andygoodliff

... and ten books I'm looking forward to reading

Lots of posts on books at the moment.

1. Simon Woodman and Helen Dare (eds.), The ‘plainly revealed' Word of God? Baptist Hermeneutics in theory and practice (Mercer, 2011) - I've had an earlier look at this and its a fantastic collection of essays from the likes of Paul Fiddes, John Colwell, Rex Mason, Sean Winter, Chris Ellis, plus the editors and others and if that's not enough also responses from Brian Brock and John Lyons. Only downside, it looks we might have to wait another year.

2. Paul S. Fiddes version of his 2005 Bampton lectures on Seeing the world and knowing God: ancient wisdom and modern doctrine - hopefully this will appear soon, but Fiddes has a habit of not saying 'no' to requests that so these are taking longer to write up than planned.

3. Douglas Campbell's book on Paul's biography - following The Deliverance of God, will (surely) be a smaller book that sets out Campbell's construction of Paul's life (following the likes of John Knox's Chapters in a Life of Paul and Robert Jewett's Dating Paul's Life)

4. Richard B. Hay's book on the Gospels and the Old Testament (reading the gospels in the way he did for Paul in Echoes of Scripture)- he's been presenting this material in a number of places, including the 2004 Burns lectures at university of Otago, he was also on sabbatical in the UK last year and gave various papers at places

5. Philip E. Thompson, The Freedom of God: Towards Baptist Theology in Pneumatological Perspective (Paternoster) - Thompson's doctoral thesis, which has so far only emerged in a few articles and footnotes. This is long over due.

6. Stanley Hauerwas, Hannah's Child - Hauerwas reflects theologically on his life.

7. David Ford's manifesto on the future of Christian theology (Blackwell) - Ford has been doing interesting theology for years, often combining biblically studies (commentary on 2 Corinthians) with systematics (seeing his books on Self and Salvation and Christian Wisdom), as well as developing an argument for christian theology to be done in conversation and in partnership with religious studies.

8. John Colwell's Why Have You Forsaken Me? A Personal Reflection on the Experience of Desolation (Paternoster, 2009) and whatever he decides to write next - Colwell is always worth a read, and now back in local pastorate, here's hoping he will find the time (perhaps more time) to stimulate us (baptists especially) into more theological thinking. Will the sketch of the liturgical systematics get expanded?

9. Lincoln Harvey (ed.), The Theology of Colin Gunton (T & T Clark) - the first examination of Gunton's theology, admittedly by mostly those who are sympathetic to his theology. Some of the papers I heard a few years ago, others have been commissioned for the book. Contributers include Jenson, Holmes, Schwoebel, Webster and Colwell.

10. various dictionaries and handooks: a revised New Dictionary of Theology (IVP) edited by Stephen Holmes and others ; Cambridge Dictionary of Theology, co-edited with Karen Kilby, Ian McFarland and Iain Torrance ; Gerald R. McDermott (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Evangelical Theology

(also, and I know this is going over 10, are various completed doctorates from Baptists, including Anne Philips on faith amongst teenage girls, Darrell Jackson on church membership, Paul Goodliff on ordination, Craig Gardiner on musical theology and Bonhoeffer, Sean Winter's work on Philippians and into the future (still be completed) is Myra Blyth's work on overcoming violence, Helen Dare's work on hermeneutics, and Sally Nelson's work on disability)

Paternoster will continue to keep publishing

Great news from Robin (Paternoster's editorial director) that the future of Paternoster Publishing is secure.  This is excellent news for theological publishing in the UK, especially for those who are writing in the areas of evangelical theology and also baptist theology.

David Ford's ten books he's looking forward to reading

At the end of his article in Modern Theology (January 2010), David Ford gives a brief summary of ten books he's looking forward to reading in the next few years.

Janet Soskice, Naming God

Sarah Coakley, God, Sexuality and the Self: An Essay 'On the Trinity' (Cambridge) - the first of a 4 volume systematic theology

David Kelsey's two-volume Eccentric Existence: A Theocentric Anthropology

Frances Young. In 2011 she will deliver the Oxford University Bampton Lectures on The Loving Wisdom of our God: Towards a 'Theology of Presence'

Steven Kepnes of Colgate University is writing a manifesto on the future of Jewish theology (Ford is writing in the same series a manifesto on the future of Christian theology)

Aref Nayed, Director of Kalam Research and Media, is writing a manifesto on the future of Muslim theology

Peter Ochs, Another Reformation: Postliberal Christianity and the Jews

Stanley Hauerwas, Hannah's Child

Micheal O'Siadhail, Tongues due out in autumn 2010

Jim Foder Time with Texts project - it explores the relationship between prayer, reading texts and keeping time

Theology Books of the Decade

A bit of fun and reflects my limited reading and knowledge and just what I enjoyed/have been constantly off my shelf. What would you include?

