Evangelical Review of Theology 44, 4 (October 2020)

The latest Evangelical Review of Theology, published by The World Evangelical Alliance, is now online and available in its entirety as a pdf here.

Editor’s Introduction:

Is Our Quality Higher Than That of the US Presidential Campaign?

Efraim Tendero

Evangelicals and Elections

Thomas K. Johnson

The Protester, the Dissident and the Christian

When and why should Christians protest? How can we turn the hearts of other protesters towards the hope offered by the Christian gospel? This article, revised from a sermon originally preached during the Arab Spring uprisings, answers those timely questions as we experience another year of widespread protests.

Ebenezer Yaw Blasu

The Invisible Global War: An African ‘Theocological’ Assessment of Responses to COVID-19

How should the experience of COVID-19 shape future human behaviour? This article examines responses by both Christians and practitioners of primal (traditional) African religions, from a perspective that combines theology and ecology. Drawing on scientific and spiritual principles, it argues that COVID-19 may be calling us to avoid forms of resource exploitation that disturb the sensitive balance between human activity and nature.

Andrea L. Robinson

Reflecting the Image of God through Speech: Genesis 1–3 in James 3:1–12

This article shows how James 3:1–12 echoes the creation account, using imagery from Genesis 1–3 to correlate purity of speech with bearing the image of God. Accordingly, the untamed tongue is regarded as a central characteristic of fallenness and a distortion of God’s image – emphasizing that our failure to tame the tongue separates individuals from God, creates division in the community of faith, and has a severely destructive impact on the world. Applications and a sample sermon outline are provided.

C. Ryan Fields

Evangelical Engagement with Barth: A Modest Proposal

Karl Barth, one of the most influential theologians of the twentieth century, is too important for evangelicals to ignore but not easy to evaluate. Barth reacted against liberalizing tendencies with a strong emphasis on the centrality of Christ and the power of Scripture, but his theology also contained some innovations that deviate from evangelical tradition. This article surveys evaluations of Barth by English-speaking evangelicals and offers well-informed suggestions on how to appropriate Barth’s work.

Jana Holiday and Linda Cannell with James D. McLennan

The Puzzle of Institutional Inertia in Theological Education

Theological institutions must sustain their core values while not resisting necessary change. The authors draw on their extensive experience in theological education and board governance to address how four groups of stakeholders– administrators, faculty, students and boards – can resist institutional inertia.

Chris Gousmett

What Are the ‘Gates of Hades’ in Matthew 16:18?

Matthew 16:18 contains one of Jesus’ most obscure remarks, as he assures Peter (and us) that the ‘gates of Hades’ will not overcome the church. But gates are stationary objects that don’t normally overcome anything. What was Jesus promising? This article shows the weakness of prevailing interpretations and argues for an expansive metaphorical alternative.

Thomas Schirrmacher

Observations on Apologetics and Its Relation to Contemporary Christian Mission

Christians often think of apologetics as something that only academics do, but actually it has been an essential part of Christian mission ever since the book of Acts. This article offers penetrating reflections on the meaning of apologetics today and how all Christians should equip themselves to do it.

Elmer Thiessen

The Reconstruction of Evangelism by Liberal Protestants: An Evangelical Response

Many voices – both secular and religious – argue that it is inappropriate in a religiously pluralistic world for evangelicals to call all people to repentance and faith in Christ. This article, by a leading evangelical expert on the ethics of evangelism, uses a recently published book critical of traditional evangelism as a starting point to explore how evangelicals should respond to such objections.

Book Reviews

Just Thinking 25, 3 (2017)

The current issue of Just Thinking, the magazine of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, was recently posted online.

This edition contains an article by Vince Vitale on ‘The Questions of Pluralism’, which examines ‘the assumptions and desires of those who hold to a pluralist view of truth and reveals how Christianity is uniquely able to respond to each of these’. Among other articles is one by Jill Carattini which notes that ‘whatever versions of a story we utilize to understand human history – atheism, pluralism, consumerism – their roots run very deep in the human soul’. A piece by Ravi Zacharias argues that ‘religious pluralism is a belief system that sounds good but does disservice to all religions’.

The magazine is available to view from here, from where it can also be downloaded as a pdf.

From Fear to Faith

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

How do you talk to your friends about Jesus in multi-faith Southall? Answer, according to one six-year-girl, ‘I ask them, “What do you like about your God?” And then I say what I like about my God.’

I’ve been reminded of her response in recent weeks. The election of Sadiq Khan as the first Muslim mayor of a major western city was widely reported around the world. An internal review by the BBC has concluded that the Corporation’s output is too Christian, suggesting that Muslim, Hindu and Sikh faiths should get more airtime, while plans for new laws to tackle extremism were announced in this week’s Queen’s Speech.

Whatever we make of these issues – and responses vary – they are a reminder, if we need it, of the religiously plural nature of contemporary society. In many parts of the UK, through globalisation and migration, trade and technology, we increasingly live and work in close proximity to people who are adherents of different world faiths.

It’s not the first time the church has carried out its mission in a pluralistic context. Christianity was born into such a situation, and has faced the challenge many times in its history.

That challenge also brings opportunities in public life. In Flourishing: Why We Need Religion in a Globalized World, Christian theologian Miroslav Volf argues that world religions can contribute to societal wellbeing not by one winning out over the others or by their amalgamation into a common ‘essence’, but by the recognition that each carries within itself something of benefit to which its adherents can appeal, which outsiders can recognise as they engage in conversation with each other.

