Public Meeting Friday IX

Well, this is late, but there are still a few minutes of Friday left. The talks this week in PM Friday are some of the best talks ever given at EU. In three magisterial talks, Andrew Katay explores the key Christian characteristics (virtues?) of faith, hope and love. Enjoy:

These Things Remain: Faith

These Things Remain: Hope

These Things Remain: Love


"But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation." 1 Thessalonians 5.8, one of many New Testament verses that speak of faith, hope and love.

Good Books: The Answers

OK, here are my answers to the Good Books Meme. In case you've forgotten, here are the rules:

i. List a helpful book you've read in this category;

ii. Describe why you found it helpful; and

iii. Tag five more friends and spread the meme love.

Here goes:

1. Theology
I was introduced to theology when I was 15 years old by reading a compendium by Alistar McGrath. And I've loved theology ever since. The book I'm placing here is Karl Barth's Dogmatics in Outline. These were the first theological lectures given in Germany after WWII, with the text based off notes a student took as Barth was pretty much speaking off the top of his head. Despite the brevity of DIO, it has an urgency and compassion that has a powerful impact. It also taught me the phrase toho mobohu.

2. Biblical Theology
I won't hold back here - Climax of the Covenant by N.T. Wright is awesome. Focused on some key Pauline passages, Wright really bring to life God's plan to redeem his creation from evil through Israel and Jesus. I already had a framework for this through Goldsworthy and Dumbrell, but Wright's explanation of the narrative of scripture is par excellence.

3. God
Many Christians have profited over the past 50+ years from reading T.C. Hammond's In Understanding Be Men. But I found Colin Gunton's Act and Being to be really helpful in thinking through who God is and what language we should use to describe him. It particularly awoke me to all the Greek philosophical ideas that had creeped into Christianity.

4. Jesus
I loved Bauckham's God Crucified, and I'm tremendously excited about reading Jesus and the God of Israel. But, I'll have to go with N.T. Wright's Jesus and the Victory of God. This is a book that every evangelical Christian should read. This book fits together the picture the gospels present of Jesus and help us understand him and what he was all about. I'm not sure that any other book besides holy scripture has so thoroughly changed me and shaped me. If you haven't read it already, read this book.

5. Old Testament
Besides a whole heap of commentaries, I found Dumbrell's Faith of Israel helpful reading in understanding the whole Old Testament. Like Chris, Barry Webb's Five Festal Garments was another handy little book for me. As was David Peterson's Christ and his people in the book of Isaiah.

6. New Testament
I guess I can't use N.T. Wright again, so I'll go with Richard Bauckham's Jesus and the Eyewitnesses. I haven't finished it yet, but Bauckham has a depth of of knowledge and wisdom, and this comes to the fore in this wonderful book. And guess what - the gospels are actually based of eyewitness accounts, not just the ramblings from this different apostolic communities.

7. Ethics
Surprise, surprise...I'm going with Oliver O'Donovan's Resurrection and Moral Order. Tremendously helpful book in understanding that the starting point for evangelical ethics is the Lordship of Jesus Christ. But I'm going with this book because I found it incredibly hard. OOD is dense, and especially in Resurrection and Moral Order. But this book is filled with treasurer for those who have the patience to sift through and find it. The moral of this story is, keep reading hard books, even if you only take in half of it (or less).

8. (Church) History
I've read a bit of church history, and really appreciate the writing from people like MacCulloch, Noll, Bebbington, Norris, but I'm going to pick Rowan Williams short book Why Study the Past. Williams argument is that Christians have more reason than anyone else to do history well, because often it's a. our own history we are dealing with, and b. we're often engaging with our brothers and sisters in Christ down through the centuries. He also offers some helpful analysis of key historical moments, like the the reformation and the early church. An honourable mention goes to Philip Jenkins 'The Lost History of Christianity'.

9. Biography
I wish I read more biographies than I do. J.C. Ryle has some great little biographies on the leaders in the great awakening in England. But a biography I love and cherish is Diarmaid MacCulloch's Thomas Cranmer: A Life. This is probably the definitive history on England's reformer, and offers great insight not just into this tumultuous period of history, but also into this great man of faith.

