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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… (Read more...)
The relationship between Jesus and Paul is much disputed. You will often hear people say that Paul turned the generous, kind, and progressive religion of Jesus into a monstrous theological and ecclesiastical system from which we are still recovering. Or that Jesus died for our sins and Paul told everyone about it. And started churches. Or some other misconception.I will argue here that the… (Read more...)
A narrative-historical approach brings into view the large-scale, national and civilisational events and processes that frame “theological” reflection. What it comes down to is that we cannot properly understand Jesus without taking into account the foreseen war against Rome, or understand the apostolic mission apart from the horizon of the conversion of the Greek-Roman world.In the modern… (Read more...)
The standard evangelical response to the climate crisis is that the church should preach and practice creation care as a witness to the good news about Jesus. In that respect, in the words of the Evangelical Alliance in the UK, we should understand “climate change as a pivotal gospel issue of our time.” I think that this opportunistic and utilitarian approach to the climate crisis misrepresents… (Read more...)
We screened the People’s Emergency Briefing film in the week before this message, so the climate crisis loomed menacingly. In the film, Jennifer Saunders of Absolutely Fabulous fame asks a good question: “What’s the matter with us?” What is the matter with us as a civilisation?There is no eco-crisis in the New Testament, but we often read Romans 8:19-21 as an expression of Paul’s conviction that… (Read more...)