2023/03/01

막달라 여자 마리아 - 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전

막달라 여자 마리아 - 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전

막달라 여자 마리아

위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전.

 희곡에 대해서는 마리아 막달레나 (희곡) 문서를 참고하십시오.
성녀 막달라 여자 마리아
Guido Reni - The Penitent Magdalene - Google Art Project.jpg
회개자
출생막달라?
선종소아시아 에페소스 혹은 프랑스 마르세유
교파기독교 (가톨릭교회, 동방 정교회, 성공회)
축일7월 22일
상징향유단지, 채찍, 해골, 버려진 보석
수호정원사, 미용사, 향수 제작자, 회개한 죄인, 장갑 제작자

막달라 여자 마리아(공동번역), 막달라 마리아(개신교), 마리아 막달레나(가톨릭)(히브리어: מרים המגדלית, 라틴어: Sancta Maria Magdalena, original Biblical Greek: Μαρία ἡ Μαγδαληνή, literally "Mary the Magdalene")는 기독교 신약성경의 복음서에 등장하는 예수 그리스도의 여성 추종자중 한 명이다. 갈릴래아 출신이며 고향의 이름이 막달라(Magdala)이므로 ‘막달라 여자 마리아’또는 '막달라 마리아'라고 불린다. 성서에서는 예수를 따르던 여성들 가운데 항상 첫 번째로 언급된다. 가톨릭교회의 성녀로 축일은 7월 22일이며, 특히 동방 정교회에서는 부활절 후 제2주일을 ‘몰약을 든 여자들의 주일’로서 막달라 여자 마리아를 기념한다.

막달라 여자 마리아는 예수의 죽음과 부활을 모두 지켜 본 증인인 동시에, ‘참회의 성녀’로서 수많은 전설에 의해 덧씌워져 오랜 세월 동안 사람들을 매료시켜 왔다. 그러나 최근 들어 그 지위에 대해 재검토가 급속히 진행되고 있는 중이다.[출처 필요]

성서에서의 기술[편집]

복음서에서의 기술[편집]

막달라 여자 마리아는 복음서에 총 13차례 등장한다.

갈릴래아 호수 서쪽 연안에 위치하고 있는 막달라는 염색업과 직물업이 발달한 도시로서 특히 다른 지역들보다 도덕적으로 부패한 곳이었다. 이러한 곳에서 출생하여 성장한 막달라 여자 마리아의 생활에 대하여 성서에서는 아무런 언급이 되어 있지 않다.

Maria Magdalene crucifixion detail.jpeg

막달라 여자 마리아에 대해 네 복음서가 분명히 말하고 있는 것은, 자신한테서 7마리의 귀신을 쫓아내 준 예수 그리스도에게 감사하여 그를 믿고 고향을 떠나 동행하였는데, 막달라 여자 마리아는 예수가 두 강도 사이에서 십자가형에 처해져 죽었을 때 그 곁에 있었던 사람들 중의 하나이며, 예수가 무덤에 묻히는 모습을 지켜 보았고, 부활절 아침 시체에 바를 향료를 가지고 무덤으로 찾아갔던 세 여자들 가운데 한 사람이었다는 것 뿐이다. 예수는 또한 부활한 뒤 막달레나에게 처음으로 모습을 나타내었다. 마태오의 복음서 등에 따르면, 그녀는 예수의 부활 소식을 사도들에게 알리기 위해 보내졌다. 이 때문에 그녀는 초기 그리스도인들로부터 ‘사도들 중의 사도’로 불렸다. 예수의 부활 사건 이후로 막달라 여자 마리아에 대한 이야기는 더 이상 전해지지 않고 있다.

신약 외경 등에서의 기술[편집]

20세기에 나그함마디 사본에서는 《막달라 여자 마리아 복음서》, 《토마스 복음서》(도마 복음), 《필립보 복음서》(빌립 복음서), 《가롯유다 복음서》등이 발견되었다.

이들이 어떤 연유에서 정경에서 삭제되었는가 여부는 확인이 불가능하나 영지주의 외전들 속에서 막달라 여자 마리아는, 예수와 친밀한 관계일 뿐만 아니라, 남성들과 대등한 예수의 제자로 등장한다. 그녀만큼 중요한 제자가 《사도행전》에서 사라진 이유는 예수의 수제자인 베드로의 질투 때문으로 풀이되고 있다. 막달레나 마리아가 예수의 가르침에 대한 탁월한 이해력을 바탕으로 베드로와 경쟁을 하게 되자 베드로는 “마리아에게 저희 곁에서 떠나라고 하소서”라고 예수에게 간청하는 모습이 나온다.

