The Sea of Faith Network is an organisation with the stated aim to explore and promote religious faith as a human creation.

History

The Sea of Faith movement started in 1984 as a response to

Don Cupitt Don Cupitt (born 22 May 1934) is an English philosopher of religion and scholar of Christian theology. He has been an Anglican priest and a lecturer in the University of Cambridge, though is better known as a popular writer, broadcaster and com ...

's book and

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed bet ...

, both titled ''Sea of Faith''. Cupitt was educated in both science and theology at the University of Cambridge in the 1950s, and is a philosopher, theologian,

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Euro ...

priest, and former Dean of

Emmanuel College, Cambridge Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican m ...

. In the book and TV series, he surveyed western thinking about religion and charted a transition from traditional realist religion to the view that religion is simply a human creation. The name Sea of Faith is taken from

Matthew Arnold Matthew Arnold (24 December 1822 – 15 April 1888) was an English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the celebrated headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold, lit ...

's nostalgic mid-19th century poem "

Dover Beach "Dover Beach" is a lyric poem by the English poet Matthew Arnold. It was first published in 1867 in the collection ''New Poems''; however, surviving notes indicate its composition may have begun as early as 1849. The most likely date is 1851.A ...

", in which the poet expresses regret that belief in a supernatural world is slowly slipping away; the "sea of faith" is withdrawing like the ebbing tide. Following the television series, a small group of radical Christian clergy and laity began meeting to explore how they might promote this new understanding of religious faith. Starting with a mailing list of 143 sympathisers, they organised the first UK conference in 1988. A second conference was held in the following year shortly after which the Sea of Faith Network was officially launched. Annual national conferences have been a key event of the network ever since.

Organisation

The Sea of Faith Network is a loose network rather than a formal religious organisation. It holds national and regional conferences and promotional events each year. There is an active network of local groups who meet regularly for discussion and exploration.Sea of Faith Network
retrieved 21 May 2013 The group's magazine ''Sofia'' is published quarterly in the United Kingdom. The group also maintains a web site and an on-line discussion group. Currently there are national networks in the UK, New Zealand and Australia with scattered membership in the USA, Northern Ireland, South Africa, France and The Netherlands. The world-wide membership, as of 2004, stood at about 2,000. Each national network is run by a steering committee elected from its members.

Beliefs

The organisation has no official creed or statement of belief to which members are required to assent. Its stated aim is to "explore and promote religious faith as a human creation". In this it spans a broad spectrum of faith positions from uncompromising non-realism at one end to critical realism at the other. Some members describe themselves as on the liberal or radical wing of conventional belief (see

liberal Christianity Liberal Christianity, also known as Liberal Theology and historically as Christian Modernism (see Catholic modernism and Fundamentalist–Modernist controversy), is a movement that interprets Christian teaching by taking into consideration m ...

) while others choose to call themselves

religious Religion is usually defined as a social-cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...

Christian humanists Christian humanism regards humanist principles like universal human dignity, individual freedom, and the importance of happiness as essential and principal or even exclusive components of the teachings of Jesus. Proponents of the term trace the co ...

(see

humanism Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "huma ...

). Some even refer to themselves as agnostic, atheist, or simply nontheist (see

Christian atheism Christian atheism is a form of Christianity that rejects the theistic claims of Christianity, but draws its beliefs and practices from Jesus' life and teachings as recorded in the New Testament Gospels and other sources. Christian atheism ta ...

). Sea of Faith possesses no religious writings or ceremonies of its own; many members remain active in their own religion (mainly but not exclusively Christian) while others have no religious affiliation at all.

Philosophy

A number of commentators have identified Sea of Faith as closely associated with the non-realist approach to religion. This refers to the belief that God has no "real", objective, or empirical existence, independent of human language and culture; God is "real" in the sense that he is a potent symbol, metaphor or projection, but he has no objective existence outside and beyond the practice of religion. Non-realism therefore entails a rejection of all supernaturalism, including concepts such as miracles, the afterlife, and the agency of spirits. Cupitt wrote, "God is the sum of our values, representing to us their ideal unity, their claims upon us and their creative power". Cupitt calls this "a voluntarist interpretation of faith: a fully demythologized version of Christianity". It entails the claim that even after we have given up the idea that religious beliefs can be grounded in anything beyond the human realm, religion can still be believed and practised in new ways.

Founder's influence

Since he began writing in 1971, Cupitt has produced 36 books. During this time his views have continued to evolve and change. In his early books such as ''Taking Leave of God'' and ''The Sea of Faith'' Cupitt talks of God alone as non-real, but by the end of the 1980s he moved into

postmodernism Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of moderni ...

, describing his position as empty radical humanism: that is, there is nothing but our language, our world, and the meanings, truths and interpretations that we have generated. Everything is non-real, including God. While Cupitt was the founding influence of Sea of Faith and is much respected for his work for the network, it would not be true to say that he is regarded as a guru or leader of Sea of Faith. Members are free to dissent from his views and Cupitt himself has argued strongly that Sea of Faith should never be a fan club. Both Cupitt and the network emphasise the importance of autonomous critical thought and reject authoritarianism in all forms.

Criticism

Alvin Platinga called the movement "an amiable sort of dottiness". Anthony Campbell also pointed to the contradictions in Cupitt's intellectual project. At once destroying the tenets of Christianity and then claiming to be a "non-realist" Christian seemed to Campbell to be the same as being an atheist.

References

Bibliography

*''The Sea of Faith'', Don Cupitt, BBC Books, 1984, Cambridge University Press 1988 edition: *''God in Our Hands'', Graham Shaw, SCM, 1987 *''God in Us'', Antony Freeman, SCM, 1993 *''Faith in Doubt: Non-realism and Christian Belief'', David Hart, Mowbrays, 1993 *''A Reasonable Faith: Introducing Sea of Faith Network'', David Boulton, Sea of Faith, 1996 *''Agenda for Faith'', Stephen Mitchell, Sea of Faith, 1997 *''Emptiness & Brightness'', Don Cupitt, Polebridge Press, 2001 *''God in the Bath: relaxing in the everywhere presence of God'', Stephen Mitchell, O Books, 2006, *''Odyssey on the Sea of Faith: The Life and Writings of Don Cupitt'', Nigel Leaves, Polebridge Press, 2004, *''Surfing on the Sea of Faith: The Ethics and Religion of Don Cupitt'', Nigel Leaves, Polebridge Press, 2005,

External links

Sea of Faith (United Kingdom)Sea of Faith (New Zealand)Sea of Faith (Australia)
the bi-monthly magazine of SoF U.K.
"The vicars who don't believe in God"
on the web site of the BBC
Interview with Don Cupitt on ''Philosophy Bites'' podcast
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sea Of Faith Humanist associations Religious organisations based in the United Kingdom Rationalism Religious pluralism Secularist organizations Nontheism Interfaith organizations