My name is Richard Britton. I am a poet, teacher and soon-to-be theologian.
Over the next academic year, I will be studying for a Master of Arts in Theology at Manchester University.
I intend to make a daily post on this blog, recording my experiences and development. I have been drawn to study theology by a deep fascination for the ways of studying mysteries that are outside of the realm of science. I do believe that theology (+ies) have a lot to offer the world for its future enrichment, and this will become more apparent in its near future. I think that it is a fallacy that some scientists try to apply only scientific principles to theology, which is clearly multi-disciplined. This leads to a discordant logic in analysis. Religion and religious systems are not concrete in the scientific sense of things. For instance, would it be logical if a scientist denied the happiness a painting brought someone, just on account of the fact it is not physically the place it is representing? That is the illogical position of some quarters of the scientific community on religion. On the other extreme, we have fundamentalists who do religion no favours by asserting a quasi-science based on literal interpretations of most aspects of their faith. This stems out of a need for everything to have a wordly physical presence for it to be real. In a way, the anti-religious scientists and the religious fundamentalists have the same issue - the fact that they cannot move away from a need to physically qualify everything to recognise its existence.
I believe that all religions have something to offer in terms of spiritual growth. I am not going to allow my own religious beliefs to emerge in this blog. Instead, I intend to document my academic growth and hope that my musings prove useful to others for educational, personal or any other purposes.
Most of all, religion and theology is a brilliantly fascinating subject - so enjoy!!!
Regards,
RICHARD BRITTON
Tuesday, 15 September 2009
Thursday, 9 July 2009
Ancient Middle-Eastern Religious Beliefs
I have been reading around Christian angles on the way that earlier Middle-Eastern religions influenced Christian theology.
Some of the academic and reputable Christian scholars explain how parts of their theology expressed in the Bible are comparible to the myths of earlier religions. This, they say, is not because the earlier relgion could have equal chance of being right; neither is it indicative of a continuous process of evolution of religious thought of which Christianity is merely one stage. They consider that although man is used by God to express his Word, man is "flawed" and will interpret and present the Word of God under the influence of the existing mythological systems, structuralist grammars and rhetorical styles of the age he is immersed in.
This is a balanced and intellectually wholesome view, even if you do not agree with it. At least it is not the limited, ignorant and purely subjective view of some of the Christian, or even Muslim and Jewish, fundamentalists who would deny any pagan or ancient mythological influences on Christianity. Indeed, Father Etienne Charpentier, the notable Catholic scholar, celebrates the stages of pre-Christian religious belief as a natural process on the way to an enlightnment. He even uses examples of ancient prayers to Sun-Gods and compares them to the styles of psalms. This kind of attitude allows a connection between keeping a strong religious faith and ensuring intellectual debate and difference, with the latter not compromising the former.
Some of the academic and reputable Christian scholars explain how parts of their theology expressed in the Bible are comparible to the myths of earlier religions. This, they say, is not because the earlier relgion could have equal chance of being right; neither is it indicative of a continuous process of evolution of religious thought of which Christianity is merely one stage. They consider that although man is used by God to express his Word, man is "flawed" and will interpret and present the Word of God under the influence of the existing mythological systems, structuralist grammars and rhetorical styles of the age he is immersed in.
This is a balanced and intellectually wholesome view, even if you do not agree with it. At least it is not the limited, ignorant and purely subjective view of some of the Christian, or even Muslim and Jewish, fundamentalists who would deny any pagan or ancient mythological influences on Christianity. Indeed, Father Etienne Charpentier, the notable Catholic scholar, celebrates the stages of pre-Christian religious belief as a natural process on the way to an enlightnment. He even uses examples of ancient prayers to Sun-Gods and compares them to the styles of psalms. This kind of attitude allows a connection between keeping a strong religious faith and ensuring intellectual debate and difference, with the latter not compromising the former.
Wednesday, 11 March 2009
Christian Religious Comparison
I have read about the various motivations of Christian religious comparison. There are various viewpoints which range from trying to show other religions to be inferior and / or bad, trying to subvert them, trying to see them as a precursor or less adequate expression of Christianity, to pick and mixing the "approved" elements of other religons and siding them with concurrences in Christianity. And various shades in between these theories. Tomorrow I shall be moving on to looking at other approaches to comparison. I received my book on St. Paul today and I shall begin this on the commute tomorrow.