막달라 여자 마리아는 예수 그리스도의 배우자였다는 주장과, 막달라 여자 마리아는 예수 그리스도의 수제자로 그녀를 시기한 베드로와 그의 후계자들에 의해 폄하되고 지위가 격하되었다는 견해가 제시하기도 하였다. 이로 인해 성서 연구학에서는 최근의 막달라 여자 마리아의 역할과 예수 그리스도와 동행하였던 여인들의 역할이나, 막달라 여자 마리아의 지위를 재검토하기에 이르렀다.

전설[편집]

개략[편집]

막달라 여자 마리아는 옛날부터 기독교에서 특별히 공경받아 왔지만, 특히 로마 가톨릭 지역에서는 특유의 많은 전설들로 색칠되어 있다.

그녀는 예수의 배우자였거나 수제자였다는 견해가 제시되었고, 막달라 여자 마리아를 조상으로 숭배하던 교파와 교단이 프랑스 남부와 에스파니아 북동부에 존속하기도 하였다. 성경의 각 복음서에서는 막달라 여자 마리아와 특정되어 있지 않은 몇몇 여성들이 등장한다. 그 중의 베타니아의 마리아 등이 막달라 여자 마리아와 동일시되어 예수의 발에 눈물을 떨어뜨려, 스스로의 머리카락으로 닦아 향유를 발랐다고 여겨졌다. 그래서 그녀를 그린 성화상에서는 향유 항아리를 손에 든 모습을 많이 볼 수가 있다.

Maria Magdalene icon.jpg

자코모 다 바라라제의 《황금전설》 등에 따르면, 막달라 여자 마리아는 매춘부 출신으로 한동안 쾌락에 탐닉하다가 예수를 만나 자신의 죄를 뉘우치게 되었다고 한다. 이 때문에 막달레나에게는 창녀도 의미하는 ‘죄의 여자(the Sinner)’라는 별명이 주어지고, 르네상스 이후 막달라 여자 마리아의 회개를 주제로 하는 회화나 조각이 많이 제작된다. 이는 《루카 복음서》에 나오는 창녀를 근거로 한 것이었다. 이후 1400년 가까이 막달라 여자 마리아는 매춘부로 낙인찍혔다. 교황 그레고리오 1세는 591년 막달라 여자 마리아가 창녀였다고 강론했다. 이 이미지는 로마 가톨릭에 의해 조작되었다고 지적되었으며, 1988년에서야 교황 요한 바오로 2세는 그녀를 ‘사도들의 사도’라고 격상시켰다.

예수가 승천한 후, 막달레나는 마르타 등과 함께 프랑스 남부의 마르세유로 가서, 만년을 동굴 속에서 은수생활을 하며 보냈다고 하며, 매일 일곱 번씩 하늘로 올라갔다고 한다. 그녀의 유해는 엑상프로방스 교외의 생 막시망 라 생트 보메(Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume)에 매장되었다고 믿어지고 있다. 그 유해(두개골)는 나중에 베즈레이의 성 막달레나 대성당으로 이장되었다고 한다. 그러나 생 막시망 라 생트 보메측은 지금도 막달레나의 유해를 보관, 유지하고 있다고 주장하고 있다.

옛날에 로마 가톨릭에서는 막달라 여자 마리아와 베타니아의 마리아(마르타의 여동생)를 동일 인물로 보았었다. 한편 동방 정교회에서는, 이미 베타니아의 마리아는 다른 사람으로 인식하고 있었기 때문에 막달라 여자 마리아는 만년에 예수의 어머니인 성모 마리아와 사도 요한과 함께 에페소스에서 살다가 죽어, 훗날 콘스탄티노폴리스로 유해가 이장되었다고 주장하고 있다.

또 다른 가설(주장)[편집]

막달라 여자 마리아가 창녀로 바뀐 것은 고대 교회가 조작한 것이며, 막달라 여자 마리아의 지위를 복권해야 한다는 일부 여권주의 수정론자 등의 주장이다. 예수의 든든한 후원자였으며 최초로 예수의 부활을 지켜본 증인인 막달라 여자 마리아가 창녀의 오명을 쓰게 된 데에는 그가 남성 중심적인 기독교에게 중대한 위협이 됐기 때문이라는 지적이다.

