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  • Dry and Boring Evangelical Theology

    Andy Goodliff, on July 3, has been ‘fessing up to all kinds of virtues and vices. He says, with honest courage and reckless integrity,  ‘I confess: I find ‘evangelical theology’ dry and boring’.

    Right. But that raised for me the problems of definition – All evangelical theology? This isn’t only a (good natured) response to Andy, but my way of agreeing with most of what Andy means, and suggesting a little less generality and a little more generosity!

    1. Now if what is meant is evangelical popularist, best-selling pragmatic, self-therapeutic, feel-good theology that rewards me with what I want, rather than transforming desire and revolutionising motives, then I find it both dry and boring, and not very evangelical anyway.
    2. If what is meant is chronic evangelical defensiveness, pedantic appeals to recognisable evangelical shibboleths, nostalgic attachment to sound and orthodox formulations that used to cut it, and these accompanied by a lust for excommunicating those who don’t say the words, sign the statements, toe the line, then I find this boring but also unfaithful to a gospel that is a cataract of grace thundering down on these little buckets held under Niagara.
    3. If what is meant is that kind of theology, which when published by certain publishers, becomes predictably safe, the content edited and shaped to conform to the brand name, a theology without surprises, eschewing innovative thought and nervous of its constituency approval, then, yes, boring and dry, and in danger of fossilising.
    4. If what is meant is a way of doing theology that is either a monologue amongst the like-minded, or a polemical  hostility to those whose experience, insight, and living out of the Christian Gospel is different, then I find these dry and boring; but also lacking the open intellectual curiosity and spiritual humility and adventurous integrity that should be possible for those who look on the world as created, fallen, redeemed and translucent of sovereign purposive grace revealed as redemptive self-giving love, and thus instilled with hope.

    So – evangelical theology dry and boring. A matter of definition. Was Colin Gunton a non-evangelical? Or Stan Grenz? Or Donald Bloesch? Or Helmut Thielicke? Or T. F. Torrance? I would count them in – and so I suspect would Andy…which suggests to me that sometimes confessions need to be more specific…which of course makes them more interesting. So WHICH EVANGELICAL’S theological peregrinations are dry and boring? Now I can think of a whole raft of names to insert in the four clarifications noted above….but prudence constrains. Would be an interesting list to compile though???

    Or in order to avoid chronological snobbery, what about those Evangelicals of previous generations – and here I get a wee bit self-defensive – P. T. Forsyth and James Denney, Wesley’s hymns and Jonathan Edwards best Sermons. Four of my personal pantheon – but of course at least two of them would be disenfranchised by those who want to be guardians of their brand of Evangelical theology – and excluding them would make Evangelical theology significantly drier and boringer!

  • The church as an antique saltshaker?

    Reading in the Sermon on the Mount, ‘You are the salt of the earth….but if the salt has lost its savour…….it fails to be salt.

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    In a culture that celebrates, even adulates, success, it can be devastating to fail. Young people aiming for University, or a career opportunity, have their life chances calculated on unforgiving exam grades. Hard working people, in all kinds of jobs, are evaluated, assessed, reviewed, all on the basis of ‘development’, or efficiency, or value for money to the organisation. Elderly people whose lives have been spent believing that National Insurance contributions and income tax would ensure a modest but sufficient income for everyone in later years, face means tested supplements. Schools fail, companies fail, social services fail, football teams fail. Fail. The word is loaded with negativity, unrelentingly judgemental, betraying a view of life that majors on performance and function, rather than on human growth and fulfilment.

    Derelictchurch001 One of the temptations the church faces at a time when it is seeming to lack presence and impact on the lives of ordinary people, is to try to be what it isn’t, in order to succeed, in order not to be seen to fail. The irony is, when the church buys into the values and attitudes of the surrounding culture in the search for success, it is the more likely to fail where and when it matters most; in its mission as the body of Christ in the world. Core values of the Christian community such as peacemaking, forgiveness, loving acceptance, justice-seeking and identity with the vulnerable, each provide correctives, alternatives, reminders, and yes even counter-arguments, to the assumptions and values of our success addicted  society.

