Regaining creation [Jesus' parable of the talents] means that ... Christians must now employ all their God-given means in opposing the sickness and demonization of creatio...
Creation regained So far, in exploring an all-encompassing Christian worldview using Al Wolters' book, Creation Regained, we've seen how all areas of reality, including a...
New creation vocabulary I'm always delighted when I hear people speaking about the true Christian hope for the future: not that we will escape this earth and go to heaven for e...
Hymns of hope (4) Creation sings A hymn, not so much sung by us, but sung by the whole creation. We know what we think about God’s redemptive work, but if the whole creation could sing,...
Your kingdom come … on earth Great stuff in Margaret Killingray's Word for the Week at the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity (LICC): The Christian church has, over the ...
How we became enlightened Typically cheeky and subversive thoughts by Mark Roques of Reality Bites (WYSOCS): Good evening and welcome to my lecture. For those who lack knowledge ...
Creation and evolution: my current thinking I've been pondering the issue of creation and evolution for years, and I thought it was about time to set out my current thinking on the area. This is a...
Transforming culture Great quote from James K.A. Smith: At its heart, the Kuyperian tradition has emphasized the lordship of Christ over all things and hence affirmed creati...
Evidence for young-age creationism It's not clear precisely what role scientific evidence plays when someone chooses between young-age creationism and evolution over billions of years. Ce...
What’s so great about communion? Jesus gave his followers two signs, or sacraments, to strengthen them in their faith: baptism and communion (the Lord's Supper). Calvin gives a helpful ...
Creation distorted Al Wolters' Creation Regained traces out the themes of Creation, Fall and Redemption, and how they shape our understanding of everything. Having looked ...
John 3:16 corrected I've taken the liberty of correcting the most famous verse of the Bible, so that it fits more comfortably with what many Christians seem to believe. Do ...
The development of creation Back to Al Wolter's book, Creation Regained (1, 2[1]), and the rest of chapter 2, on Creation. We're trying to gain a biblical perspective on the whole ...
Spiritual reductionism Something has been bothering me about the evangelical church in the UK. It's certainly an issue elsewhere, and it's nothing new, but, as an evangelical...
Creation or evolution: which way forward? I posted this elsewhere a few months ago, but I thought it was worth posting it here too. The Christian church is still a long way from resolving the cr...
Responding to climate change I thought I'd share a video from Tearfund, which I saw on Saturday as part of an event in York looking at a Christian response to climate change: ...
Living on the earth for ever A bit of Easter reading for you: The Physical Future, an article on Theology Network by Paul Blackham, about the Christian hope for eternity. It's a hop...
Astronomy through a Christian telescope ...is the title of a talk I'm due to give later in April, to a Christian group in Leeds. Here's the summary: Is there a distinctively Christian view of ...
God and Government God and Government is an accessible, recent (2009) multi-author book, aimed at stimulating Christian thinking about political issues within the UK conte...
Coalition For Marriage: an open letter to fellow Christians Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, I know many of you have been encouraging others to support the "Coalition For Marriage". And I fully respect you fo...
Does God have body parts, and did he create in six days? Have a quick look at this, and then read on: Does God have body parts? An idea... We could speak about different "domains" of reality. Some of these dom...
Hymns of hope (3) It is well with my soul Horatio Spafford's moving hymn, When peace, like a river, is somewhat marred by a line in a verse that apparently was not in the original version or eve...
God the law-giver and his creation Chapter 2 of Creation Regained covers the first theme of the creation-fall-redemption triad: creation. It's quite a lengthy chapter, so I'll cover it in...
Hymns of hope (2) There is a day Another Christian song that expresses the Christian hope well is one of my favourites, There is a day, by Nathan Fellingham (2001) of Phatfish. Helpfull...
Hymns of hope (1) King of the ages This is part 1 of a series looking at the theme of hope in Christian hymns and songs. (I hope the series will have more than one part, but don’t assume ...
The gospel in the gospels? The gospel: Jesus came to earth to die and to rise again. But what about all the stuff Jesus did before he died, which the four gospels tell us about? I...
Those whom the state has joined together? A few thoughts on the proposals for allowing same-sex marriage. It seems to me that the Christian view on marriage can easily be lost in the discussion....
An all-encompassing Christian worldview I've been reading Creation Regained, a little book (117 pages plus postscript) by Al Wolters. It's really very good. I thought I'd share a few extracts ...
