We will be running the 6 week DVD film series and study program ‘The Mystery of God’ starting Monday 19th October at 7:00pm in the Church.
A sample from the DVD series can be seen on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=17&v=2BQSqHrU7ns
A sample lesson from the accompanying study guide (which can be ordered by Deacon Michael) can be downloaded by clicking on adjacent link mystery-of-god-sample-lesson.
19th October 2015 – LESSON 1 – ATHEISM AND WHAT WE MEAN BY “GOD”
There are lots of views about God. Some see him as a mythical fairy in the sky, others as the Supreme Being. Some consider him a threat to our freedom. But for Christians, God is not one being among many. He’s not a competitor to our flourishing. God is that than which nothing greatest can be thought, the strange and unique source of being itself. Before discussing anything about God we must become clear about one question: who is God?
26th October 2015 – LESSON 2 – ST. THOMAS AQUINAS AND THE PATHS TO GOD
In the thirteenth century, St. Thomas Aquinas composed his famous five paths to God. His proofs don’t depend on the Bible or divine revelation. They simply start from the world around us—trees, birds, buildings, and even ourselves. Thomas noticed that none of these things have to exist. But if that’s the case, there must be some cause behind them, something grounding their existence. For Thomas and all Christians since, we know this source of all being by its ancient name—God.
2nd November – No session
9th November 2015 – LESSON 3 – THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES
Once we understand who God is, we naturally wonder, “What is he like? How does he act?” We can never fully answer those questions. Yet we can know that God is self-sufficient—he doesn’t need the world but creates it out of love. God is omniscient, knowing all things. God is omnipresent, everywhere in existence. Through these attributes we discover a God who presses upon the world, always and everywhere, not aggressively but only with love.
16th November 2015 – LESSON 4 – PROVIDENCE AND THE PROBLEM OF EVIL
Perhaps the most difficult question in theology is this: Why does God allow evil? If God is all-good and all-powerful, then why are our lives marked with pain and suffering? These are not abstract questions. They go right to the heart of our experience. We have each wrestled with misery, wondering when God would intervene. As with Job, God does not give us answers. He instead offers a person: the crucified Jesus, through whom God enters our suffering and makes it his own.
23rd November – LESSON 5 – EXPLORING THE TRINITY
Many religions and philosophies profess that “God is loving.” Loving is something God does, it’s one of his traits. But Christianity’s strange and startling claim is that God is love. It’s not what he does, it’s who he is. Love always requires three things: a lover, a beloved, and the love shared between them. This is what we mean when we say God is a Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God in three persons.
LESSON 6 – THE GOD WHO IS LOVE
The book of Genesis reveals that we are made in the image and likeness of God. What does this mean? For St. Augustine it affirmed that our own traits—our minds, our self-knowledge, our self-love–can tell us something about God as a Trinity. What is Christianity finally about? What is the deepest meaning of being and all reality? The Christian answer is this: God is love, a play of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.