andygoodliff

The Big Story (a guest post by Ashley Lovett)

[Ashley is a friend and fellow Baptist minister. The following was his attempt of telling the Bible's story on Bible Sunday a few weeks ago.]

The big story of the Bible starts with
God.
It starts with God speaking.
And God's first words in this story are,
'Let's have light',
and,
'Let's have sky, sea, land, trees, plants, whales, fish, birds, animals',
and finally,
'Let's have people, men and women, boys and girls'.
That's what God said.
And from his words everything was created. Big, small, powerful,
delicate, bright, beautiful,
diverse, wondrous,
and good, very good.

But sadly not for long.
Sadly all that God had created was spoiled.
And it was the people that he had made,
the people who were the last and best of all that he created,
it was the people that spoiled it.
God had made them for friendship.
But they thought they could do better than that.
Despite all that God had given them they wanted even more.
They wanted to be like God.
And so they broke God's only rule
and they broke God's heart.

The big story becomes a family story.
At the head of the family are Abraham and Sarah,
and their story,
and the story of his sons,
and their wives and children,
takes us back to God's original purpose:
friendship. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob enjoy the friendship of God...
most of the time.
As their friend,
God wants them to have a home,
a place of their own, a land,
where they will learn to live
as God's friends,
as friends together, where they will model to the world
what living as God's friends looks like.

But before they can move in they have to get there.
And getting there
turns out to be harder
and take longer
than Abraham or his family imagined.
For they are still like the people who broke God's heart.
Every step in the right direction
is followed by one that takes them the wrong way.
And they end up in the wrong place.
In Egypt...
as slaves.

The family story becomes a rescue story.
Through a man named Moses
God speaks to Egypt.
'Let my people go'.
At first Egypt refused and so God tried to persuade them.
He tried one thing after another until they got the message.
And it was a bitter message for Egypt, especially for Egypt's mothers, and fathers.

With Moses leading them
God's people are back on the road
to the home he had promised.
But before they can go there
God wants to restore their friendship.
And to help them remember
he writes down what it means.
For him and for them.
For him to be their God.
For them to be his people.
Ten important words.
Ten words of life.
Ten words...

The family story becomes a nation's story.
The people are home in the land God promised to Abraham.
But being a nation is tougher than being a family.
Especially if you're still like the people who broke God's heart.
Living in the land alongside one another is hard for them.
Living with suspicious neighbours is harder.
There are skirmishes.
With Edom, with Moab, with Philistia.
There are colourful characters – Deborah, Gideon, Samson –
and outrageous stories.
And it all ends with Samuel.
Samuel is the last because...

The nation's story is now the story of kings...
and prophets.
Saul is the first king,
he's impressive, but impatient.
David is next, only a boy,
but the boy who slew a giant.
He's not perfect,
in fact so far from it that we might wonder what God saw in him,
the answer was a heart that wanted to enjoy God's friendship more than anything.
Which was, we remember,
God's purpose all along.
And then there was Solomon.
Some say he was wise.
And some say it was his foolishness that broke the nation into two parts.

While the kings prospered the people didn't always do so well.
And often, even with David, God got forgotten.
The ten words didn't help.
The kings ignored them.
The people ignored them.
God's rules and God's heart were broken again and again.
Sometimes the people acted as God's friends.
Sometimes they didn't.
So God chose prophets, people like Elijah and Isaiah, Amos and Jeremiah,
and he sent them to speak,
to remind the people who they were,
to remind them about their friendship,
to warn them of the trouble they were making for themselves.
And of what was happening in the nations around...

The story of kings and prophets becomes a disaster story.
Assyria invades.
One part of the kingdom disappears.
Babylon invades.
The other part is gone.
The prophets say that God has judged his people.
The prophets say that God is no fool.
The prophets say that God's friendship cannot be abused or taken for granted.

Exile was a disaster worse than slavery in Egypt.
Now the people had really lost something.
God's gift of home, of land, of an identity,
had gone.
Some wondered if the story would end there.
But it didn't...
God brought the people back from exile,
back to their land,
and they rebuilt
their homes, their towns and cities,
but it wasn't the same.
Exile had changed things.
And God was silent, their world was wordless,
for 400 years. Until...