여권주의 수정론자 등이 주장하는 수제자설은 한 외경 복음서를 기초로 하고 있다. 막달라 마리아 복음서에는 막달라 여자 마리아가 예수의 가르침에 대한 탁월한 이해력을 바탕으로 예수의 수제자 베드로와 경쟁했다고 기록되어 있다. 이 때문에 그녀는 남성들이 중심인 교회에서 질투의 대상이었으며 남성으로 이루어진 성직자들이 여성인 그녀를 창녀로 전락시켰다는 것이다.

회개하는 막달라 여자 마리아, 안토니아 카노바.

이들은 신약성서의 편찬자들이 거부한 영지주의파 복음서에 근거해 막달라 여자 마리아가 실제로 예수의 친밀한 여성 파트너였다고 주장한다. 그리스도의 부활 후 막달라 여자 마리아는 초기 교회의 지도자 중 한 사람으로 베드로의 라이벌이 됐다. 제인 섀버그의 《막달라 여자 마리아의 부활(The Resurrection of Mary Magdalene)》 같은 책에서 수정론자들은 이 모든 것이 남성 성직자들을 선호한 교부들에 의해 감춰졌다고 주장한다. 그것은 기독교의 핵심에 성 대결이 있었다는 의미다. 그리고 막달라 여자 마리아와 그녀가 이끄는 사람들이 그 싸움에서 이겼다면 교회의 역사와 구조가 여성을 동등하게 받아들였을 것이라는 뜻이다. 또한 막달라 여자 마리아는 예수와 결혼을 하였고, 예수가 십자가에 못박혀 숨지자 이집트로 도망쳐 예수의 딸인 사라를 낳은 뒤 다시 프랑스의 프로방스 지방으로 건너갔다고 하는 주장도 있다.

이 주장은 2004년 5월 이후 소설 《다빈치 코드》 등을 통해 대중에게 널리 알려졌으며, 소설 이전에 헨리 링컨, 리처드 레이, 마이클 배이전트가 공저한 《성혈과 성배》(ISBN-89-54403-42-5)라는 책을 통해 나름대로 가설과 논리, 증거를 제시하며 제기된 바 있다.[1]

예를 들어, 고대에는 신성한 왕에게 기름을 붓는 것은 왕족인 신부만이 할 수 있는 특권이었는데, 《요한 복음서》에 기록된 기름 붓는 여인(신부)은 바로 막달라 여자 마리아였다. 이들은 머리에 기름을 붓는 행위가 성적 의미도 담고 있다고 본다. 남근의 상징인 머리에 기름을 붓는 이는 여신의 대리자인 여사제로, 이 이야기는 예수의 생애를 기록한 사건 중에서 에로스를 가장 깊이있게 표현했다는 것이다.

José de Ribera 066.jpg

또한 예수의 추종자들이 예루살렘에서 박해를 받던 기간에 예수의 피를 잔에 담아 배를 타고 서유럽으로 가져갔다는 전설도 그들의 주장을 뒷받침하는 증거로 활용된다. 알렉산드리아로 피난한 뒤 더 안전한 곳을 찾아 떠난 막달라 여자 마리아와 사라는 프로방스로 가게 되었고, 그 영향으로 인해 이 지역의 여성들만큼은 중세 시대에 상속권을 인정받아 남성들처럼 많은 봉토와 영지를 소유하는 등 상당한 권리를 누렸다는 것이다. 그리고 그들 예수와 막달라 여자 마리아의 후손이 프랑크 메로빙거 왕조의 왕 메로베크와 클로비스 1세라고 한다.[2]

하지만 이 때문에 예수의 신성을 지키기 위해 진실을 은폐하려는 목적으로 로마 교황청이 이단 심문을 통해서 2~3만 명의 프로방스 주민들을 대량 학살하였다.[출처 필요] 그 뒤 시온기사단, 프리메이슨 등의 비밀결사단체를 통해서 막달라 여자 마리아가 예수의 배우자이고 그들의 후손이 메로빙거 왕가라는 이와 같은 주장들은 오늘날까지 계속해서 진위 여부를 두고 논란 중이다. 현재 메로빙거 가문과 메로빙거 왕가와의 혼인관계에 의해 친인척관계를 형성한 합스부르크 왕가, 스튜어트 왕가, 로렌 왕가, 카롤링거 왕가, 비지코트 왕가, 프랑스의 생클레르 가문과 그 분가인 영국·미국의 싱클레어 가문 출신 사람들 중 일부가 자신들이 예수 그리스도와 막달라 여자 마리아의 후손이라고 주장하고 있다. 하지만 하나의 주장일 뿐 해석하기 나름인 부분이 많으며, 페미니즘에 이용되기도 한다.

