Category: Theology

“That’s interesting” Does theology belong in academia?

This was the question posed on Twitter by Jonathan Dowie (who has recently written a book on multi-lingual church which I hope to review soon).  Jonathan then went on to highlight the problem with academic writing, in short, he said “it sucks.”  His big issue was the tendency for academics to be verbose, hiding behind… Continue reading “That’s interesting” Does theology belong in academia?

Ephesians in 5 short statements

Whenever I’m involved in a teaching series, I find it helpful to get a sense of the whole shape of the book so I can be clear about its purpose, message to the church and where the bits I will preach fit in.  Our church are just starting a preaching series on Ephesians.  So, I… Continue reading Ephesians in 5 short statements

Introducing Jesus – new teaching series

Welcome to our new Faithroots teaching and training series, an introduction to Jesus and the Gospels. If you had the opportunity to train at Theological College, then you would have the opportunity to cover a number of key areas of study. These would be One of my aims here on Faithroots is to make all… Continue reading Introducing Jesus – new teaching series

Infant baptism isn’t a form of comfort for the grieving

Yesterday I responded to one specific argument for reconsidering infant baptism.  Today, I want to deal with another from this article.  Like Steve Kneale,  I don’t presume that Joe Barnard is seeking to pick fights and like Steve I am not looking for one. However, I was deeply concerned by the emotional appeal to “what… Continue reading Infant baptism isn’t a form of comfort for the grieving

“Stop” seems to be the hardest word (to hear)

Before Easter, Steve Kneale on his blog drew our attention to a recent article giving 5 reasons to reconsider infant baptism. I agree with Steve’s responses and in fact, the arguments are not significantly new but I did want to give a little bit more attention to two of them. One here and the other… Continue reading “Stop” seems to be the hardest word (to hear)

The New Perspective on Paul and the red herring of ethnicty

During my life time, one of the main, long running disputes in theology and Biblical studies has been around the Doctrine of Justification and what St Paul really taught.  It began with the work of EP Sanders on Second Temple, Palestinian Judaism where he argued that the Jews of Jesus and Paul’s day were not… Continue reading The New Perspective on Paul and the red herring of ethnicty

What atonement means

There has been a tendency in recent years to talk about “models of atonement”.  The tendency came to the forefront during the 2003 controversy over Penal Substitution.  Evangelical Christians have historically tended to talk about Jesus’ death as paying the penalty for our sin.  Steve Chalke and Alan Mann in their book “The Lost Message… Continue reading What atonement means