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Remembering Baptists: James McClendon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today in 2000 James McClendon died. He authored Ethics, Doctrine & Witness & provided baptistic vision of theology

McClendon's baptistic theology was centred around a conviction that 'this is that.' His work sits alongside that of Hauerwas & Yoder.

Alongside his 3-volume systematic theology, McClendon did important work on biography as theology & the importance of convictions

IBTS in Prague & now Amsterdam through Parush Parushev, Keith Jones & now @StuartMBlythe has been a centre for theology Jim McClendon style.

The 3rd volume of The Collected Works of Jim McClendon @Baylor_Press is due out early 2016.

Hauerwas on MClendon: 'I always suspect that God gave Jim a Catholic body but forced him to live a baptist life - a small 'b' Baptist life'

The importance of Jim McClendon's theology is he starts with Ethics & then Doctrine reversing the practice of the way much theology is done.

Barth's Church Dogmatics the Very Very Short Version

Ben Myers tweeted today an excellent guide/summary to each of Barth's volumes of the Church Dogmatics, this will surely encourage those non-readers to give Barth a go, or those still too daunted to grasp something of great man's theological mind.

Barth 1/1: Before I ever thought of God, before I opened my mouth to speak, God is, God speaks, and what God says is "God!"

Barth 1/2: God's mighty Word is humbly hidden in the human flesh of Jesus, the human words of scripture, & the boredom of the Sunday sermon

Barth 2/1: God's happy Word is unconditioned by anything in us. That's why God is better than anyone, because God is free to love everyone

Barth 2/2: Why is God so good at freely loving us? Because God had so much practice before we ever existed

Barth 3/1: We were summoned into being by God's freely loving Word. From that day on, God has spared no expense in trying to befriend us

Barth 3/2: Our nature fits God like a glove: God wore it first then let us try it on, and Jesus shows us how to wear it right

Barth 3/3: God's freely loving Word holds the world in being and keeps at bay the dreadful power of nonbeing. (P.S. There are angels.)

Barth 3/4: How good it is to be a creature! To be ourselves, never more or less, within the constraints that God has lovingly set for us

Barth 4/1: When I saw the way Jesus used his deity to become small and humble for my sake, it took my breath away (and then my pride)

Barth 4/2: When I saw Jesus triumphant in his humanity, it roused me from a deadly boredom: I became freely and fully human, almost a god

Barth 4/3: The human messenger is the divine Message: Jesus, the living truth that unmasks my self-deception & makes me a disciple of truth

Barth 4/4: So cheer up! God's faithfulness frees us for faith. God's loving address frees us to answer. God's gift frees us for gratitude.

Barth volume 5: And the rest, my friends, is Mozart

British Baptist Biblical Scholars (7) Rex Mason

1926-

PhD (London, 1976); supervised by Peter Ackroyd; DD (Oxford)

Tutor in Old Testament, Spurgeon's College (1965-1975)
Senior Tutor, Regent's Park College, Oxford (1975-1991)
Lecturer in Old Testament, University of Oxford (1981-1993)

Major Publications

'The Relation of Zech 9—14 to Proto-Zechariah', Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 88.2 (1976)

'The Purpose of the "Editorial Framework" of the Book of Haggai', Vests Testamentum 27.4 (October 1977)

The Books of Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi (Cambridge, 1977)

'The Prophets of the Restoration' in Richard Coggins et al (eds.), Israel's Prophetic Tradition: Essays in Honor of Peter R. Ackroyd (Cambridge, 1982)

'Some Echoes of the Preaching in the Second Temple? Tradition Elements in Zechariah 1—8', Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 96.2 (1984)

'The Treatment of Earlier Biblical Themes in the Book of Daniel' in James L. Crenshaw (ed.), Perspectives on the Hebrew Bible: Essays in Honor Walter J. Harrelson (Mercer, 1988)

Preaching the Tradition: Homily and Hermeneutics After the Exile (Cambridge, 1990)