각주[편집]

  1. ↑ 이런 견해는 다빈치 코드, 예수의 마지막 유혹(2001), 성혈과 성배, 성배와 잃어버린 장미 등에서 찾아볼 수 있다.
  2. ↑ 이런 견해는 다빈치 코드, 예수의 마지막 유혹(2001), 성혈과 성배, 성배와 잃어버린 장미를 참고.

외부 링크[편집]

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The Seeker: Gerald Priestland’s search for the heart of Christianity

The Seeker: Gerald Priestland’s search for the heart of Christianity | Archive content | Premier Christianity

The Seeker: Gerald Priestland’s search for the heart of Christianity
By Justin Brierley13 November 2014
3 min read



When BBC Radio 4 announced its Man of the Year award in 1981, voted for by listeners, Gerald Priestland was the runner-up, coming in just after the Pope. What had propelled him into the public consciousness was a 13-part radio series, Priestland’s Progress, in which he investigated the key beliefs of the Christian faith.

With his tweed jacket and public school accent, it may come as no surprise that Priestland’s early experience of Christianity consisted of chapel services at Charterhouse School. But required churchgoing often gives students just enough religion to inoculate them against it. So it was with Priestland, who decided he was an atheist in his teenage years; a point of view he carried into adulthood.

The 1950s and 60s brought him a successful career in broadcasting with the BBC, primarily as a foreign correspondent. He also had the unexpected responsibility of anchoring the technically fraught opening night of newly launched channel BBC Two.

However, when Priestland suffered a nervous breakdown in the early 70s, he became open to a spiritual dimension and subsequently made his home among the Quakers (the Religious Society of Friends). This was followed by a move into the BBC’s religious broadcasting, where he served as religious affairs correspondent for several years.

GROUNDBREAKING RADIO

Priestland’s Progress was conceived by Chris Rees, an evangelical Christian who worked as a BBC radio producer. It was to be one man’s exploration of the key aspects of the Christian faith, including prayer, worship, the Trinity, Jesus, and the cross. In the course of creating the 13 episodes, Priestland interviewed more than 100 people and gathered more than 48 hours of material, as well as writing an accompanying book (BBC Books).

The series was entirely original for its day. Firstly, there was the variety of people interviewed, ranging from comedian Spike Milligan to various Anglican bishops. It was also notable for ditching the usually impersonal and objective approach that was de rigueur for the BBC. Instead, Priestland took listeners on a personal journey, in which he gave his own reactions to each topic as his personal understanding developed.

The connection the programmes established with radio listeners was unprecedented. The Sunday night audience quadrupled, and the series generated the largest volume of correspondence a BBC radio programme has ever received: more than 22,000 letters. The Daily Mail ran a headline article titled: ‘The man who has got us talking about God’.

Rees recalls a well-known television personality who got in touch: ‘He said, “Thank you so much for this series. I can now talk about my faith at dinner parties, whereas before I couldn’t.” It became “cool” to talk about what you believed.’

As for the letters, Rees recalls how some wrote that they ‘had learned more about their faith in 45 minutes than they had in 45 years of churchgoing’. He subsequently met five clergy who traced their entry into ministry back to the influence of the programme.

Rev Patrick Forbes, who worked as a researcher on the series, read approximately 17,000 of the letters, passing on any that were relevant to Priestland. ‘Gerald, being the Christian he was, wanted to know of any letter that evidenced pastoral need so that he could respond in person.’

A JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY

What had so captured the attention of the British public? Part of the attraction seemed to lie in the fact that Priestland himself was no expert. As a relatively recent Quaker adherent, he freely admitted that he had little familiarity with Christian theology. His own view of God was relatively nebulous and unformed.

In the accompanying book, he wrote: ‘High churchmen feared we would be too low, low churchmen were afraid we would be too high, and both were suspicious that I might convert the operation into a vehicle for my own Quaker heresies.’

Yet his journey through the various strands of Christian belief was to be an eye-opening experience for the broadcaster. He didn’t just speak to bishops and theologians, but also to everyday Christians, many of them women (which was still relatively unusual in religious broadcasting in those days).


