andygoodliff

Greenbelt and Baptist Theology Get Together

Hannah and I, with Ashley are off later today to Greenbelt. Should be good. Looking forward to hearing from Walter Wink, Si Johnston, Maggi Dawn, Pete Rollins and Kester Brewin,  amongst others. Then on Tuesday Hannah and I will be driving up to Manchester because I'm attending the fourth Baptist theological consultation. I'm giving a paper called Celebrating Diversity: Towards an Inclusive Church which I've been writing this week. Only the second time I've given a paper, so still a new experience for me. The paper is an attempt in part to draw together a lot of the thinking about church which has appeared on this blog over the last year and a bit. Looking forward to hearing from the likes of Paul Fiddes (on baptist spirituality), Anthony Clarke (on open communion), Nigel Wright (on baptist spirituality), Steve Finamore (on penal substitution), Chris Ellis (on baptist spirituality) and Sean Winter (on the recent Baptist-Anglican report Pushing the Boundaires of Unity), amongst others. Elaine Graham will be giving a guest lecture on A Practical Theology of Power and Authority. So expect lots of posts in a week and a bit's time.

reflections

One of the most interesting and rewarding friendships of the last few years has been with a friend who is about to go and study theology at King's in September. It's fascinating hear his reflections on his journey of faith. I feel partly responsible for some of the direction this friend is and has taken because it has related to some of my own journey. Although his journey is not the same as my own, I share memories of some of his frustrations with church and the Christian faith. He feels he has changed over the last few years, I think he will feel he has changed even more so after three years of studying theology.  Sometimes, in fact, a lot of the time it feels my passion for theology and the studying I have completed, is more of a hindrance than a help when it comes to local church. The level of thinking and ability to reflect critically on church creates a distance between most people in the congregation. One of the things I'm learning is how to better communicate my theological perspective in the right way. How we best encourage and listen to the younger voices in our churches is a large question that I think is often ignored. Voices like my own and that of my friend are often perceived as threatening or idealistic or merely arrogant.  The journey of faith especially when you're interested in deeper theology and spirituality  is a difficult and frustrating one, not helped by many of our churches, and therefore also a lonely one. Its one I'm very much in the midst of. My theology has allowed me to appreciate new things about church, but also pushed me to the margins of mainstream church life. I'm a voice from the edge and not of the consensus.  Let me finish by encouraging my friend to continue to pursue a deeper theological and spiritual faith, although it may bring what feels like opposition and despite everything to not give up on God's church.

Sentamu's Public Witness

Just about to go to bed, when I discovered that Archbishop Sentamu is to forego his holiday to fast and prayer over the next 7 days for peace in the Middle East. He is to camp out at Yorkminister and through his public witness encourage people to pray for peace. This is a man who knows about Christian leadership. This is a man who goes the extra mile. Hannah and I as we spend next week near Holy Island will endeavour to pray with him for peace. I might even see if we can pop into York to join him.

Studies in Baptist History and Thought

This is an exciting (that is, if you're interested in baptist theology!) series from Paternoster of monographs and edited collections on baptist theology generally writing in a UK context. Some highlights from the series are:

* Baptism and the Baptists: Theology and Practice in Twentieth-Century Britain by Anthony Cross (2000, Vol 3)
* More Than A Symbol: The British Baptist Recovery of Baptismal Sacramentalism by Stanley Fowler (2002, Vol 2)
* Baptist Sacramentalism edited by A. Cross and P.Thompson (2003, Vol 5)
* Tracks and Traces: Baptist Identity in Church and Theology by Paul Fiddes (2003, Vol. 13)
* The Freedom of God: Towards Baptist Theology in Pneumatological Perspective by Philip Thompson (2005, Vol 20)
* Towards Baptist Catholicity: Essays on Tradition and the Baptist Vision by Steven Harmon (2006, Vol 27)

Other forthcoming books include:
* Baptist Sacramentalism 2 edited by A. Cross and P. Thompson (2006, Vol 25)
* On Being the Church: Revisioning Baptist Identity by B. Haymes, R. Gouldbourne & A. Cross (2007, Vol 21)

Reading Gunton

If you're new to the work of Colin Gunton, where should you start? To be honest the majority, if not all, of Gunton's work is very readable and accessible. I think one of the strengths of Gunton's theology is that he writes so well. (There are some if not many theologians, where it can be a real struggle to digest a parpagraph let alone a book!)  But if I had to suggest a place to begin it would be with either The Christian Faith, his short account of Christian doctrine, or The Triune Creator. The Triune Creator, which can be pretty hard to find a copy, is a good place to begin, because it introduces you to some major themes of Gunton's theology - the doctrine of the Trinity and the doctrine of creation - through a historical and systematic study. The Triune Creator is based on the doctrine of creation course he taught for many years at King's.

