From the category archives:

Theology

Universal Salvation?

March 3, 2010

(This post is one of a sporadic series on the Church of England’s Thirty-nine Articles)
There seems to be a sense that the eighteenth of the articles stands between the preceding set on salvation, and those that follow on the Church. Its primary stress is, I think, the uniqueness of Christ as Saviour, so fitting the [...]

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Where angels fear to tread – a different and divine election

February 26, 2010

(This post is one of a sporadic series on the Church of England’s Thirty-nine Articles)
I begin with two disclaimers. For myself, I am no expert on such abstruse theological topics, nor do I find them congenial. Additionally, I suspect most Anglicans have hardly if at all heard of predestination, and the presence of article 17 [...]

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That’s unforgivable?

February 16, 2010

(This post is one of a sporadic series on the Church of England’s Thirty-nine Articles)
I have sometimes been very concerned for people who worry that they have committed the “sin against the Holy Spirit” or “the unforgivable sin”: a term which has stuck in their mind as a particular category of sin. It seems sometimes [...]

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Sinless? Who and how?

February 8, 2010

(This post is one of a sporadic series on the Church of England’s Thirty-nine Articles)
I start this post on Article XV slightly baffled as to what its doing there in the first place. As far as I know (which isn’t, in all honesty, all that far) there were no significant debates about Christ’s unique state [...]

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God is not a bean-counter of good deeds

February 5, 2010

(This post is one of a sporadic series on the Church of England’s Thirty-nine Articles)
Ever since I was child, I’ve loved words, and can still remember the first big word that fascinated me, thanks to the hymns at my parents’ church — consubstantial, as sung in a number of doxologies. Nicene Christianity, provider of big [...]

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Desiring the kingdom: some observations on a good book

February 5, 2010

I’ve been reading James K A Smith’s Desiring the Kingdom and finding it quite stimulating. The book was awarded Christianity Today’s best theology / ethics book award for 2010, though I didn’t know that when I started reading it.
Smith begins by introducing the idea of cultural liturgies with an extended description of visiting a shopping [...]

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Pluralism, prejudice and power in reading early Christianity

February 2, 2010

Dan Reid has an interesting post on the IVP blog on some of his bête noirs.

Lately I’ve been experiencing moments of speechlessness. Over the years it’s been a recurring condition for me. It’s triggered by comments—sometimes from church folk, no less—who mention that, of course, we now know that there were many Gospels—such as the [...]

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Assisted suicide: competing visions of human dignity?

February 1, 2010

Euthanasia in the form of assisted suicide is in the news again. Today’s story is Terry Pratchett’s Dimbleby lecture, and a Panorama documentary.
Six months ago, I asked in a fairly lengthy post, whether there were any compelling arguments against assisted suicide which did not depend on an underlying Christian (or other theological) understanding of human [...]

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Doing away with a mean-minded God

January 23, 2010

(This post is one of a sporadic series on the Church of England’s Thirty-nine Articles)
Sometimes I wish I’d never started this series on the Anglican articles. I certainly feel like that when faced with what I find to be the viscerally repellent phrasing of the thirteenth. (I hope that my sense of repulsion has not [...]

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Ratzinger and Dawkins

January 10, 2010

NewsBiscuit brings them together:

Head of the Catholic Church Pope Benedict XIV has joined with leading evangelical atheist Richard Dawkins to declare that, while they may have their differences, the one thing that ticks them off more than anything else is people who, in a debate on the existence of an omniscient creator against the idea [...]

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