Reviews and Endorsements

This is a powerful book which doesn't dodge difficult questions. Rather than nail things down with doctrines and dogmas, it lays ideas open to exploration and the theology that emerges is distinctly open-ended. A remarkable and thought-provoking book — and the cover design is spot on. Don't miss it!

At their best, Morris’s poems achieve the allusivenss of good verse, where the denser, more metaphorical language can open up wider vistas than plain prose.

The poem complexes (that is to say, the poem, problem, context triplet) are divided into sections that include God and Creation, the Incarnation, Ministry Death and Resurrection of Jesus (separate sections), the Trinity, Scriptures, and Christian Living. The problems addressed include, How can I define God?, What is the meaning of Adam and Eve today?, Is Christ’s style of leadership relevant today?, What do the Sacraments of Bread and Wine mean?, Is Christ the only Savior?.

This book is suitable for committed Christians and inquiring skeptics wishing to reconcile head and heart, finding unity with mind and soul, in a modern world, as well as for persons of other faiths wanting exposure to Christian thinking. One may not accept the author’s solutions completely and out of hand, but his ideas are well said in an artistic and unusual way and will certainly stimulate thought. Perhaps that is the task of a good teacher – to propose structured ideas as seeds for exploration rather than simply requiring dogma and doctrine as proxies for truth. If so, Dr. Morris demonstrates mastery of both his faith and his craft.

There follow 60 big questions, grouped in 8 sections, on aspects of Christian belief, with answers in both prose and poetry – the poems varying in length from little bigger than a haiku to the 5 pages on Resurrection. I liked especially the one called ‘Backpackers’, which related to Pilgrim’s Progress and the burden of guilt.

The quality of the answers to the Big Questions is uneven, but there are thoughtful passages, and sometimes very satisfactory whole answers. Certainly Morris offers plenty for a house-group to get stuck into over a period of several meetings – and with some open ends for those who do not like to be told exactly what to think.

It is a good read made more interesting by what Professor Moule describes in his Foreword as ‘crisp, epigrammatic and sometimes jocular verse, full of imaginative parable and simile…the expression of a hard-won, ruthlessly honest personal faith’. The poetry is good and makes the book more spacious and digestible.

Morris slants his creed to include how God in Jesus bears pain as well as sin. There is much about how a view of God can be married with the experience of suffering. At the same time the treatment of the atonement – where his poetry comes into its own – dismisses as inadequate the view of Abelard that reduces the Cross to an inspiring example of love to be followed. Morris works hard and imaginatively to fill out the traditional interpretations of salvation.

The author says he offers a middle-of-the-road theology. It is nothing dull. Morris writes with clarity and some striking images: DNA for our spiritual growth with Christ towards God and neighbour, the resurrection likened to a big tree from which we can lop off less credible branches whilst not damaging the vital reality, Michelangelo as image of God’s ongoing creativity and the Big Bang in reverse for how life converged towards intelligence.

Some will take issue with his reserve about divine intervention which in one section extends to a scriptural defence of God helping those who help themselves. The book covers the creed with less to say about the sacraments, commandments, beatitudes, Christian prayer and the Holy Spirit. It is absolutely clear about the divinity of Christ as rooting the Christian story from its outset and being the source of ongoing development of that story as it continues into a third millennium.

Having recently undertaken the Alpha Course under the guidance of our parish priest we were delighted to read John Morris’s Contemporary Creed which effectively took us onto the next stage of our spiritual journey.  Contemporary Creed raises and sets out to answer most of the difficult questions associated with Christian faith, through sixty commentaries ranging from doctrinal questions such as the nature of the Holy Trinity and historical questions regarding the ministry of Jesus, through to perennial and central questions related to good and evil, human suffering,and the existence of God.

Helpfully and conveniently presented under eight principal headings, each commentary contains comprehensive scriptural references and although the book will easily stand on its own we found it rewarding to read with our Bible alongside. John Morris, who has endured tragedy in his own life, meets each challenge with good humour, commonsense and humanity, but this book is further raised above dry-as-dust traditional theological works by the inclusion of Morris’s own poems, one of which accompanies each question. Some of the poems are short, snappy and retentive and thus provide an excellent catechism-like method of memorising the gist of the commentaries they accompany.  It is these poems, above all, which make the book people-friendly and accessible to all who are exploring faith and meeting its challenges. It is a book which not only offers a potted education in the essentials of Christianity but also offers consolation in time of tragedy and distress from one who has been there himself.

We have no hesitation in recommending Contemporary Creed to others undertaking the Alpha Course, and to our fellow-communicants at St Mary’s, Portchester.