Craig Keener on the Gospel

Craig Keener has published a long entry on ‘Gospel, Good News’, which is available in the free, online St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology (here, and as a pdf here).

Summary as follows:

‘The New Testament gospel, or “good news”, is especially the announcement of Jesus’ saving death and resurrection. The New Testament explains that it is “according to the scriptures.” This means that this good news must be understood in light of the backstory of God’s saving acts in history. It also means that it must be understood especially in light of the Old Testament prophetic promise of future restoration effected through Jesus the Messiah. This article surveys some suggested background for the primary early Christian use of “gospel”, some key New Testament uses of the terms translated as “gospel” and “preach the gospel”, the development and relevance of this gospel for the first-century Gospel texts, and (briefly) some of the language’s subsequent interpretations and applications.’

Currents in Biblical Research 18, 2 (February 2020)

The latest Currents in Biblical Research recently arrived, with titles and abstracts of the main articles as below.

Joshua T. James

Research Trends in the Study of the Ethics of the Psalms

The study of the ethics of the Psalms is a relative newcomer in the field of Old Testament ethics, having garnered most of its interest following Wenham’s initial essay on the subject in 2005. In hindsight, the neglect of the Psalms is surprising given its overt ethical concerns, but throughout the early phase of the re-emergence of Old Testament ethics (from 1983 to the end of the twentieth century), it was indeed woefully overlooked. The goal of this article is to provide a survey of work on the subject. Because the content and themes of these studies are still somewhat limited, the article is arranged according to the interpretive methodology or hermeneutical framework guiding the various authors’ contributions. In addition to surveying the field, this approach allows for the dominant trends to be observed and set within their proper context.

Tammi J. Schneider

In the Beginning and Still Today: Recent Publications on Genesis

This article reviews the monographs and edited volumes on the book of Genesis published since 2015. As a means of organizing the material, the books reviewed are categorized into groupings that reflect different aspects of the study of Genesis as a book, as well as the field of biblical studies and its placement within the humanities writ large. The organizational process leads to examining who writes about Genesis, the perceived audience, and how publishers consider their task and role in the process of disseminating scholarship on the book. An apparent shift in biblical studies, or at least in research on the book of Genesis, is identified towards situating the material more into world history and contemporary issues than into the historical-critical method.

T.M. Lemos

Order from Chaos: Comparing Approaches to Violence in Anthropology, Assyriology, and the Study of the Hebrew Bible

This article compares the history of scholarship on violence in anthropology in the past one hundred years to major approaches to studying violence in the ancient Near East and ancient Near Eastern sources, including ancient Israel and Israelite literature. The article demonstrates that anthropology and ancient Near Eastern studies have diverged widely in their approaches to violence. In the past two to three decades, the concept of structural violence and new materialist approaches have dominated the study of violence in anthropology, while in Assyriology and the study of ancient Israel/Israelite literature, studies of violence have repeatedly turned to an order and chaos framework. The article ends by suggesting that scholars of ancient West Asia incorporate new materialist approaches more concertedly in studies of violence and either rethink or jettison the simplistic order/chaos dyad.

Matthew W. Bates

The External-Relational Shift in Faith (Pistis) in New Testament Research: Romans 1 as Gospel-Allegiance Test Case

Evidence is marshalled for a recent ‘external-relational shift’ in scholarly understandings of pistis (traditionally translated ‘faith’) among New Testament scholars and historians of early Christianity and its social world. There is a movement away from predominantly personal existential accounts of pistis toward those that are relational and outwardly manifest. ‘Faith’ (pistis) is predominantly a way of life characterized by fidelity or loyalty which is outwardly expressed in relationships. Beyond the New Perspective on Paul, which is an obvious factor, four streams are feeding this shift: (1) the pistis Christou debate, (2) increased appreciation of ancient social and cultural norms, (3) advances in linguistics, and (4) an emphasis on the gospel as a royal proclamation. To show why the external-relational shift matters theologically, Paul’s use of pistis in Romans 1 is explored along external-relational lines.

9Marks Journal (March 2020) on Gospel-Centered Preaching

The latest issue of the 9Marks Journal, available from here in various formats, looks at the question, ‘What’s wrong with gospel-centered preaching today?’

