What then shall we do?

This morning I read through Luke 3:1-22. This is an incredibly rich passage. John the Baptist is warning of both the coming Judgement and announcing the arrival of Messiah. Both are intertwined and announced as "good news". Is John also pointing to how Judgement and Salvation come together at the cross?

The painting below is from the Isenheim Alterpiece by Gruenwald. A copy hung in Karl Barth's office for much his career.

The crowds, tax collectors, and soldiers each asked John, "What then shall we do?"

It is interesting and challenging that John's answers to all involve the just aquisition, use, and distribution of money and property!

Give thanks!

Non-U.S. readers may not realise that today is the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S. Since my wife is from the U.S. we always celebrate the holiday. I am now full of turkey and pumpkin pie.
It is a great holiday because unlike Christmas and Easter it has not been commerialised.
The Wikipedia entry tells the history.

give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus

1 Thessalonians 5:17

Living a life of grace

After I saw the movie, Amazing Grace about William Wilberforce and the drive to end slavery I read the companion biography by Eric Metaxas. Both are brilliant. The book is particularly challenging because it shows that Wilberforce and the Clapham group had incredible dedication, perseverance, political nous, single mindedness, generosity, and a willingness to sacrifice even their health for the cause of abolition.

I warmly recommend both the movie and the biography.

It is also interesting to look at Wilberforces own best seller:
A practical view of the prevailing religious system of professed Christians, which went to 20 editions! You can download a copy free here.

Faith of a theoretical physicist

Previously I posted about a book in which a group of leading Dutch scientists describe how they relate their personal faith to science. I said it would be nice to have an English translation. Carlo Beenakker, a Professor of Theoretical Physics in Leiden, sent me a link to the English translation of his chapter in the book.

Teaching theological students to think critically

Geoff Thompson sent me a helpful and stimulating article, "What 'Great Cloud of Witnesses'? Isn't My Own Religious Experience Enough?'' by Robert J. Sherman from Bangor Theological Seminary.

The article is mostly about how to engage seminary students with "a critical and constructive examination of their views and hinders their understanding of theology as an undertaking of and for the Church." The biggest obstacle to this is suggested to be "Acculturation in American Religious Privatism and Individualism". (Wow! I love that Section title):

Because so many students have come to their beliefs privately and experientially, they can construe the "catechetical" and/or the "critical/constructive" examination of those beliefs as a personal affront, even attack..... They are unaccustomed to any sort of detached probing of their beliefs, unaware that those beliefs may have diverse historic antecedents and unwilling often to recognize that their eclectic mix may have internal tensions and incoherencies.

The article is not just critical and negative though and discusses pedagogical strategies Sherman has used to address these issues.

I wonder if indirectly the article is also providing an argument for faculty at theological colleges to be engaged in original research and publication. This engages them in the process that Sherman strives to engage his students in.

An amazing Creation

Last night I went to the much anticipated (at least by me!) performance of Haydn's Creation by the Queensland Symphony and the Canticum Chamber Choir. I was relieved to find it was in English not German.

It was fantastic! There is no substitute for a live performance with good acoustics. Maybe I was sitting in an acoustic "sweet spot" in the concert hall. The clarity of the diction and symphonic notes was wonderful.

As Adam and Eve reflect on the amazing created world in which they have been placed, the chorus breaks forth:

Hail, bounteous Lord! Almighty, hail!

Thy word call'd forth this wondr'rous frame.

Thy powe'r adore the heav'n and

earth; we praise thee now and evermore.

Not understanding the atonement

This morning my son and I went out for breakfast and discussed a Chapter in C.S. Lewis, Mere Chrisitianity. We are up to Chapter 4, Book II, The Perfect Penitent. Which discusses the subtleties associated with understanding the atonement (i.e. what Christ's death achieved and how it did it). Lewis writes:

The central Christian belief is that Christ's death has somehow put us right with God and given us a fresh start. ....
Theories about Christ's death are not Christianity: they are explanations about how it works....
Jeans or Eddington [distinguished scientists of Lewis' time who also wrote popular books]. What they do when they want to explain the atom, or something of that sort, is to give you a description out of which you can make a mental picture. But then they warn you that this picture is not what the scientists actually believe . What the scientstists believe is mathematical formula.....
A man can eat his dinner without understanding exactly how food nourishes him. A man can accept what Christ has done without knowing how it works: indeed, he certainly would not know how it works until he has accepted it.