andygoodliff

T F Torrance, Alan Spence and new pages

You can read two Alan Spence essays here. One on John Owen and the Trinity and the other on Atonement. Alan Spence was a doctoral student of Colin Gunton's until to 1989.

There is a website here on T F Torrance. Other the last few years a number of books have been published on the theology of T F Torrance:
The Nature of Doctrine in T. F. Torrance's Theology by Elmer Colyer (2001)
The Promise of Trinitarian Theology: Theologians in Dialogue with T.F. Torrance edited by Elmer Colyer (2001)
How to Read T.F. Torrance: Understanding His Trinitarian & Scientific Theology by Elmer Colyer (2001)
T. F. Torrance: An Intellectual Biography by Alister McGrath(1999, T & T Clark)
Divine Freedom and the Doctrine of the Immament Trinity by Paul D. Molnar (2002, T & T Clark)
T. F. Torrance: Theologian of the Trinity by Paul D. Molnar (forthcoming 2008, Ashgate)

I've created a series of pages on different theology lectures and other stuff, which you can find on the lefthand column.

Books for 'deep church'?

Apart from the books published in the Deep Church series (Gospel-driven Church, Evangelicals and tradition and Remembering our future), what other books might be considered as contributing to the 'deep church' conversation. Below are three possible books. What other books should we consider?

1. Listening to the Past: The Place of Tradition in Theology by Steve Holmes (Paternoster, 2001)
This is a collection of essays which reflect on the theology of Calvin, Anselm, Jonathan Edwards, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and the Patristics, as well as others. It has opening and closing chapters which explore the importance of tradition for the church.

2. Why Study the Past? The Quest for the Historical Church by Rowan Williams (DLT, 2005)
The four chapters of this book were first presented as the 2003 Sarum Theological Lectures. The book 'considers how Church history has been used by theologians not just to prove points, but to clarify what we are as human beings.'

3. Towards Baptist Catholicty: Essays on Tradition and the Baptist Vision by Steve Harmon (Paternoster, 2006)
This book is part of the Studies in Baptist History and Thought series. It contains a set of essays which explore the place of tradition in Baptist theology.

'I owe this point to ...' : theology in community

Reading the books of Colin Gunton, you can't help but be struck by the number of footnotes that begin 'I owe this point to ...' and the such like. Colin was a theologian, at least from 1988 onwards (the beginning of the Research Institute in Systematic Theology), who believed and practised theology in a community and his work demonstrates that he was not a theologian alone in an 'ivory tower'. The list of those that are publically named by Colin in footnotes represent internationally renowned theologians, as well as others, who were students at King's:

Tom Smail, Andrew Mackintosh, Lyle Dabney, Bruce McCormack, Alan Torrance, Stephen May, Trevor Hart, Brian Brock, Martin Wendte, Ian McFarland, Steve Holmes, Justyn Terry, Michael Harrison, T. F. Torrance, Paul Metzger, Douglas Farrow, Christoph Schwöbel, John Milbank, Robert Jenson, Luke Bretherton, Rufus Burton, Demetrios Bathrellos, Shirley Martin, Kelly Kapic, Bruce Marshall, Francis Watson, Murray Rae, John Colwell, Douglas Knight, Jeremy Thomson, Mark Butchers, David Adams, Alan Spence.

Colin was a humble man, who was more than willing to hear the thoughts of others, both contemporaries and those junior to him. Colin was unafraid of acknowledging the help of others in the theological task, in fact, you could say he appreciated and welcomed  their insights and comments. If there is much to learn from Colin's theology, there is also much to learn from the way Colin did theology.

The two books of sermons (Theology as Preaching and The Theologian as Preacher) also reveal that for Colin, the task of the theologians was also to serve the church and to enable it to better follow Christ. The systematic theology department at King's were regularly found on a Sunday in their local church preaching and leading worship (I owe this point to Douglas Knight!). As Steve Holmes says in his introduction to The Theologian as Preacher, 'it mattered, decisively, to [Colin] not just that he was connected to some vague metaphysical ecclesial entity but also that he was in active membership of a local church ...' (p.xi).