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    Salt is now regarded as a health risk. Too much of it in our food and we are asking for trouble. But when it comes to human community, the cultural and  social world in which we all live, the problem isn’t too much salt, it’s too little, far too little. ‘You are the salt of the earth’, Jesus told his followers. Salt used medically in past days to cleanse open wounds, causes pain as it cleans. It is astringent, it hurts so much that part of us might prefer to take our chances with infection. Salt as a seasoning or preservative stops food from going off. In the absence of freezers, vacuum packing, and tins, people of Jesus’ day knew the importance of salt. Whether used medically or in the kitchen, salt only works if it hangs on to it’s saltness, its essential character and flavour.

    Likewise the church. ‘If the salt has lost its savour it is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out’. Amongst the most reported performance indicators demonstrating the failure of the church are falling attendances, closing down buildings, mounting deficits, shortage of ministers and leaders, a burgeoning supermarket of spiritual alternatives. Who knows what the future holds in the light of such signs of institutional failure.

    Sssbmary_small That such crisis indicators need radical thinking and even more radical action is obvious. Perhaps the most radical response of all, though, is for the Christian community to recover its saltiness, its astringent quality of creative critique. In a society that worships success and condemns failure, to go back to the core truth of the faith, Christ crucified, is to regain saltiness. The idea that the power of God was revealed in suffering love, in the shame of public failure, in order to demonstrate once and for all God’s love for the powerless, the vulnerable, the people who struggle with the cost and failures of their lives, is unbelievable, incredible, and for Christians, true. In the power of that truth, whatever the future for the institutional church, Jesus still calls his followers to be the salt of the earth, those for whom failure is not final, and whose judgement of others is not performance related, but on the dignity of each human being as a child of God.

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    The picture is of an antique saltshaker – (one description of the church in a success driven world – antique saltshaker? Hmmm?) You can see more of these over here at the atique saltshaker site

  • Losing their lives for the sake of others….

    Just came across this news bulletin on the web. My heart is sad, at this tragedy, and also proud that these wonderful people were making such a difference.

    Three nurses have died in a road accident in Mozambique after donating a week of their holiday to care for sick children in the impoverished country.

    Helen Golder, 33, a nurse at the Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Trust in London, and Liz Callan, 31, from Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London, both died at the scene of the accident on Saturday outside the Mozambique capital Maputo.

    A third nurse, 32-year-old Susan Andrews, of Frenchay Hospital, Bristol, lost her fight for life on Tuesday after being flown to Johannesburg, South Africa, for treatment.

    The women had just completed a week working for free providing intensive care for sick children in Maputo, on a mission led by heart surgeon Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub. They were on their way for a day trip to the Kruger National Park in South Africa when their bus was involved in an accident.

    ‘The righteous, though they die early, will be at rest…There was one who pleased God and was loved by Him…for I was hungry and you fed me, thirsty and you gave me to drink, sick and you comforted me…..’ May they rest in the peace of God, and may their families be comforted.

  • Christian Ethics – and the Driving Test.

    Can you be a Christian and drive a car?

    Of course you can.

    Can you be a good Christian and drive a car ?

    Well, sometimes.

    I have a theory about driving as a Christian’s moral training ground to see if we’re serious, practical and non-selective about Jesus’ teaching.

    When someone makes a mistake, instead of light-flashing and horn sounding, you forgive as you hope to be forgiven. When someone is about to reverse into the same parking space as you intend to take, your parking space, let the last be first.  If someone cuts in and makes you slow down, be slow to anger. If the person at the petrol pump is taking an inordinate amount of time to fill up, then buys half the garage shop before joining the long queue to pay by card to the one attendant, do not worry, because, as I have proved, it doesn’t add a single inch to your stature.

    Motherjulian Well, I can wish. But the way people drive their cars is a fairly accurate index of  their attitude to other people. How is it that calm, pleasant, community-conscious people get behind a steering wheel and are transformed into aggressive, abusive liabilities? Has it something to do with the way a car cuts us off from real contact, and face to face relationships? In the privacy of the car we don’t have to take the other person seriously as the human being they are.

    The old-fashioned word courtesy describes an attitude that I think at its root is Christian. In fact it was used by Julian of Norwich to describe God. It means to respect and to love, to treat kindly and considerately, to look after the interests of the other person. So when those lit up motorway signs say optimistically to the hurtling traffic – or grid-locked commuters -‘Be a courteous driver’ – I wonder if their script writer had read Julian of Norwich. Nah!

