Scholarship • Serving • Ministry – Ian Paul
The Good Shepherd: A thousand-year journey from Psalm 23 to the New Testament (A guest review by Richard Briggs) Ken Bailey worked for many years in the Middle East, taught the Bible there, and sat with and spoke with those whose ways of life reflected in some measure the perspectives and assumptions of biblical times. …
When I was teaching homiletics (preaching) in a theological college, I used to start by exploring the issue of what good and bad preaching look like. I did this indirectly—not by asking the question ‘What does a good sermon look like?’ since this could easily have led to theoretical answers. Instead, I asked in turn for …
Having just written about Brian McLaren, and his comments about the way the OT relates to the NT, it was fascinating this week to attend the University of Nottingham theology seminar given by Prof Judith Lieu on ‘The Search for Marcion’. She started by pointing out that we have no actual texts of Marcion, and that, …
Brian McLaren is well known as a leader in the North American ‘Progressive’ movement, which many are finding a refreshing change from the ‘culture wars’ amongst evangelicals about Scripture and authority and its implications for theology and discipleship. He came to prominence with his 2004 book A Generous Orthodoxy, which sought to cut through the polarisations …
This guest post by Andrew Goddard assesses an important contribution to the debate about same-sex unions. James V. Brownson, Bible, Gender, Sexuality: Reframing the Church’s Debate on Same-Sex Relationships (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2013). ISBN 978-0-8028-6863-3. The General Synod’s decision to approve women bishops was immediately followed by questions as to whether the church would now change its …
Here is the second part of Martin Davie’s review of Alan Wilson’s More Perfect Union? Martin was for several years Theological Secretary of the Council for Christian Unity of the Church of England and Theological Consultant to the House of Bishops. Part one can be found here. Strand 4 – interpreting the key biblical texts. Moving on to what …
Here follows a really clear and careful review of Alan Wilson’s More Perfect Union? by Martin Davie. Martin was for several years Theological Secretary of the Council for Christian Unity of the Church of England and Theological Consultant to the House of Bishops. He offers a comprehensive analysis, and his comments on the nature of marriage, and whether …
I’ve been at the Society of Biblical Literature annual meeting in San Diego. (I have been staying in the squat tower on the right.) It is an extraordinary global gathering of around 7,000 academics running over five days, and alongside are 5,000 academics meeting as the American Academy of Religion. The programme booklet giving details …
The latest Grove Biblical booklet is a fascinating study of the Apocrypha by Stephen Wright of Spurgeon’s College in London, which makes a powerful case for why Christians ought to read it and be familiar with its contents. The booklet starts in an intriguing way: Where in the Bible will you find the story of a man …
In response to my previous post on what we do when the Bible is ‘wrong’, and Peter Enn’s series of ‘aha’ moments, Craig Blomberg has offered an account of his own ‘aha’ moment when, from a liberal Lutheran upbringing, he came to realise that the Bible was more reliable than he has been led to …
There’s a quotation that did the rounds earlier in the year from a Peter LaRuffa, who is one of the staff at Grace Fellowship Church which is in northern Kentucky: If, somewhere within the Bible, I were to find a passage that said 2+2=5, I would believe it, accept it as true and then do my …
