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When Justin Welby took office in March 2013, he announced his three priorities for his ministry as Archbishop. Alongside the renewal of prayer and a commitment to evangelism and witness, reconciliation took centre stage. Inasmuch as prayer is about relationship ‘upward’ to God, and evangelism and witness are about relationship ‘outward’ to other people, reconciliation … Continue Reading
Here is the second part of my essay on the kingdom of God in the teaching of Jesus. The first part can be found here. In contrast with Weiss, Dodd’s emphasis was on the present reality of KG in Jesus’ teaching. However, this was not through denying or ignoring Jesus’ eschatological perspective, as had been … Continue Reading
This is a rather unusual post, in that I am offering here a final year undergraduate essay I wrote in 1991. There are several reasons for this: 1. It still offers quite a good overview of the range of themes that are present in Jesus’ teaching about the kingdom. 2. It is missing more recent literature, but … Continue Reading
Last Friday I very reluctantly tuned in to watch Oxford church historian Diarmaid MacCulloch talk about Sex and the Church. I was reluctant for several reasons. First, don’t we talk about this enough already—aren’t there more important things to focus on at the moment? (Tonight’s ‘Kill the Christians’, for example, highlighting how the US/UK invasion of … Continue Reading
Think back to the last time that someone surprised you. What does surprise do to you? Some people love surprises; others like surprises as long as they know exactly what the surprise will be! Our common experience is that surprise is highly disorienting; we don’t know where to turn or what to do next. Even … Continue Reading
When considering the evidence for Jesus’ resurrection, we need to separate two issues. First, what are the historical facts that require an explanation? And, second, what is the best, most plausible, explanation for those facts? What are the facts to consider in relation to the resurrection? First, Jesus died on the cross, a victim of … Continue Reading
Like millions of others, I gathered with my family to watch the partial eclipse of the sun. Our house is on a hill, and the view from our bedroom window looks down over the valley of the River Trent so it offers a good vantage point. I had the bright idea of turning the whole … Continue Reading
On Maundy Thursday, it is traditional to focus on the account of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet in John 13—and possibly to re-enact this within a service. But in rushing to the final example, we miss the most important lesson, which comes in the middle, rather than at the end, of the passage. The passage … Continue Reading
A notable feature of a number of contemporary debates in the church is the lack of well-informed use of Scripture. It’s not unusual to hear one party or other either trot out a proof text, or write Scripture off on the basis of such proof texts—or here views expressed which demonstrate basic lack of familiarity … Continue Reading
Since we are now in Lent, it might be a good time to review the spiritual habit of fasting. Jesus clearly expected his followers to fast after he had gone, so it is odd that this is not a widespread habit amongst all Christians. To answer this, we need to ask some background questions. How often … Continue Reading
I recently had a very interesting debate with Ben Witherington about whether the English word ‘taxi’ is derived from the Greek word tachus meaning ‘quickly’. (Depending on where you live, you might be wondering what the connection is.) Witherington is a leading biblical scholar amongst evangelicals in the States, and has written commentaries on every book of … 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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