Visit to a gurdwara and a lesson in hospitality

Regular readers of my blog may remember that I asked a few weeks ago whether people thought it was ok for christian youth groups to visit other different religious places of worship. The reason behind the question was we were planning a visit to a local gurdwara and it had caused some discussion within my church. Tonight we took our young people to visit and we had a fantastic time. Having taught little bits about Sikhism over the last three years in RE lessons, it was great to hear and see what it means to be Sikh from a Sikh. We entered the main worship hall and were given a short talk on the basics tenets of Sikhism before a question and answer time. Our young people asked some great questions and their was a good atmosphere. We then through into the langar, where we served food and drink. The hospitality was amazing. The generosity was humbling. The langar is open 24/7 to serve the community. You can get a meal at any time. The guardwara exists for the community, to enable it to learn (the meaning of the word 'sikh' is 'learner'), to worship and to serve it. Is this not the calling of the church? I was left asking how do we serve the community and enable it to learn and worship? What would it take to have our church open as a place of hospitality to the stranger? This is something that monastries do, but most of our churches only serve the community when it suits us. It seems to me that where other religions - Sikhism, Islam and Buddhism - have better resisted the assualts of Western culture, especially its consumerism, Christianity has, in the main, crumbled and become in many places and in many ways in distinguishable from the world. The church must be open to learn from other religious faiths and how they witness to the world. The question of religions and the Christian emphasis on the particularity of Jesus Christ still taxes me. My experience this year of Buddhism and Sikhism, makes me wonder at the words of Jesus when he says 'the Spirit blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes' (John 3.8).

Research Institute in Systematic Theology, 1988-2003

A long time before the Research Institute in Systematic Theology (RIST) found fame in Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, it was already famous among theologians. Founded by Colin Gunton and Christoph Schwöbel in 1988, it became an internationally renowned centre for systematic theology. (I write in the past tense because I'm not sure it still is internationally renowned. It still exists, but not in the same way. I know there are some in london trying to develop a new place for theology to happen). The RIST was both a place for good theology and also a theological community, a place where friendships were made and forged, despite theological and denominational differences. Many of those who have written about Colin since his death, remark that one of his gifts was making friends and the RIST was about friends having conversations about theology. From its inception many books and papers had their first hearing at the weekly RIST seminar and many who presented were grateful to this small community for its theological engagement.

1988-89 Persons, Divine and Humans (published in 1991)

1990 Trinitarian Theology Today (published in 1995)

1992 God and Freedom (published in 1995)

1994 The Doctrine of Creation (published in 1997)

1997 The Doctrine of God and Theological Ethics (published in 2006)
        Gospel and Gender (one day conference) (published in 2003)

1999 The Theology of Reconciliation (published in 2003)
         The Theological Significance of Soren Kierkegaard (one day conference)
 
2002 The Doctrine of Atonement (one day conference) (Murray Rae's paper 'The Travail of God' was published in IJST in 2003)

2003 The Person of Christ (published in 2005)
           Michael Polanyi and Christian Theology (one-day conference jointly with the gospel & culture network)

King's College London was definitely the place to be during the 1990s for theology. Over at Waterloo, Andrew Walker set up the Centre for Theology, Religion and Culture in 1995. This hosted conferences on Harmful Religion (1996, published in 1997), a critical examination of Revival(2002, published in 2003), as well as others. The Centre for Philosophical Studies ran a conference on Religious Pluralism in 1995, where Gavin D'Costa gave his famous paper 'The Impossibility of a Pluralist View of Religions'.

