andygoodliff

Proost

He's a plug for proost, who relaunched their website at greenbelt. They offer some great worship resources at reasonable prices and for only £60 a year you get unlimited access to everything in their back catalogue and everything new that will appear monthly.

baptists, the sacraments and sacramentalism

One of the recent important topics within baptist theology has been baptist attitudes towards the sacraments and the recovery of baptism and communion as sacramental rather than mere symbol.

1. Promise and Presence: An Exploration of Sacramental Theology by John Colwell (2005, Paternoster)

2. Baptist Sacramentalism edited by Anthony Cross and Philip Thompson (2003, Paternoster)

3. More Than A Symbol: The British Recovery of Baptismal Sacramentalism by Stanley Fowler (2002, Paternoster, reprinted 2006, Wipf and Stock)

4. Baptism and the Baptists: Theology and Practice in Twentieth-Century Britain by Anthony Cross (2000, Paternoster)

5. Tracks and Traces: Baptist Identity in Church and Theology by Paul Fiddes, chapters 6 & 8 (2003, Paternoster)

6. Reflections on the Water: Understanding God and the World through the Baptism of Believers edited by Paul Fiddes, chapters 2 & 3 (1996, Smyth & Helwys)

7. Baptist Sacramentalism 2 edited by Anthony Cross and Philip Thompson (forthcoming, Paternoster) 

The Triune God in the Theology of Colin E Gunton

Monday 10 September 2007
Spurgeon's College, London

PROGRAMME

Professor Robert W Jenson
Some Choices Made by Colin Gunton

Dr John E Colwell
Provisionality and Promise: Avoiding Ecclesiastical Nestorianism?

Dr Stephen R Holmes
What’s in a Name?  The Concept of ‘Person’ in Gunton, Zizioulas and the Cappadocians

Dr Douglas H Knight
Father, Son and Holy Spirit: Colin Gunton on the Doctrine of God

Eight Reasons to Go to Greenbelt Next Year

1. a great line-up of talks and panel discussions that cover theology, politics, environment, church, worship, interfaith relations, film, music, etc

2. the ikon worship service - a now unmissable event at greenbelt

3. after the ikon worship service trying to figure what just happened and what it all meant

4. greenbelt's breadth and diversity of participants. Unlike other Christian 'festivals', there is no monochrome theological stance and although some speakers do come back regularly, there are always new faces

5. meeting up with friends

6. greenbelt is not just a music festival, but is interested in all the arts - literature, poetry, performing arts, visual arts, comedy, alternative worship, as well as featuring an eclectic mix of music (2007 featured billy bragg, chas 'n' dave, delirious, duke special, john tavener, coldcut, iain archer, martyn joseph, kathryn williams and rosie thomas)

7. greenbelt communion service - communion for 20,000 people from diverse traditions is never going to be easy, but the last three years have been excellent

8. greenbelt is a place of inspiration - what would happen if we tried ...? how can we do that ...? why have we never ... ?

Ford and Ellis Clash at Greenbelt

Sunday afternoon's panel discussion on interfaith relationships was an enjoyable and interesting conversation. Present on the panel were David Ford (Regius Professor of Divinity, Cambridge and Director of the Cambridge Inter-Faith Programme), Keith Ward (former Regius Professor of Divinity, Oxford), Mona Siddiqui (Professor of Islamic Studies and Public Understanding, Glasgow) and Marc Ellis (Professor of Jewish Studies, Baylor University). Ford and Ellis clashed quite heatedly around whether interfaith discussion and in particular scriptural reasoning was worthwhile and making a difference. Ellis believes that the majority (if not all) interfaith conversations avoid the big issues, in particular, the Israel-Palestine question. He believes in the liberation of the Palestine people from Israeli oppression. He is a Jew. So enterprises like scriptural reasoning fail to address the important issues and Christians, Muslims and Jews avoid the task of being critical friends with one another. Ford's assertation was that you've got to start somewhere and that private discussions between proponents of different faiths was the way more political and public change would occur. Peter Ochs, a friend of Ford and founder of scriptural reasoning, can under some flak from Ellis for avoiding the Israeli-Palestine question. Ellis asked where was Ochs' book on Jewish theology of liberation (Ellis wrote his book in 1987). I like both Ellis and Ford. Ellis tends to talk in simple black and white language and I agree with a lot of what he says. But I think Ford is right that scriptural reasoning and other conversations are the beginning points.

Greenbelt 2007

Greenbelt was great. The highlights were meeting up with Stuart, Ikon's God Delusion and the panel discussion on interfaith relationships. Stuart and I talked all things baptist. Ikon's 'service' is a great example of challenging, thought-provoking mixture of theology and worship through theo-drama. I think they were trying to say that in getting rid of God we discover God, when we let go of the neat packages of faith (there was an opportunity to to re-write or re-work the Apostles creed), we find God. As Doug Gay remarked in his talk, where he differs with Ikon and Pete Rollins, is that he wants (as Barth taught) to hold on to Jesus as the revelation of God, with which I would agree, and I'm not sure Pete and Ikon do. Ikon are into deconstruction and playing with the neat packages of faith, where these leaves theology I'm not sure, but I applaud what they're doing. The panel discussion was really interesting and I'll blog separately on that. You can get copies of ant of the talks on mp3, cd or tape here.

