Two Peoples, Not One? (Part 1)

3 February 2010

However much as Christians we seek to avoid confrontation and division, unfortunately Christian responses to the Israel-Palestinian conflict are sharply, dogmatically, even bitterly polarised into the pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian camps. The problem is, polarised positions are not particularly constructive, exacerbated by at times quite shrill rhetoric, which makes any effort at moving the debate forward somewhat difficult, if not downright impossible.

Phase 1: "People, not land"

A major sticking point in the Church’s polarised response to the conflict, which echoes the nature of the debate in both the media and the region itself, is the issue of who owns the land. My own approach, during the course of various conference papers, journal publications and debates, has been to shift away somewhat from this aspect of the conflict and instead focus on the election of the Jewish people, that God has not finished with the Jewish people. It is significant He is described as the God of Israel around 200 times in the Bible, while “Israel” is a truly biblical theology theme, covered substantial in both Testaments. This canonical theme, together with his delving into systematic and historical theology, is the approach taken by R. Kendall Soulen in his excellent book The God of Israel and Christian Theology.

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The Eucharist tradition and those little model paint pots

2 February 2010

I really like America. Whatever her faults, only a complete idiot would deny the US is a nation of incredibly friendly, big-minded, entrepeneurial and energetic folk who are hardworking and have a quick eye for a business opportunity. Moreover, Americans are also quite perceptive... they know when you're making fun of them, though, for the most part, they're too polite to tell you. That is not to say, of course, everywhere in the US is equally modern, forward-thinking, serene or, frankly, sane. I too have encountered the unsmiling red-neck Sherriff or the gun-toting survivalist (once, at a gun shop, I saw "safety slugs" on sale, which were not, as the name implies, blanks but rather bullets guaranteed to kill your assailant outright, hence their "safety"). Let's face it, there are nutcases everywhere! But Americans are not idiots, or cowboys, whatever some people over here think (and actually I've met some rather erudite and articulate cowboys). In short, you don't become a world superpower enjoying massive influence if all your citizens are, contrary to common stereotypes, like Forrest Gump. It's not for nothing various aspects of US culture are embraced widely, even enthusiastically everywhere, including much of the anti-American Middle East. In fact I rather suspect this may partially account for much of the geopolitical strife we see, a reaction against a kind of US version of the hellenisation which so enraged the local Jewish culture during  pre-New Testament Maccabean times. But that is another story.

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Excerpt 2, "Pentecostalism and Politics in Latin America"

1 February 2010

A couple of days ago I posted some material for an M.A. module I produced exploring Pentecostalism and politics in Latin America, promising further excerpts from this study manual in the near future. Details of where this material originally appeared, together with part 1, can be found here. Find below part 2. Further excerpts to follow.

C. Arrival of Protestantism in Latin America

The exportation of the Inquisition to Spain’s colonies helped to ensure few cases of Protestantism in Latin America before the 1800s. The Reformation and Spain’s colonisation of the New World were contemporary events. Thus, Spain was not only motivated by religious zeal in its efforts to stamp out Protestantism across Latin America. Protestantism was also the religion of Spain’s maritime enemy, the English, and as was regarded as a highly subversive political ideology that threatened Spain’s hold over her colonies. David Martin, speaking of this longstanding Anglo-Hispanic enmity, speaks of a “clash between the Hispanic imperium and the Anglo-Saxon imperium”, which he regards as “one of the longest running of all wars.” For Martin the defeat of the Spanish Armada is symbolic of this longstanding ideological enmity between Catholic Spain and Protestant England. (4)  Another observer of Latin American Protestantism, Jean-Pierre Bastian, agrees: -

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Dictionary of Major Biblical Interpreters

29 January 2010

Dictionary of Major Biblical Interpreters, by Donald K. McKim, ed.
Leicester: InterVarsity Press, 2008.
Review originally published on the IVP website.

An Invaluable Resource for Hermeneutics, Biblical Studies and Church History Alike

This excellent book, which boasts an impressive list of contributors, represents an essential hermeneutics resource. As well as over 200 entries on major biblical interpreters, it offers an invaluable panorama of hermeneutic history divided into six periods, thereby rooting each individual interpreter within an essential historical, ecclesiastical and philosophical framework. The broadly sympathetic articles provide historical context and biographical details for each interpreter, together with their exegetical methods and hermeneutical significance. Each article includes a useful list of further reading. Major interpreters from across church history are represented. Essays exploring well-known figures (eg Barth, Childs, Schleiermacher) are substantial and insightful, discussing not only their hermeneutic but also those theological and philosophical influences underpinning it. Less well-known interpreters are also examined, together with church figures better known for other reasons (eg Athanasius, Bede, Jonathan Edwards) but whose biblical interpretation is nonetheless important. I know of no resource like this, providing the student and scholar alike with a bewildering array of first rate material. Not only a hermeneutics resource, this book is equally useful for church history and biblical studies, and at just £30 for over 1100 pages represents excellent value. I will be making it required reading for our undergraduate hermeneutics programme.

Review by: Dr Calvin L. Smith
Course Director, Midlands Bible College, England.

Except 1, "Pentecostalism and Politics in Latin America"

Back in 2007 I produced a manual for an M.A. module exploring Pentecostalism and politics in Latin America for the University of Wales. Because of my ongoing research into this field, which is why some people visit this blog, over the next couple of weeks I thought I'd intersperse my other posts with the occasional excerpt from this study guide for those interested in learning more about Pentecostal political involvement in Central and South America. So anyway, here's the first excerpt.

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Faith in Democracy

28 January 2010

Just received details of the latest Tyndale House newsletter, which includes a short piece on Dr Jonathan Chaplin, Director of the Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics (based at Tyndale House), who is a consulting editor at the Evangelical Review of Society and Politics. Anyway, here is what the Tyndale newsletter states. Be sure to click on the Guardian link.

KLICE Making Waves

In December Dr Jonathan Chaplin, Director of the Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics, based at Tyndale House, caused consternation to a large number of secularist readers of The Guardian, one of Britain's leading newspapers. Dr Chaplin demonstrated some of the problems with the secularist desire to exclude religion from public life, and in doing so provoked the largest number of responses on the newspaper's website that it has known for this type of article. You can read the article here:

www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2009/dec/05/faith-role-in-democratic-debate  
 
The Tyndale newsletter can be found here.