leaf
Posted by Paul | Filed under photos
Tags: photos
Last night a theologian saved my life…
Posted by Paul | Filed under web sights
Well, not technically last night, but then the cultural reference would be lost along with the point of this post…
Anyway, today wasn’t the greatest of days, but this mp3 by Jeremy Begbie, on musical pictures for newness, certainly improved things.
Tags: mp3s, web sights
Graham Tomlin on church and work
Posted by Paul | Filed under work
Graham Tomlin of St Paul’s Theological Centre has a great post on his blog, sort of based on Thoughts on the Financial Crisis, but extending onto thoughts on the task of the church in the wider culture and the way the church connects with the work of its members:
Stanley Hauerwas argues that “the most important social task of Christians is to be nothing less than a community capable of forming people with virtues sufficient to witness to God’s truth in the world” In other words, the church’s primary task is not to tell the world how to run itself, nor to prescribe particular policies or strategies, but to be a community capable of developing people of virtue and goodness, who are more likely to make good, considerate, wise choices, than bad, harmful or selfish ones.…
Holy Trinity Brompton, my church in London has what in my experience are rather unusual regular prayer meetings. The unique thing is that the solicitors, the teachers and the healthcare workers do not gather to pray for the work of the church, but the church meets to pray for the work of the solicitors, the teachers and the healthcare workers. Here the church … simply meets to encourage them, pray for them that they may have the perspective of the kingdom of God on their work, to pray for wisdom, courage and grace in the work they are called to… It is a vision of a church trying to be what Hauerwas suggests – a church seeking not to prescribe policy, but to form them in practical Christ-like goodness and wisdom, so that they become the bedrock of a functioning society, and trustworthy signposts to the Kingdom of God.
Things I found this week…
Posted by Paul | Filed under web sights
A collection of thought-provoking items found or re-discovered this week.
The essence of idolatry is that high expectations, together with fear, combine to narrow your consciousness merely to interaction with your “god”, while at the same time you delegate power and influence to your god, so that you allow it to take the lead. It then forges or inscribes within you patterns of obedience.Compare this with what has happened in recent years. Financial markets were given control over the real economy. At last, declared the President of the German Federal Bank, politicians have been brought under the control of the financial markets.
Finally, an interesting quote from Craig Detweiler, in an interview with John Morehead
During the Enlightenment era it was important to emphasize truth claims and to be able to argue and defend the faith in a scientific era. But we became wedded to a logical expression of the faith, almost like a “logical seminary” rather than a “theological seminary.” But now that we’re in an artistic age full of metaphors and imagination, we find ourselves behind the times and having to play catch up. So we need a more imaginative, beautiful and creative way to talk about God and interact with film, art, music, literature, etc.
Tags: art, web sights
A random walk over culture, art, christianity, etc. with occasional photographs...