HIS OWN VIEW OF GOD WAS RELATIVELY NEBULOUS AND UNFORMED



The style was often touching and personal, such as the interview with Christine Parkin, a Salvationist, who spoke about praying for her young son’s acute eczema. From that day on, the condition improved, although the family still lived with it. ‘But now I know it’s not only my problem, but God’s,’ she related in a moving interview with the journalist. ‘I know God is in the midst of pain and misery.’
MEETING CHRIST

As Priestland himself came to better understand the rich depth of people’s experiences of God, so a fresh understanding of the depth of Christian faith also unveiled itself to him. ‘He learned a lot about what the Church teaches,’ says Rees, ‘but on the other hand the journey was one of his own commitment and response. It was evident to most people who knew him that there had been a change in Gerald; the big impact it had on his life and his faith.’

One of the final interviewees for the programme was the nearly blind Bishop of Winchester, John Taylor. ‘We talked to him for well over an hour,’ recalls Rees. ‘Gerald asked, “What was happening at Calvary?” John Taylor embarked on a 14-minute answer to a question which summed up everything about what Jesus’ life, death and resurrection was about. I looked across and saw Gerald crying.’

Now, more than 30 years later, we have the opportunity to listen again to a radio series that not only transformed religious broadcasting, but also the spiritual life of its presenter.

CHRISTIANITY ON THE AIRWAVES: landmark moments in UK religious radio

CS Lewis at the BBC
CS Lewis’ wartime broadcasts gave a layperson’s guide to Christianity. They were phenomenally popular and the material would become the basis of Lewis’ classic book Mere Christianity (William Collins).

Thought for the Day
The weekday morning Radio 4 slot has been in existence since 1939 (initially titled Lift up Your Hearts). Today it features a variety of religious representatives but still refuses to include atheist voices, despite pressure from secular groups.

Premier Christian Radio
The UK’s first dedicated Christian radio station began in 1995, broadcasting to London and the South East. It now broadcasts nationally and has a sister station, Premier Gospel.

Listen to Priestland’s Progress on Premier Christian Radio every Saturday at 1pm or via Priestland's Progress.

Click here to receive your free copy of Premier Christianity magazine.
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Heaven on Earth: Quakers and the Second Coming : Dandelion, Ben Pink, Peat, Timothy, Gwyn, Douglas: Amazon.com.au: Books

Heaven on Earth: Quakers and the Second Coming : Dandelion, Ben Pink, Peat, Timothy, Gwyn, Douglas: Amazon.com.au: Books




Heaven on Earth: Quakers and the Second Coming  2018
by Ben Pink Dandelion (Author), Timothy Peat (Author), Douglas Gwyn (Author)

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Central to the faith of early Friends was the present sense of the Second Coming of Christ and the bringing of heaven on earth. Friends around the world may still be able to unite around this vision of a transformed society but how and when heaven will be fully realized are questions which have underpinned three centuries of change and division. This book looks again at the letters of Paul, the experience of early Friends, and the history of Quakerism through the lens of the Second Coming and draws radical new connections which the authors believe have the potential to give Friend and others a clarity about the Quaker tradition and the power to offer a key component in the revitalisation of Quaker faith.

288 pages
13 July 2018

===

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James Gordon
5.0 out of 5 stars Never more relevantReviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 18 September 2021
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I write as a Quaker (convinced) who left the Society in 1999, unaware: (a) that there had for much of that decade been courses run at Woodbrooke, the Quaker college in Birmingham Selly Oak, precisely on Quakers and their evolving attitude to the Second Coming (b) that, unknown to me, a book about these had been published, back in 1998. Though my main reason was that I needed to explore spirituality outside the Society, I was unhappy with Friends' apparent indifference on what to me was an absolutely key aspect of Christian belief, and indeed life, the promise of Christ's return at the end of time, initiating a new age, a new Heaven and a new Earth.

This excellent book's being republished in 2018 was timely enough, but I think most would agree it is even more so given the way things have developed in the three years since the republication.

Not only is this an abiding concern of at least a minority of Friends now, but it was such a major concern at the start of our movement in the mid-17th century, that in the early part of the Commonwealth the Society was actually known to its members as 'The Lamb's War'. Friends saw themselves as Christ's agents. It hardly mattered whether or when he came on the clouds (though it was always expected sooner than has actually happened). All changed with events in 1656, when the Society of Friends began to be known by such a name, and thenceforward organised itself as a church alongside other churches, as The Society of Friends in the Truth. During the eighteenth century Quakers became inward-looking in more than just the doctrinal sense, broadened in the nineteenth (also dividing into different groupings), and in the twentieth (especially in England) became predominantly so eclectic as to welcome even a quite substantial number of seekers from other faiths and indeed none; perhaps one-third of the Woodbrooke intake could even describe themselves as atheist or agnostic.

