![]() ![]() The problem, he says, is that when you start to pick apart the Creed, choosing some bits and leaving others, the whole thing falls apart: ‘The thing about heresy is that it unbalances. Picking and choosing is the easiest thing in the world and everybody does it. Indeed, if we translate the word heresy ( hairesis) as ‘choosing’, we can see how it might be framed in a better light than orthodoxy, with the heretic characterised as the liberated individual choosing for themselves.īut throughout the book, Kochanski chooses a more accurate meaning for the word heresy: ‘picking and choosing’. The idea that orthodoxy could be regarded as ‘different’ or ‘countercultural’ might seem strange, given how often our society paints the heretics as the heroes. First of all, we need to work out if something is true. We shouldn’t embrace difference for the sake of difference. Adolescence is defined by the desire to be different, only to end up like everybody else, he says with a smile. Kochanski believes that what distinguishes Christian orthodoxy from ‘adolescence’, however, is Christianity’s search for the truth. Despite the cultural revolution of the ’60s and ’70s-which promised a freer, more liberated society-we have ended up ‘terrifyingly conformist’, he says. In our day, embracing this difference is a special task, given how ‘scary’ it can be to observe the conformity around us. In the book, he writes that there is no such thing as a ‘compatible Christian’: the resurrection of Christ ‘disqualifies Christians from being normal people’. It does sometimes make us appear a bit odd. This is different, but it is true.Īnd professing Christian faith is different. Thinking things through requires us to stick our necks out and make ourselves vulnerable: I think one needs to develop an inner toughness, to the point where we can say, ‘This is who I am. And ‘that is just another form of identity politics with no actual content.’ It’s the prizing of ‘belonging’ over real thought or sincere commitment. Our answers to this question are revealing, because if we believe something simply because we’re a Christian, Christianity becomes little more than a ‘lifestyle option’, he says. Kochanski suggests we ask ourselves: ‘Is there anything you believe because you’re a Christian, or do you believe it because it’s true?’ It’s not enough for us to say, ‘This is what Christians believe and I am one,’ he tells us we are invited to actually plumb the depths of our belief and learn to speak in the first person, as the Creed asks us to. ‘People are frightened to think because they might be wrong.’ The challenge of the Creed lies precisely in its demand on the individual, in the way it calls for our assent. ‘People are frightened to think,’ Kochanski says. So it’s helpful to take the time to think our way through the Creed bit by bit. When we rattle off the words every Sunday, it’s easy to forget the exciting and dramatic nature of what it is we are professing. Reflecting on the theology of the Creed is important, but so is how we go about it-hence the reference to ‘slow motion’ in the book’s title. Martin Kochanski kindly joined Melbourne Catholic online from London for a thorough discussion of the book and its importance for our cultural moment. Kochanski’s book stands out among the rest, however, for its clarity of vision, its personal style and its courage in not shying away from the tough questions. This book is one of a number published on the Creed in recent times, perhaps speaking to a hunger that exists for something more solid than those books that fall into the category of ‘vague aromatherapy of the soul’, Kochanski says. ![]() Comprised of short but meaty reflections, it patiently takes the reader on a journey through the Nicene Creed, the great statement of Christian belief through the ages. The other, The Creed in Slow Motion,* is more recent, published in June 2022. The first, The Snow Cow (2009), is a collection of ghost stories set in ski resorts, originally and playfully designed to scare his mother, who was afraid of cows, he says. However, he also has two books to his name. Kochanski is an eclectic creator: with an MA in mathematics and philosophy under his belt, he is best known for Universalis. It began as a hobby, its creator Martin Kochanski says, before suddenly taking off and becoming more or less his full-time job. Universalis is one of the world’s most widely used apps for praying the Church’s Liturgy of the Hours. ![]()
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