Comments from readers.
Rev Peter Botha, Minister of the Word in the Uniting Church in Australia.
Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote, ‘There lives more faith in honest doubt, believe me, than in half the creeds.’ Doubt is not something the church has encouraged amongst its members. Indeed doubt is often seen as the antithesis of faith, calling into question some long held, cherished beliefs.
George’s approach is summed up in his quote of the French philosopher Peter Abelard who says:
The key to wisdom is this - constant and frequent questioning, for by doubting we are led to question and by questioning we arrive at the truth.
In this book George, through questioning and doubting, arrives at his own truth and shares that journey with the reader. In an open and honest way, he questions some of the cherished and long held ‘beliefs’ in the church. After years of reflection, research and re-discovery he explores new pathways of ‘understanding’. He abandons belief in a transcendental personal God who is at once both ‘present’ and ‘remote.’ Instead he wants his readers to experience the ‘God beyond, the God within and the God between.’
This is not a book for the faint-hearted but it will enrich our understanding of what it means to be a ‘follower of the way of Jesus.’
Dr. Ivan Hawke, Retired Primary School Teacher and Consultant to schools for NSW Education Department.
‘Starting All Over Again? Yes or No?’ is a passionate thought provoking text that traditional and conservative church-going people may find very challenging. Others who have left the church may find it liberating and an affirmation of their decision taken to leave.
George dares to question and challenge many of the pre-conceptions and basic tenets of belief that through force of traditional practice are still claimed to be fundamental to Christianity. He declares, however, personal whole-hearted commitment to the teachings of Jesus and identifies himself as a faithful follower and disciple of Jesus. As a supplementary bonus to the text he incorporates many of his own songs written for use in congregational singing.
Rev John W H Smith, Leader in the Progressive Christian Movement in Australia.
I am delighted to endorse George Stuart’s book and to express my gratitude to him for taking time out to record in great detail his personal spiritual journey.
In this book George has made a great contribution to the new genre of authors who have revealed their personal life journey in discovering their own spiritual voice, and by doing so they have encouraged others to realise that the sacred spirit that they are seeking already lies within and between them. George’s book encourages all of us to recognise and affirm this liberating spiritual energy.
It was the Methodist founder John Wesley who encouraged people to seek the sacred spiritual energy we call God, not only through faith tradition and scripture, but through life experience and one’s own reasoning powers. George has done exactly this in bringing the message of his own spiritual journey through the process of contemplation and research based on his intellectual integrity.
George is well known by progressive Christians for his composing of modern lyrics expressing the theology that has developed as a result of his search for his unique spiritual voice. Christians seeking to express their spiritual beliefs have been blessed by George’s compositions, because they can now sing with integrity as well as with passion. For all who are searching for a faith with integrity George’s book is a must read.
‘Starting all over again?’ is a timely book from a man of faith, because it provides encouragement and wisdom for all who are struggling to find a faith that is grounded in honesty, integrity and most of all in compassion.
Eric Stevenson. Eric withdrew from chaplaincy in a Community Mental Health Centre to establish the Family Counselling and Mediation Service of the Uniting Church. In retirement, he is a member of the Centre for Progressive Religious Thought in Sydney.
This book documents a skilful response to one of life’s greatest challenges. For George it has involved how to cope with an immense personal philosophical change. The change was (and will continue to be) learning how to shift from earlier conservative and outdated beliefs and their patterns of thought and behaviour to a more informed and impartial world view with the consequent questioning and/or to an inevitably different interpretation of them. Its appeal lies largely in the author’s common-sense reliance on his concept of justice and on his recognition of goodness and compassion in human relationships. George’s sincere search for truth, and the courage with which he is critical of orthodoxy and declares his doubts is a salutary affirmation of my own understanding.
Rev Alan Stuart, Retired Minister of the Word of the Uniting Church in Australia.
This is a courageous book. The author has faced his own demons in the reading of the Bible and in thinking deeply about the faith he had been taught in Sunday School and which he had accepted without questioning even for most of his life. But finally, in his later years, he has refused to silence the nagging doubts, following both his scientific training and his wider reading in the culture and understanding of the 21st century, and he has faced his doubts and his questions with integrity, and come up with a reasonable understanding that can, at least to some extent, reconcile his heart and his brain. I would recommend the book to all who find the faith as presented by the church and in the preaching Sunday by Sunday as no longer acceptable. This book offers an alternative explanation which still preserves most of what is considered important, at least by ethicists and even by many Christians.
This is a confronting book. The author has fearlessly faced the contradictions he has found in the sacred book of the church, the Bible, and come up with what for many, is a reasonable compromise, accepting the teachings of Jesus without accepting the Jesus who is often presented by orthodox Christians. I would recommend it to those fundamentalists who rigidly retain the idea that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God and can never be questioned.
This is an easy book to read, disturbing perhaps for Christians with a conservative theology but I would recommend it particularly for people who find the usual presentation of the gospel unsatisfactory or unconvincing, and who are prepared to study the faith seriously, and recognize alternative viewpoints.
And this book could be a comfort for those who are reluctant to throw over what they know to be valuable and worthwhile aspects of the Christian faith yet who cannot reconcile much of the teaching of the Bible with current scientific explanations of reality and of the cosmos. For others, it may be disturbing but it is worth a read.
One can feel the passion of the book. George is seriously concerned for the ordinary church goer, whom he suspects has little theological education and has little alternative but to take on board whatever is presented in or by the church. If the reader feels this becomes altogether too passionate or too dogmatic, the best thing to do is to read again the introduction where the author presents his reasoning for his position and allows differing theological views to be held.
Dr. Val Webb, theologian and author of books including ‘Like Catching Water in a Net’ and ‘In Defence of Doubt’.
Like anyone who is brave enough to share their journey, George Stuart offers us a revealing, personal account of his struggles and joys, with a willingness to step beyond the boundaries of convention to tell it as it has been for him. Such honesty and commitment brings hope and encouragement to the rest of us, and, for this we are thankful. Those around the world who have found George Stuart's hymns inspiring in their application of contemporary theology to beautiful old hymn tunes will be energised by this story of the man behind such inspiration. Thank you, George, for this beautiful work!