Of course, truth claims about Christ and salvation matter. Being civil doesn’t require us to leave our Christian convictions at the front door of any discussion. On the contrary, it’s only as we engage in conversation from a firm stance of faith in Jesus and his lordship over the whole of life that we’re able to find places to connect with others, confident that the gospel answers the deep longings of men and women even while it challenges the way those longings are understood.

The danger would be to dig in or fight back, as if there was no other way but to respond in fear. A six-year-old girl in Southall would beg to differ.

Centre for Public Christianity (April 2014)

This month, the Centre for Public Christianity offers a video interview with Miroslav Volf in which ‘he challenges the notion that faith should remain a private affair, and makes the case for the place of faith in public life, even in places where religious belief may seem to be on the decline’.

In addition is a video interview with Francis Spufford, author of Unapologetic, which ‘makes a stirring defence of Christian emotions, claiming that they make a compelling case for the way faith can function in the 21st century’.

Theos Report on Religious Freedom

Nick Spencer, How to Think About Religious Freedom (London: Theos, 2014).

Yet another new report from Theos...

Here’s part of Jonathan Chaplin’s recommendation:

‘In this report, Nick Spencer cuts through the complexities and offers us a wonderfully clear and judicious overview of what is at stake, why religious freedom is so important to human beings and can’t be taken for granted, and how it can be more intelligently and fairly balanced with the legitimate claims for equal treatment and nondiscrimination of which our society is justly proud.’

More information is available here, and the full report is available for download here.

Catalyst Articles (March 2014)

Catalyst, the ‘online newsletter for United Methodist seminarians, pastors, and other Christian leaders’, has posted some articles online:

Evan B. Howard

Beneath the Plan, beyond the Call: The Practice of Discernment and the Mission of God

The practice of discernment enables us to transcend the pitfalls of a mere Plan or Call. Discernment engages the whole person or community in an evaluation of our sincere relationship with God. Thus, by paying attention to God, to our knowing, and to our response, we learn to follow the path (or the range) of both God’s mission and our own authentic vocation.

Tim Meadowcroft

Building an Old Testament Library: Psalms — Daniel

Leicester R. Longden

Resources for the Renewal of Catechesis: Christian Formation and Discipleship

The renewal of the art of catechesis in our time requires a rediscovery and retrieval of the resources of the baptismal catechesis of the ancient catechumenate.

Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen

Holy Spirit and Other Spirits

This is an interim report on the state of the theology of the Holy Spirit in a contemporary pluralistic world.

Henry H. Knight III

A Theology of Faith: Wesley and the Methodists

To know God is to know God’s love for us in Jesus Christ. Faith enables us both to know (experience) that love and to trust in that love. We begin to love God in response. Our desires become increasingly centered on God, and our motivations on worshipping and serving God. And the love we then know by faith makes its home in our own hearts, where it begins to shape our lives and relationships.

Theos Report on Faith Schools

Elizabeth Oldfield, Liane Hartnett and Emma Bailey, More than an Educated Guess: Assessing the Evidence on Faith Schools (London: Theos, 2013).

Theos have published the above report.

Here’s the opening paragraph from the Executive Summary:

‘Around one in three maintained (i.e. state funded) schools in England have a religious character. This reflects the substantial historic contribution of the churches in providing public education. More than an Educated Guess: Assessing the evidence on faith schools summarises research around maintained schools with a religious character, with a view to informing debate around their place in a plural society and their effect on students.’

More information is available here, and the full report is available for download here.

Lausanne on World Faiths

The March 2010 issue of Lausanne: World Pulse is available, the topic this month being ‘World Faiths: A Primer for Evangelism’.

It contains short pieces on ‘The Uniqueness of Christ and Committed Pluralism’, engaging with people of faiths other than Christianity, and more besides.

There are links to individual articles from here, or a pdf of the full issue here.

Encounters 32 (2010) on Christianity and World Religions

This issue of Encounters from Redcliffe College explores the relationship of Christianity with other world religions, suggesting that ‘the future of Christianity will depend in part on her ability to engage meaningfully and missionally with the growing religious plurality of our world’.

Dan Clendenin on the Gospel and World Religions

In preparing for a sermon on John 14:6 (‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the father except through me’), I came across a post by Dan Clendenin – ‘Is Christianity a “Sublime Bigotry?” 10 Reflections on the Gospel and World Religions’ – in which he briefly expands on ten reflections related to religious pluralism.

1. Some religious views and practices are clearly false, harmful, and even despicable.

2. The claim that all religions teach the same thing is patently false; this is precisely what religions do not do.

3. Pluralism tries to solve this problem of contradictory truth claims in two ways (agnosticism, or the identification of a ‘common essence’ in all religions).

4. Christians need not reject everything about other religions.

5. The conundrum of relating 10,000 religions to each other is not a ‘Christian’ problem.

6. I agree with the liberal Jewish writer Michael Kinsley that it’s not wrong or intolerant to try to convert other people.

7. A rule of thumb in Bible interpretation is to understand the complex and ambiguous parts of Scripture in light of simple and straightforward passages.

8. Instead of discarding what you don’t like in Scripture and ending up with a Bible that reflects only your own biases… Christians should hold together two broad themes (God’s desire that none should perish and Jesus as God’s ultimate means of salvation).

9. Exactly how the universal love of God and the particularity of Jesus fit together isn’t clear.

10. Finally, a long time ago I quit trying to understand everything and admitted the many limitations of my knowledge.