In Conversation with Pete Ward
This September we met with Pete Ward to seek in conversation insight and inspiration for our task of ‘making a spiritual contribution to 16-19s in full time education’. Challenging and demanding our conversation opened up provocative and exciting ideas. We want to reflect on these seed thoughts and invite your voices into a debate!
Pete began by questioning whether we have an adequate theology of Revelation and Epiphany. He suggested that evangelical theologies of sinful separation from God and meeting God first in penitence and conversion aren’t flexible enough to account for the reality of human experience or for the grace of God. Such approaches place people as sinful and therefore separated from God but in reality God still slips through moments of epiphany for many people, moments when he draws close. Hints and suggestions of God are surprisingly common in reality. Christians thinking within a Trinitarian framework might be unsurprised that these epiphanies or potentially revelatory moments occur especially between people, not just people on their own.
For example, take a gig – a loud one – the community experience may be so powerful that it is accurately described as a meeting with God – for a moment, in community, there is a sense of being enlivened.
In education do such ‘epiphanic experiences’ exist?
In an interview with a Christian young woman with Cystic Fibrosis students’ attention becomes held by her comment: “For me, my illness doesn’t make me think there’s no God. The problem of evil doesn’t lead me to be an atheist. I’m a Christian, and in fact, I can cope with my illness because I trust that God is always with me.”
In the silence of discovery that in their year the majority of students have spiritual beliefs about God and as a group they have a much greater spiritual awareness than they ever thought previously?
In the encounter with people of faith who exercise their spirituality among them?
Do such epiphanies occur? And if they do how can we enable young people to experience and recognize the moment when God draws near? Why not post your thoughts as well.
Dr Pete Ward is currently Lecturing in Youth Ministry andTheological Education at King’s College London and previously was the Archbishop of Canterbury’s adviser on youth ministry.
David Skinner October 18th 2006
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