Movement 124

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what's the point? the key figure in nonrealist theologr offers some answers to the great questions of life tf"',tffJ,l,r" a J NJ,rd ^, wa*-4ry t lfrt-*]a- .J the lreat questions of life Don Cupitt, Polebridge Press cupitt treats the church in a similar manner to that of richard dawkins; as a fading minority composed entirely of closed-minded conservatives I volunteered to review this book in the hope that it would give me a better understanding of Don Cupitt's position. He is best known as the founder of the Sea of Faith movement, a group which views religious faith as a human creation, but a creation which ought to be maintained because it helps people to comprehend and adapt to life. I had not read any of Cupitt's books before, but having heard him both applauded and vilified on many occasions, and having wondered about his thought, decided it might be interesting to try one. The CreatQuestions of Life is a short book, only 106 pages long, which initially caused me to doubt that it would live up to its title or the claim on its reverse cover -'Cupitt collects and classifies allthe great questions... and interprets and answers them'. However, upon beginning to read I was glad to discover that in this case, brevity did not mean lack of depth. Starting with the kinds of questions many people ask, from inquisitive children to middle-aged men in the pub to students sitting up late at night ('What's the point?', 'ls there a Cod?', 'ls this it?'), Cupitt builds up a comprehensive overview of his thought and its grounding in post-Enlightenment philosophy, all the while keeping it accessible and including some reference to contemporary culture. The Simpsons sit comfortably beside Hegel and Heidegger. However, Cupitt is very much concerned with his own viewpoint, which is why the book is so short. ln his opinion, the world is outsideless - there is no 'deeper' or 'transcendent'reality. Life is just as it is, and therefore the ultimate questions are either pointless, since they assume life has a purpose, or obvious, since they ask about things which Cupitt claims we know already. (ls death the end? Are we dreaming?)They certainly do not require the endless speculation they usually provoke. It would be unreasonable to expect that Cupitt should have tackled every alternative point of view, for of course there would be thousands, but it would be better had he at least acknowledged that his standpoint is neither as widely accepted nor as patent as he claims. He repeatedly presents opinion as fact, sometimes so ludicrously that I laughed out loud. He treats the church in a similar manner to that of Richard Dawkins; as a fading minority composed entirely of closed-minded conservatives who ignore the rest of the world, worship a God who is the personification of their own values, and found their lives on a slavishly literal interpretation of scripture and doctrine in order to gain power. There is no recognition of the many Christians in both church and academy who claim to have reconciled modern science, rationalism and biblical scholarship with their faith in an objectively real Cod - instead, the reader has to put up with declarations like, 'You can maintain that the Bible is or in some sense contains the Word of Cod ... but only if you are as completely cut off from any serious study of it as an Evangelical is'! Most frustratingly for me, Cupitt does not, I felt, adequately address the question which formed in my mind at the moment I first heard about his ideas - 'What is the point, if there is no point?' ll as he says, the only reality is that'in the short run eternal happiness is (briefly)attainable in the present moment, and in the long run we are all dead', why bother living, let alone bothering with religion? How can 'beliefless' religion, which Cupitt defines as 'faith and love and commitment to life', help us to deal with the transience of the human condition when it originates purely in the human mind? What do we do in the really difficult times when our immediate circumstances, 'life as it is', don't offer anything to which we can commit? Do we have obligations to anyone else, or can we just wallow in hedonism? l'd recommend this book as a basic introduction to Cupitt's thought and its origins. Those who already have an idea of what he stands for, disagree somewhat and want to come back at him with their own 'great questions', will, however, be disappointed. O See page t 3 for an introduction to the Sea of Faith network and the tradition of nonrealist theology. H Susannah Rudge is an individual member of SCM. 28 movement