Good news to the poor and release to the captives Joel B. Green, The Gospel of Luke (The New International Commentary on the New Testament) A substantial commentary on one of the synoptic gospels can ea...
Why work? A day or two before many of us return to work, here are a couple of quotes from a 1942 essay by Dorothy L. Sayers, entitled Why work? [W]ork is not, pri...
The Christian gospel in a nutshell Here are two attempts to summarise the Christian gospel. Do either of them seem familiar? What are the most striking differences? Are there any points o...
Not ashamed to suffer shame? Apparently tomorrow is "Not Ashamed Day". I'm trying to work out whether I should be ashamed of that. Not Ashamed is a website, declaration, logo, rang...
Good News to the Poor I've just finished reading Tim Chester's excellent little book, Good News to the Poor: Sharing the gospel through social involvement. Here's a summary, ...
The widow’s mite [Jesus] looked up and saw rich people putting their gifts into the treasury; he also saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. He said, "Truly I ...
Should Christians bank with Barclays? A provocative question, perhaps, and not one that I will be able to answer definitively. But I think it is a question that rarely even gets asked. For m...
William Lane Craig and the material world "Is the material world all there is?" This was the question posed by Christian philosopher William Lane Craig at the start of his lecture yesterday at I...
A prayer to the Markets Photo by Andrew Magill A moment's thought may have led you to think that speaking of the markets doing this or that is just shorthand for speaking of...
The house on the rock In Jerusalem, the Dome of the Rock is situated on a famous rock known as Temple Mount. The rock is so called because it used to be the site of the hous...
An open letter to the British Humanist Association Dear BHA, After re-loading your website home page a few times, I found on it the following quote by Ariane Sherine: "All children should be free to grow...
Why would a Christian join the Green Party? Yesterday I joined the Green Party. I said a bit about my journey from political indifference to to political ... difference (?). Today I want to say a ...
I’ve joined the Green Party Apparently, "In 2005, only 1.3% of the [UK] electorate [44 million] was a member of one of the main political parties", with a few tens of thousands in...
Sorry I have an apology to make. I have been living as a Christian in a world dominated by greed. And yet this hasn't bothered me at all. I have thought it is...
The Myth of Religious Neutrality I've now reached the end of Roy Clouser's book, The Myth of Religious Neutrality. Normal service will now resume, with long periods of silence punctuate...
A non-reductionist theory of reality The final chapters (11-13) of Clouser's The Myth of Religious Neutrality (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10) present a brief overview of Dooyeweerd's philos...
Is God less divine than his attributes? The first part of chapter 10 of Roy Clouser's The Myth of Religious Neutrality (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) covers some previous material in more depth. ...
The effect of religious beliefs on psychology What makes me who I am? Is it the laws of physics, operating on the cells in my body? Or is it the pressures of society, forcing me into its mould? (Nat...
How do religious beliefs influence physics? We're continuing our "Casebook" in the middle of Roy Clouser's The Myth of Religious Neutrality (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7), looking at how religious beliefs ...
Is mathematics religious? What a strange question, I hear you say! But if everyone's beliefs about everything are shaped by their own religious beliefs, as has been claimed, then...
How do religious beliefs control other beliefs? If I believe something because it is in the Bible, then how might that affect my beliefs about some other area of reality, such as geology or history? F...
A brief history of faith and reason 1. Religious belief controlling theoretical reason So far (1, 2, 3, 4) in The Myth of Religious Neutrality, Roy Clouser has been arguing for a view of t...
What are universities for? I've had this lecture opened in my browser for months, and have just got round to listening to it. Here's a sentence to whet your appetite: And yet, if ...
How do religious beliefs affect all beliefs? Roy Clouser's contention in The Myth of Religious Neutrality is that anyone's understanding of anything is strongly affected by their religious beliefs....
Types of religious belief The common factor shared by all religions, according to Roy Clouser, is belief in something that is "divine per se", that is, something that is "uncondi...
The resurrection of Christ and the resurrection of his people Christians celebrate today (on good evidence) that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. But they also believe that they themselves will share in Jesus...
What is a religious belief? The claim made in Roy Clouser's book, The Myth of Religious Neutrality, is that all of life is religious, that is, that for every person, every part of ...
All of life is religious How much of your life is affected by your religious beliefs? Not much, surely? For a start, many people are not religious at all, so the answer for them...
The love of God Great talks by Mike Reeves on the love of God from a recent UCCF event (hat tip: Dave Bish). This was the trailer... Transformission 2010 from Dav...
