The language of Religion
For those outside of the bubble of religious intensity, religious adherence can often seem a strange concept. How are such people to regard those people who profess to be ‘religious’ ? What, indeed,...
View ArticleGod and gods
What is a god? What does ‘God’ denote, as used by Christians? A god is, surely, a focus of worship; and worship is what humans do to show what they think is of worth to them. Semantics maybe, but...
View ArticleDialogue: Struans responds to Geoffrey
Because so many of you have been enjoying the correspondence between Struans, Geoffrey, SF and others, I thought that rather than trying to follow in the combox, it might be nice for everyone to have...
View ArticleStruans: some comments and answers
I must say that I don’t find any of the arguments put forward by my opponents here even halfway convincing. The arguments seem to be thus, off the top of my head:- 1. the ‘free will argument’: this...
View ArticleOn the interpretation of the Bible. Part One.
I am an Anglican, and one of the legs of the apocryphal Anglican stool is Scripture. So let me write of the Bible, and how the approach I take to the Bible informs my views on a Christian approach to...
View ArticleExperience and Knowledge
In Geoffrey’s excellent post here, we can see that there’s a distinct question raised about the use of reason in the Christian tradition. ‘Reason’ to me is not some sort of arid and dry logic, but...
View ArticleOn the interpretation of the Bible. Part Two.
It is certainly not true that the Bible and Christian tradition have always and everywhere opposed ‘worldly’ truth and revealed truth. In fact, the relationship between biblical truth and other forms...
View ArticleOn the interpretation of the Bible. Part Three.
For centuries Christians read their Scriptures in a rich and varied way. They saw different kinds of meaning within the same text. The literal sense – what the words actually meant, what their grammar...
View ArticleContinuing the debate: A Puritan God?
“In the name of God, go!” cites Geoffrey of Oliver Cromwell. What sort of God though is this cry being made in the name of? Oliver Cromwell, a well known puritan, became an ‘independent’ in favour of...
View ArticleOn the interpretation of the Bible. Part Four.
Whatever conclusions we may come to about the Bible, the theological implications of some of the questions homosexuality raises need to be explored. Where does homosexuality come from? In human terms,...
View ArticleFriday Unity
Let me share a couple of matters from the past three weeks that I found myself reflecting on. I just want to share them in the hope that they might be something that we all on this blog might find to...
View ArticleFriday Humour
A young monk arrives at the monastery. He is assigned to helping the other monks in copying the old canons and laws of the church by hand. He notices, however, that all of the monks are copying from...
View ArticleA Justin Welby sermon
The archbishop of Canterbury preached at the Eucharist that I was at yesterday. I must say that I thought him most impressive. What do you think? http://www.stjohnscathedral.org.hk/recentsermon.html S.
View ArticleAn Introduction to Theological Thinking
I’ve decided to start an academic course of study. Part-time, of course. It leads towards a Bachelors in Theology, assuming that I complete enough courses for the credits, which over time I am sure...
View ArticleThe Holy Innocents
This is a blog that I often read (see this link - read warning below before clicking). I don’t intend to make a habit of this, but I just wanted to share this one post from there. As All Souls Day...
View ArticleAn Essay on Theology: Take aim!
I wrote last week that I’d share the essay that I am submitting as a part of the course “Introduction to Theological Thinking” that I am taking. I’ve now submitted it to the college, so it’s a done...
View ArticleAn “Introduction to Theological Thinking”? A bibliography.
Here are the notes about the course, and the bibliography. By ‘notes about the course’, I don’t mean notes of the content of the course, which I will post bit by bit a little later. Just for interest,...
View ArticleAn Introduction to Theological Thinking: Course Notes 1
First of all, I thank Geoffrey and Jess in particular for encouraging me to post about the academic course that I have embarked on. Indeed, it’s particularly interesting to read Geoffrey’s recent post...
View ArticleAn Introduction to Theological Thinking: Course Notes 2a
Here’s the next installment of the course notes that I am posting. The notes from the lecturer are broken into four distinct sections, and section two – this section – is all about the sources of...
View ArticleAn Introduction to Theological Thinking: Course Notes 2b
The next section of course notes is below. This time, in the Sources of Theology, I am setting out the notes on Experience, Culture and Context, and Reason. Part a was Revelation, and parts c and d...
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