Watching the English do Religion

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Kate Fox, in her book Watching the English (Hodder, 2004, pp 353-357), offers a fascinating account of the ‘rules’ underlying English behaviour.  The book is full of witty and insightful observations.  After all, Fox writes as a trained anthropologist (which she defines as a being a professional ‘nosey parker’).  She talks engagingly about how we English converse about the weather, the way we approach humour, the rules that govern our behaviour regarding driving, work, dress, sex, and so on.…

Sir Edward Downes and assisted suicide

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Distinguished conductor Sir Edward Downes and his wife Joan died last Friday at the Swiss right-to-die centre, Dignitas.  She was suffering from terminal cancer.  He was not dying, but was losing his sight and hearing.

I have admired Sir Edward’s work from a distance, acquainted only with a number of his recordings.  He had a special interest in Russian music, and I have particularly relished his championship of the cheerfully and unprogressively tuneful Rheinhold Gliere.

I don’t have anything particularly profound to say about this latest instance of assisted suicide, but I do think it’s both sad and alarming.…

The Gospel – its content and communication

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J.I. Packer explores this topic with cross-cultural evangelism in mind.  Here’s a summary.

1. Three preliminary thoughts

(a) The communication of the gospel must be determined by its content

The content includes a diagnosis of the human condition, value-judgments on the life that is, and the life that might be, lived, and a call to respond in radical commitment.  Now this content must be verbalised, and it must be preached (i.e. explained and applied).  Such media as instrumental music, pictures, sculpture, or dance may reinforce the message, but only preaching can communicate it. …

Goldilocks and the Moon

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Further to my entry on the ‘Goldilocks Effect’ – the idea that the universe is ‘just right’ for the emergence of human life – I’ve been thinking about one aspect of this richly variegated theme.

At first sight, the earth’s near neighbour, the moon, seems to have no drastic effect on life here on earth.  True, it influences ocean tides and offers a bit of light to see things by at night, but, it seems, little more than that.…

Dan 2 – The dream of Nebuchadnezzar – sermon notes

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Once a year, in late October or early November, a very British event takes place in London: the State Opening of Parliament. Her Majesty the Queen is taken by horse-drawn carriage from Buckingham Palace to the Palace of Westminster and into the House of Lords. There she delivers her speech from the throne, informing the great and the good of her plans for her government and for her people.

Looking at that scene, with all its pomp and circumstance, you should have no trouble working out who is in charge.…

Quotes on assurance

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Assurance is glory in the bud, it is the suburbs of paradise. (Thomas Brooks)

Assurance is, as it were, the cream of faith. (William Gurnall)

Sin can never quite bereave a saint of his jewel, his grace; but it may steal away the key of the cabinet, his assurance. (William Jenkin)

A letter may be written, when it is not sealed; so grace may be written in the heart, and the Spirit may not set the seal of assurance to it.…

“Put Off – Put On”

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Matthew Henry, the famous Bible commentator, once preached a series of sermons on sanctification.  In each sermon he would deal with a sin to be ‘mortified’, and then the corresponding grace to be cultivated.…

The New Perspective on Paul: what is at stake?

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Leaving aside for a moment my reading on this subject, I would like just to jot down here some of the questions and challenges posed by the New Perspective on Paul, especially in the version developed by Bishop N.T. (Tom) Wright.

  1. Jesus and Paul.  Have we distorted the gospel by privileging the teaching of Paul above that of Jesus?
  2. ‘Reformation spectacles’.  Do we tend to read Paul too much in the light of debates and doctrines formulated at the time of the Reformation, and too little in the light of 1st-century setting in which Paul (and Jesus himself, of course) lived and taught?
…

Notes on the doctrine of election

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What follows formed the basis of a couple of recent small group studies.  I should point out that the choice of topic was theirs, not mine!

Eph 1:3-14  is a good place to start: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.…

Divine sovereignty and human responsibility in Romans 9

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Romans 9 is one of the few places in Scripture where the tension between divine sovereignty and human responsibility is acknowledged to be something of a problem to our finite, fallen understanding.  Douglas Moo (in the New Bible Commentary) has a helpful comment:-

‘Paul’s emphasis on the sovereignty of God in salvation raises certain objections, as he well knew from many years of preaching. Paul deals with two of these in this section. Is not God unfair to choose some and reject others (v14)?…