In the Editorial Note, Jonathan Leeman describes a conversation he had with David Helm, in which the latter mentioned that he was concerned about the growing popularity of gospel-centered preaching. As Leeman describes it:

‘What?! Why? Isn’t gospel-centered preaching a good thing?

‘He answered, “Because the tail is going to start wagging the dog.” Helm was worried that young preachers would get lazy, not pay close attention to their texts, and move toward Christ too quickly. They wouldn’t do careful exegetical work; or preach the point of their particular texts; or take canonically responsible ways of moving toward the gospel. To put it another way, they would allegorize.

‘Of course, that’s not the only problem with preaching out there. Some preachers don’t preach the gospel at all. Others fail to apply the text to their whole church. And still others fail to respect the rules of their particular genre, have bad biblical theology, or preach without exemplars.’

Romans 12: God’s New People #2 – Where We Start

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Romans 12:1-2

I wonder if you could guess what word is used most in Paul’s letter to the Romans? Once we disregard commonly-occurring words like ‘the’, ‘and’, ‘in’, and ‘he’, the word most used is not ‘law’ or ‘sin’ or ‘faith’ or ‘justified’ or ‘Jew’ or ‘Gentile’, or even ‘Jesus’. The word used most in Romans is ‘God’.

What is Romans all about? The gospel? Salvation? Justification? Faith? Jesus? Yes, all of these and more, but only as they are understood in relation to God. That’s where we start.

In particular, we start with the mercy of God.

The argument of the letter reaches a peak towards the end of chapter 11, where Paul refers four times to God’s mercy (11:30-32), making it clear that no-one, Jew or Gentile, can make any claim of entitlement on God, and that the ultimate basis of God’s actions in salvation is mercy.

It’s for that reason – ‘in view of God’s mercy’ – that Paul now urges us to live out the call to be God’s new covenant people. The starting point is not primarily community cohesiveness (live this way in order to get on with each other) or even missional effectiveness (live this way in order to display the faith to outsiders). Paul’s appeal to live this kind of life is grounded first and foremost in God’s mercy.

That’s where we start. And that could be worth remembering at the beginning of a new working week, in an uncertain political scene which seems to be changing daily, in the difficult patch in the relationship with the teenager in the household, in caring for the spouse suffering with ill-health.

There’s great encouragement to be had here. In all the particularities of life, many of us read passages like Romans 12 and think we could never live up to the demands that seem to be required. And then we remember what Paul has already described for us: the mercy of God in bringing us into covenant relationship with himself, without reference to our family history or ability to keep the law; the mercy of God seen in the good news of salvation available to all who call on the name of the Lord.

The gospel is about what God has done in Christ for the world. Christian lifestyle and mission flows from that, but it begins with God not with us. Start there.

Preaching With Convictions

I recently wrote two short articles on preaching, as possible alternatives to go on the LICC website. This is the one that wasn’t selected! The other one focuses on Scripture, and I’ll post it here when it appears on the LICC website.

John Stott said of preaching that ‘the essential secret is not mastering certain techniques but being mastered by certain convictions’ (John Stott with Greg Scharf, The Challenge of Preaching [Carlisle: Langham Partnership International, 2011], 13). That rings true. It seems somehow appropriate that the starting point in preaching begins not with ourselves as preachers, or even with our congregations, but with convictions about God himself – his gospel, his word, and his mission.

1. We see a vision – the gospel of God

What’s in mind here is a big picture view of the gospel – which involves not only the rescue of men and women from judgment, but the renewal of God’s relationship with humanity, and the restoration of creation itself. The good news of what God has done in Christ carries zoom-lens implications for the personal redemption of individual men and women, and wide-angle lens implications for the cosmic reconciliation of all things. As such, it’s a whole-life gospel. It shapes our attitude and approach to even the mundane things of everyday life, like washing the dishes and walking the dog.

So, as preachers, we first and foremost proclaim the gospel. We declare the good news of what God has done in Christ for the sake of the world. And in doing that, the purpose of the sermon is not to send people away with a list of things they must do, but with a reminder of what God has done – in Christ and through his Spirit – and with a different way of seeing God and the world and themselves, flowing out of the reality of Jesus as Lord over all things.

