Michael Jensen's book 'You'

It's good at many things, but 'You' is 'Useless' when it comes to telling a non-Christian how to become a Christian.

If you were looking for that, you need to click here. It's John Stott's Basic Christianity, a book that lacks modern theological and cultural savvy, but will help you if you want to know what a Christian is, and how to become one.

I'm reading Michael Jensen's book 'You'

I'm reading it for the first time, because I've been advised to stay away from it for a bit.

But the grounds on which I've been advised to stay away have disappeared, so I've made a start.

What are you afraid of losing?

Michael Jensen has some great, if typically highbrow ;-) thoughts about Augustine here.

It's an insight into the human psyche from a man who'd tried the lot (not Michael, Augustine). If you don't love the person who gave you everything, then when you have what you have, you live in terrible fear of its loss.

This is surely one of the reasons why we are going to keep seeing civil liberties rolled back in Western society with only the barest whimper of complaint. Fear of losing the good things we have somehow acquired will override concern for the weak and imprisoned neighbour.

It also helps us understand certain aspects of so many other things—hedonism, nursing homes, cemeteries, hospitals, fitness, drug taking...

Cranmer's martyrdom

I've just sent off another op-ed piece to the Daily Tele on how Australian Anglicans are level-pegging with the 'no religion' category, according to the 2006 census.

If it gets in, I will provide a link here. Meanwhile, here's a picture, with thanks to Michael Jensen, of the martyrdom of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer. Notice how he sticks his hand into the flame—the hand which signed the recantation of Protestant doctrines, a recantation which he recanted both by word and here, by deed.