While reading Miroslav Volf’s commentary* on 1 Peter I was struck by his thoughts on how the church establishes its identity in the world. By describing Christians as aliens and strangers in the world, Peter establishes a clear difference between the church and the culture that surrounds it. Volf asserts that, to Peter at least,…
At a Peter Rollins event last night, one participant spoke of how he has lost Jesus and wondered if he was hiding behind some curtain. Someone else countered that the curtain has been torn – I assume referring to (Matthew 27:51. Peter didn’t pick up that theme, although I know it is at the centre…
(Originally posted at Men of Strength on 1 March 2014.) At church this morning we sang Oceans again. Yikes! that is a scarey song! “Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders… Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander …” I advise you to think carefully before you voice that request to God. The place…
An unstated assumption that underlies a lot of my culture’s thinking is that evil deserves to be punished. As of today, I no longer believe it. That change of heart comes from a long line of influences. I read Butler’s Erewhon way back about 1985. It’s a humourous saga in the same genre as Gulliver’s…
Just finished the rather daunting project of trying to understand Rene Girard through the selection of readings in The Girard Reader. Like most deconstructionist and phenomenological writers, Girard’s style makes hard work for the reader! I was very pleased to read at least these main parts of the primary source material but in the end…
A friend who is travelling on a similar road to me, away from Evangelicalism towards something that gives the character of God as shown in the words and actions of Jesus more centrality, posed the question of how we now pray. My friend suggested that it is no surprise that the first disciples asked Jesus…
In The Journey of Desire, John Eldredge paints a very noble picture of gender differences and sexuality (Chapter 8, The Grand Affair). From Gen 1:27 he infers that gender is the means by which God’s image is born by us. God wanted to show the world something of his [sic] strength. Is he not a…
Greg Carey writes on the Sojourner’s website: God does not prohibit Eve from eating the fruit. God fills the garden of Eden with trees that bear fruit. Yet God sets apart one tree as forbidden. “You may freely eat of every tree in the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and…
I have only just started to read Gil Bailie’s Violence Unveiled and have been challenged already to rethink the role of technology in relation to moral imperatives. Having read Jacques Ellul, I have largely accepted the thesis that technology imposes on us a drive towards a particular kind of “progress” beyond human control. In many…
In a recent conversation with me, Jim Longley contrasted the Anabaptist approach to theology and ethics to what he labelled the “defensive” approach adopted by much of the church. My experience of Christianity supports that categorisation. The institutional church, especially the Evangelical variety, and many individuals hold a position that is profoundly defensive. It is…