Then, our perspective on preaching will also be shaped by our convictions about Scripture, God’s word.

2. We hear a voice – the word of God

In some traditions, the reading of the Bible ends with the statement, ‘This is the word of the Lord’, to which the congregation normally replies: ‘Thanks be to God’. That declaration and response capture something significant about the Christian confession of Scripture – that the Bible is the very word of God, God speaking to us. And it’s to be received with gratitude – ‘thanks be to God’ – which isn’t always easy, perhaps, depending on the passage!

Paul writes in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 that Scripture is breathed out by God, and that it makes us ‘wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus’, and is useful for ‘teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness’, so that God’s people ‘may be thoroughly equipped for every good work’. And he goes on to say to Timothy: ‘preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage – with great patience and careful instruction’ (4:1-2).

God has spoken in the Bible, and continues to speak through what he has spoken. That gives us great confidence as preachers. We preach what was being said in the biblical passage, so that the same instruction, encouragement, commission, warning, or promise is passed on to the congregation. And we trust that the same Spirit who inspired the text will press it home to today’s hearers.

Our conviction about the Bible as the word of God means we see it as that through which God speaks to his people today and equips us to live out the salvation brought by Jesus.

But equips us for what? Which leads nicely to our third conviction – preaching and the mission of God.

3. We receive a call – the mission of God

Mission doesn’t start with Christ’s commission to ‘make disciples of all nations’ in Matthew 28. It has always been God’s plan to bless all nations – and the whole Bible tells the story of God’s mission, which comes to its culmination in Christ and in the sending out of the whole church in the power of the Spirit.

The Bible tells the story of God’s mission, but also equips us for God’s mission. That means we can ask questions like: how does this passage help us understand God’s mission in the world? What kind of people does this passage call us to become in order to embody God’s purposes in our everyday lives?

So, if John Stott is right when he says that the secret of preaching is not mastering certain techniques but being mastered by certain convictions, what might it mean for our preaching to be mastered by convictions about the gospel of God, the word of God, and the mission of God?

It leads us to be confident about preaching in the way God works, because we’re able to see that a Christ-centred, Spirit-dependent preaching of Scripture forms the gathered people of God, a people who are then sent into the world to testify in word and deed to the presence of God’s reign, bearing witness to what God has done in Christ.

Rediscovering the Gospel

I contributed this week’s ‘Word for the Week’, a weekly email service provided by the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity.

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God – the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son… Jesus Christ our Lord… God, whom I serve in my spirit in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness… I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome. I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes… for in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed…

Romans 1:1-4, 9, 14-17

This week sees the 500th anniversary of an event which arguably set in motion what has come to be known as the Reformation. Martin Luther’s 95 theses, nailed to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg – serving as a public noticeboard – were an invitation to debate. They were triggered by the sale of indulgences (pardons for certain types of sins), but quickly led to other questions about how we know God and how we can be right with God. For Luther and others, at their heart was the nature of the gospel itself.

Whatever we make of Luther, the Reformation, and its aftermath, it’s vital for us constantly to return to what really matters. It’s all too easy for our faith to become about who we are and what we do when it’s first and foremost what God himself has done – for us and for the world – in Christ. The gospel is not some abstract teaching about the nature of salvation, but the announcement of the good news that God saves.

In these opening verses of his letter to the Christians in Rome, Paul makes it clear that the gospel is focused on ‘Jesus Christ our Lord’ and rooted in Scripture, the fruition of promises made long ago through the prophets. Nor is it merely a private claim, but one of public truth – it’s good news for the whole world.

Small wonder, then, that the gospel defines Paul and his ministry, that he is set aside for it, that he is so eager to preach it. Recall what he says of the gospel: the declaration of God’s saving power through the work of his Son, not least by bringing men and women into relationship with himself, which comes about as it always has done – through faith, from first to last – and which is available equally to all who believe, breaking down barriers between ethnic groups in the process. How could he be ashamed of that?

And, since belief in the gospel comes bound up with a particular view of reality – of God, creation, humanity, sin, redemption – we discover that it provides the perspective from which to view the whole of life. Whole-life discipleship begins with the gospel.

