Detailed Description of the Course
The course consists of :
For schools, Teaching Notes are separately available.
Here we provide a more detailed description of the five parts of the course:
The aim of this part of the course is to prove the absolute need of religion in life.
Yes, religion is human. Every form of religion is shaped by our human imagination, also our notions of God. Religion responds to psychological needs. But the fact that religion is human does not invalidate its basic claims. Religion deals with mystery, with the dimension of the Beyond.
We live in a scientific age and we should treasure the progress science and technology have brought us. However, the idea that science has disproved religion is absurd.
Science does not supply answers to the ultimate questions of life. Scientists too, like all other human beings, derive their values and their norms for what is right or wrong, from outside the realm of science.
We have to admit the failings of all organised religions, also those of Christianity. At the same time it can be shown that belief in God can make us better and happier. We have to return to our roots by recapturing what is mysterious and sacred.
These chapters in the course book have been written to run parallel to JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF LOVE, video one.
Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, is a secular city like London. Wanchen, a marine biologist, tells us her life story. She was baptised a Christian because her mother was a Christian. But her granny believed in Taoist gods. Her father had rejected all religion.
As a teenager Wanchen grapples with the problem that we make gods in our own image. How do we know God exists when our religions are so human?
Later, as a college student, she experiences the tension between faith and science. She works out why the two need not be in conflict.
Wanchen also reflects on what all religions have in common. This means that, also as Christians, we should respect God's presence in them.
This part of the story has been written to run parallel to part one of the course book HOW TO MAKE SENSE OF GOD.
This part of the course focuses on God as the source and origin of all that exists.
How did the world come about? Has everything not been explained by evolution? Do we have any solid evidence for holding that our universe was created by God? We discuss both the classical arguments and modern approaches.
We discover that wrong images of God constitute a key problem. If we consider the world as a two-tier reality, with God residing in a supernatural realm from which he guides the affairs in our universe, our views are bound to clash with what we know from the sciences. Also the literal interpretation of the creation myths presents an obstacle.
When, however, we begin to grasp that God is the ground of all being, the validity of all truth, the reality that underlies our ultimate concerns, we find overwhelming evidence of his presence.
Like the other parts of HOW TO MAKE SENSE OF GOD, "Creation" provides for 5 group sessions, as shown in the Guide.
These chapters in the course book have been written to run parallel to JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF LOVE, video two.
Martin is a waiter in London whose passion in life is to become a professional dancer. He looks after his baby daughter Denise, because his wife died.
Martin has never given God much thought. He is suddenly confronted by God as a challenge when he is invited to dance the part of God in a dance that celebrates creation.
In discussion with his friends he asks himself whether there is any evidence to prove that God exists? Can't we explain everything through evolution?
He also finds out that he may need to change the popular image he has of God. God may be more like Nataraj, the Indian God who is the dance of life in everything that exists.
He discovers that God may be present to us as the iron core in the centre of the earth. God holds us even if we are not aware of God.
This part of the story runs parallel to part two of the course book HOW TO MAKE SENSE OF GOD (see above).
Humanists often maintain that belief in God hampers human freedom and autonomy. Religion leads to bigotry. Piety breeds observances inspired by fear.
While conceding that mistakes have been made in the name of religion, we establish that God needs to be there as the one who provides an objective basis to all morality. Far from obstructing human freedom, it is God who, by giving us reason and responsibility, enables us to be free and autonomous agents.
Conscience, no doubt, arose in the course of evolution from the social instinct of animals. But in human beings conscience is further shaped by intelligence. It can be called `the voice of God' in the sense that it implicitly acknowledges a reality greater than itself.
We discuss the concept of `natural law', the danger of religious infantilism and the contribution of Christian ethics to human progress.
Like the other parts of HOW TO MAKE SENSE OF GOD, "Conscience" provides for 5 group sessions (see the Guide).
These chapters in the course book run parallel to JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF LOVE,
In college, Wanchen has an affair with her tutor, Pong Hwa. To her dismay, she finds that she has become pregnant. She would like to marry Pong Hwa her child would be born.
