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BRAINWAVES II. Reports
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BW/002 'Real and Virtual Money: How to Prevent Financial Meltdown' (January 2001) [PDF]
A propositional foundation is offered for macroeconomics in terms of 'real' and 'virtual' money, and 'well' and 'badly' behaved economies, all of which are defined. The unique characteristics of commodity money, and specifically gold, render it incomparably proof against both inflation and meltdown. The worldwide failure of the Phillips curve in the early 1970s is explained as a direct result of the cancelled dollar gold standard in August 1971. This signalled an era of 'bad' behaviour, which was compounded in the UK when the cash ratio method of credit control was terminated one month later, causing unprecedented inflation. Two 'Resolutions' are offered for recovering 'good' behaviour.
The two 'Resolutions', if adopted, would have prevented the global economic crisis which became apparent in 2008-9.
BW/003 'Towards a Mathematical Revolution' (December 2006, updated) [PDF]
Proposes a revolution in and outside the classroom in order to raise the mathematical consciousness of the nation and hence a recovery of the ability to Think. Central to this is the belief that mathematics comes to life when taught within the historical framework of the great mathematicians who discovered it. This principal is exemplified by a textbook, e, i & p: a Mathematical Drama in Two Acts, currently being authored by BRAINWAVES, which seeks to teach elementary mathematics at approximately 'A' level down to Euler (c.1748). Includes an extensive bibliography.
'Mathematics is the gymnasium of the mind.'
BW/004 'God, Maths and Plato: An Exercise in Metaphysics' (September 2006, updated) [PDF]
A lighthearted address to schoolchildren on the metaphysical (Platonic) basis of mathematics and the conclusions which can be drawn from this.
BW/006 'How We Got Our Synoptic Gospels' (January 2008) [PDF]
On the origins and dates of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, and the Book of Acts. Summarises as a coherent narrative many of the author's heterodox arguments in The Three Gospels described in Section III below.
BW/008 'Without Honour - Where? A Historian Looks at John 4:44' (October 2007) [PDF]
John 4:44 suggests either that Jesus' home was not in Galilee, or that his recent mission to Jerusalem and Judea had been a failure. Neither is consistent with the rest of the Fourth Gospel. From Eusebius, we deduce that the author, identified as the Apostle John ("John the Elder" being Eusebius' invention), is correcting the false impression given by Mark that Jesus began his ministry by his dramatic bursting into Galilee at 1:14. Jesus knew that to attempt this would have resulted in failure. St John shows that, instead, Jesus began his career with a triumphant mission to Jerusalem and Judea, only tackling Galilee after first succeeding in the south.
(Paper originally given to the Johannine Seminar of the British New Testament Conference at Exeter University, 7 September 2007.)
BW/009 'Anglican Gender Debates: Two Suggestions' (July 2008) [PDF]
Makes proposals intended to offer healing on the twin issues of homosexuality and women bishops which were the subject of heated debate within the Anglican Communion around the time of the Lambeth Conference, 2008.
BW/010 'Healing of the Nation' (Issue 2, February 2009) [PDF]
Sees the pace of life as today's major problem. Points out that the contemplative/mystical tradition was flourishing at the time of the Reformation but was rejected by Luther. Hence Protestantism was born without a contemplative dimension. Proposes the rediscovery of this as a means of slowing down the pace of life and potentially also of healing the breach between the Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches.
(Talk originally given to E-men - Emsworth Anglican Men's Group - 17 October 2008, when the discussion topic was, 'What can Christians do to co-operate with God in the healing of the nation?')
BW/011 'Alternative Approaches to the Gospels' (November 2008) [PDF]
Like BW/006 summarises some ot the arguments of The Three Gospels described in Section III below, this time under the headings 'The Alternative to Q', 'The Challenge to Form Criticism' and 'Relationship of John to the Synoptics'. Includes commented bibliography of essential works.
BW/012 'Healing of the Church' (January 2009) [PDF]
Sequel to BW/010, this explains Luther's aversion to contemplative prayer in terms of his chronic depression which led him to shun solitude. Reformation Protestants such as Dr Francis Schaeffer have followed him in elevating scripture over contemplative prayer as a channel of the knowledge of God, often at the expense of mystery and paradox. One such paradox is to be found in the fact that the New Testament presents not one but two gospel messages (bundles of good news): the gospel of the kingdom taught by Jesus right up to the Last Supper, and that of the forgiveness of sins through Jesus' blood [by faith alone], taught by Jesus at and after the Last Supper, and in detail in the writings of Paul. Some Christians have majored on one of these, some on the other. If the planet is to be rescued from disaster, the Church needs to reunite the two, rediscovering the mystery of God in the process.
BW/013 'The Genesis Account of Creation' (March 2009) [PDF]
Sees in the Genesis account the thought forms of the modern systems analyst. Genesis 1 then becomes a masterpiece of scientific observation, partitioning and classification within the limits of its age.
BW/014 'How to Avert the Next Financial Crisis' (April 2009) [PDF]
Proposes a transformation from money-centred to people-centred thinking.
BW/015 'How to Cure Our Politics' (June 2009) [PDF]
Proposes a rediscovery of wisdom and servanthood by reintroducing the monarchy into our political thinking. BW/016 'The Devout Consummation: On Healing the Wound Between Catholics and Protestants' (October 2009) [PDF]
Sequel to BW/010 and BW/012. Suggests that in its attitude to sex, Roman Catholicism has a blind spot comparable to the Protestant weakness in the region of mystical prayer. The notion that sex is somehow unholy, which is not found in the teaching of Jesus or Paul, entered the Church through the gnostic and ascetic movements of the second century and afterwards, and became enshrined in Catholic teaching through Ambrose, Jerome and Augustine. It still causes serious problems today. That there are comparable blind spots on both sides of the Protestant/Catholic divide may explain why the problems of the Reformation have proved so intractable; recognition of which could open the way towards a healing of the wounds sustained by the Christian Church during that era.
BW/017 'The Good News of Jesus Christ' (April 2010) [PDF] Critique of evangelical theology of the gospel. Argues that on four key issues - salvation by faith; the doctrine of no second chance after death; universalism; and hell - evangelical teaching follows strong traditions which are markedly at variance with what the New Testament actually says. In consequence evangelicals greatly underemphasise the Last Judgement and the significance of Jesus' conquest of death and Hades for all humanity.
BW/018 'The Lion, the Cage and the Peashooter' (June 2011) [PDF] An exercise in metaphysics which attempts to make belief in God intellectually respectable in the wake of Richard Dawkins and others.
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