Jesus was born
in an obscure little place called Bethlehem.
He was the first son of a fairly ordinary peasant couple.
He was nobody,
and almost nobody noticed,
or cared,
when he was born.
And yet in this story he turns out to be...
the very author of the story itself.

The disaster story becomes the story of God's great surprise.
As he enters the story in the most unexpected way.
God becomes a baby...
a child...
a young man.
He makes friends.
He speaks about the way that friends of God will live.
He forgives those who have broken God's rules and broken God's heart.
What he says, what he does, everything about him, draws people to him.
They become friends with God again.
Hearts were changed.
Lives were changed. It was amazing....

It was …
never going to last.
Not among a people who still wanted to be like God.
Who still thought that their way was better than his.
Jesus made enemies and those enemies conspired to kill him.
Rome.
Pilate.
Priests.
Caiaphas.
People.
Friends.
Judas.
Together they betrayed, tortured, denied, abandoned,
crucified, mocked, and murdered
God.
Even though it was his story, his world, and they were his people.

For a moment the whole story collapsed
into one single life,
as all ambition, greed, jealousy, rage, bitterness,
all that spoils and destroys what God made
found itself undone on the cross
as Jesus died.
That end was also
the beginning
as three days later,
from the grave,
resurrection, a freed humanity.
'Goodness was stronger than evil
light was stronger than darkness
life was stronger than death.'*
And as Jesus drew
resurrection breath into his lungs
new life burst into the world
and friendship, true friendship,
became possible again,
possible for all people,
in God's story.

The big story of the Bible,
the story of a family,
that became a nation,
the story of kings and prophets,
the story of Egypt and Exile,
of rescue and disaster,
the story of friendship sought and lost and found again,
in Jesus,
because of Jesus,
through Jesus,
is now the story of the Church.

The story began again in Jerusalem,
began again at Pentecost,
when the Spirit of Jesus came to live in his friends,
and it spread across the known-world,
to Antioch in Syria,
to Galatia and Ephesus,
to Macedonia and Philippi,
to Crete, Cyprus and Rome.
And as the story spread,
and as the Church grew,
more and more people became God's friends
and started to live the way friends should.

The big story of the Bible,
the story of the Church,
is our story,
because Jesus makes it possible for us to enjoy God's friendship too.
He has written us in.
The Bible might have a last page
but God's story is still being told.
In our lives.
And through our words...

* Based on words of Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Recent UK Baptist PhDs

Here's a list of recent Baptist PhD's undertaken in the UK (and in one case Ireland). They show a range of areas of research.

Ben Dare (2012) Foundations of ‘Ecological Reformation’: a critical study of Jürgen Moltmann’s contributions towards a ‘New Theological Architecture’ for environment care. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University. 

Jürgen Moltmann’s desire to see the relationship between humans and our natural environment improve is long-standing. In later years he called for a ‘new theological architecture’ to help facilitate an ‘ecological reformation’ of Christianity and society. While Moltmann did not claim to have created this new architecture, one of his work’s aims has clearly been to contribute towards it. To what extent has Moltmann been successful in this aim? Firstly, his doctrine of the Trinity provides the themes of love and relatedness which pervade and colour his whole project. These themes then interact with other key areas of Moltmann’s thought that inform this architecture: creation, God’s ongoing care and openness towards creation (largely pneumatology and christology), and eschatology. Each of these areas contribute to a theological architecture in which non-human creation, past, present, and future, is a full recipient of God’s uniting love and openness. Naturally this leads towards a consideration of the ecological reformation. Less positively, Moltmann’s discussion of God’s creating through self-restriction presents some problems for this architecture’s coherence, although Moltmann’s developing views on this do help provide a solution. Furthermore, analysis of the criticisms made by various commentators suggests that several debated areas are actually particularly productive for Moltmann’s contributions to the architecture. Other criticisms do highlight areas of concern and possible development, but do not present terminal problems. The potential for this architecture to address practice, not simply theory, increases through elements of Moltmann’s theological anthropology that challenge humanity’s behaviour. Those elements thus form a lens through which Moltmann’s wider contributions to the architecture more powerfully speak of the need for creation care. Therefore, while Moltmann’s contribution towards a new architecture for ecological reformation would be helped by certain modifications, nevertheless it is highly significant. Its wide scope makes it fertile for further contributions and development.

