Introduction

Hello. If you do not know me already, my name is Alexander Finlayson and I am a Christian. I became a Christian in 1988, when I was studying catering in Aberdeen - in Robert Gordon's Institute of Technology as it was then, now Robert Gordon's University. Thinking that hotels, restaurants, and bars were a hostile environment for so young a Christian, and having completed the first year of my degree, I withdrew from my course. I started a Business Studies Diploma, then worked for five years in Edinburgh. In 1996, whilst simultaneously completing my Business Studies Diploma at Napier University, I started reading Bachelor of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh. Whilst my time there was not without its challenges, I am deeply grateful to God that my under-graduate studies made my faith both more informed and more discerning. I graduated in July of 2000, and moved to Cambridge in September of that same year, where I have been working since.

In January of 2000 I began to move away from my Calvinist provenance. Since that time I have enjoyed quite a breadth of experiences within a variety of fellowships. I have seen and experienced, first-hand, what is commendable in other ways of 'doing church'. The great advantage that this has had is that I am relatively comfortable in each of these various traditions. The great disadvantage is that many of those in each of these various traditions are relatively uncomfortable with me. I would ask you to bear this in mind as you read on.

A number of years ago I came to realise some of the advantages that are to be gleaned simply in writing down the thoughts which one has had about any topic. Oh, the matters for consideration do not have to be of the utmost importance, nor do the fruits of their considerations have to reach any great length. They have only to be those things about which one feels strongly and thinks clearly. One of the principal advantages of such a discipline and approach is that it tends towards developing a more coherent position. It is from this sort of exercise that many of the following thoughts have come. That is, they were not intended for the form in which you presently find them. As such, you may consider the tone to be unusual in some of what you find here, but it is only after much cajoling that these thoughts are to be found here at all. As well as the tone in which these thoughts are expressed, no doubt you will also consider some of the substance of what you find here to cause you discomfort and unease. I should not feel obligated, immediately, to apologise for this. If, however, what I have written gives you cause for consideration, then I should be grateful to you if you would enter into that. As somebody before me once said, "I speak as to wise men; judge for yourselves what I say," [1 Corinthians 10: 15]. I would be grateful to know what you think.