Calvin on Christ in the law and the gospel In our fallen condition, the law of Moses functions to show and restrain sin and to point to Christ. But for believers, it is principally a guide.
Christianity: A Very Liberal Introduction Linda Woodhead’s ‘Very Short Introduction’ tells the story of three types of Christianity: Church (bad), biblical (bad) and mystical (good).
Calvin on our need for redemption in Christ Before Calvin introduces God as Redeemer in Christ (in Book II, chapter 6), he makes us acutely aware of our need for redemption (chapters 1-5).
Alastair Roberts on Brexit and the divided nation Brexit has revealed many deep divisions within British society, chiefly between ‘cosmopolitans’ and ‘provincials’. What drives these two mindsets?
The Three Brexiteers Why did people vote to leave the EU? My hunch is that there are three groups: idealists, pragmatists, and the chronically disaffected and disempowered.
Wright on resurrection A few reflections on NT Wright’s 2003 book, ‘The Resurrection of the Son of God’.
A prospective ordinand’s travel journal My quest for a CofE theological college took me to Cranmer Hall (Durham), Oak Hill College (London), Ridley Hall (Cambridge) and Wycliffe Hall (Oxford).
Three cheers for the EU! Solidarity, subsidiarity, democracy: three reasons why I’ll be voting to remain, in the EU referendum.
The mission of the church and the decline in voluntary organisations Voluntary organisations are declining as consumerism rises. This affects the church too. How should we respond? How should we do church in this context?
The parable of the sower, dramatised Is Jesus, perhaps, acting out the parable of the sower as he tells it? Jesus tells the parable so that the crowd do not understand but the disciples do.
What if Jesus’ body were still in the tomb? What if I told you that Jesus had been raised from the dead, but that his body was still in the tomb? What difference would it make?
What if it were still Holy Saturday? What if Jesus’ body were still in the tomb until the day when God ushers in his eternal kingdom? What difference would that make?
Ten years of (non-)blogging There have been lots of tenth anniversaries so far this year. But the biggest celebration is today, 24 April: exactly ten years of blogging on this site.
Watching the English The ‘core’ of Englishness, says Kate Fox, is our acute social dis-ease. This is reflected in our use of humour, our aversion to earnestness, and more.
Whatever happened to congregational singing? The text of a short talk I gave as part of my BAP. There’s something about singing together (as opposed to singing along) that forms and binds a community.
Dating Easter: a brief (and inadequate) guide One of the outcomes of the meeting of Anglican primates in January was an agreement to work towards a fixed date for Easter. What’s that all about then?
Revving up Just a quick announcement to say that I’ve been given the green light to train for ordained ministry in the Church of England!
Twenty years of following Jesus It was twenty years ago today, but I remember it vividly. At that youth service, the preacher encouraged us to commit our lives to God, and I did so, out of a real sense of God drawing me to himself.
Calvin on providence Calvin is perhaps best known for his teaching about predestination, free will and providence. His approach to providence is both scriptural and pastoral.
Disconnected? I’ve been trying to cut down on my usage of social media, and of the internet in general. This is what I’ve been trying…
Calvin on creation, angels and devils Picking up Calvin’s Institutes after a short (ahem) pause, we move from the doctrine of God to the doctrine of creation, in chapters 14 and 15 of Book I.
Hymns of hope (10) Amazing grace John Newton’s classic hymn, Amazing grace, was published in 1779 as part of his Olney Hymns. How does it speak about our future hope?
Hymns of hope (9) Lo! He comes If you had to describe the Christian hope for the future in terms of someone moving in some direction, then who would be moving, and in which direction?
Hymns of hope I’ve been wanting to resurrect this occasional series, looking at the theme of hope in Christian hymns and songs. Here is an index for the series.
Back to Genesis: why was Eve deceived? Still thinking about women’s ordination, I’m afraid. The key verses from 1 Timothy 2 clearly allude to Genesis 2 and 3, so maybe we should head there?