I have also written a poem (yesterday) to "put my money where my mouth is" so to speak. It is part of my collection Cosmography, which is a set of sonnets about each of the planets in the solar system. I hope you enjoy...
Venus
The scribes of tragedy marked your arc high,
How wars were fought and love was made beneath
Primordial lines you drew on ev'ning skies,
Behind the hills you then were slyly sheathed,
As mess of battle-fields both was clean dried -
Victorious in laurels, losers wreaths,
How love was fought and wars were much decried,
How sleek you moved and hid between the teeth
Of man with mouth aghast with dreams of lust,
You paint your phosphor over his young chest,
Your dot visage immerses his full bust,
Swift chasing moonlight to his sacred nest,
To tangle in the essence of his trail,
And ache his silver-fish towards your pale.
"Oliver - Oliver never before has a boy wanted more!"
I have also written a poem (yesterday) to "put my money where my mouth is" so to speak. It is part of my collection Cosmography, which is a set of sonnets about each of the planets in the solar system. I hope you enjoy...
Venus
The scribes of tragedy marked your arc high,
How wars were fought and love was made beneath
Primordial lines you drew on ev'ning skies,
Behind the hills you then were slyly sheathed,
As mess of battle-fields both was clean dried -
Victorious in laurels, losers wreaths,
How love was fought and wars were much decried,
How sleek you moved and hid between the teeth
Of man with mouth aghast with dreams of lust,
You paint your phosphor over his young chest,
Your dot visage immerses his full bust,
Swift chasing moonlight to his sacred nest,
To tangle in the essence of his trail,
And ache his silver-fish towards your pale.
"Oliver - Oliver never before has a boy wanted more!"
Monday, 9 March 2009
Poetry in Locomotion
Several people have emailed or texted me to show agreement with my comments made on this blog at the weekend. I would like to say that, whilst I do believe poetry should have structure and form, I do cherish the freedom of thought it provides; it is as Wordsworth said,
Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings
Now, even as I wholeheartedly support this view, I think Wordsworth would have been more cautious than this if he were alive now. For he did not have to deal with the drowning voices of the contemporary amateur poetry sub-culture. I think he probably would have added caveats to this comment, ensuring that the "overflow" doesn't mean that someone can stand in front of a crowd of people and drone on about something that only has meaning in some lazy moment of drunken thought one night. I am not so naive, though, as to suggest that there were no bad poets in Wordsworth's era... indeed, some of the journals and publications were regularly pressed with poetry that wasn't worth the ink used and we've never heard of many of these wordsmiths as they have never come to anything. But there was nothing like the sheer volume of bad poetry as there is now.
The other caveat that I think WW would add is it explain that the "overflow" can only happen if there is some form of constriction taking place. I celebrate the limitations and artistic law that poetic form and structure provides. When you try to sculpt metre and rhythm, you get really intimate with your poem and think more about the sound and meaning - in fact you inextricably link the sound and meaning. It has an added benefit of preventing you from getting carried away and being to obsessed with a theme or idea and spewing out a neverending monologue about it. It also taps you on the shoulder should you get tempted to get too melodramatic or self-obsessed as the logic of the rhythm keeps your feet on the ground, but still allows you to look at the brilliance of the sky.
But it takes a lot of hard work to train oneself to use rhythm and metre. And I say this: those that speak against it have a complex, as they are either too lazy to do it - or, simply cannot.
Today, I have been flustered by a mountain of administrative and management tasks of verifying tutors' marking in the college I work at. On my journey to work I read about the various influences on religious comparison and particularly the myriad Christian approaches to comparing pagan or classical religion and myth to that of the Bible. And I shall write in detail about that tomorrow.
Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings
Now, even as I wholeheartedly support this view, I think Wordsworth would have been more cautious than this if he were alive now. For he did not have to deal with the drowning voices of the contemporary amateur poetry sub-culture. I think he probably would have added caveats to this comment, ensuring that the "overflow" doesn't mean that someone can stand in front of a crowd of people and drone on about something that only has meaning in some lazy moment of drunken thought one night. I am not so naive, though, as to suggest that there were no bad poets in Wordsworth's era... indeed, some of the journals and publications were regularly pressed with poetry that wasn't worth the ink used and we've never heard of many of these wordsmiths as they have never come to anything. But there was nothing like the sheer volume of bad poetry as there is now.