Micah, Nahum and Obadiah (Sheffield, 1991)

Old Testament Pictures of God (Smyth & Helwys, 1993)

Zephaniah, Habakkuk, Joel (JSOT, 1994)

Propaganda and Subversion in the Old Testament (SPCK, 1997)

'The Messiah in the Postexilic Old Testament Literature' in John Day (ed.), King and Messiah in Israel and the Ancient Near East (Sheffield, 1998)

'H. Wheeler Robinson Revisited', Baptist Quarterly 37.5 (1998)

'Ronald Ernest Clements: An Appreciation' in Edward Ball (ed.), In Search of True Wisdom: Essays in Old Testament Interpretation in Honour of Ronald E. Clements (Sheffield, 1999)

Jeremiah: A Bible Commentary for Every Day (Bible Reading Fellowship, 2002)

'The Use of Earlier Biblical Material in Zechariah 9-14: A Study in Inner Biblical Exegesis' in Mark Boda et al (eds.), Bringing Out the Treasure: Inner Biblical Illusion in Zechariah 9-14 (Sheffield, 2003)

'Why is Zechariah Full of Quotations' in Christopher Tuckett (ed.), The Book of Zechariah and its Influence (Ashgate, 2003)

'Hermeneutics: The Interface between Critical Scholarship and the Faith of the Community' in Helen Dare and Simon Woodman (eds.), The "Plainly Revealed" Word of God? Baptist Hermeneutics in Theory and Practice (Mercer, 2011)

Jesus & Peter talk Animals

(Written for a service where we welcomed animals on Sunday 4th October2015 and inspired by the conversations written by John Bell and Graham Maule).

Peter: Jesus?

Jesus: Yes Peter?

Peter: I was wondering …

Jesus: what were you wondering about …

Peter: Well, it’s just … I wanted to know … whether … well … is there room for Rocky in the kingdom of God?

Jesus: You mean Rocky the hamster.

Peter: Yes. I love Rocky. We’ve been friends for years. And you keep talking about

the kingdom of God, and I was wondering is there a place for Rocky? Or is it just for humans.

Jesus: What does the Bible tell us?

Peter: Don’t ask me Jesus, you’re the expert.

Jesus: Well, what does it say in Genesis 1?

Peter: It says God created all the birds of the air and the fish in the sea and all the animals on the ground.

Jesus: And what does God say?

Peter: God said it was good.

Jesus: Yes God says all the creatures of the world are good. And what does it say in the story of Noah?

Peter: That God destroyed the world because of human wickedness.

Jesus: But he saves two of every kind of animal. God is interested not just in

saving Noah and his family, but all creatures. And after the flood when God makes a covenant to never destroy the world again, he says it is a covenant not just with Noah, not just with humans, but all creatures.

Peter: So what are you saying?

Jesus: I’m saying Peter that all creatures matter to God not just humans.

Peter: But what about Rocky? Is there room for Rocky in the kingdom?

Jesus: What does the prophet Isaiah say?

Peter: That God loves hamsters???

Jesus: Well not exactly … Isaiah says that ‘The wolf will lie with the lamb … and the lion will eat straw like the ox … and they will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the LORD’

Peter: What does that mean?

Jesus: This is Isaiah’s picture of God’s intention for creation, for the new heavens and the new earth … it’s a picture where all creation, humans and animals are at peace.

Peter: Wow!

Jesus: Wow indeed!

Peter: So if all creatures matter to God, Rocky matters to God.

Jesus: I’m saying that God declares all that he creates as good –
whether it be trees, animals, or humans;
and everything God creates, God cares for, provides for;
and everything God creates is created to praise God.
As the Psalmist says:
‘let everything that has breath praise the Lord.’

Peter: Oh, Rocky loves to praise God … he’s always squeaking!

Jesus: I’m sure he has a fine voice.

Peter: Thanks Jesus.

Jesus: What for?

Peter: These little chats, always helpful.

Jesus: My pleasure, Peter.