Ruth Perrin on Resilient Faith

‘Resilient Faith’ explores findings ‘from a 2-year project exploring the shape and impact of their religious faith on millennial Christians living in Northeast England’.

Ruth Perrin builds on her earlier (2020) research on the faith lives of millennials ‘by examining the ongoing faith journey of that demographic group through the next decade’.

Six themes emerged from their accounts:

1. Maturing Millennial Faith: The desire to follow Jesus

2. How Faith Helps: The desire for hope and a future

3. Faith and Parenthood (or not): The desire for family

4. Faith and Friendship: The desire for deep connection

5. Millennials and Church: The desire for community

6. Faith and Purpose: The desire to bring about change

The report contains materials to facilitate discussion with millennials and consider practical implications from the findings.

See here for more details.

Theos Report on Religious London

A new report from Theos has recently been published:

Paul Bickley and Nathan Mladin, Religious London: Faith in a Global City (London: Theos, 2020).

Here are some paragraphs from the Theos website:

‘London is often perceived to be different from the rest of the UK – more liberal and more secular. However, Londoners are not just more likely to belong to a particular religion, but to actively participate by, for instance, attending services on a regular basis. London’s religious micro-climate is paradoxical: a secular, liberal and cosmopolitan city in which religion is becoming more visible and significant.

‘The research found that London is more religious than the rest of Britain (62% identify as religious compared to 53% across the rest of Britain ex. London).

‘Londoners are more intensely practicing (more likely to pray and more likely to attend a religious service) than those outside the capital...

‘Londoners are more socially conservative than the rest of Britain on some key moral questions...

‘Religious Londoners are more civically-minded than non-religious Londoners...

‘There is a significant sense of religious discrimination and civic discomfort in the Capital.’

A pdf of the full report is available here.

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.

Theos Report on Faith and Belief in Universities

A new report from Theos has just been published:

Simon Perfect, Ben Ryan and Kristin Aune, Faith and Belief on Campus: Division and Cohesion. Exploring student faith and belief societies (London: Theos, 2019).

Here are some paragraphs from the Theos website:

‘Universities are a symbolic battleground in today’s debates about our shared values. They are accused on the one hand of restricting freedom of speech, and on the other of being hotbeds of extremism. Polling conducted by YouGov for Theos in January 2019 found that over half (52%) of British adults think freedom of speech is under threat in UK universities, and a sizable minority (29%) think “Islamic extremism” is common in them. As the places where our future leaders develop their values, how universities accommodate debate and diversity is a critically important issue for the health of our society.

‘This report considers these difficult matters through the eyes of students who attend faith and belief societies on campus. It finds that tensions and controversies over religion or belief issues do sometimes arise on campus, but these are exceptions to the norm of peaceful campus relations between different groups.

‘Faith and belief societies play hugely important roles on campus in building community, supporting students pastorally and spiritually, and driving social action. However, they often face challenges which limit the contribution they can make to campus life, including their capacity to build bridges across different groups. While they are strong sources of “bonding social capital”, building bonds among their own members, they are less effective at being sources of “bridging social capital” between groups. They need better resources and support from universities and students’ unions in order to meet their potential of being key sources of cohesion on campus.’

A summary of the report and its recommendations can be found here.

A pdf of the full report is available here.

Theos Report on Passing on Faith

The latest report from Theos has recently been published:

Olwyn Mark, Passing on Faith (London: Theos, 2016).

Here’s the summary blurb:

‘What do parents think about passing on their faith – their beliefs (or lack of them) about God – to their children? How seriously do they take it? And what difference do they make?

‘Conducted in partnership with Canterbury Christ Church University, Passing on Faith examines these questions through new polling research and a detailed study of academic research into the subject. British parents, the polling shows, are generally not too bothered about whether their children go on to share their beliefs, although that varies – significantly – depending on the faith of the parents in question, with atheist, agnostic, Christian, and other religious parents having some very different views.

‘The academic literature, in contrast with this, is clear about the impact parents can have. In the first instance, insights from psychology show that children have a natural propensity towards ‘belief’ of some kind. Building on that, and examining and assimilating the findings of 54 published studies, Olwyn Mark shows that the family and the home is incomparably important when it comes to passing on faith.

‘The role and faith commitment of both parents, and the integrity, consistency and unity of parents’ beliefs, practices and relationships are all shown to be key influencers on whether believing children become believing adults.

‘Ultimately, for all the effects that cultural pressures or evangelistic measures will have on determining the next generation of believers (and non-believers), parents and home life will consistently have a resounding impact on the passing on of faith.’

A pdf of the full report is available here.

More from Centre for Public Christianity (November 2014)

Among other items, the Centre for Public Christianity has posted a video interview with Bettina Arndt on the ingredients of a healthy sex life, and a video interview with Paula Gooder on her personal journey of faith, doubt, and coming to terms with conflicting beliefs.

Credo Magazine 3, 3 (July 2013)

The current issue of Credo is now out, this one devoted to ‘Born Again: God’s Sovereign Grace in the Miracle of Regeneration’.

According to the editorial blurb:

‘While doctrines such as election, justification, and sanctification typically receive all of the attention in theological conversations, the doctrine of regeneration is often forgotten. Yet, it is this doctrine that undergirds the entire order of salvation. It is the initiatory change in regeneration that results in everything else, from faith and repentance to justification, sanctification, and perseverance. All of these other doctrines owe their existence to that first moment when God breaths [sic] new spiritual life into the sinner’s dead corpse.’

The magazine is available to read here, from where also a 41.7 MB pdf of the whole issue can be downloaded.

Centre for Public Christianity (June 2012)

The latest email newsletter from the Centre for Public Christianity contains links to video interviews, one with John Dickson on gay marriage and one with Nancey Murphy on the relationship between science, superstition and rational belief.

Michael Green and Nick Spencer on I’d Like to Believe, But…

Michael Green and Nick Spencer, I’d Like to Believe, But… (Nottingham: IVP, 2009, first published 2005), 122pp., ISBN 9781844743902.

IVP post the introduction online here. In it, Michael Green refers to research carried out by Nick Spencer when he worked at the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity, published in 2003 in Beyond Belief, looking at current beliefs of those in the mainstream population – those who don’t go to church, those who are unsure about God.

Michael Green notes that while some of their objections to Christian belief were ‘substantial and far-reaching’, many were also ‘disappointingly weak and confused’ (8), showing very little understanding of the Christian faith, but also demonstrating a spiritual hunger. Many of them were effectively saying, ‘I’d like to believe, but…’ Writing from the perspective that Christianity ‘makes sense of our questions, longings and our doubts’ (9), Michael Green tries to remove some of those ‘buts’, the characteristic difficulties in belief…

1. ‘You don’t need to go to church to be spiritual’
2. ‘The church is just too inflexible’
3. ‘Christians are such hypocrites’
4. ‘Religious people are too intolerant’
5. ‘You can’t trust what is in the Bible’
6. ‘Science has disproved Christianity’
7. ‘There’s just too much suffering in the world’
8. ‘There are too many religions in the world for them all to be true’
9. ‘There’s not enough proof for me to believe’
10. ‘Something 2,000 years old can’t be relevant to me today’
11. ‘If there is a God, why doesn’t he just send someone down?’
12. ‘That is all very well, but I’m not sure I believe in God’