Theos Report on Power

The latest report from Theos has recently been published:

Madeleine Pennington and Paul Bickley, A Theology of Power (London: Theos. 2026).

Here’s some brief blurb:

‘We live in an age of strongman leadership on the global stage.

‘From Putin to Trump, our global leaders wield their military, financial, and political power in a way that profoundly challenges historical norms. Is there a more constructive way to think about power?

‘In partnership with Christian Aid, Madeleine Pennington and Paul Bickley explore what power means through a biblical lens.’

More information is available here, and a pdf of the full report is available here.

9Marks Journal (April 2023) on Christian Authoritarianism

The latest issue of the 9Marks Journal, available from here, looks at the topic of ‘A New Christian Authoritarianism? Christian Nationalism, Theonomy, and Magisterial Protestantism’.

In the Editor’s Note, Jonathan Leeman writes:

‘A pastor’s own theological development should include what the academic crowd calls political theology. Political theology is that area of theology that helps us to situate churches on the landscape of the nations and their governments, like pins on a map. It includes topics like the relationship between church and state, religious liberty, views on Christ and culture, the duties of citizenship, as well as what’s appropriate for preachers to preach about an upcoming election…

‘Faithful pastors rightly deplore the politicizing of the pulpit – employing the pulpit for partisan or policy-program ends. Doing so subverts the agenda of Jesus’s heavenly kingdom to earthly ones. Still, your political theology, like your eschatology and your view of the biblical covenants, will shape your view of the church’s mission. Therefore, it’s a necessary topic for pastoral study.’

The Gift of Power

The below article was written for the WorkForum at the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity.

‘With great power comes great responsibility.’ So says Uncle Ben to his nephew, Peter Parker, at least as the line appears in the 2002 movie version of the Spider-Man story. That’s good advice for superheroes, perhaps, who might be tempted to use their powers for personal gain, fulfilling Lord Acton’s famous dictum that ‘power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely’.

But we don’t have to look too far to see the corrupting tendency of power. In Merchant, Soldier, Sage: A New History of Power (London: Penguin, 2013), David Priestland offers an intriguing account of history as a competition for power between the three major groups of his title. These ‘castes’ (as he terms them) – symbolic of capitalists, militarists, and the intelligentsia – are locked in a struggle for power which triggers a crisis (war, revolution, or economic collapse) when any one of them gains prominence. Hence, according to this account, the West is now paying the price for succumbing to the values of the ‘merchants’ with their belief in the market and their pursuit of profit.

Inevitably, whether and how far Priestland has overplayed his hand is up for grabs. In addition, there is a yet bigger story against which we, as Christians, might understand power. According to Andy Crouch, in Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power (Downers Grove: IVP, 2013), Christians often see power as a danger to be avoided rather than a gift to be stewarded. But we best understand power, Crouch says, as we see ourselves made in the image of God, called to cultivate creation, to ‘make something of the world’ – building houses, designing software, writing poetry, baking cakes, teaching children. In this way, all of us – not just those thought to be ‘powerful’ – have ‘great power’ and are responsible for using it well.

For instance, we image God when we manage people. When we do that well, and in a way that reflects our union with Christ, we’re countering the argument that power and authority can’t be trusted. If I use my authority as a boss or a leader or a manager well, I’m painting in a positive light God who is the source of all authority. It’s no surprise that in Ephesians 6:9, Paul connects the master’s authority with God’s authority: ‘you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven’, he tells masters. In stewarding well what God gives us – including our leadership roles – we say something of who God is and what God is like.

Robert comes to mind as an example. When he was promoted and made head of his department, Robert was concerned that his opportunities for evangelism would disappear. Most of the people he worked with would be working for him, and he’d have to be sensitive to this and not abuse his position. As it turned out, he found he had more opportunities to share the gospel, and it almost always came from using his authority for the benefit of his team instead of his own benefit. Robert’s way of exercising power was different, and people would talk to him about it.

To be sure, in a damaged and distorted world, power has the potential to be misused and misdirected, abused and abusive, leading to idolatry and injustice. But true power is exercised on behalf of others, and is concerned with cultivating the best environment for someone or something to thrive – in line with God’s original design for his world.

Here as elsewhere, Christians take their cue from Christ himself, in whose image we are being recreated. In this way, we exercise the gift of power every day, often in mundane ways, but infused with love and seasoned with confidence in God’s plan to restore all things.

Credo Magazine 6, 4 (2016)

The current issue of Credo is available, this one devoted to the topic of ‘Sola Scriptura’.

