I did something like this a few years back—now updated (what are we to make of the Quiet Revival, etc.?) and better focused. It will be a six week series of online sessions on what I would basically describe here as a narrative-historical missional theology. In other words, how does the church in the West align its constructive engagement with the world (mission) with the story of God and his people through history? This recent post will give you an idea of the approach taken. We will also give some thought to the strengths and weaknesses of other approaches.
The question of Israel and the land—and the extent of the land—is very much on our minds these days. A while back, Ian Paul posed the question: “Does the State of Israel have a divine right to the land?” It’s a measured piece, and it got me wondering—not for the first time—how this issue might look… ()
The “West” is a complex civilisational phenomenon. It is pagan Europe converted to Christianity, divested of Eastern Orthodoxy, intellectually reinvigorated by the Renaissance, violently split between Protestantism and Catholicism, expanded by Colonisation, empowered and enriched by the Industrial… ( | 2 comments)
When do we talk about divine judgment? Not often. But the theme cuts right through the heartlands of the New Testament like a punishing Roman road (not that Roman road), from Mary’s Magnificat to the final judgment of all the dead in Revelation 20. ( | 2 comments)
The two most important commandments, according to Jesus, are to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” and to “love your neighbour as yourself” (Matt. 22:37-40). Add to this his teaching about love for enemies, while perhaps quietly sidelining the… ()
The standard argument about the “image of God” is that 1) humanity was created, male and female, “in the image, according to the likeness” of God; 2) this “image” somehow encapsulates the essential nature and dignity of humanity; 3) the image was broken or lost in the “fall”; 4) it was reinstated… ( | 4 comments)
We are probably stuck with the distinction between “church” and “mission.” I attend a church in Westbourne Grove. I work informally with a mission organisation. But in biblical terms there is something odd about our obsession with mission. The word occurs only four times in the… ( | 1 comment)
What we call “Christianity” is the religion of the formerly Christian West. It survives residually in both the historic and modern churches, and globally as a result of both historic and modern missionary expansion. It is defined by diverse, overlapping systems of belief and practice, which… ( | 2 comments)
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