I guess this post is a little nostalgic. I only started at King's in 2000 and so my only access to these theological conversations is through the books that emerged after them. I did attend the final 3-day conference on The Person of Christ in Sept 2003 and from January 2003 I attended some of the weekly seminars. I remember emailing Colin asking whether I could come (I was only a 3rd-year under-graduate at the time) and get his response which said yes. I was privileged to hear Colin read some of the chapters from his unpublished first volume of his Christian Dogmatics (which will be published one day). These kinds of theological communities are sorely needed. Communities that cross theological boundaries, places where ideas can be tried out and positive critique can be given.

introducing Alan Torrance

Professor of systematic theology at knox theological hall, Dunedin, New Zealand (1987-1993). Senior lecturer in systematic theology at KCL (1993-1998). Professor of systematic theology at St. Andrew's, Scotland (1998-). Ordained minister of the church of scotland. Son of James Torrance, nephew of Tom Torrance and cousin to Iain Torrance. Author of Persons in communion (1996). Doctorate from university of Erlangen-Nuernberg, Germany in 1994. Director of the research institute in systematic theology, KCL (1994-1998). An expert on Karl Barth (wrote a paper on Barth's doctrine of the trinity for the Cambridge companion to Karl Barth. see also Persons in communion which is a monograph on Church Dogmatics 1/1) and John Zizioulas (Torrance has been fairly critical of Zizioulas' doctrine of the trinity). He has also written on diverse subjects, giving papers for conferences and/or books on harmful abuse, theology and gender, homosexuality, woman in ministry. He was the 1998 hensley henson lecturer in Oxford. A senior research fellow at the university of Notre Dame’s erasmus institute in 1998-1999, where he was working on the christian contribution to an open society. He was a committee member of the Society for the Study of Theology from 1995-1998. The inaugural Wadsworth Memorial Calvin Lecturer at Mcgill university, Montreal in 1999. 2009 Didsbury Lectures. Accomplished violinist who founded and leads the northern scottish philharmonic orchestra.

