Guest Author by Donald Allister (read foreword, chapter one, chapter three, chapter four) Living apart: a sad state of affairs The Bible is important, relevant, alive, and worth spending time on; doctrine is unimportant, irrelevant, dead, and worth avoiding: that’s how many Christians think or feel. In recent years there has been a return to the Bible … Continue Reading
Islam’s homeless mind By Jenny Taylor I admit I was apprehensive. The words Deobandi Dar-ul-Uloom had haunted me for years – and here I was preparing to drive there to check it out. This is the seminary (literally ‘house of knowledge’) where Britain’s most radicalised Muslim preachers have historically received their training. The Taleban were … Continue Reading
The Royal Academy of Arts’ The Real Van Gogh exhibition, which opened on January 23, 2010, is reportedly the first major loan exhibition of the works of this great artist that has been seen in London in over forty years. In light of this fact, it might be thought that the exhibition needs no further justification, at … Continue Reading
‘Slaughter, Vengeance and the Burning Wrath of God’. How ‘Christian’ is the Bible? by Martin Kuhrt The Bible is still the world’s most in-demand book, or more accurately, collection of books. But in Western 21st century culture the Bible is, for many, in disrepute. Certain passages may still be popular and widely accepted as containing … Continue Reading
It may seem very attractive to see Jesus as some sort of projection or validation of our own standards and aspirations. Yet if we allow that Jesus has authority simply because he echoes what we happen to believe to be right, we are setting ourselves above him in judgement. It is our own concepts of … Continue Reading
Salvation outside the Church – But why then, evangelize? Reflections from a Roman Catholic perspective By Stephen Bevans, SVD A Time of Certainty “Sweet Baby Jesus, help the poor heathen!” This was the repeated refrain in a prayer for the Christmas season in one of the official prayerbooks of my own Catholic religious missionary congregation, … Continue Reading
Renewing the Face of the Earth, by David Atkinson Reviewed by John Davidson Originally published in the Bulletin of the Society of Ordained Scientists, number 45: Autumn 2009 David Atkinson is a member of the Society of Ordained Scientists, and has recently retired as Bishop of Thetford.Though his background is in organic chemistry and X-ray … Continue Reading
The end of Christian mission by Matthew Vaughan While manning the Interserve stand at New Wine last summer I chatted to a lady who had glanced at our stand and wanted to know what we did. After I had given her the usual talk – 10/40 window, building the church, people for the hard places, … Continue Reading
reflections on the threshold of the New Year by David Runcorn Just around the corner from our house the road turns sharply, sloping steeply into a brief, tree-canopied cutting called ‘The Hollow’. Half way down is a thatched cottage that is featured in a painting on our wall, the work of a previous vicar of … Continue Reading
The Final Text of the Anglican Communion Covenant: Clear Consequences copublished, with permission, with The Living Church, and Covenant, 22 December 2009 By Dr Josiah Idowu-Fearon, Archbishop of the Province of Kaduna, Nigeria The final text of the Covenant is the result of hard work by the various carefully selected sisters and brothers from several … Continue Reading