Myra Blyth (2012) Towards a restorative hermeneutic: local Christian communities responding to crime and wrongdoing. PhD Thesis, University of Birmingham.

This study proposes a restorative hermeneutic and uses it to assess and evaluate the ‘restorativity’ of the responses of five local Christian communities to crime and wrongdoing. Its central contention is that they can become more ‘restorative’ by critically reflecting on their responses to crime and wrongdoing using the hermeneutic. In chapters I to III, the hermeneutic is established through a mutual critical dialogue between restorative justice and contemporary atonement theology. It has three core principles: ‘radical participation’, ‘righting wrong in a morally serious way’ and ‘reintegration’. These principles are extrapolated from a definition of restorative justice and resonate with the key themes of contemporary atonement theology. In chapters IV and V the understanding, attitude and practical response of these local Christian communities to crime and wrongdoing are categorised and assessed. The findings are then systematically evaluated using the restorative hermeneutic. The final chapter articulates the main conclusion, that to achieve a more restorative response to crime and wrongdoing local Christian communities need to develop a sustained critical dialogue with secularisation theory, an even balance between addressing personal and structural types of crime and wrongdoing, and a critical understanding of the underlying causes of crime and wrongdoing. 

Michael Peat (2011) Affirming our human nature : a theological consideration of prenatal genetic modification. DPhil thesis, University of Oxford.

In Part One, two prominent liberal philosophical concepts used in debates about prenatal genetic intervention are critically assessed: “procreative liberty” and the child’s “right to an open future.” “Procreative liberty” is exposed as incapable of adequately adjudicating the moral claims of present and future persons, and both concepts espouse an understanding of freedom as “negative liberty” which is challenged with the aid of an argument by Charles Taylor. Transhumanist ideals are outlined as an example of an “objective” vision of human good which encourages potential genetic modifications it deems uncontroversial.

   Part Two outlines the rudiments of Robert Spaemann’s moral thought in order to evaluate his proposal that genetic modification of future persons is intrinsically opposed to their human dignity. In the course of clarifying Spaemann’s reasoning, the concerns of various thinkers are presented to illuminate pertinent issues, such as the extent to which “beneficial” interventions may be disguised instances of coercion, the nature of personal life and freedom, and the meaning of “natural spontaneity.” The reasoning underlying Spaemann’s rejection of “genetic manipulation” is found to be unconvincing, although his core insight that responsibilities to future generations involve affirming their “human nature” is co-opted for further exploration.

Part Three sets out to redress the lacuna observed in Spaeman’s approach, exploring possibilities for specifying morally relevant features of “human nature” presented in recent discussion about the meaning of “health,” “disease” and “species-typical functioning.” Insights gained from this investigation inform a theological understanding of what is implied in honouring “natural human life.” Virtues such as humility and patience are explained and used to counter alternative theological treatments of human genetics that truncate a trinitarian understanding of providence. The Conclusion offers general criteria for discriminating between legitimate and illegitimate prenatal interventions based on a theological understanding of freedom in terms of vocation.

Sally Nelson (2011) Confronting ‘meaningless’ suffering: from suffering-as-insult to suffering-as-ontological-impertinence. DPhil thesis, University of Manchester.