Selected Publications

_____'Forgiveness: the essential Socio-Political Structure of Personal Being', Journal of Theology for Southern Africa 56 (1986)
____' The Self-Relation, Narcissism and the Gospel of Grace', Scottish Journal of Theology 40 (1987) 481-510
____ 'Christian Experience and Divine Revelation in the Theologies of Friedrich Schleiermacher and Karl Barth' in I. Howard Marshall (ed.), Christian Experience in Theology and Life (Rutherford House Press, 1988), pp. 83-113
____'Does God Suffer? Incarnation and Impassability' in Trevor Hart and Daniel Thimell (eds.), Christ in our Place: The Humanity of God in Christ for the Reconciliation of the World. Essays presented to James Torrance (Paternoster, 1989), pp.345-348
____'On the Theological Derivation of "Ought" from "Is"' in Religious Studies in Dialogue: Essays in Honour of Albert C. Moore, 195-204 (Otago University Press, 1991)
____(ed.) with Hilary Regan, Christ and Context (T & T Clark, 1993)
____Persons in Communion: Trinitarian Description and Human Participation (T & T Clark, 1996)
____'Inclusive Ministry and the Logical Impossibility of Theological Inclusivisim, Pluralism and Relativism' in Douglas A. Campbell (ed.), The Call to Serve: Biblical and Theological Perspectives on Ministry (Sheffield Academic Press, 1996), pp. 256-268
____'Creatio Ex Nihilo and the Spatio-Temporal Dimensions, with special reference to Jurgen Moltmann and D. C. Williams' in Colin Gunton (ed.), The Doctrine of Creation (T & T Clark, 1997) pp.83-103
____'Theology and Political Correctness' in Andrew Walker and Lawrence Osborn (eds.), Harmful Religion (SPCK, 1997)
____'The Trinity' in John Webster (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Karl Barth (Cambridge, 2000), pp.72-91
____'On Determining Whether Homosexuality Is To Be Endorsed Theologically' in More Than A Single Issue, pp.163-183, (eds.) Murray Rae & Graham Redding (2000, Australia Theological Forum)
____'Jesus in Christian Doctrine' in Markus Bockmuehl (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Jesus (Cambridge, 2001), pp.200-219
____ 'Being of One Substance with the Father' in Nicene Christianity-the future for a new ecumenism (Brazos Press, 2001), 49-61
____'Is Love the Essence of God?' in Kevin Vanhoozer (ed.), Nothing Greater Nothing Better: Theological Essays on the Love of God (Eerdmans, 2001)
____'God, Personhood and Particularity: On Whether There Is, or Should Be, a Distinctive Male Theological Perspective' in Douglas A. Campbell  (ed.) Gospel and Gender: A Trinitarian Engagement with being Male and Female in Christ, (T & T Clark, 2003), pp.134-154
____''Call No Man Father!': The Trinity, Patriarchy and God-Talk' in Douglas A. Campbell (ed.) Gospel and Gender: A Trinitarian Engagement with being Male and Female in Christ, (T & T Clark, 2003), pp.179-197
____'Theism, Naturalism and Cognitive Science: Can the Academy make Sense of Itself?' in Science, Consciousness and Ultimate Reality, (ed.) David Lorimer (2004. Imprint Academic) pp.197-216,
____'What is a Person?' in Malcolm Alexander Jeeves (ed.) From Cells to Souls - and Beyond: Changing Portraits of Human Nature (Eerdmans, 2004), pp.199-222
____ 'Developments in Neuroscience and Human Freedom: Some Theological and Philosophical Questions', Science and Christian Belief, 16.2 (2004) 123-137
____ 'On whether forgiveness has boundaries" in W. Storrar and A. Morton (eds.), Public Theology for the 21st Century (T&T Clark, 2004) 303-313
____''Auditus Fidei': Where and How Does God Speak? Faith, Reason, and the Question of Criteria' in Paul Griffiths and Reinhard Hutter (eds.) Reason and the Reasons for Faith ( T & T Clark, 2005)
____(ed.) with Michael Banner, Theological Ethics and the Doctrine of God (T & T Clark, 2006)
____ 'On Deriving 'Ought' from 'Is': Christology, Covenant and 'Koinonia'" in The Doctrine of God and Theological Ethics (T & T Clark, 2006), 167-190
____The Theological Grounds for Advocating Forgiveness and Reconciliation in the Sociopolitical Realm (Centre for Contemporary Christianity in Ireland, 2006)
___ 'The Bible as Testimony to our Belonging: The Theological Vision of James B. Torrance' in Gerrit Scott Dawson (ed.), An Introduction to Torrance Theology: Discovering the Incarnate Saviour (T & T Clark, 2007), pp.103-120
___ (ed.) with Markus Bockmuehl, Scripture's doctrine and theology's Bible: how the New Testament shapes Christian Dogmatics (Baker, 2008)
___ 'Hermeneutics and the Homoousion' in Scripture's doctrine and theology's Bible: how the New Testament shapes Christian Dogmatics (Baker, 2008)
___ 'The Lazarus Narrative, Theological History, and Historical Probability' in Richard Bauckham and Carl Mosser (eds.), The Gospel of John and Christian Theology (Eerdmans, 2008)

de-coding the new 'church' language

emerging church - a loose term that reflects christians who are experimenting and trying to discover church in a postmodern world. those who identify with the term 'emerging church' resist trying to define and label it. there is a difference in how the word is used in the uk and usa, because of the different contexts. for more see eddie gibbs and ryan bolger's Emerging Churches (2006, spck). in the uk, see emergingchurch.info and the blogs of andrew jones, jonny baker, jason clark and kester brewin (this is just some of the major players).

inherited church - this term is used to described the existing church, which still is the vast majority, from which those involved in these other types of church listed here are moving beyond. some are very critical of inherited church, others are more kind! evangelicalism does come in for a lot of criticism.

liquid church - first coined by pete ward (lecturer in youth ministry and theological education, kcl) in his 2002 book of the same name. He borrowed the word 'liquid' from zygmunt bauman's book Liquid Modernity (2000, poliity press). Liquid church is church that moves beyond the one-size fits all (solid church) into a more dynamic notion of church which is focused on networks, relationships and communications.

deep church- first coined by cs lewis, but used more recently by andrew walker (professor of theology and education, kcl)  and others to describe church that seeks to reconnect with the common historical Christian tradition and go beyond denominational divides. See Andrew Walker's essay 'Recovering Deep Church' in Remembering our Future (2007, paternoster).

