Living Wittily

Holidayz iz here!

Off for a few days over to the East Coast (Ferryden, pictured), where the coastal walks and coffee shops of the area provide one of nature's important balances - exercise and food. A walk the length of St Cyrus beach - there and back - more than compensates for a steaming latte, and a fresh scone with butter and jam. Not so sure a walk from Inverbervie to Johnshaven and back totally neutralises a Bervie fish supper, but as Maureen Lipman playing her role as Jewish mother in philosophical mood might say, 'What can it hurt?' Either way time to wind down a bit, look outwards at the world, and defragment the hard disk.

Will be around later in the week for Graduation at the University - seven of our students feature in the roll call and well done to them all. After Graduation a few things to tidy up before we go for our long looked forward to holiday at Lake Garda - never been there but told it's beautiful hot and a fun place to be.

The big bonus for our household this year is we don't have to put Gizmo in the cattery. Our resident attack cat will stay at home, kept in the manner to which he is accustomed by Andrew. So no need to go on holiday this year ridden with guilt from the reproachful glare and morally outraged vocals of the decanted cat; nor any necessity to pay the price of two coffees and two scones a day to keep him there either.

Blogging likely to be sporadic throughout July - a holiday is a way of telling ourselves, about blogging and a million other things, 'Gonnae no' dae that'. And if we ask why, the profoundly rational and existentially unanswerable reply is given, 'Juist gonnae no?'

Providence, the Edinburgh Subway and St Bride

Earlier this week went to Edinburgh to meet up with several folk. Met with Professor David Fergusson, a friend and theological mentor and we tried to put the theological world right, but with only limited success. David will deliver the Gifford lectures in Glasgow next year - I'll post the dates nearer the time. He has been working for some time on the doctrine of Providence which will be the theological focus of his lectures.

Talking of Providence, walking down towards Princes St I was accosted by three excited American tourists who wanted to know where the nearest subway was. In my good humoured, smiling, best enunciated Scottish accent english, I explained that Glasgow, not Edinburgh had a subway, but Edinburgh did have a very good bus service. 'No Sir, we want the nearest Subway' she explained in her good humoured, smiling and best enunciated American accent English. And it dawned on me' Oh, that kind of Subway'. The great big torpedo sized sandwich with shovels of filling type of subway. Since I wasn't THAT sure, I suggested Rose St which has most of the eating places. Nearest Subway - come 5,000 miles across the Atlantic to Edinburgh, and need to find a.....Subway? Excuse the gender specific language but,'man shall not live by bread alone....it needs to be subway bread and with the familiar range of fillings etc'. Providence huh?

Then I met with Aileen and we had lunch - which was very fine - a celebration of the new job which starts soon. Later we went to Harvey Nicholls for coffee and sinfully indulgent pancakes, chocolate sauce and ice-cream - well, we were celebrating the job, and Providence is occasionally about more than calorific minimalism - remember, 'not by bread alone', need the pancakes'n stuff now and then. Providence is also about celebration, fun and the important people in our lives.

We also spent some time in the National Gallery doin our art critic and cultural browsing bit. There are a lot of magnificent pieces of art that don't quite do it for me - I recognise their genius, their right to be considered masterpieces, but they don't reach down into 'that deep place we call the soul' (Bono's words). But some do - and one that always does it for me, is St Bride, by John Duncan.

Professor Donald Meek is deeply sceptical about the historical accuracy of Scottish Celtic Christianity as popularly promoted. Fair enough, and Donald's own book on the subject is by far the most authoritative. But Duncan's painting isn't about historical specifics; it is about the deep mysteries of faith expressed through art which is deeply indebted to Celtic culture but which resonates with contemporary spiritual longings. When I come back from holiday I'll post a bit more on this painting. So not much happenning on this blog for a week.

For now - enjoy and be exhilarated by the sheer glory of this painting. And if you can, go to the Scottish section and see it in all its 'look at me' splendour.

   

Women....that which they are in themselves....

In The Prophecy of Jeremiah (New York: Revell, 1931), G. Campbell Morgan demonstrated how a Bible teacher, the foremost Evangelical expositor of his generation, and speaking over sixty years ago, handled a text relating to the role of women in Christian service.

