Posted by Dyfed on Wednesday, February 1, 2012,
In :
Post-Christendom
It takes a brave theologian
to open-up Nicea. It was at the council held there in 325 C.E. that the church
decided to define the divine nature of Jesus of Nazareth. This definition has
been accepted as orthodoxy in the world-wide church ever since – though many
minority groups have questioned it. In his chapter on how the historian
Eusebius of Caesarea managed to infect the church with imperial values Roger
Mitchell takes a critical look at Nicea, suggesting that the defence of God’s hier...
Posted by Dyfed on Wednesday, January 25, 2012,
In :
Post-Christendom
How could the church have
been so infected by imperial power to render it so ineffective? This is the
question that Roger Mitchell attempts to answer in the remainder of the first
two parts of his book. He introduces key characters and periods in which the
imperial principle was introduced and consolidated. The first of which is
Eusebius of Caesarea.
Father of church history
Eusebius has the distinction
of being referred to as ‘the father of church history’ and his most famous of books,
The...
Posted by Dyfed on Wednesday, January 11, 2012,
In :
Post-Christendom
‘How is it that the best of
church experience in both traditional and radical expressions tends to relapse
to hierarchical domination and control?’ This is Roger Hadon Mitchell’s
chilling question in his introduction to his newly published PhD thesis, Church, Gospel & Empire (Eugene, OR,
2011.) It isn’t the only question posed but for the purpose of this blog it is
possibly the most important.
And it includes within it
some vital clues as to how Roger Mitchell intends to answer his own...
Posted by Dyfed on Wednesday, November 30, 2011,
In :
Post-Christendom
So Christians in the UK feel
marginalised. So says the latest opinion poll conducted by ComRes on behalf of
Premier Christian Media Trust. The full details of the poll can be found at BRIN here –
but basically 544 Christians were asked whether they thought ‘the
marginalisation of Christianity in British public life was increasing,
decreasing, or staying the same in public, the media, the government and the
workplace’. Some two thirds thought the process was increasing overall – with
7...
Posted by Dyfed on Tuesday, October 4, 2011,
In :
Post-Christendom
Great Britain is a Christian country and our government should govern
based on Christian principles especially when it comes to defending godly
marriage. That pretty much sums up a story that appeared on the Christian Institute’s website last week.
Many of you will agree with that sentiment but let me invite you to consider
what the Institute premise their
assertion of Britain’s religious attachment upon.
Majority is Christian
They laud the results of the ‘Integrated Household Survey’ (...
Posted by Dyfed on Monday, February 21, 2011,
In :
Emerging church
They’re such small details, I missed them
for years. But they reflect perfectly the shift in power in Paul’s life – from a
man of status, clout and influence to being dependent on a hitherto unknown
character, and all in the space of one chapter. (Part of the reason why I
missed these details has probably got something to do with the fact that we
generally read Acts 9 for evidence of the classic evangelical conversion
experience. It can be found there, of course, but there is so much ...
Posted by Dyfed on Wednesday, September 8, 2010,
In :
Emerging church
Men and fires are a combination made
in heaven. So when Helen said yesterday that she had four bin bags of Post
Office rubbish to destroy I could not resist putting down Moltmann and going
with her to make a fire. I had only just begun reading The Church in the
Power of the Spirit (London, English translation 1977) when she called. But
I still have a couple of quotes for you today!
In referring to the crisis that was
(and still ...
Posted by Dyfed on Friday, July 9, 2010,
In :
Random
Depending on what your poison may be,
the Church of England’s General Synod starting today could the most interesting
or the most boring event in York this weekend. If you’re an Anglican
you’ll probably be following quite closely because the whole thorny issue of
women bishops is to be discussed and the meetings are held in the context of
the gay priest, Jeffrey John, once again being rejected as a potential bishop.
T...
It is not a coincidence that those
listed as being blessed after the peacemakers are those who are persecuted
(Matt 5:10-12). To be a peacemaker in a world that has learned the perverse
value of confrontation is no easy task and will surely draw opposition. But in the
face of such opposition Jesus is saying that the correct stance to take is to
be one of peacemaking.
Today the polling company YouGov
have released their findings from a survey on British attitudes towards Islam.
Headline figures include the following stats: 58% associate Islam with
extremism; 40% do not believe Muslims have a positive impact on society; and
70% believe it is a religion that represses women. Astoundingly some 50% link
it with terrorism.
It shouldn’t take us much thinking
time to realise how i...
Posted by Dyfed on Wednesday, May 19, 2010,
In :
Post-Christendom
John ‘the rottweiler’ Humphreys
showed how difficult it is to break out of the mould this morning as he
interviewed the new Home Secretary, Theresa May, on the Today programme.
He was pressing her about the Tories’ attitude towards the Human Rights Act
and the very different approach they have to it compared to their partners in
government, the Lib Dems. Apparently the Tories are very anti while the Lib
Dem...
Posted by Dyfed Roberts on Tuesday, April 13, 2010,
In :
Post-Christendom
Westminster 2010 claims to be a
‘declaration of Christian conscience’. It was launched on Easter Sunday at the
start of what is an important General Election in the UK. With some thirty influential
church leaders being among the first signatories, it certainly packs a punch
and is a shot across the bows of all political parties at this time. Its
unmistakeable aim is to stand up for ‘Christian’ values at a t...
Posted by Dyfed on Wednesday, March 31, 2010,
In :
Post-Christendom
We often look at what one church or
even a whole church movement is doing and get excited about their success. They
start an Alpha course in a run down estate and see some young single mums start
following Jesus, and we think, ‘Great. This is what God is doing these days’.
