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Mere Apologetics - 5b Why Does the Reasonableness of Christianity Matter?
Mere Apologetics - 5b Why Does the Reasonableness of Christianity Matter?
by SPCK - Alister McGrath
Why Does the Reasonableness of Christianity Matter? Why is this point so important? Why should we need to show that Christian belief is reasonable? Why not just assert it? One of the apologetic points we need to emphasize here is that it is difficult to defend ideas that seem cou…
Mere Apologetics - 6b Clue 3: Order—The Structure of the Physical World
Mere Apologetics - 6b Clue 3: Order—The Structure of the Physical World
by SPCK - Alister McGrath
Clue 3: Order—The Structure of the Physical World Our instinct to discern order within the world is expressed clearly in the wisdom literature of the Old Testament. The natural sciences are also based on the idea of the regularity of the universe. Without an ordered cosmos, the s…
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 - 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 - 44 St. Odo of Cluny
Great Christian Thinkers - 44 St. Odo of Cluny
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Odo of Cluny We resume the presentation of important writers of the Eastern and Western Church in the Middle Ages because in their lives and writings we see, as in a mirror, what it means to be Christian. One such luminous figure is St. Odo, abbot of Cluny… Taken from Great C…
CHRISTIANITY AND THE RENEWAL OF NATURE - 2b The environment and the development agenda
CHRISTIANITY AND THE RENEWAL OF NATURE - 2b The environment and the development agenda
by SPCK - Sebastian C.H. Kim and Jonathan Draper
The environment and the development agenda So now, back to our text (Rev. 8.6 –12): Four angels, one after the other, blow their trumpets and destruction falls on the earth (v. 7), the sea (v. 8), the rivers (v. 10) and heaven/the sky (v. 12). One-third of all life is affected, b…
Paul Through Mediterranean Eyes - 3 Introduction
Paul Through Mediterranean Eyes - 3 Introduction
by SPCK-Kenneth E. Bailey
Introduction The preacher in Ecclesiastes considers “wisdom and madness and folly” and then seems to accept his fate as he bemoans, “What can the man do who comes after the king? Only what he has already done…” Taken from Paul Through Mediterranean Eyes by Kenneth E. Bailey
The Minister as Entrepreneur - 2 Introduction: Why ‘entrepreneur’?
The Minister as Entrepreneur - 2 Introduction: Why ‘entrepreneur’?
by SPCK - Michael Volland
2 Introduction: Why ‘entrepreneur’? I was talking about entrepreneurship at a conference and somebody asked me why I seemed to be hung up on using the word ‘entrepreneur’ rather than a term with less apparent baggage: something like ‘innovator’, ‘creative person’ or ‘pioneer’…
The Minister as Entrepreneur - 6 Definitions of the entrepreneur
The Minister as Entrepreneur - 6 Definitions of the entrepreneur
by SPCK - Michael Volland
Definitions of the entrepreneur In the Introduction to this book I proposed my own definition of the entrepreneur. I shall open this chapter by spending a little more time with that definition before moving on to consider an alternative definition suggested by Bill Bolton and Joh…
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…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 19 Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 19 Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Ordinary Time Proper 19 Genesis 50.15–21 Romans 14.1–12 Matthew 18.21–35 It is very annoying to think that God may have different standards of judgement from ours. All three of today’s readings warn that the obvious surface reaction to one particul…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Easter Day Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Easter Day Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
Easter Day Isaiah 25.6-9 1 Corinthians 15.1-11 John 20.1-18 This Gospel reading is not, as one writer has suggested, ‘a sanitized story about a trip to a garden and a lovely surprise’. If Easter is in any sense the happy ending after a sad story, that is the least important thing…
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Restoration and Refreshment
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Restoration and Refreshment
by SPCK - N T Wright
Restoration and Refreshment Acts 3.17-26 I remember a hot, hot walk in the Scottish highlands. (It’s true: there are times, even at altitudes of 4,000 feet, when you can be just as hot in Scotland as anywhere in Europe.) We climbed Braeriach and Cairn Toul, the third and fourth h…
New Testament Wisdom for Everyone - Watch Out For Dangers
New Testament Wisdom for Everyone - Watch Out For Dangers
by SPCK - N T Wright
4 THE PATH OF THE DISCIPLE WATCH OUT FOR DANGERS! Hebrews 12: 12-17 ‘It was a moment of madness.’ The politician stood shamefully before the press. He had been caught out soliciting for sexual favours in a notorious part of town. His character was in ruins, his reputation in tatt…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Last Sunday after Trinity Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Last Sunday after Trinity Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Ordinary Time The Last Sunday After Trinity Leviticus 19.1–2, 15–18 1 Thessalonians 2.1–8 Matthew 22.34–46 1 Thessalonians is almost certainly the oldest document in the New Testament. As in so many other things, Paul is a pioneer. It is hard for u…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 17 Year A