When we write code, we shape the world Fascinating talk by Avdi Grimm at last month’s LoneStarRuby on The Soul of Software. He contrasts two perspectives on software: Formalism. This is ...
Women teaching men: why was Eve deceived? I honestly thought I’d have nailed 1 Timothy 2 by now (‘I do not permit a woman to teach…’). But I haven’t. So this post is a bit of a work in progress.
Women bishops and the question of conscience Supposing we reach the conclusion that women shouldn’t be ordained as priests or bishops, then what next? What are we consicence-bound to do?
It is not a supper you eat John Stevens has a timely and provocative article on the Lord’s Supper, in which he argues that it should be celebrated in the context of a proper meal.
Kenneth Bailey on women in the New Testament Discussions about the ordination of women often focus on certain key passages in the New Testament. This can give the impression that it’s just a matter...
John Stott on women’s ordination John Stott seemed broadly in favour of women’s ordination, based on his Issues facing Christians today (4th edition, 2006). He unpacks the Bible’s teac...
The ordination of women I’m trying to think through my position on women’s ordination, having tried to avoid the issue for years. Since I came to a living faith in my teens, t...
Why are we so obsessed with gender? It might not be overstating things to say that we find ourselves at a turning point in Western history. History is moving forwards at a considerable pac...
I’m not a person of faith There are two types of people: normal people, and everyone else. How you unpack that depends on what you think of as normal. So there are Brits and fo...
Faith at the ballot box: Greens Over on Thomas Creedy’s blog there has been a series of posts, in which Christians from various political parties answer a set of questions. I took part...
Coding for Christ? There was a post of mine on the Faith in Scholarship blog a couple of days ago. It begins as follows… While I was an academic astronomer, I probably...
General election Bible study I cobbled this Bible study together at the weekend. It is unrefined and untested, but I post it here in case it might be useful. The main inspiration is...
Trident dilemma What if… North Korea has nuked London. Trident is ready. You are in charge. Pyongyang will be destroyed. 2.5 million will die. Do you press the button?
On the (social capital) deficit Any who are concerned about the sharp decline in “social capital” over recent decades would do well to read Harvard professor Robert Putnam’s 2000 class...
Christianity and the Green Party A little flurry of online activity on this topic over the past few days. First, there was Gillan Scott’s post on Archbishop Cranmer, entitled Green Par...
A Christian guide to the General Election: Votewise 2015 If you’re a Christian thinking about how to vote (or whether to vote) in the 2015 General Election, and if you read just one short book on the topic, th...
Keep it in the ground Major new campaign from the Guardian, in partnership with 350.org. We’re heading for disaster if we burn the vast quantity of known fossil fuel reserves...
The first chapters of everything This recent (2014) book on Genesis 1-4 by Alasdair Paine (of St Andrew the Great in Cambridge) is a joy to read. The emphasis is on how the chapters mak...
On the Green Party’s policies A couple of people asked me what I made of the Telegraph’s recent article on Green Party policy, Drugs, brothels, al-Qaeda and the Beyonce tax: the Gree...
Christians in Politics: will you #ShowUp? In politics, it has been said, decisions are made by those who show up. Christians in Politics launched a new campaign today: The Show Up campaign ...
bundle open gem source I didn’t realise you could do this, from a Ruby or Rails project using bundler/Gemfile: bundle open activerecord
Christian same-sex marriage? I recently read one of the most prominent books of its kind: Jeffrey John’s Permanent, Faithful, Stable: Christian Same-sex Marriage. It’s the first suc...
Election 2015: Christian comment from KLICE The excellent Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics (KLICE) has a new page devoted to the 2015 (general) election. You can read all about it in th...
Steel Angels: the personal qualities of a priest The Church of England puts people forward for ordination based on nine criteria. Those criteria form the basis for this 2014 book by Magdalen Smith, who...
