Author Archives: admin

Spiritual, but not religious

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According to a recent article on the BBC News Magazine website, about one fifth of the UK population would describe themselves as ‘spiritual, but not religious’.

Recent research by Prof Michael King from University College London suggests that this group may be more prone to mental health problems such as anxiety or depression, compared with the conventionally religious, or even compared with those who would describe themselves as agnostic or atheist.

‘Spiritual, but not religious’ describe, of course, a very broad church, ranging from neo-paganism to devotees of healing crystals, and much else besides. …

The Church’s failures

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In any account that we might give of the Christian Church, we must honestly acknowledge its failures.  There have been occasions – too many occasions – when it has accepted the world’s values and priorities, and accommodated itself to the prevailing culture, and rationalised its own unfaithfulness.

Among its most notable failings we must mention:-

  • Its approval and even glamorisation of the medieval Crusades, when European knights rode forth to recover the holy places from Islam by force.
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Quotes on justice

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‘I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.’ (Thomas Jefferson)

‘Truth is justice’s handmaid; freedom is its child, peace is its companion; safety walks in its steps; victory follows in its train; it is the brightest emanation from the gospel; it is an attribute of God.’ (Sydney Smith)

Injustice, suave, erect, and unconfined, Sweeps the wide earth, and tramples o’er mankind, While prayers to heal her wrongs move slow behind. Homer

‘By largely ignoring the central biblical teaching that God is on the side of the poor, our theology has been profoundly unorthodox.…

Top 200 Church Blogs

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Back in September, Kent Shaffer published a list of ‘Top 200 Church Blogs’.

Although based on statistical popularity, questions have been asked about how the short list was drawn up (Shaffer just says that ‘several hundred’ were reviewed for ‘preliminary screening’ but doesn’t explain how these were identified.  It is clear that the list contains many of the best-known blogs, but there is no way of telling how many equally popular blogs have been omitted.

It has been observed that the list features

  • a relatively high proportion of Reformed writers
  • a low number of women
  • a diminishing representation from the ’emerging churches’

‘Walking With Giants’ isn’t anywhere on the list, but then I’ve done very little to publicise this blog.  …

Providence

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Providence may be defined as

that continued exercise of the divine energy whereby the Creator preserves all his creatures, is operative in all that comes to pass in the world, and directs all things to their appointed end. (Berkhof)

The doctrines of creation and providence are inseparably connected: the same God who made all things continues to sustain them moment by moment.

God’s providence is all-encompassing, Psa 115:3; Mt 10:30; Eph 1:11.  Natural events, such as the wind and the rain, are part of his ordering, even though these can sometimes lead to disaster, Lk 13:1-5.…

Galileo

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As everyone knows, it was Copernicus who made the epoch-making discovery that the earth revolves around the sun, and not vice-versa.  The epoch that was ushered in by this discovery was the age of modern science.  The earth was demoted from the centre of the universe to a speck of dust in a vast cosmos, and reason was enthroned as the all-conquering victor.  The Christian church, so the story goes, tried it hardest to cling on to superstition and to frustrate the progress of science.…

One language, two religions

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It was J. Gresham Machen, in Christianity and Liberalism, who commented that thorough-going theological liberalism is actually a different religion from orthodox Christianity.  It is, in fact, a different kind of religion.

This observation was borne out in a recent discussion on Premier Christian Radio’s Unbelievable? show between Ben Witherington III and Stephen Thornton.  Ben is an evangelical biblical scholar, Stephen a retired URC minister of liberal persuasion.

The topic under consideration was the narratives of Jesus’ birth as recorded in Matthew and Luke. …

A typology for science and religion

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Various models have been proposed for understanding the relationship between science and religion.  Some see the relationship as essentially one of incompatibility, or even conflict.  Others see it as more harmonious.

1. Science replaces religion

According to this view, religion belongs to the intellectual infancy of the human race.  Theology was a largely failed attempt to make sense of things.  Science now gives us a rational method for understanding things in terms of natural processes.

The view was popularised by John Draper and Andrew Dickson White.  …

Justice, equality, and fairness

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Justice is often assumed to be the same as equality.  We treat people with justice, it is argued, when we treat them equally.

But it’s not quite as simple as that.  Even in a court of law, two criminals may have commited exactly the same crime, and yet each receive a different punishment, because the judges see that different circumstances and motives apply.

Similarly in the home.  If two children are fighting, a parent may send them to their bedroom as a punishment. …