All of these are assertions (based on sound research - the three authors are all reputed academics) made in the book itself. It gives a very good historical account of the origins of the Society as a prophetic movement which, like other extreme dissenters of the time, believed in the promise of Christ's Coming, though they somewhat differed on its timing. They also always saw it as at least in part metaphorical, that the promises of the Lord's return (parousia) were to be interpreted inwardly, spiritually. We should be 'perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect' quite irrespective of whether the events leading up to the Last Judgement are to come tomorrow, or at some later date, or even strictly at all.

All that said, I was struck by how little mention there is of the signs that Jesus clearly told us to look out for, and which are apparent in our time in a way, and to an extent, that they have not been in the centuries since his ministry. (The discussion of prophecy of the Parousia in the book is almost entirely drawn from Paul's Letters, on which it is illuminating and helpful). Jesus tells us (Mark 13.23) to keep our eyes open ("see, I have foretold it all to you.") Later he warns us "keep awake" and specifies that he is talking to all of us (yes, all) not just the disciples he was addressing at the time (13.37). Us.

In the years since Peat, Gwyn and Dandelion compiled this definitive work, the signs have become more glaring with every year that has passed. The end of the age between Christ's two comings is now alarmingly easily identified as our own, far more so than the age in which early Friends operated, extremely much more so than when the Apostles did; even if wars and rumours of wars, floods, plagues, earthquakes and so on have always been part of human experience, they are surely particularly so today, when, so far as we can see, we are approaching actual extinction as a species.

COVID-19 has itself revealed itself as one of these possible signs, with my own Meeting no longer meeting as Friends have met for three and a half centuries; even when adversaries had burnt their Meeting House down, in the depths of their sufferings, under serious persecution (by other Christians!), they came and worshipped together on the rubble.

Not today. Today Friends find themselves falling out over such issues as whether or not masks should be worn, and have divided over how to meet, if at all, or what notice we should take of government 'advice', or even direction. Some of us await normality to return. Others resort to Zoom, or to open air gatherings, some to small groups in each other's houses.

In this context, it is I think instructive for Friends today to read of aspects of our history, many of which I was myself unaware of, even though I first discovered Friends fifty years ago, and have been for much of that time (not all) in full membership of it. It is perhaps now time for Friends to redouble, if not rediscover their earlier zeal to change the world, to be themselves the agents of the change that Christ, the Apostles, and the early Friends also taught and practised.
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Peter
5.0 out of 5 stars Very readableReviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 9 September 2019
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Excellent book. To find out more about Quakers.
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2023/02/28

The Case Against God by Gerald Priestland | Goodreads

The Case Against God by Gerald Priestland | Goodreads

https://archive.org/details/caseagainstgod0000prie


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The Case Against God


Gerald Priestland

3.60
5 ratings2 reviews

192 pages, Paperback
Published November 14, 1985
192 pages, Paperback
November 14, 1985 by Fount

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About the author


Gerald Priestland21 books2 followers



Educated at Charterhouse and New College, Oxford, Gerald Priestland began his career at the BBC writing obituaries. He eventually became a foreign correspondent for the BBC, covering politics in America. After suffering a nervous breakdown, Priestland converted to Christianity and became a Quaker. Upon recovering from his breakdown, he became involved in religious affairs, culminating in taking a role as the BBC's religious affairs correspondent. He published several books, including an autobiography, and delivered various lectures, before his death in 1991.
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Marija Carter
18 reviews
=
January 25, 2022
The book was written by a well-read man skilfully using his language to describe what is by definition often incredibly hard to put into words. While reading this book as an agnostic was an interesting thought experiment and I do not regret one bit opening my mind to the author’s view of the world, the full nature of which, after all, can neither of us be certain, his case was clearly tilted in favour of religion. Priestland does not conceal this fact, for better and worse. 

Personally, I had also been rather annoyed by the insistence that whatever divine there is or isn’t, is surely is “a He.” 
It seems rather absurd to insist than, despite every single observation one can readily make in nature, the creative force would be a man. The implicit insistence on this element is rather frustrating throughout this book.