Wherever we find ourselves today, and whatever we have to turn our hand to, may the God of the gospel of Jesus Christ be our strength, our joy, and our hope.

Mark Meynell on a Wilderness of Mirrors

I wrote the following mini review for EG, the quarterly magazine produced by the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity. Mark is a friend, but that has in no way biased my reading of his superb book!

Mark Meynell, A Wilderness of Mirrors: Trusting Again in a Cynical World (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2015).

One of the significant currents swirling around society today is the breakdown of trust – in politicians, businesses, authorities and institutions, including the church. Hand in hand with that goes cynicism and a sense of betrayal. How are we to live in such a world?

Addressing these issues, Mark Meynell serves up a well-researched, well-written book, with much to delight pundits of politics, history, philosophy, and popular culture. Here Thomas Hardy rubs shoulders with Monty Python, U2 with John Le Carré. But it’s deeply sensitive as well as informative. And ultimately hopeful too, because of what Mark believes about the way God works in the world, because of the self-giving love of Jesus in serving the powerless, and because of the community that gathers around him and his word.

A Wilderness of Mirrors calls us to rediscover the radical implications of the gospel for a disillusioned world, a world more than ever in need of Christ’s trustworthy goodness.

Where We Start

I contributed today’s ‘Word for the Week’, a weekly email service provided by the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Romans 12:1-2

I wonder if you could guess what word is used most in Paul’s letter to the Romans? Once we disregard commonly-occurring words like ‘the’, ‘and’, ‘in’, and ‘he’, the word most used is not ‘law’ or ‘sin’ or ‘faith’ or ‘justified’ or ‘Jew’ or ‘Gentile’, or even ‘Jesus’. The word used most in Romans is ‘God’.

What is Romans all about? The gospel? Salvation? Justification? Faith? Jesus? Yes, all of these and more, but only as they are understood in relation to God. That’s where we start.

In particular, we start with the mercy of God.

The argument of the letter reaches a peak towards the end of chapter 11, where Paul refers four times to God’s mercy (11:30-32), making it clear that no-one, Jew or Gentile, can make any claim of entitlement on God, and that the ultimate basis of God’s actions in salvation is mercy.

It’s for that reason – ‘in view of God’s mercy’ – that Paul now urges us to live out the call to be God’s new covenant people. The starting point is not primarily community cohesiveness (live this way in order to get on with each other) or even missional effectiveness (live this way in order to display the faith to outsiders). Paul’s appeal to live this kind of life is grounded first and foremost in God’s mercy.

That’s where we start. And that could be worth remembering at the beginning of a new working week, in an uncertain political scene which seems to be changing daily, in the difficult patch in the relationship with the teenager in the household, in caring for the spouse suffering with ill-health.

There’s great encouragement to be had here. In all the particularities of life, many of us read passages like Romans 12 and think we could never live up to the demands that seem to be required. And then we remember what Paul has already described for us: the mercy of God in bringing us into covenant relationship with himself, without reference to our family history or ability to keep the law; the mercy of God seen in the good news of salvation available to all who call on the name of the Lord.

The gospel is about what God has done in Christ for the world. Christian lifestyle and mission flows from that, but it begins with God not with us. Start there.

Timothy Keller on Center Church

Timothy Keller, Shaped by the Gospel (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2016); Loving the City (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2016); Serving a Movement (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2016).

These three books are essentially a reissue of Tim Keller’s Center Church, first published by Zondervan in 2012. For those who missed it first time round, or who struggled with the large hardback format and columns of small text, or would simply like to read it again (it repays a second read), this is a much easier way to access the material.

Keller’s vision is articulated around three core commitments, reflected in the titles of these volumes: gospel (proclaiming the gospel and its implications for the whole of life); city (exercising wisdom in how we contextualise the message, neither overadapting nor underadapting to culture); movement (the church engaging in mission as both ‘institution’ and ‘organism’, rooted in tradition and reaching out through its members).

In addition, each of the books contains reflections from two or more critical friends, to whom Keller then responds – a helpful reminder of the need for ongoing conversation in these areas.