The next level up is with the collections of essays on the doctrine of the Trinity: The Promise of Trinitarian Theology and Father, Son & Holy Spirit and also his small book Christ and Creation. Most of the essays here are not too difficult to access, especially in Father, Son & Holy Spirit. Gunton on the Trinity is the man at his very best.

Gunton's more 'difficult' work appears in The One, the Three and the Many, A Brief Theology of Revelation, The Actuality of Atonement and Yesterday and Today. The first three are especially excellent and represent Gunton's skill at doing theology from a trinitarian perspective. His other books Theology through the Theologians and Intellect and Action are collections of essays which largely suppport the other monographs already mentioned. Being and Becoming and Act and Being are books which discuss different aspects of the doctrine of God. The former written at the beginning of his career and the latter near the end. There is also Enlightenment and Alienation, which is very difficult to get a hold of, which is a precusor to Gunton's later more fully trinitarian theology (its subtitled, an essay towards a trinitarian theology).

Time

One of the troubles with church is that people appear to want to do everything in as little time as they can. We live as if we have no time. Being committed is determined by how much time does it consume. This is difficult when the work of the church, in my case discipling young people, is a slow, patient work, which requires time. How does a team function when some members are unable to make enough of a commitment? How do you lead a team beyond rotas and programmes? How do you lead a team beyond the merely practical to the deeper theological questions that are crucial to the work of Christian discipleship? How do we have enough time? The answer perhaps lies in that dichtomony between 'being' and 'doing'. We constantly want to be doers - what do I/we need to do? who is doing what when? - church ministry is so often about doing - we create rotas for everything. We create no space in our church life to simply be, to be still, to contemplative and reflect. We are forever looking to what is to be done next, that we don't properly consider and review what we have done and equally we don't properly rest in the present. Several people said to me during Lemmings that the leader's evening worship was so helpful, because there was no space in the rest of the day to simply be, to not be required to do or say anything, apart from being quiet. I/we need to discover ways to recognise that time is a gift from God. Sam Wells in Transforming Fate into Destiny (1998) says this about time:

The distinction between Church and world is not about living in different spaces, but about having a different perception of time. The Church is a community of the new time ... time is a gift, because it is God's time, not one's own; and time is a friend, because there is nothing to fear from what God has in store. Time is "on our side". One cannot buy time with God. One must learn to enjoy God's time ... It is easy to slip into the old ways, and treat time and people as commoditties for one's own advancement. But gathering together in worship, Sunday by Sunday and many times besides, is a constant reminder to the Church that it is living in God's time, not its own. (pp.142-149)

John Zizioulas

Douglas Knight has written about his meeting with the great Zizioulas. Zizioulas is the author of the extremely important book Being as Communion (a book I've read and dipped into, but must read again). Douglas indicates that Zizioulas has a new book out next year called Otherness and Communion and Douglas himself is editing a collection of essays on the man himself. More about Zizioulas can be found on Douglas' website Resources for Christian Theology. Douglas is a bit of a Zizioulas expert.

Home

Back from a long tiring week at Lemmings and then Ruth and Jon's wedding on Saturday in Leeds. We left Ewhurst, near Guilford, around 10pm and arrived in Leeds at 4am, after stopping via Stevenage to pick up wedding clothes, etc. Lemmings was really good. My first year as speaker and worship leader. It was great working with Miriam on the story of David and there was a good response all round from children and adults. It felt good leading worship again on the guitar with Joel, Helen, Richard and others and also in the evenings some more contemplative stuff.  Opportunities had dried up at local church, so it was great to receive so positive encouragement and response from Lemmings. The whole week acted as an encouragement to me about future directions. Next week Hannah and I with the Pughs are camping near Holy Island, so we're hoping to do some more resting and reflecting about future there. Ruth and Jon's wedding was a great day and it was good to be there, despite tiredness. They used some music during the service from someone called Ludovio Einadui, which was beautiful and I've now downloaded from itunes a few tracks. This week I'm beginning to try and write a paper currently called 'towards a theology of inclusivity/inclusiveness' for a baptist's doing theology conference at the end of the month.