‘The first responsibility of womanhood is that women should discover their personal rights in God, should realize that they bear to God a relationship which man does not affect, nor can; that they have a right of access to God, for the realization of that which they are in themselves, without the interference of man in any way.’

I wish, nearly 80 years on, women and men in our churches could approach the issue with the same bold grasp of the key Gospel principles of freedom and grown-upness in Christ. And that women in our Scottish churches were allowed to 'realise that which they are in themselves before God', and to share fully and frutifully in all the ministry and ministries of the Church of Jesus Christ.

The passage is on pages 273-4. It was brought to my attention by my friend Kate Durie years ago....and it confirmed Campbell Morgan in my personal pantheon of Evangelicalism's most attractive and biblically articulate writers.

Peace Envoys or Peace-Makers?

  I confess to being puzzled, perplexed, bemused, bewildered as to how I should feel that Britain's outgoing Prime Minister should be appointed (by whom? by the US???) to be a peace envoy in the Middle East. How does someone who has never fully explained a decision to go to war, has never expressed regret or conceded error of judgement in such a decision, has no unquestioned legal authority for such a catastrophic act of international fight-picking, did so under the influence of / in response to / in collaboration with, the American President and Administration, who now appoint him as a peace envoy - how does that work?????

What about goodwill, integrity, honesty, humility, understanding of the OTHER, as characteristics of the envoy? And shouldn't those to whom such a person is sent, have some evidence that such an envoy is not coming to serve their own, or their own side's interests? How do they trust, even talk to, a person who has shown no public independence of thought from the US view on Iraq, the Israeli hammering of the Lebanese and has done little more than speak shoulder shrugging platitudes about the Palestinian question? And who comes as a US messenger?

I am committed to peace - I'm prepared to support every initiative that might bring peace about, that offers an alternative to war. I will pray for all patient peace-makers, all persuasive peace-seekers, all political peace-envoys, all persistent peace-prayers. I believe that words and human relationships are always preferable to shock and awe - but I just wonder what the peoples of the Middle East make of a man who as Prime Minister declared war on the flimsiest of evidence, and has never conceded such, as the West's best hope for ending the horrors of Iraq, Israel and Palestine? Sometimes the hardest part of following Jesus today, is knowing what to pray for in a world already scarily complex, made more ethically and politically complicated by dualities of language, action and motive. I genuinely don't understand what is going on here.

The Lord's Prayer helps though.....your Kingdom, come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven....and that means Iraq and all its people. 

Christ have mercy

Lord have mercy

Christ have mercy, Amen

The Paraclete as Community Theologian

This is the last reflection for now in the community theologian conversation. I want to gather this thinking together and see if it can be formed into a viable model worth developing. I admit today's reflection may seem a bit obtuse - but it is out-loud thinking not yet as clear as I'd like. But I think the underlying idea is at least to be considered;

that the Paraclete mirrors a form of theological ministry of interpreting Jesus to which the Christian community is called to respond.

Amongst the community of Jesus the theological interpreter par excellence is the Spirit of Truth, the Counsellor, the Paraclete.  So John 16 8-15 is a seminal passage for any Christian community that takes seriously the reality and activity of God the Spirit, in the church, throughout the world. In John’s Gospel, the Holy Spirit - the Counsellor and Comforter- is the community theologian. Indwelling the Christian community is the Paraclete, none other than the interpreter of Jesus, and the critic of the world that crucified him. As the Spirit of truth, negative judgement is passed on the hostility of the world to the name and the way of Jesus; as the Spirit of truth positive affirmation is given in guiding Jesus followers into the things of Jesus, and enabling Jesus’ disciples to faithfully witness to the reality of the crucified, risen Christ.

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I don’t want to push this too far – but I do wonder if the role of community theologians is, to even a small extent, to be called to be a paraclete with a very small p – one who listens to the coalescing voices of world, culture and society and detects the latent inevitable discord of values, convictions and commitments, between church and world. At the same time the community theologian as paraclete (very small p again) seeks to lead and guide along the way of truth to the mystery of the One who is the Truth, Jesus - by hearing Scripture, seeking to discern God's voice amongst the voices, nurturing the faith and vision of those whose life intent is following after Christ.