Tim Chester on the Kingdom and the Cross

I’ve written some mini book reviews for EG, a quarterly publication from the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity. I’ll post them individually here over the next week or so.

Tim Chester, Crown of Thorns: Connecting Kingdom and Cross (Fearn: Christian Focus, 2015).

The kingdom and the cross: what God has joined together, let no one separate. That’s the gist of this short but enormously valuable and timely book. Tim Chester helps us see that there are not two competing versions of the gospel – one focused on the kingdom with God’s plan to restore all things, the other focused on the cross with the offer of forgiveness for sin. Nor is the solution a delicate balance between the two dimensions, but a coordination ‘in which the cross is central to the gospel of the kingdom and the kingdom is central to the gospel of the cross’. Read this for a helpful exploration of the relationship between the kingdom announced by Jesus and the cross proclaimed by Paul, and for a wonderful reminder that the way of God’s rule is the way of the death and resurrection of the king.

More Videos from the Bible Project

The Bible Project continues to put together a series of helpful short videos, some of which introduce the structure and themes of biblical books, and others of which trace some major themes through the entire Bible.

Since I lost posted on this, several other Bible book videos have been made available (including on Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Song of Songs, and Mark), and a themed video on The Gospel of the Kingdom.

Check them out from here (click on ‘Videos’ or scroll down to the ‘Videos/Study Guides/Posters’ section) or see them all via YouTube here.

The Whole of Life for Christ (1): Whole-Life Gospel

I contributed today’s ‘Word for the Week’, a weekly email service provided by the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity. It’s the first in a series introducing themes explored more fully in the book, The Whole of Life for Christ: Enriching Everyday Discipleship, written with Mark Greene.

How beautiful on the mountains

are the feet of those who bring good news,

who proclaim peace,

who bring good tidings,

who proclaim salvation,

who say to Zion,

‘Your God reigns!’

Isaiah 52:7

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. ‘The time has come,’ he said. ‘The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!’

Mark 1:14-15

Many religions begin by telling people what they should do; Christianity begins with what God has done. And that, right there, is what the gospel is all about – not a set of good instructions or a piece of good advice, but the good news of what God himself has accomplished, for us and for the world, in Christ.

In the Roman Empire of the first century, heralds would spread the ‘good news’ of military victories or an emperor’s coming to the throne. But for Christians, the word ‘gospel’ also came loaded with Old Testament promises of salvation. Isaiah, in particular, declares the ‘good tidings’ of God coming in power, exercising his reign, saving his people, and establishing peace. Indeed, the closing chapters of his prophecy describe how God’s reign will be universal in its scope, embracing all nations, even renewing the whole cosmos. No wonder it’s described as ‘good news’!

It’s in this light that Mark describes Jesus preaching the ‘good news’ of the arrival of God’s reign – as the culmination of a story which reaches back into God’s dealings with his people. But as the account moves on, as Jesus walks the path to death and resurrection, it becomes clear that the promised salvation will come about through the servant promised by Isaiah who would suffer and die on behalf of others. Kingdom and cross are bound together in the gospel.

It’s often tempting to reduce the gospel to a personal transaction between me and God in which Jesus dies for me, I repent, and God forgives my sin. Certainly, the gospel is not less than that. But it’s much more, involving not only the rescue of men and women from judgment, but the renewal of God’s relationship with his people, and the restoration of creation itself. The good news of what God has done in Jesus carries zoom-lens implications for the redemption of individual sinners and wide-angle implications for the reconciliation of all things.

On this understanding, a commitment to the gospel is significant for the whole of life. At home and at work, in the art gallery and the sports arena, in business and in politics, walking the dog and washing the dishes, there is no place the gospel does not touch with its implications because of the comprehensive nature of God’s saving work in Christ, his rule over every aspect of life.

Os Guinness on the Power of the Gospel

Os Guinness, Renaissance: The Power of the Gospel However Dark the Times (Downers Grove: IVP, 2014).

From a veteran in the conversation on cultural engagement comes this bracing critique of western society and challenge to Christians to be an influence in the world. While others might be pessimistic about the ability of the church to bring about real social change, Guinness points out that Christianity has changed the world in the past and can change it again – through a new renaissance, a restoration of radical faithfulness to Jesus and his way of life, and a committed engagement with surrounding society. The power of Christianity to influence culture rests in its adherence to God’s truth and its ability, in God’s strength, to live out the gospel – not just in a ‘faithful presence’ but through ‘transforming engagement’.