Matthew Barrett writes in the Editorial:

‘As he stood there trembling at the Diet of Worms, certainly it must have seemed to Martin Luther that the whole world was against him. Yet Luther could boldly stand upon the authority of God’s Word because he knew that not even his greatest nemesis was a match for the voice of the living God.

‘While our circumstances may differ today, the need to recover biblical authority in the church and in the culture remains. The next generation of Christians need to be taught, perhaps for the first time, that this is no ordinary book we hold in our hands. It is the very Word of God. In other words, if Christians today are to give an answer for the faith within them against those who would criticize the scriptures, then they need to be taught the formal principle of the Reformation: sola Scriptura – only Scripture, because it is God’s inspired Word, is our inerrant, sufficient, and final authority for the church.’

The magazine is available to read here, and a 24.5 MB pdf of the whole issue can also be downloaded here.

9Marks Journal (Summer 2016) on Authority

The latest issue of the 9Marks Journal, available here as a pdf and here in other formats, is devoted to the topic of ‘Authority: God’s Good and Dangerous Gift’.

In the Editor’s Note, Jonathan Leeman writes:

‘The topic of authority befuddles Westerners today. We don’t like the idea of authority, but it’s difficult to get away from since our lives are suffused by it: hospital procedures, building codes, traffic laws, parental responsibilities, marriage covenants, student requirements, office rules, the laws of state, the grammar of language, the meaning of words – on and on we could go. Authority is the glue and gravity that enables people to live together. Apart from authority, all of life would be determined by the preferences of the moment. There would be no traditions, no predictability of behavior, no stability of meaning, no shared morality.

‘The goal of this 9Marks Journal is to consider the topic of authority as God’s good and dangerous gift. What is the church’s authority? The pastor’s authority? And what will keep churches and pastors from misusing their authority?’

John Piper on the Christian Scriptures

John Piper, A Peculiar Glory: How the Christian Scriptures Reveal Their Complete Truthfulness (Wheaton: Crossway, 2016).

Crossway in the USA and IVP in the UK have just published a new book by John Piper, essentially on Scripture’s self-attestation. As so often, through the generosity of Desiring God, the book is also available as a free pdf download here.

There is a short video Piper introducing the book here, and a set of interviews with Michael Reeves on it here.

D.A. Carson et al. on Scripture

D.A. Carson (ed.), The Enduring Authority of the Christian Scriptures (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2016), 1256pp., ISBN: 978-0-8028-6576-2.

My summer holiday reading is now sorted!

As one who benefited enormously from the two volumes edited by D.A. Carson and John D. Woodbridge in the 1980s (Scripture and Truth and Hermeneutics, Authority and Canon), I’ve been looking forward to this collection of essays since I first saw it announced a couple of years back.

It’s not yet out in the UK, but there is plenty to whet the appetite for those who might be interested...

• A list of contributors and chapter titles, along with questions raised in each chapter

• FAQ with answers on scriptural authority in the history of the church

• An interview with Carson by Fred Zaspel on the book

• An interview with Carson by Ivan Mesa on inerrancy

• An 18-minute video interview with Carson about the book

John D. Woodbridge on the King James Bible

An essay by John Woodbridge, available here, was given as an address at the King James Version Festival, hosted by the R.C. Ryan Center for Biblical Studies at Union University, in September 2011 It will also appear, along with other papers from the event, in Ray Van Neste (ed.), KJV400: Legacy and Impact (Borderstone Press, forthcoming 2012).

Woodbridge sets something of the historical background to the translation, noting that ‘it was created in a context of genuine turmoil for many Europeans’.

But in line with a number of his own published concerns, he focuses particularly on the specific beliefs of the translators regarding biblical authority, arguing that ‘their understanding of Scriptural authority remained within the central Augustinian tradition of the Western Christian churches’.

The struggle over biblical authority between Roman Catholics and Protestants, he avers, is revealed in the writings of the William Whitaker (1547-95), master of St. John’s College, Cambridge University, who was an Anglican and a Reformed theologian.

In his A Disputation on Holy Scripture (1958), Whitaker identified certain significant traits as constituent elements of his doctrine of Scriptural authority: (1) that Scripture is completely truthful (in line with what Whitaker believed was the central teaching of the western churches); (2) that Scripture’s principal author is God, the Holy Spirit; (3) that Scripture is an infallible rule of faith and practice (in that it contains sufficiently all we need to know about salvation); (4) that Scripture’s original texts were inspired of God (the Greek and Hebrew originals as opposed to, say, the Latin Vulgate); (5) that vernacular translations of the Bible are authoritative to the extent they faithfully reflect the Hebrew and Greek originals inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Woodbridge maintains that ‘the translators shared many of the same perspectives as those of William Whitaker’, showing that they too affirmed the full truthfulness of Scripture, that its principal author was the Holy Spirit, etc.

