www.cartoonchurch.com/blog has drawn my attention to the threatened closure of the chain of Christian bookshops called SPCK. Father Richard has commented on the threatened closure and one of the points he raises is this: "What worries me, as a bookseller and as a parish priest, is how much harder it is becoming to engage people in thinking about their faith, in exploring it, pushing at the boundaries, growing a deeper knowledge of Christ."
I think that this is a very interesting point and I have some thoughts on it, based on personal experience. One of my thoughts is this: I believe that people are especially, though not exclusively, driven to examine their faith or their spiritual beliefs at times of loss: when someone close dies, for example, or when a partner leaves them. If I am correct in that belief, then the decrease in a search for spiritual truths might be a healthy reflection of a healthy society - no more is infant mortality or death in childbirth commonplace; life expectancy is good 'n' high and we're not losing our husbands and teenage sons in World Wars.
But in the midst of life still comes death, and divorce rates are soaring; loss continues to present us with tremendous struggles. For that and for other reasons, people still have a desire to explore spirituality. Why do they not flood into our churches or SPCKs in order to satisfy this desire? Atheists aside, I just wonder whether people find more satisfactory solutions to their spiritual dilemnas elsewhere.
I shall be very interested to read whether other commenters respond to Father Richard's point on the cartoon blog, and I'm sure several of my friends (church-goers and non-church-goers, atheists, agnostics and theists) will have some very interesting views too.
2 comments:
I wonder if it's because people have preconcieved notions about what they will find there.
I know that when I first wanted to explore the Bible, I was adamant that I didn't want study notes - I didn't want to have someone's interpretation shoved down my throat. Similarly, I didn't really want to go to a church because I didn't trust their agenda. (Now I think that that is a valid concern in some churches; less so in others - being able to discern the difference from the outside is difficult.)
I remember when my grandmother had just died, and I was living with Jeff for the summer. He had some work thing to go to in Northampton, and I went along for the ride, and traipsed round feeling utterly miserable. I walked round and round the Catholic church, desperately wanting to go in and find someone to talk to about my grandmother, but too afraid that I would be judged for sleeping with Jeff. I didn't go in. Instead I went and bought expensive and inappropriate presents for all sorts of people - my first real experience of retail therapy.
I think a lot of people chose more accessible forms of spirituality, such as reading horoscopes and I can think of a variety of reasons for this, but can't express them terribly coherently.
Anne has a good point. People do have preconcieved ideas, but I also think some people have such confidence, or faith, in themselves, they don't feel a need to look elsewhere or to explore a different way of life.
I tend to be the former and I have my own faith where I don't need a special place or learnt words to speak to God. I don't know how much he listens, but I'm sure he's there. I'm also sure that, when I'm older, I will return to the Church.
I can understand why some people lose their faith, especially through the loss of a loved one. David lost one of his brothers, in tragic and traumatic circumstances, when they were in their early twenties. He went from having been brought up a Catholic to losing faith completely. I think he felt abandoned and rejected. I can't see that ever being changed for him.
Overall, society is so completely different in the 21st Century. Maybe the Church is seen as an ancient relic.
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