Where is God in ‘The War on Terror’?
by:the Bishop of Durham, Dr N. T. Wright
Introduction
We live at a remarkable moment in western history and culture. The old certainties and stabilities have been swept away; questions we thought we’d avoided have come back to haunt us. The extraordinary events of this week – the condemnation of Saddam Hussein, and the massive swing in the American elections against the policies that have driven the so-called ‘war on terror’ for the last five years – have added more twists to the tale, making us ask not just ‘where is God?’, but ‘where are we?’ How can we understand our strange, exciting and worrying times? And how might we think wisely about where, if anywhere, a being called ‘God’ might fit into the picture? That is the urgent set of questions I invite you to consider with me this evening.
Like all complex questions, the best way to begin is to break things down into their component parts. In the first section of the lecture I shall set out the elements of the puzzle and try to explain how a little of how they interact with one another. Then in the second section I shall ask what we might mean by the word ‘God’ itself, and explore the options within the Christian tradition for understanding God’s presence and action within the world. Then, thirdly, I shall put the two together and search, not so much for an explanation of what is happening, but for an agenda for moving forward in faith and action within the world. Some of you here tonight may find yourselves, before very long, in positions where you can actually change things. It’s important at a time like this to take nothing for granted, to think things through again from first principles, and to determine to act with wisdom and courage.