This is the first of eight articles exploring the present state of Evangelical theology Evangelicalism has always been a country of competing tribes. Even in the 18th Century revival, the clash between Calvinists and Arminians – made personal in the interactions between Whitfield and Wesley – was enough to cause a split. 19th Century Wesleyan … Continue Reading
We now have more excellent speakers lined up for the first quarter of Beer and Theology 2020, so here are the dates for your diaries.
As I have taken various steps forward in my ministry over the years, I have to my surprise sometimes found very large footprints in front of me. They are the footprints of a giant: an intellectual, theological and pastoral giant named J.I.Packer. He retired as a Professor of Theology at Regent College, Vancouver some years … Continue Reading
With the death of J. I. (‘Jim’) Packer, Anglican evangelicalism has lost one of its most significant theological voices, as well as a guiding figure of the National Evangelical Anglican Congress at the University of Keele in 1967, which many consider to have inaugurated a new phase in the history of evangelicalism within the Church … Continue Reading
In preparing for our retirement move to Cambridge later this summer, I rediscovered a paper I had written 37 years ago. I prepared it for a workshop which I was leading on ‘Combating Racism in Britain’ for the ‘Eclectics’ conference of 1983. This group of evangelical Anglican clergy, under the age of 40, was founded originally … Continue Reading
In my last piece; ‘Why we need a God who does not suffer’, I laid out in brief the case for impassibility: the notion that God does not suffer, held in conjunction with the adjoining notion, immutability: that God does not change. Due to space I primarily laid out my case using the Old Testament. … Continue Reading
I feel a distinct uneasiness as I attempt to write some reflections on the brutal killing of George Floyd and the subsequent events. It’s an uneasiness borne of the tension in accepting that sheer silence represents a failure to reckon with what is and has been happening, yet knowing ahead of time that words will … Continue Reading
In a single weekend, the government’s lead in the opinion polls has fallen 10%. The public are outraged by what they see as pure hypocrisy. Nevertheless, the Prime Minister is rigidly sticking by his advisor. Government MPs watch nervously as they see that hard-won confidence in the government crumble beneath them. Many voters had hoped … Continue Reading
On a tumultuous day preceding Pilate’s careless, populist, hand-washing referendum that was to dispassionately determine the fate of Jesus, a very large crowd spread their cloaks on the ground for him as he entered Jerusalem, in a kind of instant royal celebration. The crowd believed Jesus had come in fulfilment of his nation’s hopes – … Continue Reading
Most people will readily acknowledge that there is more than one way to write about theology on the internet. One very common way is to draw your newly polished theological Excalibur and carve up those deemed to be in error or heresy. Another approach, perhaps more befitting of my purposes here, is that of one … Continue Reading