Community theologians will not therefore glorify themselves but bear witness to Jesus, and seek to discover in the life of the community, the living reality of Christ, revealed in Scripture, experienced in transformed lives, encountered as holy personality and demanding gracious presence – community theologians, as paraclete, point towards and lead into, the truth of Jesus.

So the paraclete bears witness to sin, justice and judgement – and to the One who overcomes sin, establishes justice and is Himself the judgement of the world’s fallen-ness, brokenness and incipient hostility to all that Jesus represents. Two foci then – world and Jesus; two spiritual claimants – one hostile to truth, light and life, the other the bringer and protector of truth light and life, such that He personifies truth, contains the true light, and gives life abundant.

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And therefore two spheres within which we live our lives, in the daily dialectic of pulling loyalties, obedience worked out in the often painful, always stretching tension, of being a follower of Jesus in a world that doesn’t recognise, acknowledge or love him. Community theologians take seriously these unaccommodating contrasts of living in the world and living for Jesus; and every community of Christian theologians must learn to live with both the discomfort of unresolved tension, and the assurance that such tension is a sign of spiritual vitality, moral alertness and determined faithfulness.

Evangelicals of substance..Hmmmm?

Yes I hear all these suggestions in the comments. But as that eloquent Scottish pundit, Kenny Dalglish opined when asked about a certain fitba' job, 'Ehhh. Maybes aye.....an' ehhhh, maybes naw!' That's how I feel about some of the suggestions so far!

First, not sure any of those mentioned compare in stature to others over the past three hundred years- that may be a matter of historical persepctive. Maybe we don't fully recognise some people's contribution till the next generation. And Margaret, thanks for the thought, but modesty forbids...Stuart can speak for his self?

Second, where are the women - is Evangelicalism still so structured as to exclude / prevent / silence, the voice of women in roles of spiritual influence and gifted presence? (Please note I avoid the words leadership and authority!) I find it interesting that there is a stooshie going on at one of the Evangelical Anglican Colleges down south where Elaine Storkey is subject to disciplinary proceedings - the story is murky but has been all over the Christian blogosphere, with suggestions that issues of ministry and gender lurk in the background. Oh dear!

Third, people like Peterson and Yancey represent a moderate and almost journalistic form of evangelicalism - soft in a way that for example John Piper or Jim Packer are not. The modern publishing machinery and publicity technology market names and personalities in a way that perhaps inflates their value unfairly compared with previous figures whose influence was established more by personal reputation. is that true - fair - relevant?

Fourth, Jim Wallis and Tom Smail are two very intriguing suggestions - would both want to own the term Evangelical as their primary self-descriptor? The Sojourners, and Wallis as their founder, have made it impossible for Evangelicals to avoid the relation of Gospel to issues of justice, politics and culture. Smail has long been a key theological voice within the Charismatic movement, and with a deepening commitment to Anglican thought.

Fifth, Donald Bloesch is a self confessed Evangelical who may well be thought of by other evangelicals in the way previous generations both admired and were cautious about R. W. Dale, James Denney and P. T. Forsyth. Indeed one or two criticisms of this book on its first outing asked questions about the inclusion of Dale and Forsyth in a book about Evangelicals! But I DO think Bloesch is an Evangelical of significant stature and well worthy of study - in fact several theses and at least two books are dedicated to his thought. But while we are thinking about evangelicals that other evangelicals might not want to include, there is also Clark Pinnock.... and the late and hugely lamented, Stan Grenz...

Nobody has yet mentioned Tom Torrance - Hmmmm?

Evangelicals of substance?

I'm currently doing a revision and some rewriting of my book, Evangelical Spirituality: From the Wesleys to John Stott. The past 20 years have seen a huge increase in interest in Spirituality as a subject for scholarly activity and research. When I wrote Evangelical Spirituality in 1991 there was very little published on the Evangelical spiritual tradition. This is now changing, and Evangelicalism itself has become a major area of scholarly activity - the recently published Cambridge Companion to Evangelicalism is evidence that Evangelicals (a much more varied group than often supposed) are a substantial and important tradition.

