Christian History Magazine 101

The latest issue of Christian History Magazine is now out – this one devoted to ‘Healthcare and Hospitals in the Mission of the Church’.

The whole magazine is available as a 32.2 MB pdf here.

Ellen T. Charry on God and the Art of Happiness

Ellen T. Charry, ‘God and the Art of Happiness’, Theology Today 68, 3 (2011), 238-52.

One of my summer holiday books was Ellen Charry’s God and the Art of Happiness (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010), so I was interested to see the latest Theology Today carries an essay by her on the same topic.

For a limited period of time, it’s available for free – linked to from here.

This is the abstract:

‘Christians are skittish talking about happiness because it sounds selfish and shallow. But Christian theology has long engaged the topic on its own terms. While theology has been oriented toward eschatological happiness, the Bible offers a temporal teaching of happiness for individuals and communities in obedience to non-voluntarist divine commands that foster individual and communal flourishing. The Hebrew ‘‘ashrey’’ is the first word of the Psalter. It expresses the fulfilling and satisfying life lived in covenant faithfulness to divine commands that is self-enhancing and enables creation to flourish. Asherism is a way of life that enables God to enjoy creation and us to enjoy God. It is an offering in Christian ethics that mediates between the self-sacrificial teaching of agapism and the atheological offering of eudaemonism.’

American Theological Inquiry 4, 2 (2011)

The latest issue of American Theological Inquiry is now online here, with the following contents:

Patristical Reading

Theophilus of Antioch

Apology To Autolycus, II.4 1

Articles

Bruce T. Morrill, S.J.

Christ’s Sacramental Presence in the Eucharist: A Biblical-Pneumatological Approach to the Mystery of Faith

Mark Saucy

Regnum Spiriti: The Kingdom of God and Neopagan Spirituality

L. Clifton Edwards

Beautiful Interrelation With Nature: Divine Harmonies and Creation’s Fulfillment

Samuel J. Youngs

Wounds of the Emptied God: The Role of Kenosis at the Cross in the Christologies of Jürgen Moltmann and Sergius Bulgakov

David Matcham

The Crisis of Evental-Truth in Badiou and Kierkegaard

Book Reviews

The Ecumenical Creeds of Christianity

Kevin Vanhoozer on Finding God in Everything

The Centre for Public Christianity has a two-part video interview with Kevin Vanhoozer on ‘finding God in all aspects of life’.

Jewish Bible Quarterly 39:3 (2011)

According to its website, the Jewish Bible Quarterly ‘provides timely, authoritative studies on biblical themes’, and ‘as the only Jewish-sponsored English-language journal devoted exclusively to the Bible, it is an essential source of information for anyone working in Bible studies’.

I’ve certainly found quite a lot of useful material it it over the years: the articles are relatively short, they almost always offer close readings of (from my Christian perspective) ‘Old Testament’ texts, and sometimes provide insights I might not get from elsewhere.

Below is the content for the July-September 2011 issue, all available online here:

Akiva Wolff

A Closer Examination of Deuteronomy 20:19-20

Shimon Bakon

True and False Prophets

David S. Farkas

In Search of the Biblical Hannurabi

Shubert Spero

Ten Generations from Adam to Noah Versus Ten Generations from Noah to Abraham

Zvi Ron

The ‘Wise Courtier’ in Rabbinic Literature

Raymond Apple

The Two Wise Women of Proverbs Chapter 31

Moshe Reiss

Adam: Created in the Image and Likeness of God

Justin Heard

Did the Earth Rebel Against God on the Third Day of Creation?

Hayyim Angel

Cut the Baby in Half: Understanding Solomon’s Divinely-Inspired Wisdom

Michael Alan Stein

The Religion of the Israelites in Egypt

Book Review

Letters to the Editor

J. Todd Billings on How to Read the Bible

J. Todd Billings, ‘How to Read the Bible’, Christianity Today (7 October 2011).

J. Todd Billings has a long but helpful article in Christianity Today, making the point that ‘new strategies for interpreting Scripture turn out to be not so new – and deepen our life in Christ’.

The article essentially offers a convenient summary way in to some of what’s being said on the theological interpretation of Scripture and echoes Billings’ earlier book on this topic. He has also published a book on the notion of being ‘incorporated into Christ’ in Calvin’s theology, and I’ve enjoyed his work on both these areas. He has a wider treatment of the latter topic – union with Christ – forthcoming with Baker Books, which I suspect will be very good.

Here, he begins with treatments which effectively communicate that the Bible ‘is the authoritative answer book to felt needs and problems’, offering a message that centres on ‘the individual and his or her preferences, and does not interpret the Bible in a way that calls felt needs into question or looks beyond them’.

He draws attention to the resurgence of interest in the ‘theological interpretation of Scripture’, with its encouragement to read the Bible ‘as God’s instrument of self-revelation and saving fellowship’, noting that ‘this school of interpretation includes a wide range of practices, but all of them move us toward knowing the triune God and being formed as Christ’s disciples through Scripture’.

Instead of providing a detailed blueprint for life or a mere smorgasbord from which we pick and choose whatever is relevant for our lives, ‘a theological reading brings a map for a journey’, and ‘our reading sends us on a journey in which God in Scripture encounters us again and again, both with comforting signs of his presence and surprises that confound us, yet may open new vistas’.

He says a few things about reading from the perspective of the ‘rule of faith’, the significance of Spirit-illumination, and the role of the Christian community.

‘The indwelling of the Spirit in the Christian community, as one located “in Christ,” uniquely equips the Christian community to interpret the Bible as God’s Word.’

He concludes with some reflections on reading the Old Testament from the perspective of Christ, and reading with confidence and humility.

‘[We] can read the Bible confidently, knowing that God acts powerfully through Scripture – in corporate worship, through prayer and memorization, through teaching and witness. We do not have to master Scripture and then make it relevant to our lives; through Scripture, God opens up a new place for us to dwell, a place of fellowship with Christ on a path leading to love of God and neighbor.’

Called Into Work

I’ve had to do some study and reflection recently on ‘workplace ministry’, and came across Called Into Work – a website/ministry aimed at ‘equipping workplace-ready disciples’, largely (it seems) based on the work of Larry Peabody.

On one page, the website says:

‘Many Christians labor under an incomplete picture of why they work. You may have seen your office or shop as a place for witnessing. Or as a means of earning money you can give to Christian causes. But God’s purposes in placing you there run well beyond those areas. His reasons for calling you into your work include:

• Mirroring God

• Becoming Chist-like

• Supporting believers

• Embodying truth

• Doing earthwork

• Reaching forward

• Grasping vocation

There are links to mini articles on each of those dimensions of being a Christian in the workplace.