10. Evangelism
One of the best books going here is John Dickson's Promoting the Gospel. But I'm going to pick John Chapman's Know and Tell the Gospel because it really is a quite simple book to read, and for the sake of sentimentality (this was the first Christian book I owned). Chapman has been greatly gifted as an evangelist, and has some wonderful insights. The only thing is that it might be quite dated now (the book is over 20 years old and Chapman himself was born in 1930) so for something more relevant to today read Dickson's book.

11. Prayer
This might sound weird, but as a kid in church, I found An Australian Prayer Book and the whole tradition behind (i.e. the BCP) really helpful for my prayers. (Reading the preface to both of these books helped too). It's Trinitarian and Chistological depth shouldn't be underestimated. Although being full of set, formal, liturgical prayers, I know how to pray to the Father, through the Son and in the Spirit because of it. It modeled prayer for me, and gave me a vocabulary to use in prayer.

Whoa, what an exercise. That took longer than I expected. I've already tagged my five, and well done to Byron, Chris, Steve, Duncan and Michael who've completed the meme (also Sam, Joe and Paul). Looking at this list makes we want to read more books by dead people. I might go do that.

Good Books: A Meme

In an effort to help further the Christian blogging community, I'm starting a meme. I'm going to give you a list of theological book categories. Here are the AMENDED rules: 

i. List a helpful book you've read in this category; 

ii. Describe why you found it helpful; and 

iii. Tag five more friends and spread the meme love.

Here are the categories (in no paricular order):

1. Theology
2. Biblical Theology
3. God
4. Jesus
5. Old Testament
6. New Testament
7. Morals
8. (Church) History
9. Biography
10. Evangelism
11. Prayer

I'm going to go and think about my answers, but in the mean time I'll tag Steve, Duncan, Chris, Byron, Michael and you.

No Fear in Love

...love casts out fear...

This verse has been running through my head for about a week and a half. I had the pleasure of hearing Bishop Josiah Fearon from Kaduna Diocese Nigeria, speak about Gospel Ministry in Areas of Strife: The Interface of Christianity and Islam. Kaduna is in northern Nigeria, and if you know anything about that country, you’ll know that the north has been the scene of religious tension for many years now between Muslims and Christians. Bishop Fearon explained that this goes back to the establishment of Nigeria as an independent nation in the 1960’s. At that time the population was made up quite sizable populations of Christians and Muslims, and a fair number of traditionalists at well. Southern Nigeria is the home for Christians, and northern Nigeria is the home for Muslims. But over the last 50 years the Christian population in the north has been steadily growing, so that in Kaduna Diocese today, Christians now slightly outnumber the Muslims. This change in demographics has only heightened the tension between the tow religious communities – the Muslims who want to enforce the constitutionally recognized sharia law; and the Christians who want to use their new found majority to free themselves for the yoke of Islam. This is the main tension in Kaduna. But Bishop Josiah helpfully explained that these tensions are often used to exploit local and tribal conflict. A religious crisis may begin when Muslim and Christian farmers have land next to each other, and the Muslim farmer’s cattle enter the Christian’s lands. This is then spun out as a religious conflict between the two religions. And 10 years ago this would have resulted in violent clashes throughout the diocese, often causing fatalities.

The result of all this is fear – fear of the religion, and fear of the people. Bishop Josiah said that this has led to a genuine hatred and resentment towards Muslims by Christians. However, his approach is to promote ‘friendship evangelism’. He engages in dialogue, and is not afraid to build friendships with Muslims. He sees himself as having been called by God to evangelize his Muslim neighbours. So he tries to love, rather than shouting them down with doctrine as some of his colleagues prefer to do. And he has copped flack for this from inside and outside his diocese. He shared the story that during the major sharia crisis around 2001, some young members of his clergy had really had enough of his evangelism approach. And so they planned to assassinate him and blame it on the Muslims! Miraculously they were stopped on the day they set out to do this dreadful deed. 

