Recent stories in the news
here in the UK – such as banning prayers in local councils and government ministers
calling for a strengthening of ‘Christian Britain’ – show how crucial Roger
Mitchell’s analysis in Church, Gospel
& Empire really is. Already in our tour through the book we have seen
how the historian Eusebius and the Roman Emperor Constantine managed to tie
both church and empire together is such a way as key imperial principles were
subsumed by the church. The consequenc...
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Tom Wright on the Temple in 1st
century Jerusalem:
“It wasn’t, as sacred
buildings have been in some other traditions, a retreat from the world. It was
a bridgehead into the world. It was
the sign that the creator God was claiming the whole world, claiming it back
for himself, establishing his domain in the middle of it.”
For 1st century temple,
read 21st century church.
Simply
Jesus (London, 2011), page 130.
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In asking the question ‘What
would Jesus do?’ in the context of the spat between the Occupy camp and St
Paul’s Cathedral a reference was made by some to the Gospel story about Jesus
cleansing the Temple in Jerusalem. The inference was that just as Jesus cleared
out the Temple of its commercial aspects he would also bring judgement upon St
Paul’s tacit support of Western capitalism. Not only was this a simplistic
account of the Cathedral’s position it also rests on a wrong interpreta...
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It
seems to me that the ‘Beatitudes’ deal with the marginalised, that Jesus speaks
a great blessing of life and power into their lives. This reflects his life’s
work – it is to the margins that he went looking for people to heal and
restore; to the margins looking for broken people to bring them to a place
where they could flourish.
There
seems to be little that attracted Jesus to the centre, be that the... Continue reading ...
Here's a great post by American blogger, Artie Davis, on why looks do indeed matter. Enjoy! Continue reading ...
Posted by Dyfed on Friday, February 19, 2010,
In :
Politics
It’s been a bizarre week in international politics. First, the story that is still gradually being revealed about the assassination of a Hamas commander in Dubai: now widely thought to have been perpetrated by the Israeli secret service, Mossad. As if that isn’t outrageous enough there is an extra twist in the tail for us in the UK as we hear that those responsible were travelling with British passports. A story worthy of a Bond movie, surely.
And second the rather peculiar visit o... Continue reading ...
In his blog today Adrian Warnock asks how the native Americans should be reached with the gospel. There doesn't seem to be a comment box on the post but if there was I would have wanted to make this point: the first starting point for any white person from any European background to reaching any indigenous people group with the good news is to apologise for the damage done by past imperial conquest. Then there would have to be strenuous efforts to show that the missionaries come to serve rath... Continue reading ...
Posted by Dyfed on Friday, February 12, 2010,
In :
Politics
Iran, the UK, and torture
Is there any connection between the violent suppression of protests in Iran on Wednesday and the news revealed on the same day that the Labour government had allegedly tried to silence those local authority leaders from within its own party on the issue of long term care of the elderly in England? You might argue that there is very little that can be compared between these two incidents and you may well be correct.
The situation in Iran is very different to ... Continue reading ...
Phil and Mags Tyler are friends of ours who live on the Wirral. Their blog makes an interesting read, especially these days since Phil is blogging his tour of the US with Godfrey Birtill. Continue reading ...
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