The other caveat that I think WW would add is it explain that the "overflow" can only happen if there is some form of constriction taking place. I celebrate the limitations and artistic law that poetic form and structure provides. When you try to sculpt metre and rhythm, you get really intimate with your poem and think more about the sound and meaning - in fact you inextricably link the sound and meaning. It has an added benefit of preventing you from getting carried away and being to obsessed with a theme or idea and spewing out a neverending monologue about it. It also taps you on the shoulder should you get tempted to get too melodramatic or self-obsessed as the logic of the rhythm keeps your feet on the ground, but still allows you to look at the brilliance of the sky.
But it takes a lot of hard work to train oneself to use rhythm and metre. And I say this: those that speak against it have a complex, as they are either too lazy to do it - or, simply cannot.
Today, I have been flustered by a mountain of administrative and management tasks of verifying tutors' marking in the college I work at. On my journey to work I read about the various influences on religious comparison and particularly the myriad Christian approaches to comparing pagan or classical religion and myth to that of the Bible. And I shall write in detail about that tomorrow.
Saturday, 7 March 2009
A few people have asked me why I have not been performing my poetry lately. The honest answer to this is odd, but it is certainly not that I have lost interest.
I have made quite a few performances of my poetry at different venues, although I am not happy about being part of this "scene". Apart from being incredibly "bitchy" it is also dominated by inept scribblers who believe that merely having the ability to write down and then shout a series of rants or idle thoughts about cheese pasties, illegal wars or wet dreams constitutes poetry.
I have to go to these events and be made to feel like a snob by being juxtaposed against this self-obsessed tat who scorn and rebuke me because I hold to the belief that poetry is distinct from prose by rhythmic and/or metrical properties, as well as an attempt to make a reach towards the sublime. I am also very uncomfortable with the ideals of contemporary "street" poetry whereby it is assumed that all the unchecked and random thoughts of anyone are all equally valid and clever. This "witch-hunt" of the techniques of poetry, whereby the ancient masonry of this noble trade has been stripped away, is merely an excuse for bad "poets", who cannot understand or use poetic techniques, to cover up their ineptitude by claiming their poetry is "raw" and not "bound by convention". I say this contemporary vision of poetry is rubbish.
I find it very hard for my work to be accepted by this regime, this dictatorship of the untalented. If poor Keats was alive now they would have driven him to suicide before the tuberculosis had managed to grip him. If I did not have to do a day job (like Byron) I know I could emerge from these slums of antipoetry and rise into the distinguished poetry world and, whilst I know I could never match Yeats or Heaney, I could become a successful and respected poet. But in the small amounts of time I have I refuse to waste going to these trivial events or submitting my work to insignificant magazines that no-one, bar the Editor and the contributors themselves, reads.
That is why I embarked on my Masters course. This way, I can become distinguished by the authority of intellectual titans, not by "poet" Editors, who have only ever been published in each others' "magazines". And theology is the most poetic subject in existence. When I read the Psalms of David, verse from the Qu'ran, Vedic scripts or mystical works I think - "this is where poetry came from... this is where my muse wants me to go... not mixing in circles in dirty bars and badly photocopied journals, but scanning the heights of the angels"!!!!
So I shall be continuing my poetry alongside my theological career and at some point, these two strands will merge... beautifully.
I have made quite a few performances of my poetry at different venues, although I am not happy about being part of this "scene". Apart from being incredibly "bitchy" it is also dominated by inept scribblers who believe that merely having the ability to write down and then shout a series of rants or idle thoughts about cheese pasties, illegal wars or wet dreams constitutes poetry.
I have to go to these events and be made to feel like a snob by being juxtaposed against this self-obsessed tat who scorn and rebuke me because I hold to the belief that poetry is distinct from prose by rhythmic and/or metrical properties, as well as an attempt to make a reach towards the sublime. I am also very uncomfortable with the ideals of contemporary "street" poetry whereby it is assumed that all the unchecked and random thoughts of anyone are all equally valid and clever. This "witch-hunt" of the techniques of poetry, whereby the ancient masonry of this noble trade has been stripped away, is merely an excuse for bad "poets", who cannot understand or use poetic techniques, to cover up their ineptitude by claiming their poetry is "raw" and not "bound by convention". I say this contemporary vision of poetry is rubbish.