From the personal contemporary pastoral experience of caring for dying people, and with particular attention given to the psychospiritual anguish often associated with the perceived failure of death, I argue that suffering is primarily identified in the modern West as an insult to normality, expressed in various forms of the question: ‘Why me?’. I challenge this view of ‘suffering as insult’ by selectively identifying and critiquing some culturally embedded views of the nature of reality, taking note of the influence on suffering persons of the dialogue between science and faith in the UK, and by introducing dialogue with the process thought of Whitehead as an alternative to traditional theistic models of God. Such a dialogue also affects the nature of the person conceived in imago dei, and so I examine the effect of replacing the rational autonomous individual with the dialogical personhood of McFadyen. I then consider the rehabilitation of suffering as a key experience of metanoia in the formation of the person. Finally I reflect on suffering in postmodernity in the light of Ricoeur’s hypothesis that reality is narrative in form, and develop the argument that suffering can be understood as an ‘ontological impertinence’, analogous to the ‘semantic impertinence’ which Ricoeur attributes to the category of metaphor.

Helen Dare (2013) Always on the way and in the fray: British Baptist hermeneutics in dialogue with Walter Brueggemann. PhD thesis, University of Bristol.

Four hundred years after their beginnings in Europe, Baptists are still proud of their reliance on scripture, which has been at the centre of their devotional life and the basis for their ethics and practice. Among British Baptists, however, sustained self reflection on the reception of the biblical text has been neglected, resulting in a lack of a framework for understanding and negotiating interpretative diversity within the community.

From a different perspective, and critical of ‘reductionist’ Old Testament study, Walter Brueggemann encourages the church and academy to dissent from a dominant interpretative hegemony no longer appropriate in a postmodern context. His work presents Baptists with an imaginative dialogue partner for considering their hermeneutics. His rhetorical and sociological criticism accentuates the dialectical aspect of the biblical text which he believes is crucial to Israel’s faith practice in dialogical relationship with God. In relation to a specific interpretative community, Brueggemann’s commitment to the ongoing interaction of sometimes conflicting testimonies stimulates the work of aspirational Baptist hermeneutics, which draws on, and develops, key Baptist themes of covenant and the ongoing search for further light and truth. The fruits of this reinvigorated approach are highlighted in an analysis of Psalm 22.

In developing Brueggemann’s analysis for the British Baptist context, a renaissance of the Baptist understanding of covenant relationships helps create a hermeneutical context in which Baptists may negotiate interpretative diversity constructively. A renewed commitment to Baptist covenantal understanding of discipleship as ‘walking together with God and with each other’ requires a willingness not to ‘close down’ the process of ongoing biblical interpretation in a desire for interpretative stability and certainty. Instead, a willingness to risk a dialogical openness to the voice of divine and human covenant partners, constitutes interpretation that is always ‘on the way and in the fray’.

Joshua Searle (2012) The Scarlet Woman and the Red Hand: Evangelical Interpretations of the Apocalypse in the Northern Ireland 'Troubles'. PhD thesis, Trinity College, Dublin.

This thesis provides a comprehensive description of how evangelicals in Northern Ireland read the ‘Troubles’ (1966-2007) in the light of how they read the Bible. This study demonstrates that biblical apocalyptic-eschatological language was a decisive presence (albeit often an inconspicuous and subtle presence) in evangelical/fundamentalist discourses concerning the turbulent events that characterised this dark yet fascinating period in the history of Northern Ireland. Like all cultural contexts in which apocalyptic themes retained a compelling contemporary relevance, the history of Northern Ireland during the late twentieth century manifested both the light and dark sides of apocalyptic eschatology. For some the biblical apocalyptic-eschatological texts engendered a sense of foreboding and insecurity, which manifested itself as cultural pessimism, social exclusion or sectarian violence. For others apocalyptic eschatology was interpreted as a vision of hope and a prototype of the redeemed community and, as such, was used to promote a core ethic of inclusive humanity and compassion in order to surmount the conventional distinctions between ‘Protestant’ and ‘Catholic’. If communities read the same texts, why is it that one community interprets the text as a justification to perpetrate exclusion, violence or even murder, whereas another interprets the same text as a stimulus to promote an inclusive ethic that enriches rather than narrows understanding? Rather than providing trite or superficial ‘closed’ answers to this question, this thesis aims to provoke thought by opening up creative new ways of conceptualising the relationship between hermeneutics and cultural studies.