New Testament : The Deliverance of God by D. A. Campbell (Eerdmans, 2009) - just sneeks in!

                Runners Up : Jesus and the Eyewitnesses by R. Bauckham ; Paul and the Hermeneutics of Faith by F. Watson (T & T Clark, 2004) ; Colossians Remixed by B. J. Walsh & S. Keesematt (SPCK, 2004)

Baptist Theology : Promise and Presence by J. E. Colwell (Paternoster, 2005) - a baptist defends the seven sacraments

                Runners Up : Tracks and Traces by P. S. Fiddes (Paternoster, 2003); Towards Baptist Catholicity by S. Harmon (Paternoster, 2006)

Christian Ethics : Improvisation: The Drama of Christian Ethics by S. Wells (Brazos/SPCK, 2004) - a fascinating study of ethics through the dramatic practice of improvisation

                Runners Up : God's Companions: Reimagining Christian Ethics by S. Wells (Blackwell, 2006) ;

Systematic Theology : The Rhythm of Doctrine: A Liturgical Sketch of Christian Faith and Faithfulness by J. E. Colwell (Paternoster, 2007) - a fantastic study of Christian doctrine around the Christian year

                Runners Up : Christian Wisdom: Desiring God and Learning in Love by D. F. Ford (Cambridge, 2007) ; Holy Scripture: A Dogmatic Sketch by J. Webster (Cambridge, 2003)

Old Testament : The Liberating Image: The Imago Dei in Genesis 1 by J. R. Middleton (Brazos, 2005)

Church History : Reinventing English Evangelicalism by R. Warner (Paternoster, 2007) - another possibly controversial choice, reflecting my narrow knowledge of this area, but this is the first major interpretation of evangelicalism since Bebbington's Evangelicalism in Modern Britain 20 years ago

                Runner Up : The English Baptists of the 20th Century by I. M. Randall (2005) - fantastically readable account of Baptist life in the last century

New area of study: The Child in Christian Thought edited by M. J. Bunge (Eerdmans, 2001) - the first in a series of studies of a theology of children

Youth Ministry : Practicing Passion by K. C. Dean (Eerdmans, 2004) - a fantastic book which I long for more youth workers to put into practice

                Runner Up : Contemplative Youth Ministry by M. Yaconelli (SPCK, 2006)

The Book that remained Unfinished : Christian Dogmatics by Colin Gunton (the first volume of which was not far off completion in 2003 when he died, and of which he would have surely had the projected 4 volumes complete by now if he had lived)

Has Colin Gunton's Theological Project Really Failed?

Mark Thompson (Moore College, Sydney) has posted a great response here to Bernhard Nausnera's recent Scottish Journal of Theology article.  Thompson notes that David Hohne, who wrote his doctorate on Gunton under David Ford at Cambridge and about to publish it as The Spirit of Sonship, is writing a response.

It does seem that Gunton's theological project has not continued, at least in England, but possibly has north of the border at the universities of Aberdeen (with Webster) and St. Andrew's (with Holmes and Torrance) (see the recent articles in Modern Theology). Theology in England is now a different landscape - so Milbank and Radical Orthodoxy at Nottingham, Oliver Davies and Transformation Theology at King's, Ford and what I might describe (mistakenly) as conversational theology (so his recent Christian Wisdom as chapters on inter-faith, inter-disciplinary, and inter-personal wisdom) at Cambridge, Pattison and Fiddes at Oxford, the newly appointed L. Ayres at Durham (whose book on Augustine due in 2010, will I'm sure not look kindly on Gunton), Higton and Gorringe at Exeter and D'Costa and Crisp at Bristol. I'm not saying this is bad - I like lots of theologians above - but it does seem sad that the kind of theology Gunton was doing and encouraging has not continued anywhere.

Baptist-Catholic Talks December 2009

The next round of Baptist-Catholic talks begin Sunday 13 until Saturday 19 December in Rome Italy. See here and follow possibly during, but definitely after, with Steven Harmon, one of the BWA's respresentatives. The talks are running from 2006-2010.

Some of the Baptist papers have been published from previous rounds of the talks:

Steven Harmon, 'Scripture in the Life of the Baptist Churches: Openings for a Differentiated Catholic-Baptist Consensus on Scripture', Pro Ecclesia 18.2 (Spring 2009), 187-215

Steve Harmon, 'Dei Verbum § 9 in Baptist Perspective', Eccleisology 5.3 (September 2009), 299-321

Helping Local Churches Respond to Economic Crisis

Through advent at John Bunyan Baptist Church, I'm running 4 evenings looking a different contemporary issues - so far we've looked at UK politics and also Afghanistan and war. This week were looking at money and the economic crisis. I found some great resources here on the website of Columbia Theological Seminary from their journal @thispoint Spring 2009, for those who might want to have a go at tackling it with their church. It has a set of articles and then 4 'lesson plans'. Looks like they have some good stuff in their archives as well, for example on creation; new church experiments; living faithfully in a culture of fear.

