Biblical Basis of Mission course – week six
Would you read the Bible differently if you were being persecuted for your faith? If so, how? What questions and concerns would you bring to the text? These were the questions that opened the final lecture of our Biblical Basis of Mission course, which was on the theme of, ‘Mission, the Epistles and Revelation’. I had asked the students to prepare for the lecture by reading up on the persecuted Church. Much of the Bible was written and put together within the context of pressure and even persecution, so there must be ways in which we fall short in our reading of Scripture if we do not take account of this. We spent a fair amount of time in the e

Mission and the downward movement of solidarity
Here’s a thought-provoking quote from Richard Bauckham’s 2003 book, Bible and Mission (Paternoster Press): The gospel does not come to each person only in terms of some abstracted generality of human nature, but in the realities and differences of their social and economic situations. It engages with the injustices of the world on its way to the kingdom of God. This means that as well as the outward movement of the church’s mission in geographical extension and numerical increase, there must also be this (in the Bible’s imagery) downward movement of solidarity with the people at the bottom of the social scale of importance an

Teaching Isaiah in a coffee shop
This morning my final year Isaiah class went on an outing to a local coffee shop. I wanted to see if meeting in that kind of environment helps or hinders learning and discussion. We were due to cover material on chs. 36-39 as well as talk about spirituality in Isaiah, using a chapter from Eugene Peterson’s book, The Jesus Way (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2007, ch.6 ‘Isaiah of Jerusalem: “The Holy”‘). The way the course works is that students come prepared to discuss a passage by reading John Goldingay’s NIBC commentary plus one other (Motyer, Brueggemann, Childs, Oswalt, Watts, etc.). We managed to get a table all togethe

Zondervan Illustrated Bible Background Commentary series
Just a quick one today to let you know that Zondervan have put the Genesis entry in their new and very plush looking Illustrated Bible Background Commentary series on the web until the end of October. Here’s a link to John Walton on Genesis And here’s some publisher blurb from Zondervan’s website:

Biblical Basis of Mission course – week five
In session five of our Biblical Basis of Mission course we looked at mission, the Gospels and the book of Acts. Throughout the course I’ve had to make choices about what to focus on – such a vast subject! – and this week was no exception. As so often, I took my cues for this lecture from Chris Wright’s excellent book, The Mission of God (Nottingham: IVP, 2006). At one point he outlines the train of thought he imagines an early Christian might have considered: 1.  if the God of Israel is the God of the whole earth 2.  if all the nations (including Israel) stood under his wrath and judgment 3.  if it is neverth