Sea of Faith Network
"Exploring and promoting religious
faith as a human creation..."
Links to Websites
Other Sea of Faith Network sites
The New Zealand Network
The Australia Network
Gilles Castelnau'site — There is a group of SoF articles in French at the web site of Gilles Castelnau
Don Cupitt — There is now a new site devoted to the work of Don Cupitt, which includes a comprehensive bibliography
Other radical/progressive religious sites
General resources
Ekklesia — offers constant news updates and commentary from a standpoint of radical theology
The Multifaith Site of Derby University — offers a comprehensive list of multifaith organizations and resources in the UK
Beliefnet — offers a wide variety of links and other resources on spirituality, religion and morality
Virtual Religion Index — a helpful guide to religion-related web sites, including links to major subsites, directories & documents within
Fides Quaerens — "a hub for locating serious Christian theological activity on the Internet"
The Gnostic Society Library — a good selection of texts plus links to similar collections of gnostic, apocryphal, noncanonical and early Christian texts.
Anglicans Online
Thinking Anglicans
The Liberal Christian Network — aims to "gather the best that the internet has to offer in progressive religion and cross-reference it for ease of use
Study resources in radical theology
Living The Questions (LTQ) —
A 12-session study guide on progressive Christianity, featuring contributions by leading progressive theologians such as Marcus Borg, Stanley Hauerwas, Lloyd Geering and Leslie Griffiths
The SoF New Zealand site has published a seven-part study of radical theologians by the Rev Dr Alan Webster - a good starting point for people who want a survey of the latest thought
Faithfutures — has relaunched itself as a wiki In particular, they offer affordable study guides to accompany recent
theological books by writers such as Spong and Marcus Borg, suitable for literate lay exploration. See also their valuable e-learning page at http://moodle.faithfutures.org/
The Roundtable Network
The Roundtable Network —
a group of organizations "at the fringes and frontiers looking for change". They take as their motto Sister Wendy Beckett's statement that "Future Christianity is generating itself from the lives of those who have fled to the margins". Below is a list of participants who have web sites...
Modern Churchpeople's Union —
one of the largest and oldest organizations for liberal Christians.
National Retreat Association — an umbrella organization linking together retreat associations and
retreat houses throughout the UK. One of their retreat centres, the Omega Trust, is also part of the Roundtable
The Center for Progressive Christianity —
a USA alliance that encourages churches to care about people who find organized religion "irrelevant, ineffectual, or repressive." They now have branches in the
UK,
Canada,
New Zealand, and
South Australia
Christians Awakening to a New Awareness —
(CANA) is for people who "see their starting point as Christian but are open to the moving of the Spirit to seek and explore God and the spiritual dimensions of life, in a way that is open ended and free from the boundaries that most religious frameworks and structures have imposed."
The London Centre for Christian Meditation — a new centre at St Mark's, Myddelton Square, London, with programs on meditation, freedom from violence, and interfaith dialogue
Greenspirit — "a
movement which celebrates all existence as deeply connected and sacred"
Living Spirituality
Network — focuses on networking between small Christian communities, projects and networks on and beyond the fringes of the churches throughout Britain and Ireland
Catholics for a Changing
Church — supports continuing change in the Roman Catholic Church in the spirit
of the Second Vatican Council
We Are Church — is also a progressive Catholic organization; their site includes an extensive calendar of events related to the promotion of peace and justice in the UK
The Alistair Hardy Society —
a research centre on religious and spiritual experience associated with the University of Wales at Lampeter
The Fellowship of Contemplative
Prayer — meets regularly to practice contemplative prayer
Julian Meetings — also focus on contemplative prayer.
Churches that sponsor open or radical thinking
All Hallows in Leeds
St Mark's in Sheffield — sponsors the Centre for Radical Christianity
The Ashram Community in Sheffield — a radical Christian organisation with branches and projects in various areas of the UK and friends and members here and abroad
St Matthews
in the City — If you don't live in Auckland, NZ, you can still get the great newsletter from them
Progressive Spirituality Centre — in Queensland is a new group, working through the West End Uniting Church of Brisbane; they are particularly interested in eco-theology and the relationship between ethics and environmental sustainability
Other Radical Christian sites
The Faithnet page on radical theology — part of a larger site on philosophy
and religion, includes good articles on radical theology; see the general article on Don
Cupitt and the more specific article on Cupitt's idea of outsidelessness. There is also a Powerpoint presentation on Cupitt's approach to ethics
Soulspace — a stand-alone discussion forum,was started in July last year by a group of liberal/progressive Christians. It's intended to be a place where people of all sorts of faith background can meet. Since its formation, it's become a place where people have been unafraid to push back the boundaries of faith, and attempt to discover what Christianity can mean in a postmodern world
Inclusive Church — has formed
in reaction to the forced withdrawal of Canon Jeffrey John from nomination as
Bishop of Reading
Student Christian Movement — publishes a magazine and an excellent series of resource books on current issues in Christianity
Foundation for Contemporary Theology — a new organisation in America, with the aim "To present the most compelling theological issues of our time and to promote in depth reflection by the largest possible audience"
Bishop John Shelby Spong — Fans of Spong should visit his site at www.johnshelbyspong.com where you can sign up for a new online service in which you receive a fresh weekly essay from him. According to Agora Media, "His weekly columns will be penetrating, passionate and controversial. They will not avoid the difficult issues and they will call things as Bishop Spong sees them. The hope is that through this medium he can engage readers at the intersection of their faith and the world."
