An Obadiah Slope column
Vale Dr Reason: Obadiah says let’s give thanks for psychologist Dr James Tootle Reason, the man who came up with the “swiss cheese model” of accident causation. He died this month on February 5, 2025, at the age of 86.
The “swiss cheese model” likens human-made systems to layers of Swiss cheese – the sort of cheese that has holes in it. Each part of a human system that attempts to be safe – for example, flying an aircraft – has holes in it, just like a slice of Swiss cheese. However, other parts of the system are meant to catch the problem. Layers of Swiss cheese stacked against each other, each with holes, represent each part of the system, forming multiple “safety barriers.” Any hole that lines up through multiple layers allows a threat or problem to become a reality.
Credit: Ben Aveling / Wikimedia
Professor Reason was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the UK’s 2003 New Year Honours list “for services to Reducing the Risk in Healthcare.” He was a member of both the Psychological Society and the Royal Aeronautical Society – which it stands to reason (sorry) was likely a unique combination.
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Hat Tip Anthony Venn Brown
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How the pilgrim made progress: this week saw the anniversary of the publication of The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan in 1678. Many readers will recall he wrote the book while in jail for preaching while not being an Anglican minister – Bunyan was a Baptist preacher. But reader Andrew Conacher sent Obadiah a post from author Garrison Keillor (Lake Wobegon and the radio show A Prairie Home Companion) with more detail: “During his years in jail, Bunyan made thousands of shoelaces to help support his family financially. But he needed something else to do, so he began to write The Pilgrim’s Progress. A denn was another word for jail, and The Pilgrim’s Progress begins: ‘As I walk’d through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place, where was a Denn; And I laid me down in that place to sleep: And as I slept I dreamed a Dream.'”
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Arc-angels? If you tap in “arc” and “conference” online you will find two conferences listed. One is this week’s “Alliance for Responsible Citizenship” gathering, which generated headlines from London this week, with speeches by Jordan Peterson, Douglas Murray, and Nigel Farage with a theme of calling for a reconstruction of Western Civilisation.
The other is a conference on church planting by the Association of Related Churches, another conservative group – but theologically conservative rather than politically conservative, although they probably lean right. Their agenda is church planting and growing existing churches. (Obadiah is aware that the ARC model does not work for everyone and has had the usual problems of a fast-growing church movement.)
Obadiah asks, “Which one will make the most difference?”
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Thank you Google: Obadiah felt a deepwave of gratitude to Google on Saturday morning at the disability tennis session he volunteers for. A Google doc means that the important allergy and risk information for participants is easy to fund and can be easily accessed. The days of carrying paper enrolment documents around are over. Hurrah!
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Three Bonhoeffers: to the big schoolroom at Sydney Grammar School to hear the world premiere of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Project, a collaboration between a troupe of German singers, Ensemble Nobiles, and the Sydney Chamber Choir.
As Obadiah ages, something he was told by his father decades ago becomes increasingly true in his experience: that listening to art music will teach you its meaning. This was especially true of these contemporary compositions that were performed in honour of the 80th anniversary of the death of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, martyred weeks before the end of World War Two.
This was true, for example, of US composer Matthew Harris’ “Morning Prayer” based on one of Bonhoeffer’s “Prayers for Prisoners” written in prison in 1943. As Obadiah listened, the music caused his spirit to pray with Bonhoeffer
God, to you, I call in the early morning
help me pray and gather my thoughts,
I can’t do it alone.
It is dark within me,
but there is light in you.
I am lonely,
But you will not abandon me.
I am faint-hearted,
but you are the font of help.
I am restless,
but there is peace in you.
There is bitterness in me
but you are patient.
I do not understand your ways,
but you know the right way for me.
Obadiah realises that three Bonhoeffers surround the event.
A Bonhoeffer from outside – the composers coming to appreciate a man they knew little of before being commissioned.
A Bonhoeffer that is smoothed out to fit a current political moment – the Eric Metaxas Bonhoeffer.
And the real Bonhoeffer, a true believer imprisoned but with a free but struggling soul.