On feeling called to be ordained The most helpful parts of Francis Dewar’s book Called or Collared? are those dealing with the idea that you must believe that you are ‘inwardly moved by...
Ministry in Three Dimensions I’m writing this from the Bible Belt of the Netherlands: a strip running from the south west towards the east of the country, in which there are many co...
Do you feel called by God? You don’t need to! That’s the main point of Michael Bennett’s 2012 book, Do you feel called by God? (Matthias Media). From the back cover: When Mic...
God with us (in the lab) There’s a post of mine on the Faith in Scholarship blog this morning. It begins as follows… It’s hard to predict how I will feel at the end of the C...
On women bishops This week (in case you missed it) the Church of England announced its first ever female bishop: Libby Lane, to serve as the (suffragan) Bishop of Stockp...
Depot application with RSpec An excellent introduction to Ruby on Rails is Agile Web Development with Rails 4 by Sam Ruby. Around half of the book is devoted to building the “depot”...
Theological reflection: a theological reflection 1. Experience I wrote a theological reflection. You are reading it. 2. Exploration This seems so simple! 3. Reflection Are there any theological re...
Rails architecture Three thought-provoking talks about the architecture of a Rails application First, Bob Martin (2011) argues that Rails ought to be an irrelevant detail...
Models of the Church We live in an age of ecclesiastical chaos. Never before have so many wildly different kinds of churches existed side by side in the same towns and citie...
The Provocative Church A quick post, to remind you that I’m still here, and to draw your attention to an excellent little book about evangelism and the Church, The Provocative...
Too much Rails code? Put it in a gem! If you extract some of your Rails code into a gem, and test the gem separately, this will guarantee that the gem cannot depend on the rest of your appli...
The Lost World of Genesis One Continuing on the theme of creation/evolution-related books from around five years ago (1, 2), we now move across the pond to Wheaton College, Illinois,...
Weapons cause wars: Alan Storkey on the First World War I first heard Alan Storkey give a talk about the arms trade in 2010, at a WYSOCS event, and it had a deep effect on me. He made me realise something tha...
Astronomy through a Christian telescope There’s a post of mine on the Faith in Scholarship blog this morning. It begins as follows… One of the motivations for Faith in Scholarship is the c...
Debating Darwin Debating Darwin (Paternoster, 2009) is a multi-author book, seeking to debate Darwinism first on theological grounds, and then on scientific grounds. Ea...
On good disagreement and the future of the Church of England Live in harmony with one another. … If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone (Romans 12:16,18). Make every effo...
Creation or evolution: do we have to keep getting nowhere? It is with some reluctance that I turn to the topic of creation and evolution. It’s something I’ve thought about a lot in years gone by, but I’ve tried ...
Morning Prayers From the Book of Common Prayer: O God, who art the author of peace and lover of concord, in knowledge of whom standeth our eternal life, whose servi...
Creationist research in palaeontology Leonard Brand is a biologist and palaeontologist. He’s also a young-age creationist. He believes the world was deluged by a global flood just a few thou...
Church history lectures You can learn a huge amount by downloading lecture courses and listening to them while doing other bits and pieces. Specifically, over the space of seve...
Jekyll with Prose Jekyll is a beautifully lightweight alternative to the likes of WordPress. But the main disadvantage, for ‘normal’ users, is that you really need to be ...
David Powlison on being thankful David Powlison is a Christian counsellor. In the video below he talks about gratitude as an antidote to grumbling, and about the pastoral value of the G...
Why and how do we celebrate the Lord’s Supper? Whether our tradition is ‘liturgical’ or ‘non-liturgical’, it’s all too easy to simply go through the motions when sharing the Lord’s Supper. Whether we...
Anglicanism Anglicanism is certainly broad. But does it have only an organic nature, which may be stretched and remoulded without constraint? What are its limits?
Multi-site mega-churches and their bishops If you think of Anglican churches in terms of the diocese, they look like multi-site mega-churches.
