andygoodliff

The New Universalism

Rob Bell's Love Wins has put the discussion around Christian universalism into the public arena ... although see George MacDonald's The Evangelical Universalist and more recently the edited collection 'All Shall Be Well' for a more theological engagement ... If you've read Love Wins, or if you can't be bothered, you must read Steve Holmes helpful series of posts engaging with the book ... Off the back of Bell's book, are to interesting posts ... one from Jamie Smith here and a riposte from Halden Doerge here ... I'm interested in reading the comments has they come in on Halden's post.

Five Books for Good Friday

Cross-Shattered Christ: Meditations on the Seven Last Words by Stanley Hauerwas (Brazos, 2004)

Thank God It's Friday: Encountering the Seven Last Words from the Cross by Will Willimon (Abingdon, 2006)

Seven Lasting Words: Jesus Speaks from the Cross by Christopher Seitz (Westminister John Knox, 2001)

Seven Last Words by Timothy Radcliffe (Continuum, 2004)

Death on a Friday Afternoon: Meditations on the Last Words of Jesus from the Cross by Richard John Neuhaus (2000)

Regent's Reviews, April 2011

It does feel long enough since the last edition of Regent's Reviews 2.2, but a new edition is now out, in a new magazine format or to download as a .pdf - see here.

Inside you will find reviews of:

Terry J. Wright, Providence Made Flesh: Divine Presence as a Framework for a Theology of Providence

Gregory MacDonald (ed.), “All Shall Be Well”: Explorations in Universal Salvation and Christian Theology, from Origen to Moltman

Suzanne McDonald, Re-Imaging Election: Divine Election as representing God to others and others to God
 
Ian A. McFarland, In Adam’s Fall: A Meditation on the Christian Doctrine of Original Sin

Lewis Ayres, Augustine and His Trinity

Michael P. Jensen, Martyrdom and Identity: The Self on Trial

Robin Parry, Lamentations. The Two Horizons Old Testament Commentary

Martyn Percy, Shaping the Church: The Promise of Implicit Theology

Jonny Baker, Curating Worship

John Colwell, Why Have You Forsaken Me? A Personal Reflection on the Experience of Desolation 

David W. Bebbington, Baptists through the Centuries: A History of a Global People

Plus lots of others ...

On Good Friday ...

... if you're in the Southend area, or fancy a day trip, come and visit Easter Icons. (With thanks to Si Smith for permission to use the image)

Book Review: Questions of Identity

Anthony R. Cross and Ruth Gouldbourne (eds.), Questions of Identity: Studies in Honour of Brian Haymes (Centre for Baptist History and Heritage Studies Vol. 6; Regent's Park College, 2011), 272pp

This is an excellent set of essays written in honour of the Baptist theologian Brian Haymes. Gathered together are a range of Baptist voices, as well as a Mennonite in the form of Alan Kreider and an Anglican in Chris Rowland.

Here's a flavour of what you can find. John Colwell's essay builds on his contribution to Nigel Wright's FS and further tests the Baptist belief in freedom of conscience. Paul Fiddes historically shows the Baptist involvement in the founding of University College London and explores the role of academic theology in the church. Nigel Wright attempts to build on the atonement debate following Chalk-gate. Sean Winter offers a study of 2 Cor 5.20, which in some ways is a promising taster of a larger piece of work he is doing on 2 Corinthians. Steve Holmes offers some rare, but welcome thoughts on the practice of church meetings - by rare I mean, although Baptists like to moan about church meetings, in recent times they have offered little in the way of constructive contributions to their renewal and their practice.

The collection demonstrates that Baptist theology has come a long way since Haymes short essay on A Question of Identity in 1986. While we don't - and dare say ever will - have the depth of theologians like the Church of England, we do have a number of theologians working on creative, interesting theology, which serves the church, as can be seen in this collection. The question of identity for Baptists will be whether we as churches are willing to listen and engage as we seek to be faithful to the Baptist way of being church. A good place to start would be to read this book, which is a fitting tribute to Brian and his theology.

Book Review: Gods Behaving Badly by Pete Ward

Pete Ward, Gods Behaving Badly: Media, Religion and Celebrity Culture (SCM, 2011), 163pp (with thanks to SCM for a review copy)

Pete Ward began his academic career writing about Christian youthwork (for example, Worship and Youth Culture, 1993; Growing Up Evangelical, 1996; Youthwork and the Mission of God, 1997),but more recently as branched out into cultural studies and its relationship to church, worship and theology (Liquid Church, 2002; Selling Worship, 2005; Participation and Mediation, 2008). This latest book is a study of celebrity culture and its similiarities to religion and its use of religious language.

Ward, here and in previous work, has a positive view of culture as something with which the church should engage and embrace. So the argument of Liquid Church claims that the church should embrace a more consumer-shaped and fluid way of being church reflecting the shape of contemporary culture. Selling Worship is a study of the contemporary worship music industry, which does not seek to be overly critical. While his most ambitious work to date, Participation and Mediation argues that church needs to pay attention to the way it participates in, and is mediated by, cultural expression.

God's Behaving Badly has five chapters, the first describing the pheonoma of celebrity worship. The second develops this through the concept of 'representation', which argues that around celebrities, the media is 'mean-making' - celebrities begin to represent certain dreams, lifestyles, desires and in fact are only celebrities because the media determine (represent) them as such. So Ward says 'celebrity images and stories present possibilities, ways of being human, of being individuals' (p.54). The third chapter examines how celebrity worship 'is a kind of religion, or at least has religious elements' (p.57). Ward uses the term 'para-religion'. Chapters four and five, explore what kind of gods celebrities are - their attributes, and the use of theological language - sin, heaven, judgement, revelation, redemption, etc.

This is largely a descriptive piece of work, which is important - it's the first study I know if its kind - but the implications, for example, what does this mean for the church's mission, are generally left unexplored and open for further research and reflection. What emerges from the book is the pervasiveness of this para-religion of celebrity and the need to take it seriously.

 

One Day Conference on Professor Andrew Walker

King's College London are organising a one day conference on 24 May in honour of Professor Andrew Walker, who has recently retired after a distinguished career at King’s. Papers will be given that both celebrate and assess Walker's work from Alister McGrath, William Abraham, Pete Ward and Luke Bretherton. More details to come.