mcdonaldized church - first coined by john drane in his book the McDonaldization of the Church, which adapts the theory of george ritzer to the church. It is church that is pre-packaged and takes on the characteristics of McDonalds.

post-christendom - the understanding that in recent years there has been a shift from christendom to post-christendom. in christendom, the christian story was known and accepted and society was christenized in many ways. after christendom, the christian story is much less known and the chrisitans find themselves on the margins of society and competing for the public square. see the work of stuart murray, especially his two books Post-Christendom (2004, paternoster) and Church After Christendom (2005, paternoster).

mission-shaped church - a 2004 church of england report which got the anglicans moving into exploring and financing different kinds of church. operates under the name fresh expressions.

alternative worship - worship that emerged out of the likes of the nine o'clock service in sheffield in the mid-1990s. it can be described as creative (embraces the arts), post-charismatic  (tends not to do singing) and post-evangelical, visual, kinasethetic, post-modern, contemplative, retriving and rewriting liturgy, rediscovering theology (especially doctines of incarnation, creation and trinity), having a positive of view of contemporary culture. see jonny baker and doug gay's book Alternative Worship (2004, spck) and steve collin's alternative worship website.

post-evangelical - first coined by dave tomlinson's in his 1995 book of the same name. casued something of a debate. a term that describes those wanting to move beyond evangelical church and theology. 

churchless faith -  first coined by alan jamiseon in his 2002 book of the same name. the word refers to those who still express or identify with the christian faith but have beyond the church. these people are evangelical/charismatic/pentecostal church leavers (and jamieson's research showed often church leaders as well).

Mary Douglas (1921-2007)

Apparently Mary Douglas has died. Hat-tip to Mark Goodacre. Mary was famous for the seminal book Purity and Danger: An analysis of the concepts of pollution and taboo (first published in 1966, 1984 [2nd ed.]). She was made a dame last week. She was a social anthropologist. She was the FD Maurice lecturer in 2002, where she gave three lectures under the title 'Ring Composition, ancient and modern'. Her other important works were: Natural Symbols: Explorations in Cosmology (1973, 2nd ed), In the Wilderness: The doctrine of defilement in the Book of Numbers (1993) and Leviticus as Literature (1999). She was professor of social anthropology at University College London.

Reference to her work can be found in Colin Gunton's The Actuality of Atonement (1988), NT Wright's Jesus and the Victory of God (1996), Walter Brueggemann's Theology of the Old Testament (1997), Douglas Campbell's The Quest for Paul's Gospel (2005), Holiness: Past and Present, edited by Stephen Barton (2003) and Kester Brewin's The Complex Christ (2004). This is just a selection from my bookshelves. Her influence was far-reaching and her work on the Old Testament extremely important.

deep church blog

I've set up a deep church blog, which hopefully will a place of conversation about deep church and theology in london. There is some exciting theology happening in london and some exciting theologians involved (douglas knight, luke bretherton, graham tomlin, crispin fletcher-louis). Strangely at almost the same time  Jason Clark has set up a deep church website with a similar aim. So mine might become null and void. I'm interested in deep church for two reasons it reflects the way I like to do theology and also because I think if the emerging church and church planting is to really make an impact it needs to discover the deep resources of the christian faith.

incarnate network: church planting and emerging church

I spent the day at Baptist house in Didcot at an Incarnate Network steering group meeting. This is still a fledging network, although over 200 have register on the website and 50 or so attended their houseparty last year. There is a lot of potential to get Baptist churches and the BUGB more focused on church planting and emerging church. One thing that is sorely needed is financing. The Anglicans and Fresh Expressions are way ahead of the game on this.  I have to wonder where the BU is with regards to church planting and emerging church. It doesn't seem to be on many people's radar. Where are these kinds of conversations taking place? Council? Assembly? Regional areas? Baptist House?

This is a group of people who are passionate about mission and reaching people outside of the church. I think they are a pretty rare bunch. I will be at the houseparty this year and hope to contribute to the network through some writing and other stuff. There hoping to get some regional gatherings started for anyone interested or currently involved in church planting.