    I still wonder though if Christians are more considerate, courteous drivers? Does the Gospel make a difference to my road manners? It should. Used to be a bumper sticker that said ‘Honk if you love Jesus’. How about a more radical one, ‘Don’t honk if you love Jesus’.

  • Holidayz iz here!

    Ferryden Off for a few days over to the East Coast (Ferryden, pictured), where the coastal walks and coffee shops of the area provide one of nature’s important balances – exercise and food. A walk the length of St Cyrus beach – there and back – more than compensates for a steaming latte, and a fresh scone with butter and jam. Not so sure a walk from Inverbervie to Johnshaven and back totally neutralises a Bervie fish supper, but as Maureen Lipman playing her role as Jewish mother in philosophical mood might say, ‘What can it hurt?’ Either way time to wind down a bit, look outwards at the world, and defragment the hard disk.

    Will be around later in the week for Graduation at the University – seven of our students feature in the roll call and well done to them all. After Graduation a few things to tidy up before we go for our long looked forward to holiday at Lake Garda – never been there but told it’s beautiful hot and a fun place to be.

    The big bonus for our household this year is we don’t have to put Gizmo in the cattery. Our resident attack cat will stay at home, kept in the manner to which he is accustomed by Andrew. So no need to go on holiday this year ridden with guilt from the reproachful glare and morally outraged vocals of the decanted cat; nor any necessity to pay the price of two coffees and two scones a day to keep him there either.

    Blogging likely to be sporadic throughout July – a holiday is a way of telling ourselves, about blogging and a million other things, ‘Gonnae no’ dae that’. And if we ask why, the profoundly rational and existentially unanswerable reply is given, ‘Juist gonnae no?’

  • Providence, the Edinburgh Subway and St Bride

    Earlier this week went to Edinburgh to meet up with several folk. Met with Professor David Fergusson, a friend and theological mentor and we tried to put the theological world right, but with only limited success. David will deliver the Gifford lectures in Glasgow next year – I’ll post the dates nearer the time. He has been working for some time on the doctrine of Providence which will be the theological focus of his lectures.

    Talking of Providence, walking down towards Princes St I was accosted by three excited American tourists who wanted to know where the nearest subway was. In my good humoured, smiling, best enunciated Scottish accent english, I explained that Glasgow, not Edinburgh had a subway, but Edinburgh did have a very good bus service. ‘No Sir, we want the nearest Subway’ she explained in her good humoured, smiling and best enunciated American accent English. And it dawned on me’ Oh, that kind of Subway’. The great big torpedo sized sandwich with shovels of filling type of subway. Since I wasn’t THAT sure, I suggested Rose St which has most of the eating places. Nearest Subway – come 5,000 miles across the Atlantic to Edinburgh, and need to find a…..Subway? Excuse the gender specific language but,’man shall not live by bread alone….it needs to be subway bread and with the familiar range of fillings etc’. Providence huh?

    Then I met with Aileen and we had lunch – which was very fine – a celebration of the new job which starts soon. Later we went to Harvey Nicholls for coffee and sinfully indulgent pancakes, chocolate sauce and ice-cream – well, we were celebrating the job, and Providence is occasionally about more than calorific minimalism – remember, ‘not by bread alone’, need the pancakes’n stuff now and then. Providence is also about celebration, fun and the important people in our lives.

    We also spent some time in the National Gallery doin our art critic and cultural browsing bit. There are a lot of magnificent pieces of art that don’t quite do it for me – I recognise their genius, their right to be considered masterpieces, but they don’t reach down into ‘that deep place we call the soul’ (Bono’s words). But some do – and one that always does it for me, is St Bride, by John Duncan.

    Professor Donald Meek is deeply sceptical about the historical accuracy of Scottish Celtic Christianity as popularly promoted. Fair enough, and Donald’s own book on the subject is by far the most authoritative. But Duncan’s painting isn’t about historical specifics; it is about the deep mysteries of faith expressed through art which is deeply indebted to Celtic culture but which resonates with contemporary spiritual longings. When I come back from holiday I’ll post a bit more on this painting. So not much happenning on this blog for a week.

