andygoodliff

Ben Nevis

Tonight I drive through the night before climbing Ben Nevis tomorrow. Last year some of my young people and myself did an 18-mile through the night from Bishop's Stortford to Stevenage. This year we've set ourselves the challenge of Ben Nevis.

Douglas Knight on Colin Gunton

Douglas Knight has written a great post on Colin Gunton. See also accompanying photos on Faith and Theology. Colin Gunton was the kind of theologian and person who leaves a mark. As Douglas final sentence says: We who knew Colin Gunton are grateful to God for him.

Modern Theology, July 2006

The new edition of Modern Theology is a special issue on Scriptural Reasoning. This is where Christians, Jews and Muslims come together to read each other's scriptures. The aim not being to find consensus, but friendship and to understand more deeply the differences. It is hopsitable reading. I'm looking forward to reading the articles.

EDITORIAL PREFACE: THE PROMISE OF SCRIPTURAL REASONING 
pp. 339-343(5)

AN INTERFAITH WISDOM: SCRIPTURAL REASONING BETWEEN JEWS, CHRISTIANS AND MUSLIMS
pp. 345-366(22)  Author:  FORD, DAVID F.

A HANDBOOK FOR SCRIPTURAL REASONING 
pp. 367-383(17)  Author:  KEPNES, STEVEN

MAKING DEEP REASONINGS PUBLIC 
pp. 385-401(17)  Author:  ADAMS, NICHOLAS

HEAVENLY SEMANTICS: SOME LITERARY-CRITICAL APPROACHES TO SCRIPTURAL REASONING 
pp. 403-420(18) Author:  QUASH, BEN

SCRIPTURAL REASONING AND THE FORMATION OF IDENTITY 
pp. 421-438(18) Author:  TICCIATI, SUSANNAH

READING THE BURNING BUSH: VOICE, WORLD AND HOLINESS 
pp. 439-448(10) Author:  DAVIES, OLIVER

QUR ĀNIC REASONING AS AN ACADEMIC PRACTICE 
pp. 449-463(15)  Author:  WINTER, TIM

PHILOSOPHIC WARRANTS FOR SCRIPTURAL REASONING 
pp. 465-482(18)  Author:  OCHS, PETER

SCRIPTURAL REASONING AND THE PHILOSOPHY OF SOCIAL SCIENCE 
pp. 483-501(19) Author:  KOSHUL, BASIT BILAL

THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE: PATTERNS OF RECEPTION AND DISCOVERY BEHIND SCRIPTURAL REASONING
pp. 503-514(12) Author:  FLOOD, GAVIN D.

READING WITH OTHERS: LEVINAS' ETHICS AND SCRIPTURAL REASONING 
pp. 515-528(14) Author:  GIBBS, ROBERT

THE PROMISE OF SCRIPTURAL REASONING 
pp. 529-551(23) Author:  HARDY, DANIEL W.

Bible Study and Scripture Reading

It's time to get rid of the Bible study that is the staple of the evangelical diet.  I'm bored of all the bible studying. I'm not interested in reading the bible as if it were a text book or an instruction manual. Let's stop pretending we all know how to read the bible. The bible is not a book to be studied. The bible is not a book that can be mastered. The great tragedy of the bible study is it has made the bible dull and boring. The great worry of the bible study is we've turned the bible into a weapon against those who interpret it differently. The bible study has created as many infallible popes as there are Christians, all who believe that they are right because their bible says this or that. The bible is a book to be wrestled with. The bible is a dangerous, world-changing, life-altering text that is out to transform the reader. The bible wants to shape our imagination to the tune of Christ.  We might set out to read the bible but it ends up reading us. We need to create regular space for the bible to breathe, for it to live among us, before us, within us. The bible story is not a story to study but to indwell.  When reading the bible we need to open ears and close mouths. The bible is always fresh and never stale. The bible does not put God or truth into neat statements. The bible is not God's prison. The bible is God's Word always breaking into our world.  The bible is God's gift to the church; not to the individual Christian. I love the dissonant bible blog which sets out to recover the bible's dissonance - the bible's refusal 'to fit the streamlined, systematic theologies so beloved of many conservative evangelicals' and recognise how 'the bible sounds discordant to our ears, at odds with what we believe to be right, just, and humane'. Mark writes

'I'm continually disconcerted by how we reduce its richness, its complexity, its sheer strangeness into something comfortable, simplistic and bland. I'm worried about my own tendencies, let alone anyone else's, to allow my eye to skip worrying details in the text, to encourage my mind to swerve away from troubling questions, to refuse to hear the bible's dissonance.'

in search of a round table

Read this wonderful poem in search of a round table which hopeful amphibian has found.

For the love of God why I love ...

A brilliant blog series on Ben Myers' Faith and Theology blog (that's still running, currently on 18 out of 20). Introduction is here. 

The series includes Why I love ....
Eberhard Jungel
Thomas Torrance
Wolfhart Pannenberg
Kathryn Tanner
Stanley Hauerwas
Hans Kung
Jonathan Edwards
Jurgen Moltmann
John Webster
Paul Tillich
Hans Urs von Balthasar
Rowan Williams

no other valid way

'... the discipline of Christian theology is pursued through discipleship and in no other valid way; there can be no valid 'un-applied' theology; Christian theology , properly understood, is inseparable from Christian discipleship and spirituality.'