I find it very hard for my work to be accepted by this regime, this dictatorship of the untalented. If poor Keats was alive now they would have driven him to suicide before the tuberculosis had managed to grip him. If I did not have to do a day job (like Byron) I know I could emerge from these slums of antipoetry and rise into the distinguished poetry world and, whilst I know I could never match Yeats or Heaney, I could become a successful and respected poet. But in the small amounts of time I have I refuse to waste going to these trivial events or submitting my work to insignificant magazines that no-one, bar the Editor and the contributors themselves, reads.
That is why I embarked on my Masters course. This way, I can become distinguished by the authority of intellectual titans, not by "poet" Editors, who have only ever been published in each others' "magazines". And theology is the most poetic subject in existence. When I read the Psalms of David, verse from the Qu'ran, Vedic scripts or mystical works I think - "this is where poetry came from... this is where my muse wants me to go... not mixing in circles in dirty bars and badly photocopied journals, but scanning the heights of the angels"!!!!
So I shall be continuing my poetry alongside my theological career and at some point, these two strands will merge... beautifully.
Wednesday, 4 March 2009
Religion, Theology and Poetry
I have enrolled on an MA Religions and Theology course and so I will be using this blog to keep people updated on my studies of comparative religion and theology as well as poetry.
Since I told people I had been accepted on this course, an academic life has begun for me. I have always read avidly on religion and so my enrolment on this course is a formalisation of my passion, as well as a source of guidance in my study. I was overjoyed to receive a very kind email from the New Testament scholar, Dr. Peter Oakes, telling me he had accepted me on the course and had read my application statement "with pleasure". I have started studying the Torah, the New Testament and the Qu'ran in great detail. I am also looking at the Buddhist scriptures. On top of this I am researching as many of the critical and hermeneutical approaches to St. Paul as I can, reading academic journals, theses and transcripts from meetings of officials of Church denominations.
Currently I am looking at the Epistles of Paul to the Romans and following the various critical viewpoints on this. Dr. Oakes mentioned that some scholars have found Paul's writings to have a poetic edge...(fellow literature graduates - what do you think?)
I intend to update this blog as frequently as possible - at least once a day will be my aim. Many friends, aquaintances, colleagues and family members have shown a great interest in my studies, so I intend to keep this blog as a kind of open diary of my studies as well as my poetry (the latter of which has always been highly influenced by theology).
Please stimulate me with questions, ideas and challenges to keep me on the ball and I will respond to you, either in person, or in this blog.
Thank you very much for your on-going interest and encouragement.
Since I told people I had been accepted on this course, an academic life has begun for me. I have always read avidly on religion and so my enrolment on this course is a formalisation of my passion, as well as a source of guidance in my study. I was overjoyed to receive a very kind email from the New Testament scholar, Dr. Peter Oakes, telling me he had accepted me on the course and had read my application statement "with pleasure". I have started studying the Torah, the New Testament and the Qu'ran in great detail. I am also looking at the Buddhist scriptures. On top of this I am researching as many of the critical and hermeneutical approaches to St. Paul as I can, reading academic journals, theses and transcripts from meetings of officials of Church denominations.
Currently I am looking at the Epistles of Paul to the Romans and following the various critical viewpoints on this. Dr. Oakes mentioned that some scholars have found Paul's writings to have a poetic edge...(fellow literature graduates - what do you think?)
I intend to update this blog as frequently as possible - at least once a day will be my aim. Many friends, aquaintances, colleagues and family members have shown a great interest in my studies, so I intend to keep this blog as a kind of open diary of my studies as well as my poetry (the latter of which has always been highly influenced by theology).
Please stimulate me with questions, ideas and challenges to keep me on the ball and I will respond to you, either in person, or in this blog.
Thank you very much for your on-going interest and encouragement.
Monday, 31 March 2008
ASCALON - OUT SOON
Richard's narrative poem, Ascalon, will be released at the end of the month.
Full details will be published here...
Full details will be published here...
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