THE MOTIVATION FOR THIS BLOG
This is a site that sets out to glorify God and his Son, Jesus
Christ within a framework of the glorious discoveries of recent years about the
Universe in which we live. It takes its inspiration from:
* The Psalms that encourage us to 'Sing to the Lord a new song'
(Psalms 33 v 3; 40 v3; 96 v 1; 98 v 1; 144 v 9; 149 v 1). The new songs on this blogsite are poems, simple
pictures and prose.
* St Paul's assertion that "all was created through Christ
and for him ... and he holds all things together.' (Colossians 1 v 16)
* The breathtaking images that come to us via the many space and
ground-based telescopes that are woven together for us with such wonderful
imagination by astronomers and those of similar disciplines.
Interested? Then read on, this blog will be updated once or twice
a week and build into a collection which together I have called 'The Cross and
the Cosmos’.
Trevor Thorn. June 2011
AS the project developed, so a further motivation began to grow, especially when there was a prospect that the church supplies and publisher, Kevin Mayhew would publish a book of 30+ songs of God and Science gathered on this blog for primary school pupils - especially those being taught in church primary schools. The planned publication in June 2020 was frustrated by Covid 19, but a hope had grown in me that, with any publicity surrounding a launch, it would be possible to generate a debate about the language we use in singing praise to God. In most C of E and non-conformist churches and chapels, hymnody is shot through with outdated language and terminology that can only be understood by the ‘already faithful’: it would be a closed book to most people to whom ‘the church’ might want to reach out. The use of long-disused pronouns seems to me to imply that our timeless God is locked uncomfortably into the past.
That is, to my mind, unfortunate; but what is at least as distressing is to hear contemporary worship songs that are still using those same pronouns and, even worse being written now in 2020, still using the word ‘man’ to express the whole of humankind. Surely, younger, thinking, Christians should long be through that barrier and, praying for the justice of inclusivity to be expressed in their songs.
So my hope was that the scientific nature of the material in the children’s song book and the other entries on this blog might begin to prompt a debate that starts with the clear idea that God rejoices in the beneficial advances of science and has a desire to be worshipped in the terminologies and phraseology that reflects this age of unparalleled discovery and scientific endeavour and is in common use.
Whilst I suspect this concept will not go down well with the many who love traditional language, I do believe this is a significant barrier for many to whom the church should be reaching out, so might even be said to be counter-evangelistic. However, I have to recognise this has not been tested by the sort of research that would be needed to be sure of this claim.
As this is mainly a verse-based site, I offer these ideas in four lines of simple rhyme.
You’ll find no thee or thou or thy
within this little space.
For God can surely speak with us
in language of today!
AS the project developed, so a further motivation began to grow, especially when there was a prospect that the church supplies and publisher, Kevin Mayhew would publish a book of 30+ songs of God and Science gathered on this blog for primary school pupils - especially those being taught in church primary schools. The planned publication in June 2020 was frustrated by Covid 19, but a hope had grown in me that, with any publicity surrounding a launch, it would be possible to generate a debate about the language we use in singing praise to God. In most C of E and non-conformist churches and chapels, hymnody is shot through with outdated language and terminology that can only be understood by the ‘already faithful’: it would be a closed book to most people to whom ‘the church’ might want to reach out. The use of long-disused pronouns seems to me to imply that our timeless God is locked uncomfortably into the past.
That is, to my mind, unfortunate; but what is at least as distressing is to hear contemporary worship songs that are still using those same pronouns and, even worse being written now in 2020, still using the word ‘man’ to express the whole of humankind. Surely, younger, thinking, Christians should long be through that barrier and, praying for the justice of inclusivity to be expressed in their songs.
So my hope was that the scientific nature of the material in the children’s song book and the other entries on this blog might begin to prompt a debate that starts with the clear idea that God rejoices in the beneficial advances of science and has a desire to be worshipped in the terminologies and phraseology that reflects this age of unparalleled discovery and scientific endeavour and is in common use.
Whilst I suspect this concept will not go down well with the many who love traditional language, I do believe this is a significant barrier for many to whom the church should be reaching out, so might even be said to be counter-evangelistic. However, I have to recognise this has not been tested by the sort of research that would be needed to be sure of this claim.
As this is mainly a verse-based site, I offer these ideas in four lines of simple rhyme.
You’ll find no thee or thou or thy
within this little space.
For God can surely speak with us
in language of today!