                     John Colwell, Promise and Presence, 2005, 1

who am I?

I've been in two minds over the last few days whether to post this or not because it might be a little too honest. The last few months have required me to look ahead a little further. Where I thought I had everything sorted, I've found things to be quite frustrating and difficult. Part of the process is to recognise my strengths and weaknesses. I find often people will only concentrate on one. So who am I?

1. I recognise that I am not the finished article (and never will be).
2. I hold no pretence that I have every quality or am the complete leader. There are areas of growth that I need to attend to and also character traits which other people will always find difficult.
3.I admire people who tell the truth, even when its uncomfortable, but acknowledge that there are times for silence and listening.
4. I am someone who thinks out aloud and can say the wrong thing at the wrong time. 5. I am someone who never settles, who’s thinking is always developing and changing through conversation, reading and different circumstances.
6. I am someone who welcomes honesty and tries to be honest with others.
7. I am someone who is not interested in numbers but in lives becoming more faithful to the Christian story.
8. I am someone who is argumentative, but hopefully not for its own sake, but to reach deeper places of understanding and knowledge. 
9. I am someone who is not easily offended and tries not to offend others.
10. I am a big picture person, who knows what he wants, but doesn’t often get there until the last minute. I work best under pressure. 
11. I can be part of a team, as long as I have input or I’m leading it.
12. I find it difficult to do things which I disagree with, don’t see the point in or appear to make no sense.
13. I hope I am a good friend who makes time for others and tries to be available.
14. I am a baptist in my understanding of the church.
15. My church life has been within charismatic and evangelical circles, but I feel increasingly disillusioned with these streams and would resist these labels.
16.I’m a thinker not a feeler. 
17. I’m unafraid to give my opinion.
18. I want to be a recovering consumer, but like books and dvds too much.
19. I am concerned about the environment, but I love driving my car.
20. I like to find ways to save money on bills.
21. I can take in new information quickly and recognise strengths and weaknesses.
22. I get annoyed when I make mistakes, big or small.
23. I like meetings and conversation (I'm an auditory learner)
24. I am a son, a brother and a husband.
25.I am a Christian trying to follow Jesus.

IJST, July 2006

The latest issue of the International Journal of Systematic Theology has some interesting articles, especially Oliver Davies (Professor of Christian Doctrine, King's College London), who reflects on the & July London Bombings and talks about new venture called 'Theology in the World'.

Karl Barth's Christology as a Resource for a Reformed Version of Kenoticism 
pp. 243-251(9)
Author:  McCORMACK, BRUCE L.

Violence in Bloomsbury: A Theological Challenge 
pp. 252-265(14)
Author:  DAVIES, OLIVER

Accommodation to What? Univocity of Being, Pure Nature, and the Anthropology of St Irenaeus 
pp. 266-293(28)
Author:  BOERSMA, HANS

The Trinity, Election and God's Ontological Freedom: A Response to Kevin W. Hector 
pp. 294-306(13)
Author:  MOLNAR, PAUL D.

Actualism and Incarnation: The High Christology of Friedrich Schleiermacher
pp. 307-322(16)
Author:  HECTOR, KEVIN W.

fostering children's spirituality

Last week I organised some training on fostering children's spirituality led by my mum, Gill Goodliff (a lecturer in childhood studies at the Open University) based on some research she has been doing. Several interesting reflections emerged for me.

1. many of us confuse faith and spirituality - we think spiritual development = faith development. There are many Christians who have 'faith', but lack a nourished spiritual life. In the same way, children often have a spiritual life, which is not yet 'faith' or is not yet translated into that category. Does finding faith often mean losing spirituality? As we begin to construct a more defined faith and theology, does our sense of imagination, questioning, delight, wonder and celebration, etc receive less attention or is even nullified? Maybe this sheds some light on the words of Jesus to receive the kingdom of God as a child. For faith to ultimately grow we must attend and nuture our spirituality. We should not focus on children finding faith (in terms of a set of agreed beliefs and experiences), but on nuturing their spirituality from which at the right time faith will emerge.

2. the spirituality of most adult christians leaves our children without role models. In our churches there is little room or time for questions | there is mostly only a uniform and uncreative expression of worship |  in a lot of medium-size to large churches we do not know one another's names outside our little circle of friends | we do not develop or foster relationships of trust (the problem of individualism) | we do not regularly experience or practice times of silence and stillness | we do not find time to be thankful and find delight in being alive and the wonder of God's creation | we do not celebrate each others joys and achievements and neither do we share in each others sorrows and sadness. If we are to foster and encourage children spirituality's many of us need to examine our own spirituality.

3. our focus as the church with regard to our children is not primarily to provide services or to educate, but to create and maintain spaces 'in which they can experience the fulness of God's love with every fibre of their being and soul' (Keith White, 2005).

4. to consider our being church (worship, mission, bible, world,  faith, theology, spirituality) from the perspective of the child. This does not mean that we abidcate our role as adults, but to open our lives to listen, to create space for our children to contribute and even shape our life as God's church. This does not mean we turn our children into adults, but to allow our children to be children. Just because they are children does not mean they are merely those who receive, they are those who can give and show us glimspes of the kingdom of God, which from our adult and grown-up perspectives are susceptible to miss.