The human being who rules the universe He has raised our human nature in the clouds to God’s right hand; there we sit in heavenly places, there with him in glory stand: Jesus reigns, adore...
The real environmental problems and how to solve them Just came across this quote1 by Gus Speth, a professor of law and former administrator of the UN Development Programme, in the latest issue of Tearfund’...
The Catholic Faith (of the Church of England) I sometimes wonder what it would have been like in the Church of England, in the days when the Book of Common Prayer (BCP) was universally used, and i...
Vote Green on 22 May! I haven’t had much time for blogging lately, but I interrupt my (non-)blog silence for a brief party political broadcast. I’ll be voting for the Green ...
What’s bothering me about Rails’s ActiveRecord class Product < ActiveRecord::Base # All of my attributes are public end I expect there are very good reasons to ditch the whole idea of encapsul...
What is ordained ministry? I was asked to write something about the difference between lay and ordained ministry, with particular reference to the Church of England. Here it is… ...
Government orders “lazy” population to get out of bed earlier The British population has been described as “lazy” and chided for “excessive lie-ins”, in a scathing attack by the Chancellor. “The reason the economy...
The life and work of a priest John Pritchard is Bishop of Oxford, and has spent many years either serving in parish ministry, training others to serve in parish ministry, or overseei...
When is a priest not a priest? Our English word priest comes from the Latin word presbyter, which itself comes from the Greek word presbuteros. When this Greek word appears in the Bib...
I’m a Christian and this is why I vote Green I’d love to write a post under this title, but, fortunately for me (and for you!), fellow Green Party member Stephen Gray has saved me the hard work! ...
Climate change is here now: an urgent call to action Harsh though it may sound, I’m glad that we are experiencing yet more crazy weather here in the West. Not glad for those people suffering real hardship,...
WordPress to Jekyll If either of you read my posts by actually visiting this site, rather than by using an RSS feed reader (such as feedly), then you may have noticed some ...
Why winds explain the warming hiatus There has been a lot of talk recently about a suppose “pause” in global warming. Well, a study led by Professor Matt England of the University of New So...
What is the mission of the church? Kevin DeYoung is very concerned about the church fulfilling its calling to proclaim the gospel. And rightly so: people’s greatest need is for a restored...
Links I've always had lots of links on this site ("always" as in "since before 2002"). Such a list was a good idea in the days before Google (BG). But now I t...
WordPress to Jekyll Change of plan: I'm moving this site not from WordPress to Rails, but from WordPress to Jekyll. It was kind of fun developing a blog from scratch in Rai...
Wirral wind power I seem to have found my way onto the letters page of this week's Wirral Globe. Here's the letter (title is editorial): Wind power debate is full of hot ...
How being Anglican deepens faith Todd Hunter, in the video below, is a bishop in the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA). Now, strictly speaking, ACNA is not (yet) part of the (offi...
Hope in an Age of Despair (review) I had this review published in the Winter 2013/2014 edition of Green Christian, the magazine of the Christian Ecology Link (CEL). It's now on their webs...
Monday Monteverdi A bit of Monteverdi to brighten up your Monday. One of my Christmas presents was the CD Monteverdi - Teatro D'Amore by L'Arpeggiata. Here's a video of o...
Genesis in 7 and 10 The book of Genesis has ten major sections, each beginning with "These are the generations of ..." (toledoth in Hebrew). Before the first of these secti...
On the visible universal church I (think) I used to hold to a view of the church which goes something like this: if you put your trust in Jesus, you become part of the invisible-univer...
They followed the Scriptures: Hugh Ross on the Christmas star Hugh Ross is an astrophysicist who is the president and founder of the science-faith think tank Reasons to Believe. He has some helpful short videos (am...
The party isn’t over It's not easy to party for twelve days. Our celebrations typically last for no more than a day. We have a great time, eating, drinking and dancing, and ...