Posted by Dyfed on Wednesday, May 2, 2012,
In :
Post-Christendom
And so we come to the final
and concluding chapter of Roger Mitchell's Church,
Gospel, & Empire. It has been a challenging read with some difficult
concepts being discussed. His forthcoming 'more accessible' volume will
undoubtedly be welcome! But there is little doubt in my mind that it is a piece
of work that is crucial to grasp and implement for those concerned about seeing
a transformed church.
In providing a theological
understanding for what has gone wrong since the fourth century Mitche...
Posted by Dyfed on Wednesday, April 18, 2012,
In :
Post-Christendom
In the previous post on
Roger Mitchell's book I looked at how he calls on us to understand God
exclusively through the self-emptying love of Jesus. By doing this God is
stripped of the imperial sovereignty that he has had to carry in the Christian
church since the 4th century. But this new way of perceiving God (or at least a
return to an original perception) must then lead to the followers of Jesus
adopting the same lifestyle themselves. That is, the church must itself be
kenotic in its prac...
Posted by Dyfed on Wednesday, April 4, 2012,
In :
Post-Christendom
Tried unjustly, scourged,
humiliated, slapped in the face, and introduced by a sarcastic Pilate -
'Behold, your King!' Maybe it's no wonder that faced with such a king the
religious leaders responded with 'We have no king but Caesar.' Whether they had
recognised Jesus as the true Son of God or not their choice was to bow the knee
to that other son of god - the Roman Emperor.
Choosing power
From the world's view it was
hardly a choice: the leader of the world's only super power or a battered and...
Posted by Dyfed on Wednesday, March 28, 2012,
In :
Post-Christendom
If the first two sections of
Roger Mitchell's Church, Gospel, & Empire are a little difficult to
navigate due to their in-depth (and wholly necessary) theological treatment of
the subject, the third section has a life-giving quality to it that raises the
book above the level of a mere academic volume. It has a radical cutting edge
to it that offers the reader a glimpse of what church could look like if we
embraced 'kenarchy'.
Kenarchy
As that last word testifies,
however, the third section is n...
Posted by Dyfed on Wednesday, March 14, 2012,
In :
Post-Christendom
How church and empire
combined to establish peace on earth through the use of sovereignty is the key
theme in Roger Mitchell's book Church,
Gospel & Empire and so far in this series I have sketched out the way
Roger has traced this theme through history beginning with Constantine. The
last post looked at how money was brought into the equation and how the Bank of
England was set up to lend money to the crown as it strove to defend the
sovereignty of the emerging nation state.
Posted by Dyfed on Thursday, March 8, 2012,
In :
Post-Christendom
The Daily Mail can always be depended upon to defend the notion of
'Christian Britain'. Ever vigilant in the cause, it reported last week on the
startling statistic that by the year 2030 the UK will 'cease to be a Christian
nation with the march of secularism'. As is clear from this quote (which was
actually the headline of the piece) the Mail
blames the secularists for this turn in events. But does that headline stack up
or is this another example of the collective nervous breakdown being su...
Posted by Dyfed on Tuesday, February 14, 2012,
In :
Post-Christendom
The High Court’s decision
last week regarding the holding of prayers in council meetings has been widely
reported and by now widely blogged about also. It was not surprising to see
some of the knee-jerk reactions by conservative church groups – former
Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey included. This reaction is indicative of
the collective nervous breakdown being suffered on some wings of the church in
this post-Christendom age.
Posted by Dyfed on Wednesday, February 8, 2012,
In :
Post-Christendom
The cross of Jesus and
military superiority are inextricably linked in the story of Constantine. In
312 C.E. he faced his enemy and co-emperor Maxentius near the Milvian Bridge, which
crossed the River Tiber. Before entering into battle Constantine saw a vision
of the cross with the words ‘By this sign conquer’. Though still a pagan at the
time he took it as a sign that he should fight under the Christian God’s protection
and when he won the battle the story of his vision – however mu...
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 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 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...
