Religious Dogma or Collected Beliefs ???

How often we hear doctrine referred to solely in negative terms these days. It has become equated with a narrow, out of date religious sensibility. The archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams says doctrine does not have to be a dirty word. Doctrine is a way for Christians to consider how God is present in creation and in transformation.

The archbishop says, "But if doctrine doesn’t make possible poetry and contemplation, then doctrine is a waste of time. This is where the poetic and contemplative touch the prophetic, because the prophetic is all about the diagnosis of dead words and false acts. The prophetic task is to smell out death in a situation.”

And by pointing to what should not be, the prophet opens a door to what might be.



Peter