The End Point

Well, I finally finished the Soldier Boy series (Forest Mage etc) by Robin Hobb.  As I indicated on earlier blogs, the devil was in the detail - and despite my speed/skim reading, it still seemed to take forever to get through (and I was determined to get through to see what happened to the hero!).  Some books frustrate because they stop prematurely and you are left wondering!  Others go on to....."Bill Smith died of cancer 20 years later......"  This one had a couple of endings and potential stopping points.  But it kept going...... and by then end, it took it is far as it could and satisfied those readers who stuck through to the end!  Not post-modern.

So having finished, I was at a bit of a loose end - no longer ensared in living trees that sought to abosorb the bodies to catch nutrients and old lovers.  And so I was able to turn to the books I flagged last blog - Love Wins etc by Rob Bell and then Whats the Least I can believe and still be a Christian by Martin Thielen.  I'm not saying I studied them in detail, but here is what I got out of them:

Martin Thielen: hold to the Biblical Basics (essentially the Anglican Creed) - but its OK to believe in theistic evolution, equality of women and to hug trees - and you don't have to condemn homosexuals or stone those caught in adultry. So stay in the Church and allow yourself to embrace some of advances in sceince and morality.  Oh - and leave God to be the judge about the things in grey such as people in other religions.

Rob Bell:  When Jesus said "go to hell" he was really using a metaphor of the dump outside the city and making the point that ugly works belong in the dump.  When talking about heaven to come, Jesus was first talking about making heaven on earth - working with God and each other to bring about the type of society that follows the principle of love.  He didn't give definitive answers about how he saw any afterlife, but changed the focus to what we know.

In some ways, both took us along some way to what they saw as the end point - but I am not sure where they left us.  Both leave many questions and futures unanswered.  I wouldn't make the cut for Martin Thielen - but then again, he wouldn't stone me.  Rob would encourage me to forge ahead and not get bogged down.  It does leave me, however, with the same question that my sister once asked me: "If the Bible isn't true as we understand it (or understood it), then why not pick any old bloke with a good message and follow him (or her) - what is left to make Jesus  special"?   Why is it so hard for the Rob Bells, Brian Mclarens and.... me.... to just walk away and consign Jesus to one of the many?