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Christmas too commercial? Try WONDER!

This series of videos explores big ideas and allows lots of room for discussion exploring ultimate questions.
Commercial X-mas (deliberate misspelling!) is hard to ignore, given it starts in September and has us whistling songs about winter wonderlands in 40 degrees Celsius!

Advent is prime time for school awards, holiday prep, end of year parties and feeling exhausted – did someone say ‘partied-out’? However, reflection and prayer throughout December prepares us for genuine wonder at the humble arrival of the baby who will be our saviour and aligns our spirits and minds with the unfolding story of strength in weakness, power in humility and leadership in servanthood. Choose this pathway if you wish to reconnect with the big ideas of faithfulness.
(This pathway is a bit different, as it engages with one whole episode of SFC Short Course: Faith Asking Questions.)

WEEK ONE Why is religion a thing?

Discussion Questions

  1. Why is religion a thing? 

  2. In your experience what is special about going to church?

  3. What aspects of a church community make it religious?

  4. Identify particular things about your parish/school/agency that are especially effective in “binding” the community to each other.

  5. Peter Kline discusses the nature of a human desire for God - “our natural wiring towards God?”  “Is it located in the mind is it located in the emotions, is it located in the body or some combination of all of those things?”

  6. Identify questions that you have asked/wondered about/heard others ask about religion. Is God at the end of all those questions? How would you answer them?

  7. How would an ad agency deal with promoting our “natural wiring towards God”?

  8. “Religions have grown up to provide people with a big framework through which they make sense of their lives.” (Archbishop Phillip Aspinall) To what extent to do you agree? Think of other ways humans make sense of their lives?

  9. If theology is ‘organised thinking about God’, can religion be said to be ‘organised doing about God’?

WEEK TWO Why do people engage with these concepts that can’t be proven?

Discussion Questions

  1. Why do people engage with these concepts that can’t be proven? 

  2. What concepts/words to describe God resonate with you?  Identify those that can be proven.

  3. Some suggest that religious belief plays a role in human survival, that the idea of hope, and questioning our purpose give us reason to live. What is your response to that?

  4. What is it about humans that desires a connection with something bigger than us?

  5. Jo Inkpin compared science to prose and religion to poetry. In what ways does religion/faith bring life to you and others you know?

  6. Since God inspires faith, do humans ‘need’ faith or just ‘want’ it?

WEEK THREE Why are there so many different faiths/religions?

Discussion Questions

  1. Why are there so many different faiths/religions? 

  2. Peter Kline describes the world’s different religions “together we are straining after something that none of us can ultimately exhaust.” In what ways could we use this to bring us close to other cultures and faiths?

  3. Fr Bruce Boase makes a distinction between faith and religion. What things in our society do people approach religiously?

  4. If yearning after God is universally human, what might we learn about God from other religions?

WEEK FOUR What’s appealing to you about the Christian story?

Discussion Questions

  1. What’s appealing to you about the Christian story?

  2. What do you find attractive about the person of Jesus?

  3. Identify stories of transformation which have had an impact on you. Consider the stories of the apostles, the disciples after the appearance of Jesus, the faithful through the ages and people in your own life.

  4. How appealing is the Christian story to those around us in our communities? Why?

  5. In what ways would you say that you (try to) live the Christian story? Why is it good to do this?

BONUS VIDEO FOR USE AT HOME, OR AS AN EXTRA DISCUSSION

Discussion Questions

  1. Some find an extreme expression of faith attractive. Why is that?

  2. Someone once said life is “Living with ambiguity while seeking the grace to live faithfully and authentically”. How is that definition helpful in coping with extreme expressions of faith around us?

  3. How can we know when/if our own faith is extreme? How can we protect against that?

  4. Should we aim to soften the extreme expressions of faith of those we meet? Or leave them be? What do you think?

  5. Is certainty about faith always extreme? Are there times when it is helpful? When it is not helpful?

Head back to the main Pathways page!