===
Bob Breckwoldt
78 reviews
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April 12, 2014
Nowhere near as succesful as his other books but a great set of interviews of believers and non believers and the uncertain. All attempt, in as simple and direct way as possible, to articulate the reasons for their beliefs. Includes amongst others, Freddie Ayer, Iris Murdoch, Jonathan Miller, Michael Dummett and Shirley Williams. My favourites are John Mortimer and Michael Goulder.

Forcing each to be as simple as possible make it a much better contribution to the Philosophy of Religion than other academic but tedious works.

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===
Lay Reader's Book Reviews

The Case Against God — G. Priestland.
April 4, 2015


Excellent, like all his books, allowing people to speak for themselves, and put­ting ideas forward thoughtfully and ensuring that all the issues are stated.

I like the idea that 90% of suffering is man-made and that the rest is an incentive to scientific research because evolution isn’t complete and we’re partners in it and that religions should not seek a false syncretism but seek God in the depths. Also that doctrines are a means to an end – taken literally they are like when a man points to the moon but the observer looks at the finger. 

The book turns out to be a good theodicy and even the institutional church is ‘justified’ as being the transmitter of ‘story’ which the secular world learns from and put into practice in many ways.






===

Gerald Priestland

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gerald Priestland

Gerald Francis Priestland (26 February 1927 – 20 June 1991) was a foreign correspondent, presenter and, later, a religious commentator for the BBC.

Early life and work[edit]

Gerald Priestland was the son of (Joseph) Francis ('Frank') Edwin Priestland, Cambridge-educated publicity manager at Berkhamsted agricultural chemical business Cooper's (later Cooper, McDougall and Robertson- now part of GlaxoSmithkline), and a lieutenant in the Machine Gun Corps during the First World War, and Ellen Juliana, daughter of Colonel Alexander McWhirter Renny, of the 7th Bengal Lancers.[1] The owner of Cooper's was Frank Priestland's brother-in-law Sir Richard Ashmole Cooper, 2nd Baronet (married to his sister Alice).[2] Frank Priestland's father, Rev. Edward Priestland, was headmaster of Spondon House School in Derbyshire, having taken over from his father-in-law, Rev. Thomas Gascoigne.[3]

Gerald Priestland was educated at Charterhouse and New College, Oxford. He began his work at the BBC with a six-month spell writing obituary pieces for broadcast news. Indeed, he even jokingly wrote his own obituary shortly before leaving the job for a post as a sub-editor in the news gathering operation. In 1954, he became the youngest person (at 26 years) to work as a BBC foreign correspondent, having been sent by the controversial Editor of News, Tahu Hole, to the BBC's office in New Delhi. Between 1958 and 1961, Priestland was relocated to Washington, D.C. where he covered, among other things, the successful election of John F. Kennedy and the first US human spaceflight of Project Mercury.[4] Following this, he spent most of the next four years as the BBC's Middle East correspondent, including covering the funeral of Jawaharlal Nehru,[5] before requesting a transfer back to London as a television newsreader.

BBC2 opening night[edit]

Possibly Priestland's best known news broadcast occurred on the opening night of the BBC2 channel (Monday 20 April 1964). He had the onerous and unexpected task of anchoring the evening's transmission from the newsroom at Alexandra Palace as a consequence of an extensive power failure across London.[6] The channel's output that evening was restricted to repeated readings of the news and apologies for the loss of normal service and only lasted for about three hours.

Later life and work[edit]

During the late 1960s, Priestland was back in the USA as chief American correspondent where he covered such events as the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., the moon landing of the Apollo program and the outraged response of students to the Vietnam War. He returned to Britain at the end of the decade but his broadcasting duties were interrupted when he suffered a nervous breakdown. In the course of his recovery, Priestland became a devoted Quaker, despite having been a confirmed atheist in his youth.

Religious affairs[edit]

From the 1970s onward, Priestland became increasingly involved in religious broadcasting and was the BBC's religious affairs correspondent from 1977 to 1982. His "Priestland's Postbag" was a controversial part of Terry Wogan's BBC breakfast programme, drawing both praise and criticism. During this period, he reported on both Papal Elections of 1978 and introduced a Saturday morning programme on BBC Radio 4 entitled Yours Faithfully. 


He gave the 1982 Swarthmore Lecture entitled, Reasonable Uncertainty: a Quaker approach to doctrine to the annual gathering of British Quakers. Priestland published his autobiography, Something Understood, in 1986, a work which he hastily altered before publication to express his true feelings about Tahu Hole, who had recently died: "He was a monster in every sense."