So as I'm ploughing through the cosmetic reformatting, converting over 1500 endnotes and in-text references into newly formatted footnotes, and reconstructing and updating the bibliography; then I'll do the revision and updating of the text. While doing all this, I'm being re-introduced to a community of saints, attractive or annoying, conciliatory or confrontational, melancholic or exultant, but whose love for Jesus transcends differences in temperament, diversity of experience and variety of theological emphases. As noted a couple of days ago when quoting R. W. Dale, (pictured) many earlier Evangelicals lived out their faith at profound levels of thought and spiritual experience. This meant that when I wrote the book I was able to follow through on my chosen approach - which was to take two contemporary significant Evangelical figures, and to compare and contrast their spiritual experiences, the way they lived the doctrines they believed, and how their theological emphases exerted leverage on lifestyle, spiritual discipline, relationships and social action.

The latest pair I dealt with was Martyn Lloyd Jones and John Stott. So here is the question -

if I were to write a further chapter, comparing and contrasting two contemporary leading Evangelicals, who should they be?

Who in their lives, Christian activity, writing, teaching stands anywhere near some of those earlier pairings - the two Wesleys, Whitefield and Edwards, Hannah More and Charles Simeon, D L Moody and Frances Havergal, Lloyd Jones and Stott, to mention only a few. I'd be interested to hear suggestions - is it just me, or am I right that there's a dearth of people of stature, significant figures who both define Evangelicalism at its best and embody a tradition that is still living, growing and enriching the Body of Christ?

Sonorous prose and leisurely syntax.....

I spent the morning with the good people of Hillhead Baptist Church. They were exploring options and possibilities for the future ministry of this significant  and strategic fellowship, located in Glasgow's West End. As a friend of the congregation I was offering what wisdom and help I could as they plan for their future. Finished by just after 12.00 noon. I casually mentioned that I was now probably going to sin in the Oxfam Bookshop on Byres Road. Remember I previously bought my Poems for Refugees book there in February and blogged about it several times. Well my sympathetic and pastorally alert friend immediately reassured me:

'But if you are buying in the Oxfam shop that wouldn't be sin, that would be a good thing to do.'

And I sinned by the sheer alacrity with which I grabbed hold of this much more positive perspective on my book buying urges and floated in self congratulatory virtue down the street to the Oxfam shop. And yes, I did indeed buy a book - not an expensive one you realise, but enough to consider it a donation rather than a piece of self-indulgence.

More seriously it is a book of sermons - boring huh? By a Victorian Free Church minister who was the leading OT scholar in Scotland for a couple of decades, (1870's to 1890's) the venerable A. B. Davidson. Not everyone's taste - but now and then I dive into the sonorous prose and leisurely syntax of the Victorian age, and find there the extended descriptive responses of another generation to the truth of God - and I find their voices persuasive, their words moving, and the faith that underlies their ruminative theology an antidote to the Devotions for Dummies approach of much contemporary 'devotional' writing.

Here is A B Davidson, on the experience of Job and the text 'I know that my Redeemer liveth...'

The sufferer's ideas may not be complete, and he may not see the way clearly to that which his faith demands. His expressions are exclamatory and disjointed; but this is his assurance, , that though he die in darkness, as he will, though the riddle of God's dealing with him remain unsolved here, though God's face be resolutely hidden from him till, under the ravage of his disease, his flesh be consumed and his bodily frame dissolved, yet that shall not be the end of all. He shall not be dissolved, and God cannot be dissolved; and this darkness is not an eternal darkness. On this night of estrangement and mystery, however long it may be, a morn shall break at last; and through the clouds there will shine out a face, a reconciled face, that I shall see for myself; and mine eyes shall behold and not another's....

What Job craved, and what his faith enabled him to say he knew, was that the unseen God should become visible; that God whose dwelling is in heaven amid clouds and darkness, should descend and stand upon the earth; that the great problem between God and man, and between men and men, should be unravelled by God in human form, and in human speech; that the riddle of the painful earth, the mystery, misery, the wrong, the bitter wrestlings of mind with mind, should be removed forever and composed and that all those who clung to God amidst the darkness and misconceptions of men, or of their own, should pass out of darkness into an unclouded light, in which their eyes should see God.

No - they don't write them like that anymore. Taking our human frailty along with God's redeeming purposeful love, with utter seriousness, and a hopeful trust. These are words that respect life's tragic turns, puzzling perplexities, and faithful questionings.

No Politics in heaven!

