God in Us, A Case for Christian Humanism

God in Us, A Case for Christian Humanism by Anthony Freeman. Reviewed by Lloyd Geering, SOF NZ Newsletter #5, December 1993.

Anthony Freeman is an Anglican priest and a member of the UK Sea of Faith Network. At the SoF Conference in 1992 he had a "conversion experience" in which he felt delivered from a Christianity which had become oppressive to on which brought a new sense of freedom and joy. He began to work this through with his congregation and this hook is the result.

But when he submitted the manuscript to his bishop, the latter warned him he would be dismissed from his post as Bishop's Adviser on Continuing Ministerial Education in the Diocese if he went ahead with publishing it. Freeman has now been dismissed but allowed to continue as a priest for one year in the hope that he will relent. His dismissal caused a public stir in UK, where it became a topic for talk-back radio and BBC documentaries.

This is a very lucid and honest account of the faith Freeman now experiences after he has become free from the traditional (or objectivist) view of God. He says, "Only when I had accepted that 'I do not believe in God' (my old God) was I free to discover how with integrity I could still say 'I believe in God' understood in a new way". All those linked with the SOFN are likely to find this a very helpful book.

 

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