Did Jesus mean it to come to this? How much does modern western christianity come from Jesus, and how much comes from somewhere else? A few weeks back I introduced the theme of Did Jesus mean it to come to this?, in which I want to examine the modern western church, and muse on how […]
The facts about Jesus are clearly stated in the gospels, and they don’t change, but people have so many different understandings of him. The Catholic Jesus or Orthodox Jesus is not the same as the evangelical Protestant Jesus, or the Jesus of liberal Protestant theologians. I think there is probably some truth in all portraits, […]
A couple of weeks back I reviewed Kenneth Bailey’s Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, a book I have found revelatory about Jesus. I have gained many helpful insights from it. Today, some new understandings about one of my favourite gospel accounts – Jesus in the synagogue at the start of his ministry, when he made […]
Disarming Scripture by Derek Flood The Old Testament world was a violent place. For a christian, the most troubling violence is surely that said to be commanded by God, whether it be Abraham being commanded to sacrifice his son and heir Isaac, Joshua commanded to exterminate Canaanites who are unfortunate enough to be living in […]
One of Martin Luther’s most important arguments with the Catholic Church was his belief that salvation is “the free gift of God’s grace through the believer’s faith in Jesus Christ as redeemer from sin” (Wikipedia). This belief has formed the basis of Protestantism for 5 centuries, and his protest possibly assisted the Catholic Church to […]
This post is a revised version of my 2014 post The new Reformation. Martin Luther is examined for heresy. 500 years ago, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the Wittenberg church door, and, it is often said, began the Protestant Reformation. 40 years ago I came to the conclusion that the church in the […]
Why did God create the universe, and human beings in it? A common christian answer is that he did it for his glory. But I’m not so sure.
As a young christian I was told that the love God has for us, and the love he wants us to have for others, is a self-giving love, for which the New Testament writers used the Greek word agape. This understanding was reinforced by reading the CS Lewis book, The Four Loves, which spoke about […]
Difficult issues series This has been perhaps the most difficult post I have written. I’ve avoided writing about this issue because it is so divisive, and because I wasn’t sure I had anything worthwhile to say. But while I don’t pretend to have a solution to the argument between the traditionalists and the progressives, I […]
The church I attend is part of a denomination which, based on the teachings of Paul, doesn’t allow women to be the senior minister in a congregation or to preach to a mixed gender audience. A few weeks back a young woman, bare-headed and wearing casual clothes, led the prayers in the Saturday evening service […]