Well, maybe. But what if we – just for a moment – take our eyes off the micro
and look at the macro? What if we were to look back acro...
Posted by Dyfed on Tuesday, March 30, 2010,
In :
Post-Christendom
In the previous post from Stuart Murray’s
book I emphasised the work of the radical reformers, the Anabaptists. But
despite their sterling work Christendom was pretty much untouched by the
upheaval of the 16th century. However, in chapter 7 Murray suggests that the ‘seeds of
destruction had been sown’ in that period (page 178). He identifies four
factors that have led to the slow death of Christendom since ...
Posted by Dyfed on Friday, March 12, 2010,
In :
Post-Christendom
One biblical word that
has made a bit of a come back in the past few years is ‘apostolic’. Its current
definition seems to include roughly three activities: church planting; works of
miracles, especially in healing; and overseeing a number of local churches. As
all three can be seen as apostolic ministry in the New Testament then the
title/label is carried over from scripture to the present day. The simple
me...
Posted by Dyfed on Wednesday, March 10, 2010,
In :
Post-Christendom
This is a great article by Jonathan Bartley of the Ekklesia think tank. It suggests how the church should do politics in this post-Christendom period. If you read anything today - this should be it.
Posted by Dyfed on Tuesday, March 9, 2010,
In :
Post-Christendom
[if !mso]
Did the Reformation change
Christendom? Surprisingly not is Stuart Murray’s answer in chapter 5 of
Post-Christendom. Though the Protestant Reformation brought about much needed
change to doctrine and many church practices, very little was done as far as
the church’s connection to the state is concerned. ‘They refined it, fractured
it and shifted the balance of power within it towards the secular a...
Posted by Dyfed on Tuesday, March 2, 2010,
In :
Post-Christendom
Stuart Murray’s
description of Christendom in the late Medieval period is scathing: it was
‘monolithic, totalitarian and seemingly impervious to critique’ (Post-Christendom,
page 132). And yet there were dissenting voices to be heard all over Europe at this time. That those
dissenters faced the wrath of Christendom through suppression and persecution
tells us a great deal about what a threat they were deeme...
Posted by Dyfed on Thursday, February 25, 2010,
In :
Post-Christendom
I see the bishops have
been stirring it up again, this time on the issue of allowing civil
partnerships to be conducted on religious premises. They’re pushing for a
change in the Equality Bill currently before the House of Lords – the one they
recently successfully changed on the issue of bringing equal opportunity rights
into employment issues in churches. They didn’t like that change as it would
have forced...
Posted by Dyfed on Tuesday, February 23, 2010,
In :
Politics
Bullying
and politics seem to go together. Gordon Brown should not feel isolated in his
current situation of being fingered as a work-place bully – he is in good
company in the Palace of Westminster. The stories about his
rage towards colleagues have been around for a long time and those of us who
enjoy the political blogoshpere have not been surprised by the latest
revelations. Stories about his loyal lieutena...
Posted by Dyfed on Wednesday, February 17, 2010,
In :
Post-Christendom
Two recent announcements made by the Conservative Party reflect how far they too have moved away from traditional and conservative Christian values. Of course, both Labour and the Lib Dems have distanced themselves from social conservatism a long time ago, but the Tories were pretty much signed up members of the ‘keep the UK a Christian country’ until very recently and could be counted on to defend Christian values on issues such as marriage. But as society has changed so have the polit...
Posted by Dyfed on Tuesday, February 16, 2010,
In :
Post-Christendom
So how was
the church shaped by being at the heart of Empire? What effects did imperial
patronage have upon its mission? In his fourth chapter of Post-Christendom,
Stuart Murray examines some of these issues. He begins by outlining how
significant to this was one particular theologian and thinker. For if the
church was to accept what the Empire wanted then someone had to come up with
the theology that made it all...
Posted by Dyfed Roberts on Tuesday, February 9, 2010,
In :
Post-Christendom
On 3 March 321 AD the Roman Emperor, Constantine, passed two particular laws which show how mixed his faith really was. The first called on all judges, inhabitants of cities and craftsmen to rest on a Sunday, though farmers were allowed to work as necessary. The second law called for an inquiry to be made of soothsayers if a building was struck by lightening as to what the omen meant. If the first law ‘proves’ that Constantine was indeed a Christian, then the second surely causes us to do...
Posted by Dyfed Wyn on Friday, January 29, 2010,
In :
Politics
Government plans to pass an Equality Bill through the House of Lords failed this week when strong objections were made by an on behalf of Christian churches. The Bishops were especially vocal apparently as were many Conservatives. Indeed the Conservative Party officially opposed aspects of the Bill. Objections were raised because of the fear that churches and other Christian organisations could have been prosecuted for refusing to employ people on grounds of sexuality. While priests and pasto...
Posts on my Tumblr site willI now appear here. Tumblr's ability to post by text and email will help me blog even when away from my desk!
Some thoughts following my visit to Occupy London.
October 27th 2011
Ok so there’s plenty to disagree with but this is such a good song.
October 12th 2011
There are so many draining things we can focus on during the day: how we appear to others, how much others do or don’t respect us, how we can get people to do what we want. But once we become aware of the negative impact of these areas of focus, we can get clear on - even excited about - who we really want to be … We can shift our focus toward qualities like mercy, gentleness, courage, and the many others that bring true joy in our lives and in the lives of others.