And so I was reminded that ‘there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear’. Sitting in a church hall in the Georges River Region of Sydney, with several mosques within walking distance, (within close proximity of several Anglican churches that 50 years ago were the largest in the diocese but are now empty), I was reminded again that Jesus is so powerful, so magnificent, that I do not have to be afraid with Muslims; out of love I can share with them the Lordship of Jesus in my deeds and words. 

The talk was recorded, and if you would like a copy you can email me at work. CMS also interviewed Bishop Josiah earlier that day, and that will released soon – stay tuned. Josiah Fearon is an international expert on Islam. Besides his degrees in Nigeria, he has postgraduate studies in theology (Durham), Islamic Theology (Birmingham), Arabic (Jordan) and a Doctorate of Ministry (Hartford). He has recently completed his time as the Archbishop of the province of Kaduna, was on the Eames commission that produced the Windsor Report, and is a licensed preacher at Canterbury Cathedral.

PS This post by Byron is also relevant to this discussion - it's not just our African brethren who are afraid of Islam.

Read The Bible II

More from Oliver O'Donovan's latest lecture, The Reading Church: Scriptural Authority in Practice:

“No collective spiritual exercise, no sacrament, no act of praise or prayer is so primary to the catholic identity of the church gathered as the reading and recitation of Scripture. It is the nuclear core. When Paul instructed his letters to be passed from church to church and read, it was the badge of the local church’s catholic identity. This is not to devalue preaching, praise, prayer, let alone sacramental act; these all find their authorisation in reading. As we know from St Thomas Aquinas, the act of breaking bread and sharing wine is not a Eucharist unless the narrative of the institution at the Last Supper is read.”

This reminds me of something Ian Powell said in a talk several years ago. The most important thing we do at church (besides meet with Jesus) isn't the music, or the supper, or even the sermon. The most important thing we do is to hear God's word. So pay attention.

But here's a question. We read far less of the scriptures in church then our brothers and sisters did a 100 years ago. And it seems as though many Christians today read far less of the bible then they would have a 100 years ago, even a generation ago. Is there any connection between the two?

Garage Hymnal: My Father's World

This is my Father's world. O let me ne'er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father's world: the battle is not done;
Jesus who died shall be satisfied,
And earth and heaven be one.

Garage Hymnal have released a new album, the self titled Garage Hymnal (their third...unless you count the album distributed by the then SUEU Ancon band called Garage Hymnal). I won't comment on the musical abilities of the album - despite my ten years on brass instruments in the Blue Mountains City Band - but track number 10, Father's World, is an awesome song. Here it is in it's entirety (according to the Book of Common Praise 1947):

This is my Father's world, and to my listening ears

All nature sings, and round me rings the music of the spheres.

This is my Father's world: I rest me in the thought

Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas;

His hand the wonders wrought.

This is my Father's world, the birds their carols raise,

The morning light, the lily white, declare their Maker's praise.

This is my Father's world: He shines in all that's fair;

In the rustling grass I hear Him pass;

He speaks to me everywhere.

This is my Father's world. O let me ne'er forget

That though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.

This is my Father's world: the battle is not done;

Jesus who died shall be satisfied,

And earth and heaven be one.

h/t to the OC Supertones and NT Wright for introducing me to the song.

Public Meeting Friday VIII

This week for PM Friday, I won't be recommending any one particular PM talk. Instead, I want to let you know that you can sign up for all the great EU PM talks via podcasting here.

Go and check it out.

Williams on the Ascension

Following on from yesterday's post, here is a quote from Rowan Williams on the ascension:

"This is the transition that Ascension Day marks … it’s the moment when Jesus ‘goes away’, stops being an object we concentrate on in itself, and yet becomes more deeply and permanently present: ‘I am with you always, to the end of time.’ He is with us as the light we see by; we see the world in a new way because we see it through him, see it with his eyes." - Rowan Williams, Open to Judgement, p 82.

h/t Chris Swann who has some excellent comments related to this quote.

