andygoodliff

John Owen Today conference

This coming August Alan Spence and Terry Wright are organising a conference on the theologian John Owen. For more information visit the blog here. Speakers include:

Stephen R Holmes

Michael S Horton

George Hunsinger

Alan Spence

Carl R Trueman

Book Review: Reinventing English Evangelicalism, part 4

Rob Warner, Reinventing English Evangelicalism, 1996-2001: A Theological and Sociological Study (Paternoster, 2007), 284pp (with thanks to Paternoster for a review copy)

Parts 1, 2, 3.

Warner's thesis is the first major attempt to build upon David Bebbington's analysis of evangelicalism
in light of what has taken place among evangelicals in the last twenty years.   It is an excellent read, interesting and informative, and offers a account of what is happening within the differing evangelical streams. In the conclusion he writes: 'we conclude that Bebbington's quadrilateral is best conceived not as a static commonality but rather as a confluence of priorities in tension, sometimes dynamic, sometimes conflictual' (235). This does seem to reflect the picture of evangelicalism today - although I wonder if it currently its more conlictual than dynamic.

Warner says three factors are inevitable in the continuing evolution of pan-evangelicalism:

entrepreneurs will continue to promise extravagant and immiment results; neo-conservatives will remain obdurately exclusivist, with overt or implicit fundamentalising tendencies; and the twin axes of pan-evangelicalism, biblicist-crucicentric and conversionist-activist, will continue to produce alternative and often conflictual formulations of evangelical convictions, priorities and subcultural identity. (243)

These are interesting times. Reinventing English Evangelicalism, 1966-2001 is a must read for any interested evangelical, it is challenging and sobering, but ultimately something that must be heard and hopefully responded to positively.

John Battle on Faith Communities

Last night was the first lecture for this term's Oxford Centre for Christianity and Culture public lectures on religion and public policy. It was given by John Battle MP, the former adviser on faith communities to Tony Blair. It was an entertaining and thought-provoking lecture. Some things he said:

When he came to meet with all the permanent secretaries of each governmental department, he got not find a single one that did not issues and questions relating to faith communities.

He argued that faith commnuities need to define their relationship with state, otherwise it will be defined for them. He want to see faith communities become government critics (in the best sense of the word).

He pointed us to a consultation document called Face-to-Face and Side-by-Side: A framework for inter-faith dialogue and social action and encouraged us to respond.

He suggest that the test of enterprises like scriptural reasoning will be in their shared action.

He argued we are in a climate where politics is dominated by fear; where the watchwords are security and terrorism. (An opportunity if ever there was one for faith communities to demonstrate and witness to an alternative politics)

He said that parliament and politicians do not have enough time to pause; everything is reactive and without due consideration.

And finally he argued that the word 'neighbours' is now only understand as a tv soap about fictional characters on the other side of the world, rather than a concrete reality in people's lives.

Stanley Hauerwas in Oxford

Stanley Hauerwas is to give one of the Oxford Amnesty Lectures 2008 on Religion and Human Rights. The title of his lecture is 'Pentecost: Learning the Language of Peace'. The date is 20 Feb, lecture starts at 5.30pm in the Holywell Music Room, Holywell Street, Oxford. Tickets for lecture is £6 (£4 concessions).

SJT, February 2008

The stratification of knowledge in the thought of T F Torrance - Benjamin Myers

Biblical theology and/or theological interpretation of scripture? Defining the relationship - Daniel J. Treier

'Not every wring is done with pride' Augustine's proto-feminist anti-Pelagianism - Jesse Couenhoven

Does the advance of science mean secularisation? - David Martin

Preserving the world for Christ: Towards a theological engagement with the 'secular' - Barry Harvey

Trinity and freedom: A repsonse to Molnar - Jeffrey Hensley

What does it mean to say that Jesus Christ is indispensable to a properly conceived doctrine of the immanent Trinity? - Paul D. Molnar

Book Review: Reinventing English Evangelicalism, part 3

Parts one and two can be found here and here.