Priestland participated in a number of television and radio programmes for both the BBC and ITV until his death in 1991. After his death he received the rare honour (shared with John Reith, Huw Wheldon and Richard Dimbleby) of having a series of annually broadcast lectures named in his honour. He expressed his love of Cornwall in Postscript: with love to Penwith, published after his death.

Programmes[edit]

Priestland presented or featured on the following BBC programmes:

  • BBC2 news (television programme) as a newsreader
  • Sunday (radio programme) as a presenter
  • Analysis (radio programme) as a presenter - 1974 to 1975
  • Yours Faithfully (radio programme) as a presenter
  • Priestland's Progress (radio programme) as a presenter[7] - 1981
  • Desert Island Discs (radio programme) as a guest castaway[8] - 1984
  • Radio Lives (radio programme) as the biography subject - 1995

Personal life[edit]

On 14 May 1949, Priestland married (Helen) Sylvia Rhodes (17 May 1924 - 14 January 2004), daughter of (Edward) Hugh Rhodes, C.B.E.,[9] of Turner's Wood, Hampstead Garden Suburb, a senior civil servant.[10] Sylvia Priestland was an artist. They had two sons and two daughters.[11][12]

Sources[edit]

Printed material by Gerald Priestland[edit]

  • America, the Changing Nation (1968)
  • Frying Tonight: the saga of fish and chips (1972)
  • The Future of Violence (1974)
  • The Dilemmas of Journalism: speaking for myself (1979)
  • West of Hayle River: (with Sylvia Priestland) (1980), new edition 1992 as Priestlands' Cornwall
  • Priestland's Progress: One man's search for Christianity now (1981)
  • Coming Home: an introduction to the Quakers (1981)
  • Reasonable Uncertainty: a Quaker approach to doctrine (Swarthmore Lecture – 1982)
  • Priestland: Right and Wrong (1983)
  • Who Needs the Church?: the 1982 William Barclay Lectures (1983); Edinburgh, St Andrews Press ISBN 0715205536
  • The Case Against God (1984)
  • For All the Saints (1985) – the 1985 James Backhouse Lecture (pamphlet – 18 pages)
  • Something Understood: an autobiography (1986)[13]
  • The Unquiet Suitcase: Priestland at Sixty (1988) – Gerald Priestland's diary for 1 year, from February 1987
  • Postscript: With Love to Penwith: two essays in Cornish History; with a foreword by Sylvia Priestland (1992)
  • My Pilgrim Way: late writings; edited by Roger Toulmin (1993)
  • Three volumes of the Yours faithfully collected radio talks, the third volume having the title Gerald Priestland at Large.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Something Understood- An Autobiography, Gerald Priestland, Andre Deutsch Ltd, 1986, pp. 11-14
  2. ^ Something Understood- An Autobiography, Gerald Priestland, Andre Deutsch Ltd, 1986, pp. 11-12
  3. ^ Something Understood- An Autobiography, Gerald Priestland, Andre Deutsch Ltd, 1986, p. 10
  4. ^ Turnill, Reginald (2003). The Moonlandings: An Eyewitness Account. Cambridge University Press. p. 48. ISBN 9780521035354.
  5. ^ "Fond farewell to modern India's father". 13 September 2005. Retrieved 24 October 2018.
  6. ^ "BBC Two's 50th anniversary: Disastrous launch remembered". BBC News. 2014.
  7. ^ "Priestland's Progress - BBC Radio 4 FM - 30 September 1981 - BBC Genome". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 24 October 2018.
  8. ^ "BBC Radio 4 - Desert Island Discs, Gerald Priestland". BBC. Retrieved 24 October 2018.
  9. ^ Who was Who: A Companion to Who's Who, A. & C. Black, 1981, p. 636
  10. ^ Something understood (Pbk edition) pp.78, 91 "With my exam of my life behind me, the Navy dismissed, and a job in hand, Sylvia and I were able to fix the wedding for May 14th 1949, three days before Sylvia's birthday"
  11. ^ George Wedell: Priestland, Gerald Francis (1927–1991), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2011, accessed 24 May 2015
  12. ^ The last page of Something understood gives more family information.
  13. ^ The title, "Something understood", is the last two words of George Herbert's poem "Prayer", referred to on page 8 (pbk edition). Monochrome illustrations, Hardback, 1986 ISBN 0233975004, paperback edition, Arrow, 1988 ISBN 0099523809

External links[edit]

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