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the historical character of Jesus - 3b Paul’s ‘knowledge’ of Jesus of Nazareth
the historical character of Jesus - 3b Paul’s ‘knowledge’ of Jesus of Nazareth
by SPCK - David Allen
Paul’s ‘knowledge’ of Jesus of Nazareth The extent of Paul’s knowledge/interest (or otherwise) in Jesus tradition is a longstanding question within the scholarship.19 We can find ourselves swimming in a tide between maximalists and minimalists, between those who see barely any ci…
the historical character of Jesus - 3f Conclusion: Jesus according to Paul
the historical character of Jesus - 3f Conclusion: Jesus according to Paul
by SPCK - David Allen
Conclusion: Jesus according to Paul What sort of figure is the Pauline Jesus? Paul’s portrait or remembrance of Jesus is complex and multi-faceted, and manifests itself in a variety of ways. It may not be the type of picture we expect, nor exhibit the depth of Jesus tradition we …
Mere Apologetics - 1b The Basic Themes of Christian Apologetics
Mere Apologetics - 1b The Basic Themes of Christian Apologetics
by SPCK - Alister McGrath
The Basic Themes of Christian Apologetics Before exploring these possibilities, we need to think a little more about the nature of apologetics. What issues does it engage? How does it help us proclaim and communicate the gospel? We could summarize the three tasks faced by apologi…
Numbers in the Bible Assembly Collection - Christmas - No Way Assembly
Numbers in the Bible Assembly Collection - Christmas - No Way Assembly
by Christian Assembly Team
Numbers Assembly – No Way Christmas (0) Bible ref: Matthew 1 to 2:1-12 This assembly would usually be used at or close to Christmas... Story NO WAY! said Mary when the angel told her she was going to have a baby. “I can’t be pregnant because I’m not married yet.” But when the ang…
Great Christian Thinkers - 26 St. Leo The Great
Great Christian Thinkers - 26 St. Leo The Great
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Leo The Great Continuing our journey through the Fathers of the Church, true stars that shine in the distance, we next encounter a pope who, in 1754, Benedict XIV proclaimed a Doctor of the Church: St. Leo the Great. As the nickname soon attributed to him by tradition suggest…
Great Christian Thinkers - 23 St. Ephrem
Great Christian Thinkers - 23 St. Ephrem
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Ephrem Common opinion today supposes Christianity to be a European religion that subsequently exported the culture of this continent to other countries. But the reality is far more complex, since the roots of the Christian religion are found in the Old Testament, hence, in Je…
Great Christian Thinkers - 22 Aphraates, “The Sage”
Great Christian Thinkers - 22 Aphraates, “The Sage”
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
Aphraates, “The Sage” In our excursion into the world of the Fathers of the Church, I guide you today to a little-known part of this universe of faith, in the territories where the Semitic-language churches flourished, still uninfluenced by Greek thought… Taken from Great Christi…
Great Christian Thinkers - 36 Bede the Venerable
Great Christian Thinkers - 36 Bede the Venerable
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
Bede the Venerable The saint we are approaching now is called Bede and was born in the northeast of England; to be exact, Northumbria, in the year 672 or 673. He himself recounts that when he was seven years old his parents entrusted him to the abbot of the neighbouring Benedicti…
Great Christian Thinkers - 17 St. Hilary of Poitiers
Great Christian Thinkers - 17 St. Hilary of Poitiers
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Hilary of Poitiers I reflect now on a great Father of the Church of the West, St. Hilary of Poitiers, one of the important episcopal figures of the fourth century. In the controversy with the Arians, who considered Jesus the Son of God to be an excellent human creature but on…
Great Christian Thinkers - 27 Boethius and Cassiodorus
Great Christian Thinkers - 27 Boethius and Cassiodorus
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
Boethius and Cassiodorus I now discuss two ecclesiastical writers, Boethius and Cassiodorus, who lived in some of the most turbulent years in the Christian West and in the Italian peninsula in particular. Odoacer, King of the Rugians, a Germanic race, had rebelled, putting an end…
Great Christian Thinkers - 32 St. Columban
Great Christian Thinkers - 32 St. Columban
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Columban The holy Abbot Columban was the best-known Irishman of the early Middle Ages. Since he worked as a monk, missionary, and writer in various countries of western Europe with good reason he can be called a “European” saint. With the Irish of his time, he had a sense of …
Great Christian Thinkers - 29 Pseudo-Dionysius The Areopagite
Great Christian Thinkers - 29 Pseudo-Dionysius The Areopagite
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
Pseudo-Dionysius The Areopagite In the course of my catechesis on the Fathers of the Church, I speak next of a rather mysterious figure: a sixth-century theologian whose name is unknown and who wrote under the pseudonym of Dionysius the Areopagite. With this pseudonym, he was all…
Great Christian Thinkers - 42 John Scotus Erigena
Great Christian Thinkers - 42 John Scotus Erigena
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
John Scotus Erigena Though a noteworthy thinker of the Christian West, John Scotus Erigena’s origins are nonetheless obscure. He certainly came from Ireland, where he was born at the beginning of the ninth century. But we do not know when he left his island to cross the channel a…
Meeting God in Paul - 2 The universal welcome: Paul’s disturbing idea
Meeting God in Paul - 2 The universal welcome: Paul’s disturbing idea
by SPCK - Rowan Williams
The universal welcome: Paul’s disturbing idea The words just quoted form one of the most familiar texts from St Paul’s letters – a text which, as you can immediately see, sets Paul in opposition to some of the most powerful and dominant trends of his day…
Great Christian Thinkers - 10 St. Athanasius of Alexandria
Great Christian Thinkers - 10 St. Athanasius of Alexandria
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Athanasius of Alexandria Continuing our re-visitation of the great teachers of the ancient Church, let us focus our attention on St. Athanasius of Alexandria… Taken from Great Christian Thinkers by Pope Benedict XVI
A Dead Sect
A Dead Sect
by Roger Johnson
Evangelism Bulletin 266 – A Dead Sect? John Wesley famously said, ‘I am not afraid that the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist… But I am afraid lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power. And this undoubtedly will be…
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