He ends the essay with a personal note:

‘Personally, one of the great joys in having pursued this study of the translators’ views of biblical authority was to encounter their closing counsel to their readers regarding their love of the Word of God. Their preface ends in an exposition of their heartfelt desire that readers of their translation would love the Word of God. Their comments are genuinely inspirational. Hopefully, they will lead us to treasure God’s Word even more than we may presently do.’

Some Cardus Articles

As usual, the latest email update from Cardus links to some helpful pieces, including:

• John Terrill and Kenman Wong asking, ‘Serving Our Work and Neighbours: Which Comes First?’

• David T. Koyzis reviewing Victor Lee Austin’s Up With Authority: Why We Need Authority to Flourish as Human Beings (New York: Continuum, 2010), in ‘Why We Need Authority’.

• Lee Hardy, exploring vocation, in a piece first published in 2000, ‘My Job is Not My Calling | My Job is Also My Calling’.

Walter Brueggemann on Scriptural Authority and Biblical Theology

[A version of the following review was first published in September 2005 on the UK Christian Bookshops Directory website, which contains lots of other reviews, and is also an excellent source for finding out the location of Christian bookshops around the country. Thanks to Phil Groom for giving me the opportunity to review the book.]

Walter Brueggemann, The Book That Breathes New Life: Scriptural Authority and Biblical Theology (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2005), xx + 228pp., ISBN 0800636678.

That I ordered this book unseen, solely on the basis of the author and the title should give some indication as to how important I thought it’d be. That when it arrived I discovered I’d already read at least half of its chapters as essays and articles in other books and journals means I’ll be more careful next time – especially as some publishers aren’t always particularly up front in their promotional literature regarding the content of forthcoming volumes. And then I also discovered that only three of the thirteen chapters address the topic of scriptural authority mentioned in the title (that was the hook for me, I have to say), and that the others really focus on Old Testament theology, not a full, two-testament ‘biblical theology’, also teasingly hanging there in the title. I think there’s great scope for a good book which reflects on scriptural authority from a biblical theological perspective. Unfortunately, this is not it.

Okay, whinge over. A few moment’s reflection reminded me that not everyone works down the corridor from a top-class theological library which subscribes to that must-have quarterly, Zeitschrift für alttestamentliche Wissensschaft, from whence just one of the essays here has its origin. In that sense, the book is very useful in gathering together portions of Brueggemann’s ongoing work which might otherwise remain inaccessible to many. (I actually think this would be a positive selling-point for publishers, if they were prepared to announce it.)

The three chapters in the first part are addressed to the topic of ‘biblical authority’, although most of the discussion turns to the crucial related issue of biblical interpretation. The little direct discussion of authority suggests that Brueggemann joins with those who see the Bible as a ‘timeless classic’, and with those who understand that the authorising power of the Bible needs to be embodied in the praxis of communities. Stimulating and suggestive though the chapters are, those who are looking for engaged discussion with traditional aspects of the doctrine of Scripture will be disappointed. Equally, his treatment will appeal to others for precisely the reason that it doesn’t get bogged down in endless debates about how many inerrant angels can dance on the head of an infallible pin.

Much more satisfying, in my opinion, are the chapters on Old Testament theology more generally (in Part 2), and those where Brueggemann engages with some of his detractors (in Part 3). Any who make their way through these essays carefully will come away with a good working knowledge of Brueggemann’s own concerns, and of other contributions to Old Testament theology in the last fifty years or so (Gerhard von Rad and Brevard Childs probably receive most attention, in addition to other usual suspects: Barr, Eichrodt, Gottwald, Levenson). The inevitable repetition here and there will be helpful for those, like me, who need to be told something several times over before it goes in.

A number of motifs recur throughout the volume: the way historical, cultural, and political context inevitably affects academics and their work, for good and ill; how scholarly interest in historical issues related to the Old Testament has given way to a plurality of concerns related to theology, rhetoric, ideology, gender, and social location; the need for Christians to take account of Jewish perspectives on interpretation and theology. Many of these seeds are planted in the illuminating preface by Brueggemann, and the essays document his continued and stimulating work on the areas and more besides.

I always try to read Brueggemann carefully and critically (I don’t think he’d want it any other way), and always profit as a result of doing so.