Michael J. Gorman on Becoming the Gospel

Michael J. Gorman, Becoming the Gospel: Paul, Participation, and Mission (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2015).

I took delivery of Michael Gorman’s most-recent book a couple of days ago, having had it on order for quite a while – which is indicative of how much I’ve been looking forward to it.

I’ve not yet had a moment to crack it open, but am eagerly looking forward to doing so, particularly having just seen an entry at EerdWord in which he responds to a couple of questions about the book.

Eerdmans describe the book as ‘the first detailed exegetical treatment of Paul’s letters from the emerging discipline of missional hermeneutics’.

He summarises:

‘In Becoming, I take a new look at several of Paul’s letters from the perspective of participation in Christ, and therefore in the life of God, as being inherently missional. In fact, I suggest that theosis, rather than being anti-mission as some might think, is the proper framework for mission because participating in the life of God means participating in the mission of God. And that means taking on the missional traits of God: faithfulness, love, peaceableness, justice, and so on.’

For those who might not be able to make it through the book, there is an earlier indication of the type of content to be expected in a short article here.

Snapshots and David A. deSilva on Transformation

I’ve just received what looks like the inaugural volume in a new series – ‘Snapshots’ – edited by Michael Bird and published by Lexham Press:

David A. deSilva, Transformation: The Heart of Paul’s Gospel (Bellingham: Lexham Press, 2014).

The blurb for the series doesn’t give away too much...

‘The Snapshots series, edited by renowned scholar Michael F. Bird, engages significant themes in contemporary biblical and theological scholarship, making them accessible to busy students of the Word and applicable in the life of the church.’

However, deSilva’s book looks interesting, with the chapter titles providing what looks like the flow of the argument:

Introduction: Hearing the Whole of Paul’s Good News

Chapter 1: Foundations for a Broader Understanding of Paul’s Gospel of Transformation

Chapter 2: The Gospel Means the Transformation of the Individual: You Are Free to Become a New Person in Christ

Chapter 3: The Gospel Means the Transformation of Community: You Are Free to Relate to One Another in New Ways

Chapter 4: The Gospel Means the Transformation of the Cosmos: You Are Free from the World’s Rules to Witness to God’s Rule

Themelios 39, 2 (July 2014)

The latest Themelios is online here (and available here as a single pdf), containing the following articles:

Editorial

D.A. Carson

What Are Gospel Issues?

Off the Record

Michael J. Ovey

Projection Atheism: Why Reductionist Accounts of Humanity Can Lead to Reductionist Accounts of God

Brian J. Tabb

Engaging with Edwards: Essays on America’s Theologian

Ralph Cunnington

A Critical Examination of Jonathan Edwards’s Doctrine of the Trinity

This article critically examines Jonathan Edwards’s doctrine of the Trinity with a particular focus upon his understanding of the person of the Holy Spirit. While his restatement of Augustinian orthodoxy served the church well during a time of great doctrinal heterodoxy, it created some problems of its own. These problems were rooted in his use of philosophical idealism, his reliance upon trinitarian analogies, and his adapted doctrine of perichoresis.

Gerald McDermott

Jonathan Edwards and God’s Inner Life: A Response to Kyle Strobel

This article surveys the state of Edwards studies today, focusing particularly on its philosophical theologians who have zeroed in on Edwards’s doctrine of God. It addresses current debates over dispositionalism, reviews a new book by Kyle Strobel, and criticizes recent uses of analytical philosophy in analyzing Edwards’s doctrine of God.

Jeremy M. Kimble

That Their Souls May Be Saved: The Theology and Practice of Jonathan Edwards on Church Discipline

A great deal of research has been done on the life and theology of Jonathan Edwards. However, there is a dearth of interest as it pertains to Edwards’s ecclesiology. As such, while certain moments in Edwards’s ministry dealing with excommunication have been dealt with, there is a need to look not only at the cases he oversaw, but also the theology that undergirded that practice of discipline. Setting Edwards in his historical context and looking specifically at both his ecclesiology and his doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, this article demonstrates how these doctrines coincided for Edwards to form a practice of church discipline that was exacting and rigorous in relation to many of his contemporaries in whose churches discipline was largely on the decline.