Pong Hwa puts pressure on her to have an abortion. When she objects on religious grounds, Pong Hwa argues that religion robs us of our human autonomy.
During a research trip to a lake, Wanchen works out her own position. God does not curtail our freedom. God is like the air, the water and the light that surround us. God gives us life and responsibility for it.
In her discussion with Pong Hwa, the experience of a young girl, abducted to be a prostitute, also plays a part. If morality does not rest on an objective basis, we could do with other people as we like.
This episode, though part of the wider story, stands on its own. It runs parallel to part three of the course book HOW TO MAKE SENSE OF GOD (see above).
This part of the course deals with two Christian convictions: God is personal and God made contact with us through his incarnation.
Many people today accept God only as a vague, blind Life Force. They doubt whether God can know and love, as we do. While totally rejecting naive simplifications of God, we show that God must have at least as much Mind and 'personality' as we have.
Since relationship is the highest aspect of life in our universe, God must be someone who can relate and to whom we can relate.
We then consider the Christian claim that God revealed himself to us and that God lived among us as Jesus Christ. We discuss what kind of proofs would make such beliefs credible. We present the concept of a process of revelation which comes to us 'from the Beyond within'. An intelligent and communicative God makes sense in our universe.
These chapters in the course book have been written to run parallel to JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF LOVE, video four.
"Encounter" provides for 5 group sessions, as shown in the Guide.
Wanchen comes to London to complete her studies. She has her baby Fu Ching with her. It takes her a good while to settle in.
Meanwhile Martin continues his search for God. He can accept God as a blind Life Force, but cannot see how God could be someone personal, someone we can relate to. Laura, a portrait painter, helps him to open his eyes.
If the highest realities in our universe are mind and love, God, the Origin of everything, must also be able to know and love.
Wanchen and Martin meet. They fall in love with each other. When Martin talks of his search, Wanchen explains her Christian faith in Jesus Christ as the living revelation of God among us. They find Christ in each other.
This episode too, though part of the wider story, stands on its own. It runs parallel to part three of the course book HOW TO MAKE SENSE OF GOD (see previous section).
Pain, evil, suffering are part of our world. This fact is seen by many people as the most serious objection against a Creator. If a good and all-powerful God exists, how could he cause or tolerate so much suffering? How could he make even innocent people suffer?
The answer lies not only in getting the facts about suffering straight. It requires a re-appraisal of the images we have of God. Instead of being a 'two-tier' Supermanager, God is a God who 'suffers in us and with us'. While such a biblical approach does not entirely solve the mystery of evil, it offers deep and unexpected insights.
God has revealed himself as Love. This truth has enormous implications. It throws light on the structure of mutual interdependence in our universe. It explains forgiveness by God in redemption, and the priority of love as a moral principle. It also makes heaven plausible: as our living on in God's embrace.
These chapters in the course book have been written to run parallel to JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF LOVE, video five.
Wanchen and Martin travel to mainland China to work there as volunteers. Their children Denise and Fu Ching are with them.
A disaster strikes the fishing community they have come to serve. Fish die because of ugly growths. Wanchen is forced to have the annual catch destroyed.
Fong Shou, her boss, attacks her faith. If a God exists, how can he cause, or tolerate, so much evil, pain and suffering? Wanchen explains that God is Love. If God is a God who suffers with us, there may be meaning even where there is sorrow.
Wanchen and Martin are severely tested through an accident affecting Denise. Then they are put on trial by the military authorities as foreign spies. The example of the Chinese martyrs inspires them.
This episode too, though part of the wider story, stands on its own. It runs parallel to part three of the course book HOW TO MAKE SENSE OF GOD.
Like the other parts of HOW TO MAKE SENSE OF GOD, "Love" provides for 5 group sessions, as shown in the Guide.
In the UK, the Video is available from McCrimmons, 10-12 High Street, Great Wakering, Essex SS3 0EQ. tel. 01702-218956; email: orders@mccrimmons.com.
The course is presently being adapted into many different languages. For a list of our international distributors, click here.