    For now – enjoy and be exhilarated by the sheer glory of this painting. And if you can, go to the Scottish section and see it in all its ‘look at me’ splendour.

    Stbridel_3   

  • Women….that which they are in themselves….

    In The Prophecy of Jeremiah (New York: Revell, 1931), G. Campbell Morgan demonstrated how a Bible teacher, the foremost Evangelical expositor of his generation, and speaking over sixty years ago, handled a text relating to the role of women in Christian service.

    ‘The first responsibility of womanhood is that women should discover their personal rights in God, should realize that they bear to God a relationship which man does not affect, nor can; that they have a right of access to God, for the realization of that which they are in themselves, without the interference of man in any way.’

    816 I wish, nearly 80 years on, women and men in our churches could approach the issue with the same bold grasp of the key Gospel principles of freedom and grown-upness in Christ. And that women in our Scottish churches were allowed to ‘realise that which they are in themselves before God’, and to share fully and frutifully in all the ministry and ministries of the Church of Jesus Christ.

    The passage is on pages 273-4. It was brought to my attention by my friend Kate Durie years ago….and it confirmed Campbell Morgan in my personal pantheon of Evangelicalism’s most attractive and biblically articulate writers.

  • Peace Envoys or Peace-Makers?

    Image545113x_2  I confess to being puzzled, perplexed, bemused, bewildered as to how I should feel that Britain’s outgoing Prime Minister should be appointed (by whom? by the US???) to be a peace envoy in the Middle East. How does someone who has never fully explained a decision to go to war, has never expressed regret or conceded error of judgement in such a decision, has no unquestioned legal authority for such a catastrophic act of international fight-picking, did so under the influence of / in response to / in collaboration with, the American President and Administration, who now appoint him as a peace envoy – how does that work?????

    What about goodwill, integrity, honesty, humility, understanding of the OTHER, as characteristics of the envoy? And shouldn’t those to whom such a person is sent, have some evidence that such an envoy is not coming to serve their own, or their own side’s interests? How do they trust, even talk to, a person who has shown no public independence of thought from the US view on Iraq, the Israeli hammering of the Lebanese and has done little more than speak shoulder shrugging platitudes about the Palestinian question? And who comes as a US messenger?

    Sw70031 I am committed to peace – I’m prepared to support every initiative that might bring peace about, that offers an alternative to war. I will pray for all patient peace-makers, all persuasive peace-seekers, all political peace-envoys, all persistent peace-prayers. I believe that words and human relationships are always preferable to shock and awe – but I just wonder what the peoples of the Middle East make of a man who as Prime Minister declared war on the flimsiest of evidence, and has never conceded such, as the West’s best hope for ending the horrors of Iraq, Israel and Palestine? Sometimes the hardest part of following Jesus today, is knowing what to pray for in a world already scarily complex, made more ethically and politically complicated by dualities of language, action and motive. I genuinely don’t understand what is going on here.

    The Lord’s Prayer helps though…..your Kingdom, come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven….and that means Iraq and all its people. 

    Christ have mercy

    Lord have mercy

    Christ have mercy, Amen

  • The Paraclete as Community Theologian

    This is the last reflection for now in the community theologian conversation. I want to gather this thinking together and see if it can be formed into a viable model worth developing. I admit today’s reflection may seem a bit obtuse – but it is out-loud thinking not yet as clear as I’d like. But I think the underlying idea is at least to be considered;

    that the Paraclete mirrors a form of theological ministry of interpreting Jesus to which the Christian community is called to respond.

    Spiritpicasso18_2 Amongst the community of Jesus the theological interpreter par excellence is the Spirit of Truth, the Counsellor, the Paraclete.  So John 16 8-15 is a seminal passage for any Christian community that takes seriously the reality and activity of God the Spirit, in the church, throughout the world. In John’s Gospel, the Holy Spirit – the Counsellor and Comforter- is the community theologian. Indwelling the Christian community is the Paraclete, none other than the interpreter of Jesus, and the critic of the world that crucified him. As the Spirit of truth, negative judgement is passed on the hostility of the world to the name and the way of Jesus; as the Spirit of truth positive affirmation is given in guiding Jesus followers into the things of Jesus, and enabling Jesus’ disciples to faithfully witness to the reality of the crucified, risen Christ.