Simon Woodman (2012) Baptist Hermeneutics and the Book of Revelation. PhD, Cardiff University.

E. Anne Clements (2012) Mothers on the margin?: an investigation into the five women of Matthew's geneaology and their significance, both as individuals and collectively, for the gospel narrative. PhD thesis, (Spurgeon's College) University of Wales.

Scottish Independence, Baptists and Politics

I was shocked, but probably should not have been surprised, to hear that the recent Baptist Assembly in Scotland in Scotland did not address the question of Scottish Independence. It says how far we have come that the political questions of the day (and this is a big one) are ignored within our Baptist life. I would imagine this would have been of great concern to previous generations, who were much politically engaged than we are today.

I write as someone from south of the border, who has always seen themselves as British more than English, who is glad to see Scotland as in some sense part of my identity. I’m not sure what that exactly means and so why it is good to see Stuart Blythe inviting and encouraging us to reflect on issues of identity, nationhood and the possibility of an independent Scotland is so important. (Stuart is a Scottish Baptist, currently teaching at Scottish Baptist College, but next year will become the new Rector at the International Baptist Theological Seminary in its new Amsterdam location.)

Stuart suggests that the reasons why the issue has not set the Baptist UK world, and particularly Scotland, alight are: there is no interest in the subject; we're not very good at talking around the table; and/or politics is an inappropriate subject in church. 

It seems precisely the opportunity to ask what it means as Christians to belong to any nation, to explore what citizenship means and to reflect what it might mean for Scottish (and possibly English) Christians to argue theologically for independence. Here it seems the work of the Glasgow-based political theologian Doug Gay is ploughing at least one furrow in this direction, with a number of journal articles and a forthcoming book.

Baptists, despite our heritage, have become increasingly un-engaged to questions of church and state, especially as the State is re-shaping them in new ways (see the work of Luke Bretherton), and largely assume the position by at least some in the CofE that wants to cling on to some notion of Christian nationhood England/Britain. It is a timely moment for a fresh, deep engagement with what it is to be Baptist in our lands, whether we consider them British, Scottish, Welsh or English. 

(A targum of sorts) on Philippians 1.27-2.16

A targum inspired by the excellent work Brian Walsh and Slyvia Keesmaat in Colossians Remixed and dependent on Stephen Fowl's excellent Philippians commentary

I give thanks to God
I rejoice
I feel glad
I find delight
in your heavenly selection,
in your grace-filled call,
and your clear response
to be partners,
fellow actors
committed players
in God’s salvation drama.
We are called,
in ways known and still to be made known,
to offer a daily performance,
out of grace, for the sake of God’s glory
of this greatest play –
simple in storyline
but deep, rich, profound in meaning and promise.

So live a life together that demonstrates
and makes plain
for all to see
that God,
through the gospel of Jesus,
is working in your lives
and we are found in his.
Don’t go thinking this life can be lived in private
Out of earshot or eyesight
This gospel contains a new politics
A new ordering of heart, mind and hand
A call of duty,
but to Christ not nation
to cross not sword
to joy not pleasure
to humility not ambition
to love not self-interest
to koinonia not independence
to gospel.

Live this shared life
before God the divine playwright and director,
with obedience
with ‘fear and trembling’,
with recognition that the plot is not about you
with humility that yours is a supporting role.
So learn your parts,
its lines and actions …
rehearse, practise, study
its words and directions
so that just as stars shine in the night sky,
your joint witness will stand out and be noticed by a world
too often captivated and satiated
by the powers of media, celebrity and shopping.

