuations of the mind but to realise that all that
turbulence will steadily quieten if only the sitter does not react
to it. The meditation that follows for Day 19 makes the
observation of the one sitting on the roadside undisturbed by
all that passes. This is the perfect metaphor and the steady
serenity of such a measure of non-involvement is the reward of
the months for the singular effort of quietness and detachment.
As time goes on, however, the searcher (and the responsibility
of the search is his or hers alone) will find that he or she has
come to a point where the celebration of meditation will be as
necessary a part of the day as eating or bathing. A Zen guide
has observed that “eating is Zen” or “walking is Zen” – the
experience is all-consuming and equally generous.

I have nothing to sell and in a sense nothing to offer. The
journey being recommended is of the individual in his or her
own terms – and life-long and constant. All responsibility and
all reward are thrown back on the individual. Modern
nostrums about “communities” have nothing to offer here at
all. It is of you and in your own personal terms. You will find
that whatever the problems of living may be, their dominance
and the painful consequences of their thrall will slowly lift –
even if the external disturbances continue. The Buddha was
emphatic that what he was offering by his wisdom (and it was
a totally practical guidance on peace of mind and completeness
of living) was not an easy life but a capacity to deal with
oneself that made life easier. His was an entirely pragmatic
guidance on a quality of calm and tranquillity that could cope
with the oscillations of life, however substantial they may be,
successfully – by remaining untouched by them. You can find
a peaceful centre to the storm, however strong the gales and
intense the downpours, and cope and have victories
accordingly. This is the thrust of all that is set out in this little
work. This is true “wakefulness” – some may want to call it
“mindfulness.”

Wholeness, strength, imperturbability, and simple ease of
living can be yours. Read on and be deeply blessed. But
remember the journey is for you within yourself and for your
commitment to the other in acceptance of all that other is or
may be – simple compassion and benevolence.

By way of further guidance, I am presenting a borrowing for
whose inclusion in this small opus I make no apology. What
has gone before is an invitation to you to pursue the virtues of a
Buddhist meditation regime at its most gentle and at its least
formal. I am setting out below as a further introduction a
section of a biography of the Buddha which I find so clear and
comprehensive that I felt compelled to set out some pages of it
virtually untouched. My thanks go to the Oxford scholar
Karen Armstrong for her vividly free and straightforward
statement. When wisdom is expressed so well, reproducing it
is the sincerest form of praise, or, if you wish, the sincerest form
of flattery.

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Fingerposts to Greatness

A Gift of Encouragement – a work of individual possibility.

by Max Dodd

A sample of this work. If you would like to read the whole publication, send an email to Max to receive a free copy…..maxdodd23@gmail.com

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT….as we begin
We are all masterpieces of the very highest order. We are all
geniuses and heroes. We are all the possessors of qualities of
brilliance. We are told we can be anything, do anything and
have anything. All this is utterly true and yet we fail daily to
meet any of these standards. Our lives are limited and shallow
and our experience bleak and restricted.
What to do?

Let me ask you a further question. Imagine that tomorrow is
your birthday and that it is a neat 100 years since you first
appeared as a screaming bundle of urine and faeces. No one
can answer the question “Did you lead a totally complete life?”
honestly and say “I did.” The honest answer that should be
given is “I did not do everything but I have had a very rich
varied and diverse life of great challenge and much
accomplishment and I pass beyond satisfied that to the extent
possible I have made the most of my time.” One of the
definitions of “success” is that the individual met God’s inner
compass. If you could say that, you can say probably as much
as you can.

A Gift of Encouragement is an operation here to assist you on
the very personal journey of living that may make possible
your providing the answer set out in the last paragraph. It is
concerned only with you as an individual. It is not interested
in social solutions or business solutions or religious solutions. I
simply want you to be able to say that you made the most of
your time and that the world probably gained something by
your being here.

This is a work of individual possibility. It is interested only in
what individuals can do. It is recognised that human beings
are social animals and that there is an underlying cosmic
architecture of unity that is propounded so effectively by the
Eastern spiritualities. This is not however a work seeking
religious conversion or the adoption of an arcane system on
which to build one’s life. It is interested in the dignity and
worth and freedom of the individual and in that individual’s
enormous, if often almost totally undiscovered, genius and
brilliance. The only disappointment in life is that you did not
try – or try hard enough. This is a work of guidance on action.
There are people who are motivators who can offer individuals
recognition of their power to find for themselves careers and all
that falderal of the world of business and commerce. There are
people who will assist as life coaches whose function will be to
ensure that careers are more fully developed than might
otherwise be the case. There are people who can offer support
when the demands of life and the complexities of the workaday
world become too much. Whole professions exist in aid of our
growth and yet the general simple principle of growth and
possibility is rarely offered as one united and simple approach.
This work is intended to do just that. By doing so, it is offering
the highest view of any individual to be and to do and to have
– and perhaps, most importantly, to become.

A Gift of Encouragement is a thoroughgoing approach to the
total development of the total being, physical, intellectual,
emotional and, of course, and most importantly, spiritual. It is
interested in your total journey to wholeness and full
functioning. It is concerned to ensure that you recognise that
the journey to wholeness is of you alone and that nothing really
can be done for you. I can discuss with you as an impartial
(and if you wish, highly partial) adviser all manner of the
questions of your life but the fundamental will always be that
you must lead your own life and that you must take a total
responsibility for it in all its dimensions. You are you and that is
a fact to be celebrated.

What is set out are many brief commentaries on the journey to
wholeness which are based on a worldwide contact with
people in all manner of places and activities. The questions
that are dealt with are those that have been met in practice and
relate to the concerns that are most commonly thrust at us. The
guidance is therefore very broad and not remotely concerned
with detail. The detail of your life is of you and for you and not
for anyone else. That comes not from our lack of interest or
concern but our determination to ensure that the advice we
give can be given a suitable application to the dilemmas and
challenges of life in such a way as will give maximum benefit
to that most important of all individuals, you.

Read on and be blessed and enjoy the Adventure.

Request a free copy from Max Dodd

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