thinking honestly about life and faith
When you take notice of what is going on around you, in politics, economics, ecology, and in the ways people relate to each other and exploit each other—what choice is there, everybody’s doing it? —and all that, it is so … Read More »
More reflection on Amanda Lohrey’s Quarterly Essay, Voting for Jesus: Christianity and Politics in Australia.My special interest here is in some of the theological ideas, beginning with the idea of a popular Jesus, set free from ‘religion’.In so many ways, … Read More »
I’ve just finished reading the latest Quarterly Essay, called Voting for Jesus: Christianity and Politics in Australia, written by Amanda Lohrey.There is so much that is insightful, disturbing and challenging in this excellently written piece.It begins and ends with discussions … Read More »
I found this quote from the Spanish-born American philosopher George Santayana: ‘Music is essentially useless, as life is.’ In its shocking pithy way, this sentence confronts the life-destroying fixation with function, with utility, that pervades almost everything, in our … Read More »
I have continued with George Stroup’s excellent book Before God. (Eerdmans, 2004)I don’t know the author personally, though I have for a long time appreciated his earlier work on narrative theology.In this book, which is exceptionally clearly written and structured, … Read More »
In preparing for class next week, I came across this paragraph in Ernst Käsemann’s golden oldie, Jesus Means Freedom.This paragraph comes at the end of chapter three, which is about a theology of resurrection.The basic message here is a challenge … Read More »
For a long time I have imagined that when God handed out the genes, I was at the end of the queue when it came to the ‘Praise and Worship’ gene.Everywhere I visit the local churches, the emphasis is on … Read More »
It’s the mid-year ‘break’—which means for students a time of no classes. This week we’ve had our annual ‘School of Ministry’, a three day conference for pastors and church leaders. It has been an excellent time of relationship, stimulation and … Read More »
Thousands of books, lectures and sermons have addressed the theme of God’s word, or what God has to say to us. What we learn from these sources is about a God who declares things we should believe, or … Read More »
Letty Russell’s book Church in the Round is one of the most valuable sources for thinking about what it means to be church today.Her basic image is that of a round table—a table where there is no priority, no place … Read More »