andygoodliff

Advent blog week 3

My turn to blog again at hopefulimagination. Some great reflections last week from Jim, Catriona, Rowena, James, Ashley and Lucy.

Outnumbered

BBC's Outnumbered is the simply best half hour of television ... brillitantly observed and written, with fantastic performances ... if you've not caught it catch up with bbc iplayer and the last episode next saturday evening ... first series is out now on DVD ...

... it's one of a number of excellent BBC progammes this autumn ... we've enjoyed Little Dorrit, Wallander, Spooks, Survivors and the repeat of Gavin & Stacey series 2 (it was on earlier in the year on BBC3) ...

Sally Nelson to give Whitley Lecture 2009

This year Revd Sally Nelson, who currently holds the BU scholarship and is carrying out full time research, will give next year's Whitley Lecture with the title:

A thousand crucifixions: The materialist subversion of the church?

This lecture examines the meaning of suffering and offers the thesis that a significant aspect of the church's witness is to be the mediator of this meaning in a materialist culture; in so doing the church can re-express the character of dissent for the 21st century.

Bristol Baptist College, Wed 7 January 2009, 3pm

Northern Baptist College, Tues 3 Mar 2009, 7.30pm

The Baptist Assembly, Sat 2 / Sun 3 May 2009

Studies in Christian Ethics, Feburary 2009

Studies in Christian Ethics will now have 4 editions a year. This edition is the first publishing papers from the September 2008 SSCC on the Sermon on the Mount. The next edition will see the other papers.

Usus Gratiae: How Am I to Hear the Sermon on the Mount?
Susan Frank Parsons

Prayer and Morality in the Sermon on the Mount
Oliver O'Donovan

Rain on the Just and the Unjust: the Challenge of Indiscriminate Divine Love
Jennifer A. Herdt

The Sermon on the Mount and Political Ethics
John Battle

The Sermon on the Mount as Realistic Disclosure of Solid Ground
Glen H. Stassen

Reading the Sermon on the Mount in an Age of Ecological Catastrophe
Richard Bauckham

Review Article: A Closer walk on the Wild Side: Some Comments on Charles Taylor's A Secular Age:
John Milbank

Reviews include
Christopher Roberts, Creation and Covenant: The Significance of Sexual Difference in the Moral Theology of Marriage (New York: T&T Clark International, 2007) reviewed by Mark Thiessen Nation

Jason Byassee, Praise Seeking Understanding: Reading the Psalms with Augustine (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2007) reviewed by Brian Brock

John Swinton and Brian Brock (eds), Theology, Disability and the New Genetics: Why Science Needs the Church (London: Continuum/T&T Clark, 2007) reviewed by Amos Yong

John Kelsay, Arguing the Just War in Islam (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007) reviewed by Nigel Biggar

Theology in Oxford, Hilary Term 2009

Nigel Biggar will be giving the first McDonald Lectures in Theology, Ethics and Public Life on ‘Behaving in
Public: Christian Ethics outside of the Church’ Thursdays, 5pm (5, 12, 19, 26 Feb)

The Oxford Centre for Christianity and Culture will be running a series on Darwin Reconsidered (Tuesdays, 5pm)
20 January Dr Fuller – Darwin and Design
27 January Dr Brooke – Darwin on Nature and God
3 February  Dr Dixon – The Impact of Darwin on Victorian Ethics and Morals
10 February  Dr Deane-Drummond – Evolution and Christology
17 February  Dr Barrett – Darwin and Evolutionary Psychology
24 February  Prof. Lennox – Is Darwinism the Cause of Secularism?
3 March  Dr Cunningham – Darwinian Variants
10 March  Dr John Weaver – The Challenge of Evolutionary Theory for the 21st Century Church 

Professor Parish will be giving the 2009 Bampton Lectures on 'Le christianisme est étrange: Christian particularity in writing of the French 17th century'. Also on Tuesdays, 5pm at the University Church of St Mary the Virgin

Prof. Riches (University of Glasgow) may be giving the Hensley Henson Lectures (TBC).

Book Review: The Book of Revelation

Simon Woodman, The Book of Revelation. SCM Core Text (SCM, 2008), 259pp (with thanks to SCM for a review copy)

SCM are to be congratulated on this series of Core Texts (see also Mike Higton on Christian Doctrine, Karen Smith on Christian Spirituality and Brian Brock and John Swinton's forthcoming addition on Disability Theology), which are readable and on a certain level introductory, but not without merit as important contributions to scholarship themselves.

Revelation brings out highly contested to outright ridiculous readings and so Simon Woodman (Tutor in Biblical Studies at South Wales Baptist College) is to be thanked for providing an introduction to the book of Revelation that is measured and helpful.  Woodman appears to have read, if not every, then almost every, book on Revelation and provides the reader with an interesting array of different voices that have interpreted the text both recently and historically.