Modern Theology, January 2010 celebrates 25 years

A fantastic issue birthday issue of Modern Theology, looking back over the last 25 years and looking forward. This is full of excellent articles on retrospect and prospect theology. Especially worth reading are the articles by Hauerwas and the challenge to write more articles, which don't require a PhD on the subject to read them! and David Ford's reflections on the journal in the context of The Modern Theologians which he has edited three editions of (1989, 1997, 2005) and what he believes are the areas that especially require theological reflection in the future. Ford ends by looking foward to 10 forthcoming books, including Janet Soskice on Naming God; Sarah Coakley's first volume (of four) of systematic theology; Hauerwas' theological memoir Hannah's Child.

Contents

'Modern Theology at Twenty-Five: an achievement, a retrospective, and a renewed vision' - Jim Fodor, William Cavanaugh

'Retrospect/Prospect': Notes on Modern Theology after Twenty-Five Years - Kenneth Surin (editor 1984-91)

'The Remarkable Success of a Misnamed Journal: Reflections on Twenty-Five of Modern Theology' - L. Gregory Jones (co-editor 1992-2000)

'Ruminations on Modern Theology' - James J. Buckley (co-editor 1996-2001)

'The New Divide: Romantic versus Classical Orthodoxy' - John Milbank

'Shifts in Theology over the last Quarter of a Century' - Kathryn Tanner

'Reflections on where have come from' - Nicholas Lash

'Modern Theology and the South African Context: 1984-2010' - John W. de Gruchy

'Writing-In' and 'Writing-In': A Challenge to Modern Theology' - Stanley Hauerwas

'Where is the Wise Theological Creativity to be Found? Thoughts on 25 years of Modern Theology and the Twenty-First Century Prospect' - David F. Ford

'Theophany and Indication: Reconciling Augustinian and Palamite Aesthetics' - John Panteleimon Manoussakis

'The Holy Spirit in the Cappadocians: Past and Present' - Christopher A. Beeley

'The Son more Visible: immaterialism and the Incarnation' - Marc A. Hight, Joshua Bohannon

Reviews include Rowan William's Wrestling with Angels: Conversations in Modern Theology; John Milbank's The Legend of Death: Two Poetic Sequences; Jeremy Begbie's Resounding Truth: Christian Wisdom in the World of Music; Stanley Hauerwas' commentary on Matthew; and Tom Beaudion's Witness to Dispossession: The Vocation of a Post-Modern Theology.

Top Religious Films of the Decade?

Eric Repphun has posted his top 11 religiously themed films of the decade here (with explanations why). They are:

Sunshine (Danny Boyle, 2007)

Children of Men (Afonso Cuaron, 2006)

There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007)

Heaven (Tom Tykwer, 2002)

The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, 2008)

The New World (Terrence Malick, 2005)

Jesus Camp (Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, 2006)

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring (Kim Ki-Duk, 2003)

The Proposition (John Hillcoat, 2005)

Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki, 2001)

The Bothersome Man (Jens Lien, 2006)

And the worst (and this one was easy): The Passion of the Christ (Mel Gibson, 2004)

Some very good choices, especially Children of Men and The Dark Knight. I think an argument could be made for Man Dancin' (Norman Stone, 2003), Gone Baby Gone (Ben Affleck, 2007) and Shooting Dogs (Michael Caton-Jones, 2005). What would be on your list?

Fundamentalism and British Evangelicalism: Exploring the Relationship

There are still some places available for this one-day conference.

The Evangelicalism and Fundamentalism in Britain Project is hosting a one-day conference for

scholars, ministers and the interested public at King’s College Chapel, London, on Tuesday,
15 December 2009. The conference will consider the ways in which Evangelicalism and
Fundamentalism have expressed themselves in the social and historical conditions of Britain and
engage such questions as:

Who have traditionally been Evangelicals and Fundamentalists?
What doctrines have they upheld?
What attitudes have they maintained?
Have Evangelicals displayed the anger often considered characteristic of Fundamentalists?

The Keynote Speakers will be

Professor Alister McGrath of King’s College, London - ‘Evangelicalism, Fundamentalism and Science’

Dr Stephen Holmes of the University of St Andrews - ‘Evangelicalism, Fundamentalism and Theology’

Professor David Bebbington of the University of Stirling - ‘Evangelicalism and Fundamentalism in Britain’

For further information, including booking forms, please visit our website (you can find papers given at past gatherings) or email Andrew Tooley at [email protected]