Fri - Ched Myers - ambassdors of reconciliation
          Marc Ellis - towards a Jewish theology of liberation

Sat - Doug Gay -unpacking the emerging church project
         Maggi Dawn - angels and announcements
          met up with Stuart Blythe
         John Bell - the vocation to protest
        John Smith - pop McWorship versus the real thing
        Ikon - The God Delusion

Sun - John Smith - the greatest environmentalists in history
          David Ford & Micheal O'Siadhail - shaping memory seeking vision: scripture and poetry
          Can we coexist? panel with David Ford, Mona Siddiqui, Marc Ellis and Keith Ward       

We Need A Story

The post below is my contribution to the deep church website. I'd be interested in any comments, which you can make at deep church site.

Philip Pullman, the children’s author and atheist, known most famously for his trilogy His Dark Materials (1995-2000) where he attacks and seeks to undermine Christianity, says in a recent essay:

‘We need a myth, we need a story, because it’s no good persuading people to commit themselves to an idea on the grounds that it’s reasonable. How much effect would the Bible have had for generations and generations if it had just been a collection of laws and genealogies? What seized the mind and captured the heart were the stories it contains.’

I believe Pullman is correct. He is aware that if we reject, say the Christian story, we need to replace it with something equally powerful: we need a story in which we can orient our life and answer the big questions. Where I disagree with Pullman is instead of rejecting the Christian story, I believe we need to tell the story better. Richard Hays has remarked,

'I have grown increasingly convinced that the struggles of the church in our time are a result of its losing touch with its own gospel story. We have gotten "off message" and therefore lost our way in a culture that tells us many other stories about who we are and where our hope lies. In both the evangelical and the liberal wings of Protestantism, there is too much emphasis on individual faith-experience and not enough grounding in our theological discourse in the story of Jesus Christ.' (The Faith of Jesus Christ, 2nd Ed., 2001, lii)

Pullman, in His Dark Materials (HDM), is reacting against the Western description of God as an authoritarian power, which I think he is justified in doing. I have no problems with Pullman killing off this god. In fact it clears the way for us to introduce the triune God of the gospel, who's power is displayed on a cross. We also see in HDM that Pullman's understanding of the Christian story is centred on heaven and hell. Colin Gunton has said '‘[the Enlightenment’s] view of traditional Christianity as authoritarian and excessively other-worldly was not entirely a caricature’ (Enlightenment and Alienation, 1985, 1). But the Christian story we find in the New Testament is not centred on the individual's eternal destination, but in the person's participation in the divine drama of the triune God.

It is God’s story that the gospel tells and only secondly of our involvement. It’s a story that subverts and reveals the emptiness of all other stories. This is a story that we can orientate people towards in their search for identity, which is grounded not in fantasy but in truth and a truth that is not firstly scientific and detached, but is personal and christological, that is, Jesus Christ is the Truth (Jn 14:6) or ‘. . . no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ’ (1 Cor. 3:11). Because this truth is christological it is also relational. The gospel is not a doctrinal basis to which people sign up to, but is the Spirit liberating us through Christ into relationship with the Father.

Sadly Hauerwas is right when he says, 'God has entrusted us, God's church, with the best story in the world. With great ingenuity we have managed to make the story, with the aid of much theory, boring has hell.' We need to find new ways to tell the story of Jesus, to show that it is alive and kicking, to show that it is world-altering and life-changing - it might mean we have to change. This I think is what deep church is all about.

Gilead: A Novel

I think it was Sean who first put me on to this novel, but I'm sure others had mentioned it too. Anyway while on holiday I got myself a copy. It's a novel I would recommend for all preparing for, training for or in pastoral ministry. It's the story of Reverend John Ames at the end of his life writing a letter to his young son. Gilead is the name of the small town in which Ames lives. It's a slow read, but rich in its telling of John Ames' life and that of his father and grandfather. I'm so glad I read this novel as I embark on training for baptist ministry, I'm sure its a novel I will re-read over the next years. Apparently Stanley Hauerwas says its the first barthian novel.

catholic-minded baptists: a transatlantic conversation?

Curtis Freeman, research professor of theology and baptist studies, duke divinity school posted a comment last week saying hello. Curtis is part of a growing group among US baptists who are becomming more catholic-minded. You can find some of curtis' papers here. He's put me in touch with one blog run by some of his students called mere faith, which looks good and also a website/blog called Summa Aesthetica. Let me encourage you british baptists to check them out and see what transatlantic conversations we can have.

Others in the catholic-minded baptists are steve harmon, elizabeth newman and philip thompson. See especially Steve Harmon's Towards Baptist Catholicity (2006).  Elizabeth  Newman has just published Untamed Hospitality: Welcoming God and Other Strangers, which sounds really good.

In the UK, with John Colwell describing himself as a 'catholic' baptist and others like Steve Holmes, Nigel Wright, Chris Ellis and Paul Fiddes probably not adverse to it either ... this all bodes well for the future of baptist theology and life.

greenbelt nearly here

I'll be at greenbelt from the friday to sunday. Hannah's sisters wedding on the monday. Do say hi if you're there and we happen to meet? I hope to be able to hear maggi dawn, david ford, ched myers, keith ward, morna hooker, mark yaconelli and others. Greenbelt is a fantastic diverse festival, with lots to hear, see and be challenged by. I'm looking forward to being at the ikon worship service. Last year's was fantastic. And I may catch matt redman on the mainstage on saturday.

on another note, maggi will be launching her new book on advent. see here. If you know maggi's blog, you'll know this will be a book well worth getting.