The book is divided into three parts. Part one is an introduction the book, different ways it may be read, some of the key issues of debate and an overview of Revelation chapter by chapter. Part two is called 'Meeting the Characters' and this is an excellent introduction to all the different and many characters. Characters are grouped together - so Jesus, God and the Spirit; the people of God (i.e. the saints, the elders, the multitude, etc); the inhabitants of heaven and earth; and the forces of evil. There is a brief character study on each, drawing in Old Testament background, as well how the character is depicted or developed within the book. (Buy the book just for part two alone). Part three consists of three chapters that engage with the imagery and how the message of the book may have been heard by its first readers (and listeners) and those of us reading and hearing it today. This final section works in many ways as a piece of pastoral theology, showing how Revelation itself is ultimately a letter of pastoral care.

In recent years, the likes of Richard Bauckham and other scholars, have helped rescue Revelation from the fanatical and fanciful readings that either mean people read too much into the book or don't read it all.  Simon Woodman's book is a welcome contribution to that endeavour. The Book of Revelation helps explain the often appears confusing nature of Revelation and gives us new avenues for its speaking to us today. So as the blurb on the back says, this SCM Core Text seeks to bridge the gap between academic and popular and is written with theology students, ministers and anyone who is interested in grappling with Revelation in mind. As I may have said before, the mark of a good piece of theology is its readability and this is very readable, accessible and interesting. I can't recommend it any more highly. I look forward to future books from Simon Woodman (especially because he's a baptist).

Advent blog week 2

Read some fantastic reflections from the last week from Andy Scott, Andrew Jackson, Nigel Coles, Phil Durrant, Julie and Miriam.

New Books for 2009 from SCM Press

Worship and Liturgy in Context: Studies and Case Studies of Contemporary Practice edited by Duncan Forrester and Doug Gay (January)

Resolving Difference by Oliver O'Donovan (April)

Disability Theology (SCM Core Text) by Brian Brock and John Swinton (May)

SCM Reader Disability Theology edited by Brian Brock and John Swinton (June)

Proposing Theology by John Milbank (August)

Book Reviews

Apostolic Networks in Britain by William Kay (Paternoster, 2007)

The Barth Lectures by Colin Gunton, edited by Paul Brazier (T & T Clark, 2007)

Beginnings and Endings by Maggi Dawn (BRF, 2007)

The Book of Revelation by Simon Woodman (SCM, 2008)

Christology and Scripture: Interdisciplinary Perspectives edited by Andrew Lincoln and Angus Paddison (T & T Clark, 2007)

Communion and Otherness: Further Studies in Personhood and Church by John Zizioulas (T & T Clark, 2006)

Finding Our Way Again by Brian McLaren (Thomas Nelson, 2008)

History and Hermeneutics by Murray A. Rae (T & T Clark, 2005)

Hospitality as Holiness: Christian Witness Amid Moral Diversity by Luke Bretherton (Ashgate, 2006)

An Introduction to Torrance Theology edited by Gerrit Scott Dawson (T & T Clark, 2007)

The Justifying Judgement of God: A Reassessment of the Place of Judgement in the Saving Work of Christ by Justyn Terry (Paternoster, 2007)

More Than A Symbol: The British Baptist Recovery of Baptismal Sacramentalism by Stanley Fowler (Wipf & Stock, 2002, 2006)

Nurturing Children's Spirituality edited by Holly Catterton Allen (Cascade, 2007)

Paul, Judaism and the Gentiles: Beyond the New Perspective by Francis Watson (Eerdmans, 2007)

Public Theology in Cultural Engagement edited by Stephen R. Holmes (Paternoster, 2008)

Reinventing English Evangelicalism 1965-2000: A Theological and Sociological Study by Rob Warner (Paternoster, 2007) - part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4

The Rhythm of Doctrine: A Liturgical Sketch of Christian Faith and Faithfulness by John Colwell (Paternoster, 2007)

Shaping a Theological Mind edited by Darren C. Marks (Ashgate, 2002)

Singing the Ethos of God: On the Place of Christian Ethics in Scripture by Brian Brock (Eerdmans, 2007)

Speaking the Truth by Samuel Wells (Abingdon, 2008)

Testimony to Otherwise by Walter Brueggemann (Chalice Press, 2001)

The Theology of John Zizioulas: Personhood and Church edited by Douglas Knight (Ashgate, 2007)

Tolerance and Truth: The spirit of the Age or the Spirit of God? edited by Angus Morrison (Rutherford House, 2007)

Transformation Theology: Church in the World by Oliver Davies, Paul Janz and Clemens Sedmak (T & T Clark, 2007)

The Wondrous Cross: Atonement and Penal Substitution in the Bible and History by Stephen Holmes (Paternoster, 2007)

Expectations

My turn to to Advent blog.