‘God as mask-wearer’ and the ‘stylish Tillich’

The Autumn and Winter 2016 issue of Faith and Freedom (Volume 69 part 2, Number 183) is now available, featuring a picture of a fourteenth-century carved figure of a pilgrim in Chester Cathedral on its cover. In it leading expert on Welsh poet-priest R.S. Thomas, Professor John McEllhenney, discusses the poet’s annotations of Paul Tillich’s Systematic Theology and Theology of Culture. Interpretation of Tillich also features in Plínio de Góes’ examination of the theology of ‘fashionable rebel pastor’ Jay Bakker and his Revolution Church. Jay Bakker is the son of the notorious TV evangelists Jim and Tammy Bakker but rejected their kind of style and developed a different type of church identified as ‘hipster Christianity’. We also carry the full text of Tehmina Kazi’s keynote address to the 2016 Unitarian GA, she is the former Director of British Muslims for Secular Democracy and now works for the Cork Equal and Sustainable Communities Alliance. Yvonne Craig, a retired social worker and former JP, gives some careful thought to the question to false accusations of sexual abuse in ‘Blaming, Naming, Shaming and Biblical Justice’. Katharine Parsons discusses ‘God and the Problem of Language’ and Barrie Needham unpacks the novels of Marilynne Robinson. There are also accounts from Alan Ruston and David Wykes of the events marking the 300^th anniversary of the death of Dr Daniel Williams

Faith and Freedom is always very strong in its reviews and this issue has Bob Janis-Dillon on refugees and asylum, Maud Robinson on Quaker views of assisted dying, Ernest Baker on Benjamin Franklin in London, Andrew Hill on Bryan Tully’s humanist anthology, and Rosemary Arthur on Bishop John Shelby Spong as well as reviews of Marsilio Ficino, Sue Woolley’s new book, Jennifer Kavanagh’s Simplicity Made Easy and Alan Ruston’s new collection of historical biographies.

Subscribers to this issue in the UK and Ireland also receive a free copy of the published papers given at the Unitarian Theology Conference held at Cross Street Chapel, Manchester in May of this year.

An annual subscription to Faith and Freedom costs only £15 per annum (for two issues) and is available online at  http://www.faithandfreedom.org.uk/subs.htm