Part two of Warner's book is a detailed discussion of the biblicist-crucicentric axis. Here Warner takes a close examination the different bases of faith within evangelicalism. The subtitle for this part of the book sumarises neatly Warner's argument: 'From pre-critical inclusivity to the self-attenuated calvinistic hegemony, and the subsequent emergence of post- and neo-conservatism, with bifurcatory prospects' (147). Some evangelicalism starts fairly inclusive and then through the first sixty years of the 20th century becomes increasingly exclusive - 'from the 1920s, fundamentalism appears to have had a magnetic influence upon evangelicalism, drawing each revision of a basis of faith rightwards' (207).  The late 60s and 70s (Keele, 1967 Lausanne, 1974 and Nottingham, 1977) saw a reversal of this conservative turn.  During the 1990s and early years of the 20o0s, this rightwards shift has been lessened - so the statement of faith adopted by the Evangelical Alliance in 2005 'exemplifies the pan-evangelical rejection of the fundamentalist undertow' (219). However, Warner claims that the 2005 statement 'represents a rather limited achievement' that 'fails to recover the pre-fundamentalist pan-evangelical inclusivity or sustain the late twentieth century post-conservative trajectory' (219).  Warner makes three conclusions from his analysis:

First, any attempt to characterise the entire evangelical movement as infallibist and centred upon penal substitution proves in light of the evident diversity among the bases of faith to be more of a caricature, or a misunderstanding of one trend within twentieth century evangelicalism, than a precise and historically justifiable conclusion. Second, the three evangelical eras we have been examining have had markedly different opponents: the primary mid-nineteenth century opponents were Popery and Puseyism; for the mid-twentieth century, it was liberalism; but in the post-liberal context of the late twentieth century, progressive and neo-conservative evangelicalism increasingly defined themselves over and against one another. Each to the other has become the enemy within, to be disputed if not disowned. Third, the breadth of the coalition is coming under growing strain, with an assertive, narrowing dogmatism on the Right and an increasingly rigorous questioning of conventional evangelical presuppositions on the Left. (228-229)

There is so hard reading here - not in the sense of it being difficult, but a little boring - as Warner compares and contrasts the different bases of faith. There was a tendency in this reader to jump to the conclusions, which like this whole book make for some interesting reading. My conclusions are that you see an evangelicalism that starts out with the positive intention of wanting to be faithful to the Bible, but has increasingly become stuck in the ways of modernity and prone to throwing stones at each other.  One of my favourite examples of this is Stanley Grenz's Renewing the Center: Evangelical Theology in a Post-Theological Era (2000) followed later by the conservative Reclaiming the Center: Confronting Evangelical Accomodation in Postmodern Times (2004) (See also Elaine Storkey's current attempt to define her evangelicalism as different to that now found in Wycliffe Hall). It leaves many thinking why bother with the label evangelical at all.  The future certainly doesn't look to any less divisive.

I'll follow this post with one more, assessing the conclusions that Warner makes.

Jim Gordon on Theology

One of the best ways to begin or end a day is to read a Jim Gordon post. If only I could write as well as him. Here he is on theology:

As a pastor, for me serious theology, yes academic theology, has always mattered, because human life and people's deepest experiences deserve our best thought. People's perplexities, their struggles to understand, the sheer effort just sometimes to go on being faithful, deserve from us that attentiveness to truth and such sensitivity to human longing and hurt, as only grows in minds and hearts patient of God's incomprehensible ways, and impatient with all ad hoc paperback solutions to those problem areas of our lives where what we seek is not solutions, but God. Just God.

Jim is currently reading Jurgen Moltmann's recently published autobiography. It got me thinking why are there not more theological (auto)biographies and what are the best?

Book Review: Reinventing English Evangelicalism, part 2

Part one can be found here.

In Warner's discussion of (what he calls) the conversionist-activist axis of evangelicalism, what struck me most was the attempt in the 1980s and 90s to brand evangelical Christianity. Spring Harvest, although undoubtedly in its early years an attempt to encourage and assemble evangelical Christians together, increasingly becomes focused on giving a particular experience - 'building customer loyalty and repeat business' (74). I remember hearing a venue leader from Spring Harvest mention how you were not allowed to talk about week 1 during week 2, just in case people thought they're week wasn't as good! Alpha likewise is the same - wherever a Alpha takes place - the faces, the books and other associated merchandise is present. Related to this is how the evangelical leaders of Evangelical Alliance, Spring Harvest and Alpha were (and are) always claiming that their organisation has this many members/attendees/converts as to suggest we matter; and the reality being something different. The projected or desire growth of the Evangelical Alliance and Spring Harvest declined towards the end of the 90s and more recently so has Alpha. This due in part to the increase in competition from other festivals (New Wine, Stoneleigh, Easter People, Keswick, Greenbelt, etc), other Evangelical groups (Reform, Fulcrum), other introduction to Christianity courses (Y-course, Christianity Explored, Emmaus, Essence).