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    I don’t want to push this too far – but I do wonder if the role of community theologians is, to even a small extent, to be called to be a paraclete with a very small p – one who listens to the coalescing voices of world, culture and society and detects the latent inevitable discord of values, convictions and commitments, between church and world. At the same time the community theologian as paraclete (very small p again) seeks to lead and guide along the way of truth to the mystery of the One who is the Truth, Jesus – by hearing Scripture, seeking to discern God’s voice amongst the voices, nurturing the faith and vision of those whose life intent is following after Christ.

    152956604_ce1b5c69a7_m Community theologians will not therefore glorify themselves but bear witness to Jesus, and seek to discover in the life of the community, the living reality of Christ, revealed in Scripture, experienced in transformed lives, encountered as holy personality and demanding gracious presence – community theologians, as paraclete, point towards and lead into, the truth of Jesus.

    So the paraclete bears witness to sin, justice and judgement – and to the One who overcomes sin, establishes justice and is Himself the judgement of the world’s fallen-ness, brokenness and incipient hostility to all that Jesus represents. Two foci then – world and Jesus; two spiritual claimants – one hostile to truth, light and life, the other the bringer and protector of truth light and life, such that He personifies truth, contains the true light, and gives life abundant.

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    And therefore two spheres within which we live our lives, in the daily dialectic of pulling loyalties, obedience worked out in the often painful, always stretching tension, of being a follower of Jesus in a world that doesn’t recognise, acknowledge or love him. Community theologians take seriously these unaccommodating contrasts of living in the world and living for Jesus; and every community of Christian theologians must learn to live with both the discomfort of unresolved tension, and the assurance that such tension is a sign of spiritual vitality, moral alertness and determined faithfulness.

  • Evangelicals of substance..Hmmmm?

    Yes I hear all these suggestions in the comments. But as that eloquent Scottish pundit, Kenny Dalglish opined when asked about a certain fitba’ job, ‘Ehhh. Maybes aye…..an’ ehhhh, maybes naw!’ That’s how I feel about some of the suggestions so far!

    First, not sure any of those mentioned compare in stature to others over the past three hundred years- that may be a matter of historical persepctive. Maybe we don’t fully recognise some people’s contribution till the next generation. And Margaret, thanks for the thought, but modesty forbids…Stuart can speak for his self?

    Second, where are the women – is Evangelicalism still so structured as to exclude / prevent / silence, the voice of women in roles of spiritual influence and gifted presence? (Please note I avoid the words leadership and authority!) I find it interesting that there is a stooshie going on at one of the Evangelical Anglican Colleges down south where Elaine Storkey is subject to disciplinary proceedings – the story is murky but has been all over the Christian blogosphere, with suggestions that issues of ministry and gender lurk in the background. Oh dear!

    Third, people like Peterson and Yancey represent a moderate and almost journalistic form of evangelicalism – soft in a way that for example John Piper or Jim Packer are not. The modern publishing machinery and publicity technology market names and personalities in a way that perhaps inflates their value unfairly compared with previous figures whose influence was established more by personal reputation. is that true – fair – relevant?

    Fourth, Jim Wallis and Tom Smail are two very intriguing suggestions – would both want to own the term Evangelical as their primary self-descriptor? The Sojourners, and Wallis as their founder, have made it impossible for Evangelicals to avoid the relation of Gospel to issues of justice, politics and culture. Smail has long been a key theological voice within the Charismatic movement, and with a deepening commitment to Anglican thought.

    Fifth, Donald Bloesch is a self confessed Evangelical who may well be thought of by other evangelicals in the way previous generations both admired and were cautious about R. W. Dale, James Denney and P. T. Forsyth. Indeed one or two criticisms of this book on its first outing asked questions about the inclusion of Dale and Forsyth in a book about Evangelicals! But I DO think Bloesch is an Evangelical of significant stature and well worthy of study – in fact several theses and at least two books are dedicated to his thought. But while we are thinking about evangelicals that other evangelicals might not want to include, there is also Clark Pinnock…. and the late and hugely lamented, Stan Grenz…

    Nobody has yet mentioned Tom Torrance – Hmmmm?