Kenneth J. Stewart

John Henry Newman (1801–1890) in His Second Century

In the current fascination of younger evangelicals with the ethos of both Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, John Henry Newman (1801–1890) has become something of a ‘poster child’. The autobiographical and polemical writings of this celebrated convert to Rome (largely reflecting the first half of his career) enjoy ongoing popularity; these are taken to ‘define’ the man. Yet what this current fascination tends to overlook is that across the twentieth century Newman has been taken up as the theme of critical and ecumenical inquiry. Critical scholarship stops well short of the overly deferential attitude to Newman, all too characteristic at the present time. This article surveys this ongoing discussion of Newman up to our time.

Pastoral Pensées

Eric Ortlund

Laboring in Hopeless Hope: Encouragement for Christians from Ecclesiastes

The book of Ecclesiastes diagnoses humanity’s tendency to link the value of human life with permanent accomplishment in our work. As a wisdom text, Ecclesiastes warns its readers that this approach leads to hatred of life as we realize that, from an “under the sun” perspective, we gain nothing permanent in all our labor. The wisdom of the book of Ecclesiastes rather associates the value of human life and work in its status as a gift from God, irrespective of what we accomplish. Qohelet also explains why God has so disposed the present order of things that human beings labor much, but without permanent accomplishment. This article attempts to articulate Qohelet’s wisdom for living within the present age so that we can fully engage with and enjoy God’s gifts of life and work.

Book Reviews

Fruitfulness on the Frontline: Messenger of the Gospel

I contributed this week’s ‘Word for the Week’, a weekly email service provided by the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity. This one is part seven of an eight-part series, written by a team of us at LICC, to coincide with the launch of new resources – Fruitfulness on the Frontline.

How beautiful on the mountains

are the feet of those who bring good news,

who proclaim peace,

who bring good tidings,

who proclaim salvation,

who say to Zion,

“Your God reigns!”

Isaiah 52:7

For the early Christians, the term ‘gospel’ came loaded with Old Testament promises of salvation. Isaiah, in particular, declares the ‘good tidings’ of God coming in power, exercising his reign, saving his people, and establishing peace. Indeed, the closing chapters of his prophecy describe how God’s kingly reign will be universal in its scope, embracing all nations, bringing about a new creation. No wonder it’s described as ‘good news’!

Jesus himself understands his ministry as fulfilling the herald of Isaiah, as he reads Isaiah 61:1-2 in the Nazareth synagogue (Luke 4:18-21) and announces the arrival of the era of salvation and peace promised long ago: ‘The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.’ And Paul sees Isaiah’s vision fulfilled in the church’s witness, as we too take our place in a long line of messengers who are ‘sent’ – commissioned to be bearers of God’s good news (Romans 10:15).

Our struggles with personal evangelism often come down to a fear of rejection or the risk of embarrassment or a sense of feeling responsible for an ‘outcome’. However, the gospel is not a product to be peddled, but news to be announced – and we can take confidence that God not only ‘sends’ us but goes with us as we tell others what he has done for the world.

To do so requires being with others, of course, and the New Testament is clear that the opportunities to be a messenger of the gospel occur in the context of everyday life – on our patch, with our neighbours, at our workplace. To be sure, some conversations about faith happen spontaneously – with the taxi driver, or the person sitting next to us on the bus. More often they happen over time when colleagues spot there is something ‘different’ about us as they interact with us on a daily basis at work, or when friends observe how we respond to periods of suffering or moments of celebration.

As such, personal evangelism is not a ‘bolt on’ Christian activity, but is organically connected to the whole of life – a fusion of presence and proclamation, the message of our lips matching the message of our lives – the natural outflowing of who we are in Christ, with the people God brings across our path.

No News Like Good News

I contributed this week’s ‘Connecting with Culture’, a weekly email service provided by the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity.

