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In Maharishi Vedic Science, the self-referral mechanics of Natural Law are considered fundamental to any complete understanding of nature's functioning, since Natural Law is understood to be the unmanifest (i.e., non-physical) home of all the laws of nature and the unbounded source of order and intelligence responsible for creating and guiding the physical universe. This proposition is recognizable in modern scientific theories of the 'unified field'. Moreover, the circular structure and self-referral loops of Natural Law are said to underlie and guide every level of a manifest hierarchy. Among the hallmarks of industrial sustainability are its emphasis on harnessing renewable energy and recycling principles, both designed to limit the impact of polluting activities on the environment and to improve commercial performance. To circumvent the so-called 'take, make, dispose' linear economic mentality of the past, contemporary industry has also begun embracing models of circular economy, in which materials and energy are circulated and cascaded through the economic system,

Researchers into contemporary spirituality in Britain raise the question of a possible return of the classical tragic sense of life once displaced by Christianity. Such a sense of life renders faith incredible. This profound mission challenge shows itself especially in "tragic spirituality" and in an exalted "victim sensibility." The intrinsic relation between tragedy and victimhood is here explored. Since the experience of tragic victimhood is personally demanding it is characteristically evaded, in one of two basic ways: either by adopting a dismissive attitude, or by giving in to being overwhelmed and spiritually defeated. Both responses are destructive: the former tends to create or re-victimize victims, while the latter turns into self-destructive resentment and rage which readily creates new victims. Jesus Christ accepted the vocation of the ultimate victim who embraces radical victimhood without evasion and empowers others to do the same. Nevertheless Christians have sometimes either been dismissive of victimhood by appealing superficially to the resurrection, or have made Jesus the mere icon of tragic suffering.Western culture is now seen to foster vulnerability towards overwhelming by victimhood. This vulnerability is associated with the cultural fostering of depleted, narcissistic personalities. Such overwhelming often shows itself in rage and the search for scapegoats. The relation between overwhelming, the sacrifice of scapegoats and the sacred is now explored with attention to René Girard's writings. His discernment here of a contemporary "twofold Nietzschean heritage" is presented as a vital context for mission today, together with "scapegoating" tendencies in fundamentalist religion. In conclusion, an underlying * David Kettle is an Anglican Priest and Co-ordinator of the Gospel and Our Culture Network in Britain (www.gospel-culture.org.uk). He has ministered in England and New Zealand, and is author of a dozen published theological articles. He has a special interest in the fields of epistemology, mission in western culture, and the work of Lesslie Newbigin

Sociologist of religion Grace Davie has drawn attention to contemporary religious “believing without belonging” and, more recently, to the shift in religion from “an ethic of obligation” toward “an ethic of consumption”. What is the relevance of these sociological realities for the task of mission in Western culture? Grace Davie writes that a firm grasp of sociological realities is the starting point for Christian ministry, but that it is only the starting point. The gospel however, challenges this: rather, the mysterion of Christ is the radical starting point of mission, in whose light are decerned and appraised the sociological realities relevant to mission in the first place. While on the one hand, the church is certainly no rock standing above the turbulence of human society, on the other hand sociological realities do not form a rock‐like mould within which the church must flow. Accordingly the contemporary sociological realities of “religion” and of religious “believing”, “belonging”, “obligation” and “choice” must be appraised by reference to the meaning endowed upon these terms by the mysterion of Christ in relation to our encounter with God. In this way sociological realities may serve as a provisional starting point for understanding the task of mission. Standing in ambiguous relation to their theological meaning, they provide no imperatives directly for the task. On the other hand, importantly, attention to them may lead the church beyond past culture‐bound embodiments of these theological realities. In this article, the theological meaning of believing and belonging are recalled, and their inseparability; similarly obligation and choice, and their inseparability. In this light, contemporary religious forms of believing, belonging, obligation and choice are appraised. The social context of mission is now itself located, historically andnormatively, in the context of the gospel In conclusion, issues are identified for further reflection and action.

compared him with the Fathers of the Church in spiritual stature and scope of ministry. 2 Tom Wright congratulates 'any seminary or degree course that offers a special subject on his thought'. 3 Lesslie Newbigin is best known in Britain for his pursuit of authentic missionary engagement with western culture through a series of books and his 'Gospel and Our Culture' initiative. 4 However, in current conversation about such mission he does not receive wide attention. He is remembered with affection by many who knew him, and was an inspiration to many, but his teaching is not often subject to careful reflection. Indeed many in Britain have passed over his message or dismissed it. He has been relegated to the margins.Yet Newbigin always was a marginal figure. He was marginal to both 'Evangelical' and 'Liberal' parties, to academic theology, to denominational church life, and to the World Council of Churches when its path diverged from his own trinitarian missiology.Ten years on from his death, the marginalization of Newbigin among those who ponder mission in our culture raises questions of importance to theology, church life and mission. In what follows I shall appraise this dismissal and raise the issue of further dialogue with him. For this purpose it is necessary to consider what kind of theological enterprise Newbigin undertook in the first place. DOING THEOLOGY: THE EXAMPLE OF NEWBIGINWhen Geoffrey Wainwright conceived writing a 'theological biography' of Lesslie Newbigin, he was challenged by his publisher's reader to 'explain how someone who was in the avant-garde of the theological mainstream in the 1940s and 1950s has since been marginalised despite the fact that he has remained remarkably up-to-date intellectually'. The reader added, 'This suggests that the theological mainstream itself is now intellectually marginalised in a way that was not true in Newbigin's youth.' Wainwright explains that many theologians have, in the intervening years, 'distanced themselves