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There are moments in life when everything suddenly stands still—moments when an item of news or something we have witnessed changes everything in us and around us for the worse, perhaps for a short time, perhaps forever. Some of these moments are inevitable, yet are still traumatic, such as illness and death, and others are … Continue Reading
One of the slightly odd things about the Christian church is that there is no agreed pattern to what we should do when we meet together. In the Western (and probably the global) church, there seem to me to be three different strands of emphasis: We meet to experience an affective encounter with God (charismatic/Pentecostal) … Continue Reading
The latest Grove Biblical booklet is a fascinating study by the well-known American scholar Michael Gorman on Participation: Paul’s Vision of Life in Christ. Within it, Michael offers 13 theses about Paul’s understanding of the goal of the Christian life, building in his previous ideas published in Cruciformity: Paul’s Narrative Spirituality of the Cross and Becoming the Gospel: … Continue Reading
It is often thought that the decline in church attendance in the West is so precipitous, and the erosion of Christian values so rapid, that if the Christian church is to recover something very dramatic must happen. This can manifest itself in the quest for a ‘technique’ of leading church or of mission (often brought … Continue Reading
A repeated feature of discussions about the Bible is the difference between the Old Testament and the New, and the way God is depicted in both. You don’t have to be Richard Dawkins to find some of the images of violence in the Old Testament morally and theologically challenging, and this is the starting point … Continue Reading
Paula Gooder, well known as a New Testament scholar with a particular interest in Paul, recently published a quite different kind of book. Phoebe is a fictionalised account of the woman named in Romans 16.1, who appears to have been the carrier of Paul’s letter to the church in Rome. Having just read the book, I … Continue Reading
Justin Welby had already left a significant legacy from the first half of his tenure as Archbishop of Canterbury. The swift resolution to the inherited crisis of finding a workable settlement in relation to women bishops; the instigation of the Renewal and Reform programme; reorienting the Church’s administration and finances towards mission; the re-estalishment of … Continue Reading
Vicky Beeching, Undivided: Coming Out, Becoming Whole and Living Free from Shame (William Collins, 2018) Jayne Ozanne, Just Love: A Journey of Self-Acceptance (Darton, Longman and Todd, 2018) Andrew Atherstone writes: In a remarkable symbiosis, two new autobiographies have hit the shelves from two of the Church of England’s most prominent LGBT campaigners, published within a … Continue Reading
The churches in the West face a major challenge of culture and discipleship. The radical changes in culture over the last 30 years or so appear to have taken society further from the values of the gospel, and despite all our efforts, both members and leaders of our churches appear to being formed deeply by … Continue Reading
Every time the situation in Israel-Palestine hits the news, for Christians one of the issues that emerges is whether or not the modern State of Israel is a fulfilment of biblical prophecy. The main prophetic text appealed to is the later chapters of Ezekiel, particularly Ezekiel 39. But in order to understand whether there is … Continue Reading
At present, there are about 850,000 people in the United Kingdom with dementia. This number is expected to rise to one million people by the year 2025. Two-thirds of people with dementia live in the community and are supported by 670,000 family carers. One in 14 people over 65 years of age has dementia, while the … Continue Reading
Ian Paul: theologian, author, speaker, academic consultant. Adjunct Professor, Fuller Theological Seminary; Associate Minister, St Nic's, Nottingham; Managing Editor, Grove Books; member of General Synod. Mac user; chocoholic. Tweets at @psephizo
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