All selected posts from the past

Why did Jesus write on the ground? The story of the woman caught in adultery who is dragged by the scribes and Pharisees to Jesus for judgment (John 7:53-8:11) is a fascinating one, for various reasons. I made extensive use of it in a... (10/08/2009 - 17:46 | 9 comments)
What has the emerging church to do with the Alpha Course? I asked the question in a post about the future of the European church regarding the sustainability of the Holy Trinity Brompton model of church-planting: 'Will its Alpha course theology – a... (07/08/2009 - 11:23 | 18 comments)
Piper’s objections to Wright’s ‘good news’ One of the more peculiar objections that John Piper raises against Wright’s understanding of Paul’s ‘gospel’ is that the announcement that Jesus is Lord ‘is an... (22/07/2009 - 13:39 | 4 comments)
Sweet and Viola: A Jesus Manifesto Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola have recently issued A Magna Carta of Restoring the Supremacy of Jesus Christ, a.k.a. A Jesus Manifesto for the 21st Century Church. They argue in the preamble that... (24/06/2009 - 16:48 | 12 comments)
Why the Question of the "Reality" of Jesus' Resurrection Misses the Point Awhile back on his Beliefnet blog, Tony Jones posted a short essay called: “Why it Matters that Jesus REALLY Rose”. Contrasting his self to Marcus Borg who denies the reality of Jesus... (06/06/2009 - 20:06 | 15 comments)
What evangelicals fight about: creation The second bone of contention in the much abused skeleton of Evangelical thought is creation. Dickinson and Buckeridge (for the background see What evangelicals fight about: atonement) list the... (30/05/2009 - 15:06 | 11 comments)
The relevance to us of the Acts church... Andrew, I have sympathy with your view not least because the subordination of historical reality to abstract concept is something I am often concerned over. However, I am not sure that limiting the... (15/05/2009 - 11:11 | 17 comments)
Should we still be making disciples? I have argued a couple of times recently that Jesus’ post-resurrection instruction to his followers to make disciples of all nations, which we call the Great Commission, is actually more... (08/05/2009 - 15:00 | 12 comments)
Does the future lie with the global church or with the emerging church? There was an interesting article in the UK Times yesterday about the global success of ‘US-style muscular Christianity’ - that is, evangelicalism. The article is by John Micklethwait and... (03/05/2009 - 11:09 | 5 comments)
What is a missional church? And why I think Mark Driscoll is wrong I forget quite how I got there - by what tortuous cyber-trail - but I came across a post on Mark Driscoll’s Resurgence blog promoting his new book Vintage Church, in which he touches on the... (30/04/2009 - 16:14 | 7 comments)
Justification - Tom Wright / A book review I’ve just finished reading Justification: God’s Plan and Paul’s Vision, Tom Wright’s latest book, which is a response to John Piper’s The Future of Justification: A... (29/04/2009 - 20:01 | 11 comments)
The resurrection from the dead The death and resurrection of Jesus, locked together in a brief three-day period, constitute the defining moment of Christian belief. It is here that the light of God’s love for humanity burns... (11/04/2009 - 16:56 | 6 comments)
On the Origins of Morality: Supernatural, Biological, and Relational Possibilities Back in 2007, Christianity Today hosted Christopher Hitchens and Doug Wilson in a debate entitled: “Is Christianity Good for the World?”. They exchanged letters six times, with Hitchens... (21/03/2009 - 03:10 | 99 comments)
Evangelism before and after Christendom Some quick thoughts on evangelism following a lively discussion at Community Church Harlesden…Evangelism has clearly become for many Christians a problematic and frankly anti-social requirement... (11/03/2009 - 13:13 | 8 comments)
Ekklesia and the missional church Here’s another example (see also Review of Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, ReJesus) of the disconnection between great missional ideas and a coherent narrative theology.At the Christian... (10/03/2009 - 17:00 | 1 comment)
Who are 'the least of these'? One important point of biblical interpretation that came up during the course of a recent TREK gathering with the Christian Associates team in Gothenburg had to do with the meaning of Jesus’... (23/02/2009 - 12:15 | 9 comments)
Contours of Pauline Theology - Tom Holland This study of the pervasive influence of the Passover on Pauline thinking and the corporate significance of the NT texts was first published in 2004. Dr Tom Holland of the Wales Evangelical School... (23/01/2009 - 14:00 | 41 comments)
Canaanite Genocide and its Monstrous Concept of God I just read with interest and horror your attempt to sanitize the biblical account of the Conquest of Canaan under the rubric of "new creation." So what’s the difference in God... (29/12/2008 - 10:29 | 61 comments)
Splitting hairs Nick Carter has just added a comment to an old article called Jesus, God and narrative theology. He asks about how we deal with the apparent tension between a narrative theology - at least as I... (04/12/2008 - 13:04 | 4 comments)
Son of Man is a title? A large part of apocalyptic interpretations of the gospels center on Jesus’ supposed self identification as the "Son of Man", theoretically referring to the "Son of Man" in... (26/09/2008 - 17:23 | 44 comments)
Global Warming and Competing Visions of Human Agency The debate surrounding global warming is primarily a struggle over competing visions of human agency.  Are humans responsible for global warming or not?  Some say “yes,” others say “no.”    (26/09/2008 - 17:13 | 10 comments)
Gabriel's Vision, archaeology, and the authority of scripture The interpretation of a recently discovered Jewish text by Israel Knohl, professor of Biblical Studies at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, has been causing moderate fluctuations in the media and... (10/07/2008 - 10:57 | 6 comments)
5 Reasons I would claim to leave the church People keep leaving the “church” to go to house churches (which may be more of the “church” than our buildings in warehouses with pastors wearing cutoff jeans and bleaching... (18/06/2008 - 17:39 | 14 comments)
New creation, Spirit, blessing and kingdom: a clarification of terminology I have been rather bothered recently by the way in which the emerging church - though not only the emerging church - makes use of the concept of the ‘kingdom of God’ to define its... (29/04/2008 - 18:34 | 23 comments)
Frustrated by N. T. Wright I’ve been reading N. T. Wright’s, Surprised by Hope and I’ve found myself frustrated by N. T. Wright. As one example, in part 13 ‘Building for the Kingdom’, Wright engages rhetoric... (25/04/2008 - 13:26 | 6 comments)
Shane Claiborne and the rich young ruler I don’t think I’m grossly misrepresenting the book if I say that Shane Claiborne’s The Irresistible Revolution is basically an impassioned, iconoclastic, mischievous challenge to... (04/04/2008 - 11:47 | 8 comments)
Why the historical Jesus matters The question of whether by historically contextualizing the Gospel story we make Jesus largely irrelevant to the church and the world today has been a recurrent one - indeed, for me something of a... (27/03/2008 - 13:18 | 23 comments)
Alan Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways, and the future of the church in Europe The ebullient Alan Hirsch was in Portugal recently with the Christian Associates leadership community, talking about what makes a missional church-planting movement, in his words, go ‘Kaboom!’ In... (13/03/2008 - 14:03 | 4 comments)
Psalms 2 and 22 and the conversion of the whole world Richard Eric Gunby, while politely acknowledging that my heart seems to be in the right place, has taken issue with a statement that I made in the ‘NT Wright, mission, and the big red balloon... (03/03/2008 - 13:10 | 4 comments)
New creation and the kingdom of God This is an attempt, in response to some perceptive comments by Chris Tilling and samlcarr on the recent ‘NT Wright and the confusion of kingdom and new creation’ post, to clarify how I... (18/02/2008 - 11:16 | 15 comments)