News aficionados have been looking back at what made the headlines in 2013, from the sublime to the ridiculous and everything in between: Barack Obama inaugurated for a second term, the remains of Richard III discovered under a Leicester car park, the House of Commons vote on same-sex marriage, Andy Murray’s win at Wimbledon, the birth of a royal baby, a new Pope, a new Archbishop of Canterbury, a new manager for Manchester United, ongoing civil conflict in Egypt and Syria, Typhoon Haiyan, the passing of Margaret Thatcher and Nelson Mandela, twerking, selfies.

All this raises the question as to what 2014 might hold, aside from what we can already anticipate: the centenary of the start of the First World War; the referendum on Scottish independence; the FIFA World Cup; the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan; the second cinematic installment of The Amazing Spider-Man and the third of The Hobbit; new non-fiction and fiction from Germaine Greer, Hanif Kureishi, Alain de Botton, Stephen King, Naomi Klein, and Martin Amis. 2014, like 2013, will offer plenty of opportunities for Christians to ‘connect’ with culture.

As we do so, we can feel confident about bringing a Christian perspective into everyday conversations. To be sure, we’ll want to consume discerningly, critique carefully and contribute positively. But we can do so with complete trust in the God who has promised to bring all things under his gracious rule. So, we engage with culture with a conviction that comes from being people of the gospel – where the gospel is not a set of good instructions or a piece of good advice, but the good news of what God himself has done and will do for the world through the work of his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

A.N. Wilson arguably caught something of the spirit of that in a Christmas piece in The Telegraph, insisting that ‘the alleged fading of Christianity cannot rid it of its power to transform lives’. That the transforming work belongs ultimately to God doesn’t reduce us to a passive, beleaguered people. Instead, we are a sign and embodiment of God’s redemptive presence in the world, where the grassroots practices of church life and discipleship spill over into active citizenship and cultural engagement. Marked by the character of Christ, we seek to be people of good news as well as bearers of good news.

Tim Keller on Church

I was asked to write six brief book notes for the November 2013 edition of EG, published by LICC. I’ve been posting them individually here over the last week or so. 

Timothy J. Keller, Center Church: Doing Balanced, Gospel-Centered Ministry in Your City (Grand Rapids: Zondervan 2012).

Tim Keller’s theological vision of a ‘center church’, articulated around three core commitments: gospel (proclaiming the gospel and its implications for the whole of life); city (exercising wisdom in how we contextualise the message, neither overadapting nor underadapting to culture); movement (the church engaging in mission as both institution and organism, rooted in tradition and reaching out through its members). The largest of Keller’s books published over the last few years, this one helpfully provides a comprehensive but eminently readable presentation of his insights.

Dean Flemming on Recovering the Full Mission of God

Dean Flemming, Recovering the Full Mission of God: A Biblical Perspective on Being, Doing and Telling (Downers Grove: IVP, 2013), 288pp., ISBN 9780830840267.

Having read several bits of his earlier work (on contextualisation, missional hermeneutics, and Philippians), I’ve had this book on my wish list since I first saw its advance notice.

It’s due out soon, but IVP have made available an excerpt here.

As the subtitle says, Flemming is here exploring the relationship between being, doing and telling in Christian mission (mostly in the New Testament, but with some scene-setting chapters on the Old Testament too).

Rather than making a contrast between word and deed – which is how this discussion is often framed – Flemming is careful to talk about the connection between telling and living the good news. ‘Living’ the gospel, he notes in the Introduction to the book, ‘is a shorthand way of talking about the nonverbal aspects of our mission’, which ‘can refer to both who we are as God’s missional people and the specific practices that flow out of that identity’ (14).

He presents the heart of his thesis this way:

‘To lay my cards on the table at the start, the New Testament reveals a seamless integration of speaking, practicing and embodying the good news. If you join me on this journey, we will discover in Scripture a magnificent marriage between telling and living the gospel, one that still challenges us to get caught up in the full mission of God.

‘At the same time, we should not expect that the various biblical writers show identical perspectives on these issues. As we reflect on the different materials in Scripture, we need to ask how each of them treats the connection between being, doing and saying. Do they stress one dimension more than the others? And if so, why? We will see that not all of the New Testament writers address the issue in the same way. Different circumstances demand different approaches for the church in mission’ (15).