the latest series of the a0prentice contains some lessons about the goals of business bosses and business Back when I edited movement, my day job was with a property development firm in Central London, putting together bids on privately-financed public works projects. I knew nothing about property, but I was hard-working and smart enough to pass. While he was a self-made man with a grammar school upbringing, my boss, Trevor, did not resemble Sir Alan Sugar in any other way. Trevor looked like Ronnie Corbett and he did whatever he could to distance himself from his roots, including working with the Prince of Wales on one of his pet architectural projects. Nonetheless, watching The Apprentice reminds me of the time I worked for him. Let me say first that I loved the first season of the BBC version of The Apprentice.l watch the American version with DonaldTrumpfairly regularly (it'stheonly realityTV lwatch), but I was so much more impressed with the achievement of its British counterpart. The tasks are real business tasks and not giant opportunities for product placemen! the candidates aren't airbrushed beautiful people but people you can imagine going out for a pint with; and while, like all US realityTV, the American Apprentice excises any trace of the camera, the British version seems more documentary-like, with mic packs and booms and reflections of the camera operator in the mirrors and an omniscient narrator guiding us through everything. And, let's face it, Sir Alan Sugar could take Donald Trump with one hand behind his bleedin'back. Alas, my honeymoon with Sir Alan is over with this latest series. The first sign of trouble was when he fired Karen as opposed to the seemingly more unstable (and, in the case of the task at hand, liable) Jo, for no better reason than her being a lawyer. But the real moment came when he told Syed that he held him '100"/" responsible' for a fiasco which led to them making a loss on their foodstall task ... and then fired Alexa. The maths of it left me bewildered. lf someone is '100o/o responsible' then why fire someone else? But then a friend of mine explained it to me. 'Sir Alan finds Syed entertaining,' he told me. 'He'll keep him around until the interviews or just before then, no matter how poorly he does on the task.' And my friend, who said that with no foreknowledge of how things would turn out, was proved to be absolutely right. And yet I didn't have to see how things played out to know that. Watching the first series of The Apprentice, the most mystifying firing of all (for me) was when SirAlan canned Miriam in favour of Paul. Miriam was exemplary in everything she did. Paul was a just shirty arse that amused Sir Alan. And thatt when I realized the truth aboutThe Apprentice.lt's the same truth I discovered when I worked forTrevor all those years ago. The goal of business is not to be profitable or exemplary in one's work. By that logic, Ruth should have been named Sir Alan's apprentice this year-she handily won the final task and over 12 episodes demonstrated way more leadership and business acumen than Michele. No, it's way more random and arbitrary than that. The goal of business is to please the one in charge. When I worked in London, the ultimate goal of my work was to please Trevor. And yes, you did that by making deals that made money (while not spending any of his money to do it), but a lot of it was random and arbitrary. For example, my immediate supervisor went through hell with Trevor (Trevor eventually fired him after I left) even though he actually did great work and gave more thorough attention to due diligence than anyone I know even today. But another senior manager had a worrying drinking problem, closed no deals, and seriously botched the firm's rebranding process, and that person is probably sti Il there today because they knew how to f latter Trevor's ego. And that's what Ihe Apprentice on both sides of the Atlantic comes down to: it's not about the tasks, it's about the ego of the boss and their funny little quirks. Get on the good side of that and there's no trouble, but woe betide you if you don't. I don't know if l'll watch series three based on my experience watching this season (even the documentary style was revealed to be fake: Michelle and Ruth learned who was hired at a lunch with Sir Alan and the on-camera hiring was purely for show). But if I do, l'll do it fully aware of who the star of this particular programme is. O the apprentice series two BBC sir alan sullar could take donald trump with one hand behind his bleedin'back Craeme Burk was the editor of movement in 1997-98. He now lives in Canada, where he works as communications coordinator for a youth organisation and watches loads of Btitish television sent to him from across the pond. B movement 29
Page 1 and 2: t. ,.termly maElazine of the studen
Page 3 and 4: editorial 'Value' is a loaded term
Page 5 and 6: scm glrassroots reporl: peak retrea
Page 7 and 8: i gt?#L?g#ffGam working, to set aII
Page 9 and 10: steve collins on alternative worshi
Page 11 and 12: I So, how would he like to see thin
Page 13 and 14: dippin$ toes in the sea of laith a
Page 15 and 16: i bursaries is complex and many of
Page 17 and 18: a resurgence? Signs of hope for stu
Page 19 and 20: apply. Financial help can sometimes
Page 21 and 22: ties and binds principalities, powe
Page 23 and 24: wood ingham's tales from the world
Page 25 and 26: who were inspired by self-governing
Page 27: writing about culture (popular and
Page 31 and 32: Da Vinci consPiracY? Well, this sum

Movement 124

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