Live this shared life on God’s stage,
in God’s play,
even where the audience is hostile,
even where their reviews are dismissive,
even where there is a threat to your freedom …

Lived this shared life,
looking out for one another,
wanting each other to give their best performance –
you are a company of players,
a community of God
there’s no room for prima donnas
or space for long individual soliloquies.
Live this life together
not for the applause of others, not for prestige
but for the sake of others
your thoughts should be
‘myself for the community’

At the centre of this drama,
and also at it’s beginning and ending,
is Jesus Christ.
It is his life,
his death,
his resurrection
that have made it possible for you to be called to act.
It is his life,
his death,
his resurrection
that give the star performance,
the perfect performance,
the performance that God intended
to which we are summoned to follow,
seeking to mimic his words, his actions, his presence.
Therefore may your imagination be fascinated,
captivated, animated by Jesus par excellence.

Giving up his advantage
Laying down his divine status
Jesus became like us.
He took God’s stage
as a human entering our prison of sin
one like us
one for us
seeking our benefit
seeking our salvation.
He was obedient
a slave to the script
to the part he was sent to play
obedient to the point of death
a humiliating death
a cross-shaped death.

Jesus chooses slavery
To abandon his freedom
Jesus chooses death
To give up his control
Jesus chooses a cross
To accept humiliation and suffering.*
This is the true performance
This is the gospel script
This is the life we follow.

And out of this
out of this life,
out of this death,
God – who began it all –
lifted Jesus up
to the highest point
and bestowed on him the Name above all names
that everything
above, below, within
will see and respond,
will sing and shout
'Jesus Christ is Lord.'

This is the star performance,
the perfect performance,
and it’s our guide
and our template.
Christ is the one God is
bringing us into line with;
it’s the one we are working to imitate,
in heart and mind,
body and soul,
living and dying.

*These lines borrowed in part from Sam Wells sermon 'Outrageous Humility'. 

 

Jonathan Tran on the theology of Stanley Hauerwas

At the beginning of November there was a day to celebrate the life and work of Stanley Hauerwas on his retirement at Duke Divinity School. At the beginning of one paper offered on the day, former student Jonathan Tran attempted to describe the Hauerwas theological project through the many many titles of Hauerwas' work:

In (this) Good Company of people who know about Performing the Faith, regarding the deep and wide influence of Stanley Hauerwas, one need only say Working with Words within The State of the University, and now Approaching the End, Stanley Hauerwas, a.k.a, Hannah's Child has been a Suffering Presence for A Better Hope, as he Without Apology, calls Resident Aliens back to A Community of Character, he understands as the Cross-Shattered Church.

For ask any Hauerwas Reader, including my good friend Matthew, a Companion to Christian Ethics, Stanley hasn't exactly been Naming the Silences as he has written on every conceivable topic from Christianity, Democracy and the Radical Ordinary to Wilderness Wanderings. Hauerwas now Growing Old, With the Grain of the Universe, Dispatches from the Front those who claim War and the American Difference, often driving them to God, Medicine and Suffering.

Preaching the Wisdom of the Cross in Dissent from the Homeland, Prof Hauerwas heralds Character and the Christian Life as the seat of the Vision and Virtue necessary to ask questions like Should War Be Eliminated?, praying with Prayers Plainly Spoken that God would Sanctify them in Truth(fulness) and Tragedy, because he believes that Schooling Christians on The Truth About God, entails After Christendom, Christian Existence TodayUnleashing the ScripturesAgainst the Nations, indeed Where Resident Aliens Live, Gently in a Violent World as The Peaceable Kingdom.

You can see a video of the whole paper here.

Baptists, pilgrimage, sacred places, storied places

So out the blue this morning, a thought popped into my mind, do Baptists have any sacred places? (On that question see Graham Watts essay 'Can A Baptist Believe in Sacred Place?' in Baptist Sacramentalism 2). There was a prior thought, which was a minister friend of mine mentioned that on sabbatical he is going to do a pilgrimage. Nothing can to mind. It seems we have no places of pilgrimage, perhaps for good reasons. I thought then went but do we even have particular storied places, places that are significant to the telling of our story? Which led to the question, could we create a storied map of Baptist life and history in the UK? Where would it be important to visit?

I'm not sure of any answers to those questions. My first thoughts were to think possibly of Broadmead Baptist in Bristol (1640), Bunyan Meeting, Bedford (1650) and New Road Baptist in Oxford (1780).