R. W. Dale is now largely forgotten, except for a few conclaves of those interested in Victorian Non-conformity, and probably some of the better informed local politicians and Congregational Church members in Birmingham. That's a great pity - Dale was one of the most significant churchmen of the nineteenth century. Here's just a few of the reasons why he shouldn't be forgotten:

1. He was a major mover in the City of Birmingham Council and was a key figure in the upgrading of the drainage and sewage systems as a way of preventing cholera.
2. He was one of the first Victorian churchmen to recognise and argue for the link between poverty and crime
3. He promoted the civic Gospel, insisting it was the individual's duty to pursue the same civic and humane goals expected of good government.
4. He supported trade unions, schemes for housing improvement, extension of the franchise.
5. He was one of the finest preachers of his generation - not as impassioned orator, but as persuasive and cogent exponenet of a Christian moral vision rooted in the Gospel of grace and the reality of the Risen Christ.
6. He wrote one of the most learned (and difficult to read) treatments of the doctrine of the Atonement, upholding the moral seriousness of sin and the righteous love of God.

One quotation:

Accused of spending too much time pursuing political goals, and told by some church members to concentrate on spiritual activities because 'there are no politics in heaven', his answer was a superb piece of righteous scoffing:

No politics in heaven! well i suppose not; but there are no agricultural labourers there living on twelve shillings a week...there are no hereditary paupers there...there are no gaols to which little children are sent for an offence committed in ignorance, no unjust wars to be prevented. Politics unchristian!...by going on to Boards of Works and Town Councils and improving the drainage of great towns, and removing the causes of fever, men are but following in Christ's footsteps. (Laws of Christ for Common Life, page 268)

Eggstreme Daftness

There are degrees of daftness that are so, well daft, that they should become a new form of  reality TV called ‘Extreme Daftness’. The following comes from a news item on my AOL browser. I cannot think of anything to say that comes anywhere near the gobsmacked astonishment with which I read this. Please don’t read on if you are allergic to extreme daftness.

Re-runs of a well-known television commercial from the 1950s which instructed viewers to "Go to work on an egg" have been banned. Standards watchdogs say they do not encourage a balanced diet.

The Egg Information Service, set up by the industry to provide information and answer questions about eggs, had wanted to screen the advert, which featured legendary comedian Tony Hancock, to mark its 50th birthday. But the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre (BACC), which regulates advertising standards and practice, blocked screening of the adverts on the grounds that they did not comply with Ofcom rules about promoting a varied diet.

BACC spokesman Kristoffer Hammer said it was not a question of whether an egg a day would cause any harm, but that it should be served with fruit juice or toast.

He said on GMTV on Wednesday morning:

"We are not questioning the effect it would have on your health. Our role is to ensure that advertising that goes on television is in compliance with the act. It's quite clear from the act that they should be presented as part of a balanced diet."

British Egg Information Service spokeswoman Amanda Cryer told BBC Online: "We have been shocked by this ruling as eggs are a healthy, natural food which are recommended by nutritionists.

"What's more, there are no restrictions on the number of eggs people can eat, which was recently confirmed by the Food Standards Agency, and between five and seven eggs a week would be totally acceptable for most people. In addition, many other advertisers clearly promote their products to be eaten every day such as breakfast cereals so we are very surprised that eggs have been singled out in this way."

I have since sent the following email to abovementioned Kristoffer Hammer:

Dear Kristoffer

I really did think it was April 1 when I read the news item about the ban on the 'Go to work on an egg' advert. Now I understand the reasons for the legislation, the regulations, the guidelines, and the need to make decisions that are consistent across the board and congruent with the purpose of said legislation, regulation and guidelines. But.

What kind of anachronism is being perpetrated when a 50 year old advert is banned because it falls foul of a regulation introduced half a century later? Is it seriosuly suggested that an audience is likely to overload on eggs because juice and toast aren't included? And in any case why are breakfast cereal adverts not banned as they are even less of a balanced meal? Do you not think that there are times when rigid literalism turns good guidelines into daft rules that actually work against what they first intended?

I'm at a loss for words that a responsible agency could ever make such a wrong call. Am I missing something here? Please explain further if I have,

Yours in genuine if mystified sincerity,

So I await a reply - will keep you posted!