Disciple the nations The commission is not to "make disciples" in our modern individualistic sense. That is included, and amen to it. But the commission as the Lord worded i...
Kepler on the value of blue-skies research Is scientific research worth doing only if it serves an obviously "useful" purpose? Kepler thought not: For has not the all-merciful Creator ... given e...
Is there no alternative? For a long time I've been aware of the Jubilee Centre in Cambridge, but only recently have I started to delve more deeply into their resources. Tonight'...
The triumph of the Gospel One of the most remarkable brute facts of history is the coming into existence of the Christian church. What was it that caused a group of uneducated J...
John Walton audio resources on Genesis 1 Recently I've been aware of a strong positive correlation between the phrases "John Walton" and "Genesis One". In order to investigate this further, I'v...
The sound of freedom Wonderful talk by Jeremy Begbie on the topic of freedom and Christian faith. We tend to think that if we allow God into our lives, in the way that the C...
Creation or evolution: do we have to choose? This question (also the title of a recent book by Denis Alexander) is one over which evangelical Christians often sharply disagree. Some ("young-earth ...
A Christian approach to science Science conventionally proceeds by "methodological naturalism", meaning that it does not "allow consideration of any hypothesis that implies, e.g., that...
The main purpose of preaching Why do Christians listen to so many sermons? Is it a matter of filling their minds with lots and lots of information? Well, yes, but that's not the main...
Adam and evolution I could be wrong, but there seems to have been more discussion recently amongst Christians within the evangelical church about how to fit Adam and Eve i...
On The Christian Institute’s Election Briefing How should Christians vote in the General Election? That's not an easy question to answer. Politics is messy, government is messy, politicians and polit...
NT Wright: did Jesus rise from the dead? Historical Resurrection of Christ? NT Wright responds (Hat tip: Adrian Warnock)</p>
How do I know God exists? Lots of little gems on the Vimeo page for A Passion for Life. Here's my favourite, featuring the legendary Don Carson on fine form:
L’Abri talks online L'Abri (French for "the shelter", or possibly "the cheese") is a network of residential study centres committed to providing "honest answers to honest q...
Evangelicals Now: singing and tweeting Well, it's been almost two months since my last update. I suppose if this were a blog, that would be unacceptable. Anyway, I still don't have anything i...
David Robertson on secular belief and society David Robertson, author of The Dawkins Letters, is due to visit Brighton in June/July. Yesterday he was on Premier Christian Radio's Unbelievable? progr...
Film discussion: Iron Man (2008) Just back from a film discussion at my church, at which we watched Iron Man (2008) and then used the following questions to delve under the surface of t...
Are we alone in the Universe? After “Do you want to be the next Patrick Moore?” and “I’m a Capricorn”, the most common response I get when I tell people I work in astronomy is, “Do...
The government shall be upon his shoulders NT Wright, speaking on Christmas Eve: ‘Unto us a child is born; unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulders.’ [Isaiah 9] Unl...
All religious beliefs are equal … ... but some beliefs are more equal than others. At least it seems that way when "equality" legislation is applied to justify the withdrawal of funding ...
Dawkins on rape Presenter of Premier Radio's Unbelievable? programme "Justin Brierley spoke to prominent atheist Richard Dawkins after his debate with Professor John Le...
Mike Reeves on the Trinity (2) God is love So if the Christian God is entirely different to whatever God anyone else worships, then what - or who - is this God? Mike Reeves, part 2 (with a bit of...
Mike Reeves on the Trinity (1) Do you believe in God? Yes? Whoa, hold on a minute! Which God are we talking about? Sorry? Which God do you believe in? You see, the assumption is that...
Religious exclusivity and world peace What is the main barrier to peace in the world?</p> asks Tim Keller in the first of a series of talks related to his new book, The Reason for God....
Advice to an archbishop So in a lecture Rowan Williams, admittedly in a display of "political ineptitude", makes some carefully reasoned and apparently reasonable (if obfuscato...
Does God exist? Six-minute mini-debate on the Today Programme this morning, featuring William Lane Craig and Lewis Wolpert. I'm hoping to get to the real thing this eve...
Does Richard Dawkins exist? For a novel take on this perplexing question, read this, or listen to this:
On faith and reason Religious knowledge is about faith, but scientific knowledge is about reason, right? Well, no. At least, not according to this talk (MP3) by Andrew Fell...