The Hump of the Camel

Two buzzwords have been niggling at me recently. The first is “climate breakdown,” much used by Chris Packham to pretend that we, and not God, are in control of the weather and have completely spoiled it – but it’s a pleasant June day and the birds are singing anyway. The second is “spiritual breakthrough,” a term that has begun to be bandied about prodigally in prayers even at my own church, though I’ve noticed it occurring ubiquitously elsewhere for a year or two. You can be sure that when a non-biblical buzzword comes into fashion, somebody has been monkeying around with the theology, and that is true in spades for “breakthrough,” as I’ll demonstrate.

Two years ago I did a piece as an obituary to an old friend, Peter Loose, who though incredibly self-effacing made a great behind-the-scenes difference to many Christian enterprises both here and in the US. I described how I first got to know him in my home Bible Study Group based on the ordinary, if large, Baptist Church where we were both members.

Today I hear news of the death of another member of that small (and unremarkable) group, whom I’ll call “K,” and although (or perhaps because) she had nothing like the kind of influence on the world that Peter did, I feel a eulogy is called for, because without the Ks of this world, the Peters of this world would not be possible.