A bit of an ‘Aha!’ moment came while reading this interview (by Ian Paul) of Andy Angel, vicar of St Andrew’s, Burgess Hill in West Sussex and author of The Jesus You Really Didn’t Know.
Evidently, the thrust of the book is that Jesus, in his teaching as recorded in the Gospels, placed a lot more emphasis on judgement and obedience than many care to acknowledge.
IP: You talk about the prominence of judgement in the teaching of Jesus as an ‘elephant in the room’.…
The Bible says many different things about God, at many different times and by many different people. It is all too easy (wrote Ian Paul some while ago) to simply read the words on the page and then decide whether we think we believe them or not.
Think of the passage in Numbers 15:32-36, where God says concerning the man who was caught gathering sticks on the Sabbath, “The man must die”.
It is conceivable (just!)…
With his customary incisiveness, Ian Paul has shown how easy it is for us to trim and shape the New Testament picture of Jesus so that it becomes a reflection of ourselves.
…Liberals: good news! Jesus is just like you! He criticises the Pharisees for being too religious, and imposing their religious expectations unfairly on others (Matt 23.4). He appears to have a radical programme for social change, in which the poor are rewarded and those unjustly imprisoned are released (Luke 4.18), and this is rooted in a long-term vision for the inversion of social roles in which the rich and powerful are humbled, and privilege is removed (Luke 1.52).
I have great respect for Ian Paul. So, when he offers a view that I find unpersuasive, I’m glad to give it a hearing anyway.
Here, then, is the gist of his ‘considered summary’, arising from his study of the main biblical texts (Gen 1, 2 and 3, Luke 24, John 20, Acts 18, Romans 16, 1 Cor 11 and 14, Eph 5 and 1 Tim 2). But here are the bare bones.
…1. The creation accounts offer no evidence of hierarchy in male-female relationships as part of the original created order.
Most evangelicals would, I suppose, think that ‘proper’ preaching consists of a prepared speech, delivered without interruption to a group a silent listeners. The use of dialogue would be thought to ‘water down’ the content and authority of the message, by allowing what was being said to be questioned or even doubted.
But these assumptions should themselves be questioned, writes Ian Paul (here,here and here).
Consider the biblical evidence. Ian Paul quotes Jeremy Thomson:
Much of Jesus’ teaching was given ‘on the way’ and involved a high degree of interaction with the audience (Mark 8.27–10.52). …
Ian Paul offers the following assessment criteria.
The are based on significant experience both of preaching and of training others in preaching.
Now, I have great respect for Ian Paul. But I hope it will not seem too cheeky if I make a couple of comments that are not wholly complimentary.
First, in the accompanying article, he suggests that the characteristics of a ‘good sermon’ transcend ‘the specific details of theological commitments on the part of both preachers and listeners’. …
