Seminary of the 3rd Age – August – Fergus McGinley
The Sem 3A theme for 2022 is Faith and Religion relating to the present age. In the August series of seminars, we examine The Relationship between Faith’s Past and the Present. Tonight’s guest speaker, Fergus McGinley, looks at Christianity and the Making of the Western Mind.
In his 2019 tour de force, Dominion, Tom Holland explores “what it was that made Christianity so subversive and disruptive ……. and why, in a West that is often so doubtful of religion’s claims, so many of its instincts remain – for good and ill – thoroughly Christian.” Joseph Henrich says we (in the West) are just W.E.I.R.D. (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic), tracing it all back to 1517, Martin Luther, sola scriptura and the massive increase in general literacy rates that followed in their wake. Luke Bretherton puts the “case for why Christians should be committed to democracy as a vital means for pursuing a flourishing life”. Meanwhile Russia is laying waste to Ukraine, and the age-old contest between freedom and tyranny is on again. In this presentation we’ll attempt to draw all these currents together – the Gospel, the Western mind, democracy and freedom – see if we can make sense of them, and try to guess where it all might be going.
Fergus McGinley is an Adelaide writer, teacher, lay preacher, a member of Christ Church, Wayville, the PCNet SA Task Group and is the current Chairperson of the Effective Living Centre Management Committee. Fergus has a background in science, philosophy and education.
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