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Ian Paul
Andrew Atherstone writes: As the Church of England undertakes its “Covid Recovery” planning, the question of individual cups at Holy Communion continues to gather pace. As is widely known, the House of Bishops have taken refuge behind a 2011 paper from the Legal Advisory Commission (LAC) which summarily pronounced individual cups to be “contrary to … Continue Reading
Alister McGrath writes: With the death of J. I. (‘Jim’) Packer, Anglican evangelicalism has lost one of its most significant theological voices, as well as a guiding figure of the National Evangelical Anglican Congress at the University of Keele in 1967, which many consider to have inaugurated a new phase in the history of evangelicalism within … Continue Reading
The latest Grove Ethics booklet COVID-19: Environment, Justice and the Future, is a fascinating study of what we can learn for the longer term from our response to the Covid-19 pandemic—and the hope for the future that we can grasp, despite the challenges of the present. The introduction and conclusion are written by Dr Tim Howles, … Continue Reading
Savvas Costi writes: In an interview last year Tony Blair expressed his bewilderment that none of the political parties were talking about the next technological revolution (of course, Brexit was top of the agenda at the time of the interview). But is Blair right to call this “the single biggest challenge we face?” John Lennox’s … Continue Reading
Having, in previous weeks, pulled out the parables of the sower/soils and of the weeds, together with their interpretations, from the collection of ‘kingdom of heaven’ parables in Matt 13, the lectionary for Trinity 7 in Year A now mops up the remaining, mostly short, parables about the kingdom to complete our reading of the … Continue Reading
Amongst all the other confusions around ‘fake news’ and conspiracy theories associated with the coronavirus Covid-19, we might not be surprised that there has been a rash of claims that the Book of Revelation (miraculously) predicted all this 2,000 years ago. Rather than look at any one of these in detail, I here make observations … Continue Reading
The lectionary gospel reading for the Sixth Sunday after Trinity in Year A once more splits up a text in order to unite a parable and its interpretation by Jesus, though with less damage than was done previously. The parable itself is given in Matthew 13.24–30; we then skip over the brief parables of the … Continue Reading
Andrew Goddard writes: The inability to share a common cup due to Covid-19 has resulted in the withdrawal of wine at Holy Communion and the claim that administration of wine in individual cups is contrary to law in the Church of England. This was reaffirmed in answer to a Synod question on Saturday. This article highlights … Continue Reading
The lectionary this week (Fifth Sunday after Trinity in Year A) repeats a grievous error in its choice of passage that it also made last week—cutting out the central section and thus seriously altering the meaning of the reading. Last week (on which, forgive me dear regular reader, I failed to comment), we had a … Continue Reading
Richard Briggs writes: What does Genesis 1 say about the goodness of creation? It says it was good, indeed very good. What that does and does not mean is my main focus. It brings with it two related questions: what does this have to teach us about how we live? and secondly, because I can never … Continue Reading
In the week that Stephen Cottrell is confirmed as Archbishop of York, Andrew Atherstone reviews the archbishop’s latest book, On Priesthood (Hodder & Stoughton, 2020). There is no shortage of paperbacks about Anglican ministry, and about Christian leadership more broadly, flowing from the printing presses at a rapid rate. Several of our bishops have such … Continue Reading
Ian Paul: theologian, author, speaker, academic consultant. Associate Senior Research Fellow, Kirby Laing Centre for Public Theology; Associate Minister, St Nic's, Nottingham; Managing Editor, Grove Books; member of General Synod and Archbishops' Council. Mac user; chocoholic. Tweets at @psephizo
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Gospel commentary index Lectionary Year A
Andrew Goddard Bible biblical interpretation Biblical literacy biblical theology Christmas Church of England culture discipleship discussion doctrine eschatology evangelism gay General Synod Grove guest Hermeneutics History hope interpretation James Blandford Baker Jesus John's gospel Justin Welby leadership lectionary Luke Luke's gospel Matthew ministry mission New Testament Paul politics preaching Revelation same sex marriage same sex unions sexuality theology video Year A Year B Year C