Throughout Warner's study of the conversionist-activist axis you sense his disillusionment and suggestion that it could have been different. He concludes this section of his book by saying

The entrepreneurial reconfiguartion of evangelical identity colonised the pan-evangelical terrain made available following the fragmentation of conservatism [Steve Holmes has questioned this part of Warner's argument here]. Nonetheless, their advance has proved volatile, transient and self-limiting, promising levels of success that proved untenable. By relativising traditional evangelical convictions, theological and ethical, through pragmatic experimentation and a persistent emphasis upon contemporaneity and cultural engagement, the entrepreneurs opened the door, however unintentionally, for the subsequent emergence of progressive reconfigurations of evangelical identity, when the biblicist-crucicentric axis begn to return to prominence (144-145).

This section of Warner's book is the most enjoyable, much more than the next section which discusses all the different statements of faith (but more on that later). We have an insider's view and critical reflections on what was happening behind the scenes as we all went to Spring Harvest and attended an Alpha course. Some of the criticisms Warner makes here are not new or unique (Martyn Percy and Stephen Hunt have both outlined serious shortcomings with Alpha; while Percy again, James Steven, Robin Parry have lamented the
theology of charismatic worship). What is different with Warner is he has set it in the wider context of the reinvention of evangelicalism by Clive Calver, Pete Meadows, Nicky Gumbel and others. The entrepreneurial spirit that was introduced is in by no means lost, the argument could be made that consumerist tendency has increased with the likes of the Purpose-Driven Church and Life. We've produced an evangelical Christianity
that is forever looking for the next book, song, speaker, conference, for that spiritual pick-me-up. Paul Goodliff, in his book With Unveiled Face (DLT, 2005) writes

Evangelicalism too often wants its heroes and trophies in a way that panders too much to the spirit of the age. It creates its 'well-known public speakers' who ply the pathetically small world of Evangelical conferences and holidays, the organisers of which use the fame of the speaker or musician to attract the (fee-paying) delegate or holidaymaker, and make the event financially viable. I wonder what Jesus Christ would make of it all? (129)

Jim Gordon continues his reflections here and here. Steve Holmes makes a contribution here. I'll post some further thoughts soon ...

Centre for Christianity and Culture, Hilary Term 2007

Some interesting lectures for this term's Oxford Centre for Christianity and Culture

Public Lectures: Hilary Term 2008
Project on Religion and Public Policy
In Regent's Park College (Pusey Street) : Tuesdays at 5.00 pm

22 January: Faith Communities and Public Policy
Rt. Hon. John Battle, MP, former advisor on faith communities to Tony Blair

29 January: Religion and Public Policy: A Muslim Perspective
Professor Tariq Ramadan, St Anthony's College

5 February: The Roles of Religion in Resistance Movements
Professor Sir Adam Roberts, FBA, Balliol College

12 February: Terror, Religious Radicalism, Religious Freedom and Public Policy in the UK
Professor Paul Weller, University of Derby

19 February: Religion and International Affairs
Dr Olin Robison, Regent's Park College,
President Emeritus, Middlebury College, Vermont and Salzburg Seminar

26 February: Challenges: Public Policy and Religion
Baroness Usha Prashar, Chairman of the Judicial Appointments Commission

4 March: Religion and Public Conversation
Paul Woolley, Director of Theos - public theology think tank

IJST, January 2008

Descartes: God as the Idea of Infinity - Mary-Ann Crumplin

Faith as Self-Understanding: Towards a Post-Barthian Appreciation of Rudolf Bultmann - Ben Myers

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ: Karl Barth and the Historicization of God's Being - Adam Eitel

God's Attributes as God's Clarities: Wolf Krotke's Doctrine of the Divine Attributes - Christopher Holmes

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit: A Critical Reflection on the Trinitarian Theologies of Religion of S. Mark Heim and Gavin D'Costa - John G. Flett

Reviews include Mike Higton on After the Spirit by Eugene F. Rogers Jr and Susannah Ticciati on Theological Hermeneutics and 1 Thessalonians by Angus Paddison