Calvin on the Ascension

Today is Ascension Day, the church's celebration of Jesus' real absence from us because he is ruling all creation from his Father's right hand. It's also a public holiday in Vanuatu, Indonesia (!) , and the highly secularised European nations of: France, Sweden, Belgium, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark and the Netherlands. Anyway, here is some gold from Calvin:

"Christ in whom the Father wills to be exalted and through whose hand he wills to reign, was received at God’s right hand. This is as if it were said that Christ was invested with Lordship over heaven and earth, and solemnly entered into possession of the government entrusted to him -and that he not only entered into possession once and for all, but continues in it, until he shall come down on judgment day… both heavenly and earthly creatures may look with admiration upon his majesty, be ruled by his hand, obey his nod, and submit to his power." - John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book II Ch XVI 15

Read the Bible

"The practices that acknowledge the authority of Scripture in the church arm it against the greatest danger of a culture that declares itself “post-modern”, the loss of a sense of difference between image and reality. Let us follow the lead given us, then, by the demand that the Bible be translated, read, preached, taught and obeyed - in its plain and canonical sense, respectful of the church’s historic and consensual reading." - Oliver O'Donovan

If you haven't read Oliver O'Donovans speech 'The Reading Church: Scriptural Authority in Practice' make sure you do. Given at the end of April 2009 at the launch of his new book, it is a reflection on the Jerusalem Declaration's statement on scripture that: We believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God written and to contain all thungs necessary fro salvation. The Bible is to be translated, read, preached. taught and obeyed in its plain and canoical sense, respectful of the church's historic and consensual reading.

What does it look like to be respectful of the church's historic and consensual reading? Anyway, I found this comment sobering:

"Fifty years ago Stephen Neill, in identifying the elements that characterized Anglican Christianity, named as the first of these “the biblical quality by which the whole warp and woof of Anglican life is held together...The Anglican Churches read more of the Bible to the faithful than any other group of Churches. The Bible is put into the hands of the layman; he is encouraged to read it, to ponder it, to fashion his life according to it.” That these words would be wholly impossible to write today ought to sober us."

Stephen M Gardner

Steve Gardner's long awaited blog - All Things New - has arrived.

Steve has kicked off with what is set to become a regular podcast by himself and his mate Mark: The Pilgrim's Podcast. The first podcast is available to listen to now. Let's go check it out.

Steve and Mark are second year students at Moore. Steve is an old friend of mine. He's a catechist at my church, and was a ministry trainee at the EU.

Andrew Errington: Can we trust what the Gospels say about Jesus?

My friend Andrew Errington has been published by Matthias Media! His booklet, Can we trust what the Gospels say about Jesus? "[I]s designed to be a brief and readable introduction to the questions that bear on the historical reliability of the Gospels. There are good books on this question out there already; but in my experience, not many people bother to read whole books on this topic — and giving a friend a book can be a bit daunting." - Andrew Errington.

Andrew has used the material for a number of years know with teenagers on camps that he leads on. Although there are lots of books out there on this subject, this one is short (which in this case is a good thing) I expect to be a quite engaging to resource for discovering Jesus (an earlier version was once available on Andrew's resource page).

Matthias Media even have an online sample that you can check out.

Sydney Parish Boundaries Continued

My project to map the parish boundaries in the Sydney Diocese is progressing, albeit ever so slowly.


View Sydney Diocese Parish Boundaries in a larger map

Although I have heard that Anglicare have been working on this project. If anyone is interested I also have a sketchy map outlining the regions of the Sydney diocese and most diocesan boundaries in NSW.


View CMS-NSW Regional Borders in a larger map

Public Meeting Friday VII

It's back - and only nine weeks into semester.

This week, hebel goes back to where it all began, in a sense.

Semester 2 of 2006, Andrew Katay gave 4 great talks on Ecclesiastes. these talks were really challenging, and so in-depth. It was beautiful.

It's also where I learned the word hebel ever existed.

1. Meaning Enough For Me: Ecclesiastes
2. Meaning Enough For Me: On Wisdom
3. Meaning Enough For Me: The Absurdity of Justice
4. Meaning Enough For Me