The Unitarian Universalist Association — the umbrella
site for a range of UU sites and resources. The UK Unitarian website is also helpful.The associated Hibbert Assembly has a growing collection of materials for non-denominational collective worship and religious education
Ship of Fools — calls itself
"the magazine of Christian unrest, takes a serious and satirical look at po-faced and gung-ho religion."
John Mann's personal site — has a number of his own articles on theology and philosophy, including several on Sea of Faith issues and authors:
Radical Faith — includes a large collection of articles on radical faith, and a very good collection of "honest sermons"
Free to Believe — is "an informal network of liberally minded members of the United Reformed Church"
SPAFER — (South Points Associations for Exploring Religion) offers a progressive community of faith for those who wish to enjoy fellowship and intellectual stimulation with others of like mind and spirit. They are based in the mid-south United States.
Faithfutures Foundation — runs a useful network in Australia. In particular, they offer affordable study guides to accompany recent
theological books by writers such as Spong and Marcus Borg, suitable for literate lay exploration. Their site is organised as a Wiki and is extremely useful.
Centre for Studies in Implicit Religion — offers an academic course that
"takes seriously the many ways in which religion and spirituality are given
expression in today’s society outside the framework of the Christian churches
and outside the framework of other world faiths. Implicit religion embraces
the ideas of folk religion, common religion, and believing without belonging.
Implicit religion can be identified in all parts of everyday life, including
the supermarket and leisure centre, the cinema and the theatre, the factory
and the office."
The Jefferson Center for Religion and Philosophy — promotes critical analysis and reflection in religious and philosophy. They draw their name from the Jefferson Bible, which sought to eliminate all forms of supernaturalism and irrationalism from the New Testament.
Commonsense Christianity — summaries and downloadable chapters
of a book by C. Randolph Ross called Commonsense Christianity. The
purpose of this website is to provide a way to hold Jesus central in our
faith-lives, without calling him God, or relying on outdated and
unintelligible doctrines - and without abandoning modern science, ignoring
the suffering in the world, or pretending that we have all the answers. It
also provides a firm basis for us non-traditional believers to call
ourselves Christians, and explains why we share the same faith as
other Christians even when we disagree on our beliefs"
Other faiths
Islamic
humanists and freethinkers
The Institute for the
Secularisation of Islamic Society promotes the ideas of rationalism,
secularism, democracy and human rights within Islam.
Historical Jesus Studies
The Westar Institute — the home of the Jesus Seminar, an association of 200 scholars who study the texts of the New Testament.
Several SoF scholars are also Fellows of the Westar Institute
Snowstar Institute — a new
Canadian organisation which has established links with Westar and SoF.
The mission of Snowstar is "To promote religious literacy and tolerance
and to provide information that will help interested individuals and
communties to make informed choices."
The New Testament Gateway includes a wide
range of material about New Testament studies, including a good set of links and other
resources concerning the historical Jesus. They also now host the Crosstalk archives.
Humanists, Atheists, Agnostics, Sceptics
Council for Secular Humanism cultivates rational inquiry, ethical values, and human development through the advancement of secular humanism. To carry out its mission the Council for Secular Humanism sponsors publications, programs, and organizes meetings and other group activities.
The American Ethical Union is the American branch of the IHEU, founded by Felix Adler. The site has an extensive library of text and practical aids
such as alternative rites of passage
The British Humanist Association is the UK
branch of the IHEU
The Center for Religious
Humanism is an American non-profit organization "dedicated to fostering a deeper
engagement between faith and culture
Internet Infidels Inc claims to be "the largest and most heavily visited
non-theistic web site
Natural/scientific
pantheism offers some new ways of looking at non-supernatural religion,
as does the World
Pantheist Movement
Interfaith, dialogue and outreach
The World Congress of Faiths
The Institute for
Interreligious, Intercultural Dialogue are the producers of the Journal of
Ecumenical Studies and a major center of study, partnerships, and
outreach
The International Association for Religion Freedom was founded in 1900 and
has affiliated organisations in 27 countries. The International Interfaith Centre acts as coordinator for an international
interfaith network
The Association of Religion and Intellectual Life —
producers of the journal Cross Currents - lots of their own information plus a good set of links to other religious sites.
Faith and Social Justice — from a Unitarian Universalist viewpoint, with links to similar organizations
The Encounter World Religions Centre — offers educational programmes, CDs and other resources to help people and organisations understand other religions.
Fringe Groups
Unitarian Earth Spirit Network
Links to other links pages and bibliographies
Unitarian — and other nonconformist links
The Tablet — requires
registration, but the list of links is useful
Bibliography on Ecotheology —
complied by John B. Cobb, Jr. for the revised edition of Is It Too Late? A Theology of
Ecology
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