Apologist to Help Young Catholics Think About Faith

Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2009 Posted: 3:57:28AM HKT

Catholic priest Timothy Radcliffe will be holding a chill-out session with young believers at Love The World café.

Father Radcliffe, whose book What is the Point of Being a Christian? garnered the 2007 Michael Ramsey Prize, which identifies the most promising contemporary theological writing for a wider Christian readership, will dialogue about the Christian faith with his young audience.

The former leader of the worldwide Dominican order and only member of the English Province of the Dominicans to have held the office since the order’s foundation in 1216 is widely regarded as theologically progressive.

As a case in point, the friar has backed priestly marriage or clerogamy.

In a speech he delivered on receiving the second Michael Ramsey Prize since its inauguration in 2005, Radcliffe noted: “A lot of theology is seen as boring. It doesn’t seem to intersect with the way we think and talk. To do theology today you have to begin with the films people have seen, the books they have read, the songs they listen to.”

And this search for a better theology is urgent, according to the friar.

“Our parents grew up with the assumption that everything is getting better. We’ve lost that confidence with things like imminent ecological disaster and the War on Terror. We have to find a much deeper basis for our hope,” said Father Radcliffe, who is patron of the International Young Leaders Network and who helped to launch the Las Casas Institute on ethics, governance and social justice.

The chill-out session with Father Radcliffe will be held on November 19.

Nathanael Ng
nathanael@christianpost.com