According to one of the speeches at the annual Davos gathering (this one leads to some wonderful conspiracy theories…) this is what is needed. The practical reason for this is the issue of climate shift and the urgent need to absorb carbon. And in the same speech was a push to accelerate the move toward Artificial Intelligence. Conspiracy theories on one side we have an annual gathering of those who somehow have the future in view and have resources that most do not have – after all the top 1% have been calculated now to have 82% of the wealth.
So many tantalising threads on the above. Conspiracy, secret handshakes and tings more sinister? Or is the critique of Mammon and Imperialism from that ‘cartoon’ book still more insightful? I go with the latter regardless of what handshakes are involved! Wealth – defined in monetary terms or in terms of wealth? Defined by what is not real, or ‘creationally’? And can we look for a better future (AI, greater computer power) without repentance for what got us here? And what about a future shaped by a NT-informed eschatology? What kind of speech would be given to a Davos gathering, or indeed any gathering? I think it is ore likely to be to a gathering different to Davos when I look at who and in what context Paul spoke.
Climate change – seems to me, a non-scientist, that the overwhelming weight of scientific opinion is that this is ever so real and we are putting the future in real jeopardy. No good hiding away behind ‘it will all burn up’. We were told from the beginning that this was our task, our responsibility. We are doing things now for then. Pollution is not part of then! Ecological concern for a believer has to be shaped by an eschatology, not simply by fear. Yet wholesome concern is part of that – we look at things as they are. It is also shaped by taking responsibility. If AI is part of the solution (created in our image – I hope not!!) repentance has to be the foundation.
Yet again though the rich and powerful come together to shape the future. Unlikely with a desire to empty the seats of power of their power or to lift up the marginalised. The Gospel is so radical into these contexts, and the challenge before us is to work through the implications of the radical Gospel, that is political (a vision for the re-ordering of the polis). This certainly has been something that has gripped us in the past years, with the conviction that the shape of the world is the responsibility of the church. Thank God for the ‘born again’ Gospel – but born again for what?
More computing needed? A deeper understanding of the Gospel that deeply impregnated Paul at the gates of Damascus, was nurtured in the desert, and deposited in Rome (Babylon) – that is what is needed. Prophets (and the Prophet) died in Jerusalem. Now they have to live it out in Babylon giving life there.