Christian Reflection on Freedom

The latest issue of Christian Reflection, published by the Center for Christian Ethics at Baylor University, is now available, this one devoted to the topic of freedom. The whole issue is available as a 5.0 MB pdf here, and an accompanying Study Guide is available here. The main articles are as follows:

Robert B. Kruschwitz

Introduction

Beyond popular notions of political and moral freedom – as freedom from others’ control or freedom of choice – is the deeper freedom for loving God, people, and the created order. How do resources in Scripture and Christian tradition teach us this freedom of living with God?

Richard Bauckham

Freedom and Belonging

Freedom is such a potent – even a magic – word that it can become dangerous. Indeed, some ways of understanding and practicing freedom make it destructive of community. How can resources in the Bible and Christian tradition help us construct a positive relationship between freedom and belonging?

Bruce W. Longenecker

Paul’s Assessment of Christian Freedom

In an awkward but memorable phrase, Paul declares: “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” The story of Jesus Christ, as it comes to life in his followers, is a story of freedom, to be sure, but a freedom constrained by the Cross and deeply at odds with individualistic notions of liberty.

Scott Bader-Saye

Authority, Autonomy, and the Freedom to Love

We should be critical of the modern idolatry of autonomy even as we continue to be skeptical about unchecked authority. But if freedom as detachment does not produce real freedom and if authority as coercion only feeds resentment, what alternative vision can the Church offer?

Jason D. Whitt

The Baptist Contribution to Liberty

Any contemporary view of religious freedom that isolates and internalizes faith is contrary to the freedom envisioned by the early Baptists who called for religious liberty. They aimed to create a distinct people whose lives were disciplined by and bound to God and one another.

Heather Hughes

Deepening the Mystery of Freedom

As freedom becomes the single ambition that possesses Hazel Motes – the protagonist in Flannery O’Connor’s Wise Blood – its competing definitions dramatically play out through plot twists and turns. “Freedom cannot be conceived simply,” O’Connor notes. “It is a mystery and one which a novel… can only be asked to deepen.”

William H. Willimon

Freedom

The freedom of American, democratic, popular, capitalist culture is based on the fiction of a self-constructed self. Thus, the heart of the Christian life seems a holy paradox: the more securely we are tethered to Christ, obedient to his way rather than the world’s ways, the more free we become.

Matt Cook

A Picture of Freedom

In a wilderness devoid of bread, but full of stones, we learn a powerful lesson from Christ. True freedom comes not when we can do whatever we want, when we want to do it. True freedom is not in-dependence, but in dependence.

Philip D. Kenneson

The Nature of Christian Freedom

In our “freedom”-saturated culture, we rarely consider that what Scripture and tradition mean by “freedom” may be seriously at odds with many assumptions that underwrite everyday American usage and practice. Three fine books offer insight into critical issues regarding the nature of Christian freedom.

Coleman Fannin

Being Christian in a Democratic State

Moving beyond polarizing political positions, the three books reviewed here uncouple democracy from the violent and commodifying machinery of the modern nation-state. They point toward a rich shared life in families, communities, and cities oriented toward the common good.

Spring Harvest Day 2

This year, Spring Harvest is exploring four key metaphors for Scripture. The first is Scripture as a sonnet:

‘Using the image of a sonnet we will explore the authority and inspiration of the Bible. These are the texts through which God speaks and in them we hear him speaking love to us. The authority of the Bible is rooted in its authorship and the desire of the author to make himself known. The Bible is the creator’s love-song for his creatures. However, not only are we the object of God’s affections – we are also the reason for his hope. The Bible declares God’s confidence in Christ and his people; together they will make all things new.’

The Bible readings this morning were based on Malachi 1:1-5, highlighting God’s choice of Israel, and introducing the theme of God’s covenant relationship with Israel.

The Bible focus in the evening Big Top Celebration was on Genesis 1:1-3 and 2:1-7 – the Holy Spirit in creation, exploring the Holy Spirit’s role in the making of the world, and the claim that every human breathes ‘the breath of God’.

John Stott on Authority and Humility in Preaching

‘We shall be wise, in our preaching, neither to say “Thus says the Lord” (since we do not have the authority of an inspired Old Testament prophet) nor to declare “I say to you” (since we do not have the authority of Jesus Christ and his apostles), but rather, at least most of the time, to use the “we” form of address. For then it will be clear that we preach nothing to others which we do not also and first preach to ourselves, and that authority and humility are not mutually exclusive.

John R.W. Stott, I Believe in Preaching (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1982), 58.

Today’s daily thought from John Stott, a service provided by Langham Partnership International and John Stott Ministries.