What can we learn from “urban monasticism”?

In the Christian West, in the pre-modern world, the parish church met the religious needs of people living in the parish. It was necessitated by and sustained by a culture that had been in place, in one form or another, since the conversion of the Roman Empire under Constantine and his successors.

In the modern world the contract between the church as a priestly community and society at large began to break down, and churches came to rely on the personal conviction or interest of attendees to sustain them. That corrected some of the shortcomings of the culture-sponsored church, but it led, arguably, to a consumer model of church: to keep attendance and income up we had to stimulate need and then meet that need as efficiently as possible.

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Pertinent questions about God, Christ, creation, the future, baptism, and the gospel
Elliot has raised some pertinent questions about the continuing relevance of some basic Christian beliefs, given a narrative-historical understanding of the New Testament. They deserve a more substantial answer than I can provide right now, but here’s an outline of how I think we may manage… ()
Is Daniel’s “one like a son of man” who I think he is?
A. J. Derxsen appears to be a rather conservative, Reformed American blogger, so I’m a bit surprised he bothered to read and comment on my post “Who is Daniel’s son of man?” But he did, and I appreciate it, and here’s an attempt to address the counter-assertions made in his brief critique. It’… ( | 14 comments)
Questions about Jesus’ apocalyptic vision
It’s a while since I’ve posted anything here. Been a bit too busy. So I thought I’d post this response to Elliot’s recent comment—just to keep the site ticking over. ( | 13 comments)
Starting soon: a short course in 21st century missional theology
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… ()
Israel and the land: the story continues
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 Christian nationalists get the New Testament sort of right and history very wrong
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… ( | 6 comments)
Divine judgment in the New Testament
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. ( | 3 comments)