andygoodliff

The Forgiveness of Sins by Tim Carter

Great to see this new book from Tim Carter, a Baptist minister in Horsham and a New Testament scholar. He first book was on the language of sin in Paul, published as Paul and the Power of Sin (Cambridge, 2002) and based on his PhD. This new book The Forgiveness of Sins (James Clarke, 2016) explores the language of 'forgiveness of sins' as it is found in the New Testament and early church fathers. Tim is one of a very few Baptist ministers in pastoral charge of a church (see also Ed Pillar, Simon Woodman) who also continue to research and publish academically. We need more like him.   

 

British Baptist Biblical Scholars (8) Marie E. Isaacs

Regent's Park College (1960-1962)

DPhil (Oxford, 1972)

 

Chaplain, University of Birmingham (1962-1968)

Doctoral Studies, St. Hugh's, Oxford (1969-1972). Supervised by Morna Hooker

Tutor, Heythrop College (1973-2001)

Minister, Heath Street Baptist Church (1987-2011)

See here for some reflections on the 50th anniversary of her ordination as a Baptist minister in 2013. Marie was the fifth woman to be ordained in the Baptist Union.

 

Publications

The Concept of Spirit:A Study of Pneuma in Hellenistic Judaism and its bearing on the New Testament (1976)

'The Prophetic Spirit in the Fourth Gospel', Heythrop Journal 24.4 (1983)

Sacred Space: An Approach to the Theology of the Epistle to the Hebrews (Sheffield Academic Press, 1992)

'Hebrews' in John Barclay and John Sweet (eds.), Early Christian Thought in its Jewish Context. Festschrift in Honour of Morna Hooker's 65th Birthday (Cambridge, 1996)

'Priesthood and the Epistle to the Hebrews', Heythrop Journal 38.1 (1997)

'Hebrews 13.9-16 Revisited', New Testament Studies 43.2 (1997)

'Suffering in the Lives of Christians: James 1:2-19A', Review & Expositor 97.2 (2000)

Why Bother with Hebrews?', Heythrop Journal 43.1 (2002)

Reading Hebrews and James: A Literary and Theological Commentary (Smyth & Helwys, 2002)

'Hebrews' in Mills and Wilson (eds.), Mercer Commentary on the New Testament (Mercer, 2003)

Seeing More Clearly with the Eyes of Love - A Short Reflection

I popped into London this evening to share in a Shakespearian liturgy at St. Martin-in-the-Fields.

Seeing More Clearly with the Eyes of Love: A Liturgy for voices based on Shakespeare's play "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

The liturgy and accompanying music was written and composed by some of the faculty at Regent's Park College, Oxford.

This was a liturgy; we were a congregation and not an audience, that is our voices responded and shared in this act of worship.

Woven into the liturgy were voices from A Midsummer's Night Dream, excerpts from Song of Songs and the letter to the Ephesians, five freshly commissioned poems (performed on this occasion by the poets themselves), pieces of music, prayers of intercessions, and two symbol actions. 

The amount of ideas and voices was overwhelming, too much to take in on one occasion. A friend who was one of the multiple voices and was participating for the third time in the liturgy said she was just beginning to be hear it properly. Having a copy of the liturgy allows time to return more slowly to the words.

I confess I don't know A Midsummer Night's Dream as well as I should, so there was much I probably didn't get as I might otherwise have done. (I should have got round to watching the recent BBC version).

What did I like? I like the ambition of the liturgy, the way we journeyed through the play and also the pattern of worship. I loved the music, composed by Myra Blyth (who for her many talents, did not know this was one). The music was suitably Shakespearian in sound, but also had echoes of Karl Jenkins and his The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace. The final piece, which worked as a means of Blessing and Dismissal was wonderful. The intercessions were powerful and brought the themes of love and God into the concerns of our day. 

I think the liturgy would have worked without the five poems, but in reflecting on different characters from the play, they helped open up the play in new ways. The liturgy brilliant borrowed lines from the play, the poems and scripture in the short interludes of music.

I think it would have been good if the congregation could have shared in the singing. This might need to compose a few simpler pieces and do a John Bell style teaching them before the liturgy began.

Being there reminded me of some of the worship services of Ikon, in its use of drama, voices and response and the liturgy would go down well at something like Greenbelt.

A video was made of the service held in Stratford yesterday and apparently might make its way on to You Tube. 

Thank you Paul Fiddes and others from the Oxford Centre of Christianity and Culture.